The Physics of Spinnery

Is spinning a little wheel basically the same as flailing your arms? Like if I was stuck out there in space, could I also just like going to spin my arm and that would reorient myself? If you could turn your arm effectively into a reaction wheel, then yes. But don't know if you really could get your arm to spin independently along the same axis though. Mm. Well, we'll see if the door was designed to be open one hand. Just in case.