Everyone at some stage gets shoulder pain. It’s just a part of having a human body.
We do stuff, often stupid stuff that causes problems with our shoulders.
Stuff like reaching for something at an awkward angle and lifting. Sometimes we sleep with our arm over our head and wake up to a dead arm or sleep on it funny.
Sometimes we try lifting something too heavy or with terrible form.
Then there’s other times when we just get sore.
Working at a computer with a mouse for long hours is often a recipe for a dodgy shoulder, or you might fall over during a sport or sustain a dance floor injury. Poor form with training or training too hard can also cause some problems.
So what can we do to fix our dodgy shoulders?
First you have to admit you have a dodgy shoulder.
Then you need to make it a priority to stretch it every day.
I’m gonna include soft tissue work such as massage, foam rolling and tennis ball rolling all into stretching, because in essence they all achieve a lengthening of the muscle tissue.
If you do yoga or tai chi or qi gong that will also count as stretching.
I will not include the stretches we do at the start or end of bootcamp as your shoulder stretching for the day. You’re gonna need more than that.
If you need extra stretching, get to training early or stay late and spend a good 10-15 minutes stretching your shoulders in whichever way needs it most.
The shoulders are a complex set of muscles and when it comes to fixing them we need to look at your mid back, shoulder girdle area and neck as a bare minimum.
Sorting out hip issues will also help with the shoulder, but that’ll just complicate things today so let’s just look at the shoulder area.
Now I don’t have pictures or videos for everything so please bear with me and ask for clarification when you see me or do some research online. I highly recommend www.mobilitywod.com for a mountain of this stuff from Kelly Starrett.
Soft Tissue Work / Massage
You should start with 30-60 seconds rolling over a specific area. Mobilizations of your thoracic vertebrae with a foam roller should be your first port of call.
Switching to a tennis ball (or a harder ball if you are He-Man or She-Ra) and working on the back of the shoulder against a wall is also great. Just hunt around for tight or sore spots and work there.
Move the ball around to roll up and down your lats with your arm overhead, then you can even roll up into your triceps from the same position.
Next we work on the pecs and the front of the shoulder. You stand facing a wall with the ball jammed into the front of your shoulder/chest area and roll across toward your sternum.
The closer you get to your sternum the more it will likely be tight and hurt, but just breathe deeply through the discomfort and keep making out with the wall.
You can also lay on the floor and place a ball under your shoulder blade with your arm straight out to the side with it bent at the elbow moving your palm toward the floor then pivoting at the elbow towards the floor the other direction (sorry don’t have a pic).
Never go into the pain cave. That won’t help anything.
Shoulder Mobilizations
We do plenty of this stuff at bootcamp but exercises include shoulder circles, arm swings with internal and external rotation of the arm (rotating the palm of your hand in or out), Egyptians, and band dislocations (it’s not what you think – it’s like when you hold a broomstick by the ends and put it in front of your body then take it overhead and behind your body, only with a band) and shoulder circles with your arm in front so it looks like you are moving like a steam train.
Neck, Back & Shoulder Stretching
Traditional stretches still work like a charm as long as you do them. In fact any approach will work if you do it! But you need to do the work to make the magic happen.
I want you to go to this site and download the stretching test sheet that Paul Chek has made up: https://s3.amazonaws.com/l4dmultimedia/PDF/Stretch+Test_.pdf.
To figure out what stretches you need to do, try the stretch. If it’s tight tick the box on the score sheet (last few pages) and do the stretch regularly. If it’s not tight, don’t bother stretching it.
Band Stretching
This is my new favourite for stretching out the shoulders as it feels so good after the stretch is complete. You need a band (preferably like the ones we use at bootcamp) and anchor it to a pole for multiple stretches and the ability to work the joint at multiple angles.
Rather than explain it with words, watch this short video from Kelly Starrett showing you what to do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eveYJP1indI.
If you need bands I sell them and you can check out prices here: www.fitfaster.com.au/products.
This stuff is so simple but works so much better than traditional stretching and may save you a cortisone injection or surgery.
Seriously don’t bother reading the rest just watch the video. It’s pretty much the end anyway.
The Final Word
The rehab process doesn’t work if you don’t do the homework regularly.
So go stretch and your body will thank you for it.
