Checking your Shoulder Mobility
One thing I notice with a lot of the moms I work with, is that they start dealing with shoulder pain after starting up with a fitness routine. Whether it’s from the way they are moving, the way they are sleeping, their everyday posture or overusing the shoulder with picking up children, lack of movement with the upper body in everyday life, or carrying all of the things. I can’t say without working with them one on one. But I like to check shoulder mobility to see how the rest of your body moves when you bring your arms overhead. Let’s check your shoulder mobility.
Test this out for yourself to see what happens. When you lift your arms up over your head, what do you notice?
- does your shoulders rise up with your arms?
- does your back sway to help you get your arms up overhead?
If either of these are occurring, then we need to work on strengthening the mid back while allowing the upper back muscles to relax some.
Here are some exercises to focus on:
- When reaching for something, think about reaching with your pinky rather than pointer fingers your mid back will begin to work more
- When doing Y’s with weights, think about leading with the pinkies
- Place head on wall and then arms on wall in a goal post fashion. Work on pulling thumbs away from the wall to fire on the mid back
- Have a seat on the wall, and try to bring your arms into a goal post position on the wall without allowing the mid back to pull away from the wall
Watch the video above for a full explanation of these exercises
And please don’t go out and start lifting heavy things over your head if either of these things are happening or you may cause more pain and discomfort. The goal is to get your body moving more through all ranges and feel good while doing so before you start to lift heavier things up over the head.
If you are interested in learning more about moving your shoulders more effectively and want to practice shoulder mobility exercises than try our Movement Membership to begin working on your shoulders.
Other Blog posts you may enjoy reading:
Relieve upper back pain at the Shoulder Blade
Waking up in Pain-Let’s Avoid It
