Oh, Your Shoulder Suck? Try These Correctives.
Shoulders are extremely versatile joints. The unique ball and socket connection allows for movement potential that makes your other joints jealous.
Check out all the movement that happens at the shoulder joint:
Flexion - Raising arms out in front of your body
Extension - Pulling arms behind your body
Abduction - Raising arms out to the side of your body
Elevation - Shrugging up
Depression - Pulling shoulders down
Retraction - Squeezing shoulder blades together
Protraction - Spreading shoulder blades apart
External Rotation - Rotating the insides of your elbow joints away from one another
Internal Rotation - Rotating the insides of your elbow joints to face one another
And, that’s not even to mention any combination of those movements happening in the joint simultaneously.
Not only do your shoulders have a wide range of motion, but healthy shoulders can help you perform incredible physical tasks.
Swim a mile
Bench press 300lbs+
Do 10 pull-ups
Throw a baseball 96mph
Whoa.
So, why do your shoulders hurt just reaching across yourself to buckle your seatbelt.
I’m not going to pretend to be a wizard from this side of my computer screen. I don’t have a magic solution to whatever pain points you are experiencing. BUT! I’ve had quite a bit of experience working with unhealthy shoulders and I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.
I’ve put together a list of exercises you can do at home or in your next training session. Try these different movements, and if they feel good keep doing them for a few weeks. Hopefully, a few of these will stick with you and you’ll start feeling some progress!
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1. I would recommend you start with a Peanut. They are easy to make, and doing this daily may have a major positive impact for you. From my experience, this is low hanging fruit and a good place to start.
If your shoulder blades are very tight, maybe start with a tennis ball rather than a lacrosse ball peanut.
2. Next, a Thumb Down Lat Stretch is another simple exercise that could bring a lot of relief.
3. Similar to the Thumb Down Lat Stretch, the Push/Pull is going to require some kind of vertical post anchor.
4. This is the most technical exercise in this list. Your Serratus Wall Slide may be tricky to get the hang of, but if you get it right you’re going to feel a great stretch in your upper back, lats, and maybe even between your shoulder blades.
BONUS! If you shrug your shoulders UP at the TOP of the movement you’ll get an even bigger stretch.
5. A Prone Scarecrow does require some baseline mobility. However, if you have the ability to reach your hands behind your head this will be a great movement for you. Squeeze your shoulder blades and shrug them up to get a clean fist bump.
6. We use Yoga Pushups like crazy at Perform24. Again, this does require some baseline strength, but getting into that Down Dog position can work wonders on your upper half as well as your lower half.
7. I chose to showcase a Landmine Row because I feel like this exercise specifically is almost dummy-proof. The arc of the Landmine creates a very smooth pulling line, and if you focus on your scapula you’ll get a really nice sequence. Use the tips in this video for all of your horizontal pulling exercises, and give the Landmine a try if you can.
How Should You Use These Exercises?
There are a few different things you can try.
First, you can use these exercises as a warm-up before your main lifts. Priming your shoulders may be the tweak you need.
Or, I prefer to integrate them directly into my strength sets. I frequently use this strategy when I program for clients, too. Use these exercises in between sets of your main lift. Here are a couple examples to get your wheels turning.
Bench Press x5. Prone Scarecrow x8. 5 sets.
Pull-Ups x6. Thumb Down Lat Stretch x20seconds each side. 4 sets.
Front Squat x8. Peanut w/ Arm Fly and Arm Scissor x10e. 4 sets.
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If you give these a shot leave a comment down below. I’d love to hear how these worked for you.
Let’s get these shoulders moving smoothly again!