We adapt to the positions we spend the most time in!
If you spend many hours a day with your hands in front of you on a keyboard, your upper arm is not moving; your shoulders are going to become very comfortable in that position. If you never move your limbs in the opposite direction, you no longer have access to a full range of motion through the joint. The bottom line is if you don’t move it, you will lose it! Daily movement is a crucial principle in my coaching! I like to equate movement to nutrition; we need quality nutrition to be balanced and healthy; training is the same! We need quality movement and variation of movement patterns to become healthy movers.
Bulletproof your Shoulders with these 6 Drills
The shoulders can perform abduction, adduction, internal rotation, external rotation, flexion, and extension. These are the six ways in which your shoulder can move through space. In all planes of motion, your shoulder is very 3D, while other joints are not that versatile. Due to this versatility, the shoulders are also susceptible to a host of possible problems. Because the shoulder is quite complex, proximal body parts are often overlooked when creating various shoulder exercise programs. The glenohumeral joint (ball-and-socket) sits on the scapula (shoulder blade), which moves with the thoracic spine (middle torso). A shoulder exercise program is not comprehensive unless all components of the shoulder are addressed. Creating comprehensive shoulder programs is where most plans fall short. They fail to view this joint in a more global lens and seemingly run on a hamster wheel unable to reach results. Many people who have hired me as their Coach, or to write a program for them, are often surprised that no one has ever addressed their body in this holistic way before.
That is how and why I chose the six drills for my FREE sturdy shoulders downloadable guide. The guide encompasses not only the mobility of the shoulder but also the movement of the scapula. It also gives you exercises for your thoracic spine and uses your breath to focus on better core activation.
In my FREE GUIDE, I review the main components that create optimal shoulder health and function. Here are the two main takeaways I want you to understand:
Range of motion before doing shoulder exercises.
Range of motion after doing shoulder exercises.
- Creating a stable trunk and pelvis while attempting to move the humerus bone (aka the arm). Typically in my movement assessments, I will request the client to raise their hands over their head while holding a squat position at the wall. This gives me a better indication of their proper range of motion because I have forced them to contract their core and stabilize their pelvis to express the action of shoulder flexion. This test is a measure of whether they should or could perform overhead movements.
- Thoracic mobility and how that affects the ability of the scapula (aka the shoulder blade) to glide along the backside of the body. If the spine is stiff or doesn’t move well, it will correlate to an immobile scapula, causing a frozen shoulder problem.
My FREE GUIDE has a lot more to do with ribcage and pelvis positions and less of staring directly at a point of discomfort, often the ball and socket. Over two years ago, the PFS team invested in learning in-depth about biomechanics as it relates to the respiratory system. I have gained a deeper understanding of how your ribs/core/pelvis plays a role in the shoulder’s proper mobility and strength. The image to the left and this video explains how the “canister stack” should look, and the opposite of that is aka Scissor posture. The main take-away I want you to gain from this mini home program for sturdy shoulders is realizing that you can’t gain range of motion or strength on top of a faulty foundation. Your support base is your torso, and as you can see in the picture below, your ribcage should rest right underneath the shoulder blade.
Download my FREE Guide
For Brandon, fitness has been his passion for as long as he can remember. In high school he was a three-sport athlete and received a scholar athlete award in football. Later, he attended Arizona State University on an academic scholarship and received his degree in Kinesiology in 2004. When he was a junior in college, he started Personal Training and has since turned this into his career. Brandon is a natural teacher who is passionate about health, fitness, wellness, and life. Each and every day he feels blessed to be able to do what he loves most…help people achieve a healthier life! Working with his best friend and having clients who he considers to be his family is one of the best jobs he could ever wish for. What he loves most about being a personal trainer is helping his clients achieve what they thought was the “impossible”!
Brandon’s philosophy is that exercise and fitness should be viewed as preventive medicine. If one takes care of his/her body today, he/she will stay healthy for the remainder of his/her life. His main focus is on functional training that incorporates normal daily movements which strengthen core muscle groups and help deliver a functionally fit body. This body will then be efficient with all activities, from athletics to everyday movements.