Hey everybody – Dr. Cobb from Z Health. Today. We’re going to do a quick series of exercises to work on your shoulder mobility in extension.
Most adults tend to lose shoulder extensibility because of our constant work on our computers and our phones and often what we do in the gym as well. So many people that lack shoulder extension complain of lots of different shoulder aches and pains.
They also find a lot of performance limitation. So here is a quick series of drills that you can perform in just a few minutes that I have found to be super, super helpful.
What we want to do first is warm up the shoulders. We’re going to 3 different exercises here. These are called camshafts. We’re going to take the elbow out in front of us, lock the elbow, and we’re going to be moving the shoulder blade in a circle. We’ll do that three to five times in each direction.
And then we’re going to repeat that in two more positions, one with the arm down by the side, and then also with the arm behind us. Now when we’re doing these you’re working on motor control and awareness and trying to understand how your brain is communicating with that shoulder. So these are very important. The next thing that you would do is you would repeat those same three positions doing the scapular motion with the head turned to the right and head turned to the left because again shoulder mechanics often change when we have to turn our head. And if we’re playing tennis or something else, we’re always going to be adding head motion to shoulder movement. So I want you to start mapping that into what you do.
Once you’ve warmed up the shoulders, you need a stick. Just any kind of dowel will work that you can hold on to. You’re going to take this now and we’re going to start combining some mobility work with some strengthening work, particularly isometrics.
Take the stick behind you and let it sit against your backside.
You’re then going to take your hands, bring them in until they’re touching your legs or thighs. Now from here imagine that there is a wall directly in front of you, or you’re going to stand in front of a wall. This is to prevent you from bending forward at the waist as you try to go into shoulder extension. So from here, we’re going to test. We’re going to lock our elbows, palms are facing away and we’re just going to lift the stick up as high as we comfortably can a few times. Comfort is very important here. I don’t want you pushing this drill because it’s very easy for people to hurt themselves if they go too hard, so just get an idea of how high you can take that stick.
Now, once you have an assessment, we’re now going to look down and move our hands out slightly. All right, we’re going to go about one hand width with away from our legs and we’re now going to start the exercises.
The exercises are very simple. We’re going to go up to a comfortable range and we’re then going to try to pull the stick apart. Pull it apart. Going to be activating some variety of muscles as you do this and you’ll probably feel some tension in between your shoulder blades. You will also feel some in your lats. You hold that for six seconds, relax out of it slowly, and then come back down. You’ll then repeat that. The second time you go up, you may be able to go a little bit higher, but remember to keep the elbows locked. six more seconds, relax down. You’re going to do that three times.
Now, we’re going to reverse it. This time we’re going to be pushing the stick together.
So, you’ll take it back behind you. Make sure you have the correct grip. Nice and tall, bring it up and now bring the hands together. Now, as you do this, you probably will find more tension in between your shoulder blades. Not always, but a lot of people notice that this causes more tension within the scapular musculature.
So, we’re going to do that three times. Hold for six seconds, again, relax slowly as you come down out of that. Finally, you would repeat those same three exercises, pulling the stick apart, pushing the stick in with a head turn right and a head turn left.
It is a little bit of a workout. A lot of people when they get done with this are like “wow, I really feel my shoulders. I feel my back.” That’s a good thing. If you could aim to do this a few times a week, it can pay huge dividends in terms of shoulder stability and shoulder comfort.
And remember that, when we talk about mobility and strength, we are also always talking about the brain. Use every opportunity that you can when you’re practicing these drills to understand how your body feels, how it moves, how it coordinates. Mobility is an opportunity to explore your body. Explore its communication. So just make sure you keep that in mind. Don’t do it mindlessly. Focus on it. Try to learn something with every single rep. Have a great week.
And remember that, when we talk about mobility and strength, we are also always talking about the brain. Use every opportunity that you can when you’re practicing these drills to understand how your body feels, how it moves, how it coordinates. Mobility is an opportunity to explore your body. Explore its communication. So just make sure you keep that in mind. Don’t do it mindlessly. Focus on it. Try to learn something with every single rep. Have a great week.
