Some Practical Shoulder Health Tips

I have a nice question in from former WG-FIT member Dave on shoulders.

The timing on this is great as I've had a run on clients with shoulder injuries the last few months.

And there is a quote from Pavel Tstasouline that always made me smile:

"Put your hand up if you have had a shoulder injury, if you don't put your hand up its probably because you can't "

Now for Dave's question:

“Howya' Dave!?

As a content suggestion I'd love some shoulder maintenance pointers as an aging long time supporter! I'm pretty sure you've already got that content somewhere perhaps?

I've really had to pay more attention to the old shoulders and want to keep the overhead press going as long as I can! I'm not struggling with the press, but I do think about the day when maybe it won't be possible....

All the best,

Dave”

This line:

“I do think about the day when maybe it won't be possible....”

I love that line.

Have you ever thought that something you are currently doing that you enjoy doing might become impossible for you at some point?

That overhead press may disappear.

That high kick might get lower and lower

The run becomes a shuffle becomes a walk

Ageing is inevitable, but we have some agency over getting old.

Some…

The good news is, if you train and train across a variety of movements, you're already doing much of what is needed to stave off the inevitable decline.

With the expectation of long term injuries, they may need some special attention. Some particular time spent on them.

The overhead press is a controversial lift in the fitness world.

And I've never understood why. As I ran WG-FIT as a kettlebell focused training centre, the overhead press and overhead lifting in general is simply kettlebell 101.

And while many in the strength world are denigrating the press for being bad for shoulders or causing pain in the shoulders.

Our WG-FIT crew, barring a couple of exceptions, all developed very good shoulder mobility and strength to put weight overhead.

I'd argue developing a good overhead press beats 90% of other rotator cuff work.

So what is the secret?

In my mind the scapula, or shoulder blade, is the key to the shoulder. I've often said the scapula IS the shoulder.

Something I would go into at length about on workshops.

When the scapula moves well, and we find a nice interaction between the scapula and arm, we generally find pain decreases and strength increases.

The scapula does 6 things:

Glides up and down

Glides forward and backwards

Rotates up and down

Tilts forward and backwards

And as it does so, the arm bone aka the humerus, also moves.

So does the collar bone. But that complicates things, so don't worry about him.

Here's where Dave and many others probably struggle.

If the Scapula is a car, the road it drives along would be the rib cage.

And the rib cage is your thoracic spine.

How well does your thoracic spine move?

In many (most?) cases, folks with limited shoulder mobility also have limited spine mobility. Freeing up the spine often improves the shoulder.

So here's a few common interventions for opening up spine movement and giving the scapula a better chance to move:

Child's pose with breathing.

This gets the arms overhead.

Start on all fours, with hands slightly forward of the shoulders.

Now sit the hips back until they rest on your feet, as you sit back you may feel the hands slide back a bit.

Try walk the hands out again, just so it feels like a gentle stretch.

Now pay attention to the breath, as you inhale can you feel the belly press into the thighs? And release as you exhale?

Can you feel the back expand with the in and relax with the out?

Spend 30 seconds to a few minutes here.

Doorway chest stretch

Place a hand against the doorframe, palm facing up.

Now step through the door so the arm gets pulled behind you.

Play with how high the hand is on the doorframe, above or below the shoulder will offer different stretches.

Step back and forth, alternate legs feel where the tight lines are and spend more time there.

No need to hold, this isn’t really stretching, it's move in move out.

Go until you feel change.

Doorframe back stretch

Lots to play with here.

Hold the doorframe (or any solid upright) with one hand and lean back. Now with the other hand reach across yourself and feel the back muscles stretch.

Again play with positions, reach to different points, put one leg behind you, or the other.

Play looking for either tight lines or lines that have no sensation at all.

The more you play with these and don't think that there is a single perfect position the better you will do.

So thats a warm up,

What's next?

Next is finding the press that works for you.

It could be a barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell, landmine.

It could be one arm or both. It could be see-saw where one comes down as the other goes up.

It may be a push press with legs to drive up, but a controlled down.

And if you're a kettlebell user, definitely try bottoms up pressing.

Last thing and for shoulder health this is massively underrated is a thing the gymnastics world call straight arm strength.

This is loading the arm and moving through the shoulder without bending the elbow.

This means motion must happen in the shoulder and scapula.

From things like Turkish Get Ups and Windmills to hanging scap ups, scapula push ups, L-sits etc.

Crawling could also fit here.

So, breathe better, mobilise and then lift.

It's simple, just not easy.

But then, it's no fun if it's easy eh?

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.davehedges.net