Tips to Keep Your Shoulders Healthy – Creating Bulletproof Shoulders!

November 7, 2018 | sean | in Blog

SHOULDER HEALTH;
There are many ways to promote good shoulder health over time… here is one of two things that you can add to every shoulder day to promote good health and prevent injuries.

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I have had shoulder problems for as long as I have been training. mine was due to my previous profession of an electrician. always having my arms fully extended and utilising my minor shoulder muscles in a big way without strengthening them!
I have been treated ongoing for shoulder issue since then but over time have learnt what I need to.. to help keep them in good health.
I am still learning though and still have issues so I am continually doing research to discover more ways to keep my shoulders and body healthy and free from injury.

As I learn I want to share what I have discovered with you all…

Regardless of the above, if you want to exercise regularly and keep your shoulders healthy for the long haul, I’m in a good position to share what I have learnt and am discovering…

Let’s start with a few tips to bulletproof your shoulders!

Tips to Keep Your Shoulders Healthy

The Dead Hang
John M. Kirsch, an orthopaedic surgeon, says that 99% of shoulder pain can be cured and prevented by simply hanging from a bar. By performing a dead hang, the space between the acromion (bony articulation of the shoulder blade) and the head of the humerus (upper arm bone) opens up, potentially relieving any impingement of the rotator cuff tendons.

Mix it up – Challenge your shoulders and there positioning with different pressing movements.

Everybody loves to bench press — and that’s perfectly fine; it’s one of the best compound exercises you can possibly do. Unfortunately, when your upper back is always pinned to a bench, your shoulder blades can’t move freely — so they may lose the ability to get overhead pain-free. With that in mind, it’s important to complement your bench press variations with other movements where the shoulder blade can move freely.

Some varied pressing movements are;
– push up variations
– landmine presses
– standing presses
– varied hand grips and positions
– kettlebell presses (seated + standing)

I myself try not to do the same presses two shoulder training sessions in a row. I like to vary the weight, the movement, the equipment and find the more out of the box I think. the harder the exercise is and the more benefits I get.

Rotator Cuff Training 

Every single time I train upper body I warm up the smaller muscles in my shoulders first. doing rotator cuff exercises are not very sexy in or outside of the gym, though they are very very very necessary. the smaller muscles in your shoulders hold your shoulder in its socket and without training them you can injure yourself very easily.
Believe it or not, one study showed that 34 per cent of people with absolutely no shoulder pain actually have rotator cuff tears — and this number is actually 54 per cent in those over the age of 60! In other words, just because you don’t have pain doesn’t mean that there isn’t something wrong. It may just be waiting to reach a painful symptomatic threshold for waiting for that final tear and snap!
I encourage you to train the rotator cuff with some external rotations, upward rotations, varied grip light presses and positioning exercises every single time your train upper body. I myself pick 3-4 exercises and complete 20 reps of each for 2-3 sets.

Shoulder range – make sure that you have full range in shoulders.

By this, I mean standing against a wall and lifting your hands above your head while limiting back muscle use and maximising shoulder muscles being activated. I would also suggest practising shoulder presses, front raises, side raises, outward rotation and anything else against a wall. This is so you isolate the shoulder muscles and strengthen the minor muscles!
If you can’t get your arms overhead, outwards, upwards or sideways…. without compensating at your lower/upper back — or winding up in pain — then it’s a sign that you’ve really lost an important movement pattern for your shoulder health.

Pull and push – focus on pulling movement as much as pushing.

We all know that it’s important to do just as much (if not more!) pulling as you do pushing. However, what a lot of people fail to realize is that you only get the benefits of all these rowing exercises if you actually perform them correctly! this means using your muscle in the correct patterns. Not over using the larger muscles or letting your shoulder position slip. I always focus on locking my shoulder in place and pull or pushing with the muscle I am training. the as I am starting to warm up I might give some movement in my shoudler.. still completing the exercise correctly!

Posture – make sure you have correct posture.

Do you feel your shoulders hunched over?
Are they pulled forward by your chest muscles?
Are you one of the millions that worry about mirror muscles rather than correct posture?

If you answered yes to any of these you are not alone.  There are loads and loads and loads of people who are avid gym goers or athletes that have this issue. As well as the keyboard warriors…
The good news is that there is a way to fix this issues through positioning exercises.
two exercises that can help address the issue:
Supine Alternated Shoulder Flexion on a Tennis Ball, and the Side-Lying Windmill.
Perform these daily during warm-ups (see here):

These are just some ways to limit the shoulder issues you may already have and are great ways to keep your shoulder health over a long period.

I would also suggest following Eugene Teo ( @coacheugeneteo on Instagram ).
This guy not only talks a lot about shoulder health but gives you what you need to know for most problem movement patterns we all have.

He also describes everything in lamens terms (most of the time) making it easy to apply exercises and strategies to keep your body in check in the long term.

In Conclusion

Your shoulders do a hell of a lot on a daily basis from carrying shopping to typing at a desk. we use them non stop without even realising. Shoulder health should be a priority whether you are a gym goer or not!

Use these tips on the regular and I promise you will have much better shoulders than most people you see on a daily basis and will save your self, future pain.

These are quick and easy adjustments to make, so don’t delay in putting them into action.

Now go create bulletproof shoulders!

Thank you for reading!

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Thank you for reading.

Written by; Sean L Jones
Instagram; @s.jones.fitness

Above All Co.
Owner and Director; Sean L Jones
Instagram:@aboveallco_
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Website: www.aboveallco.com.au

SOURCES;
1. HTTPS://WWW.CANABOMEDICALCLINIC.COM/5-HEALTH-BENEFITS-CBD-OILS/
2. HTTPS://WWW.WEBMD.COM/VITAMINS/AI/INGREDIENTMONO-1439/CANNABIDIOL