2 Shoulder Exercises to Get You Pain Free Now!

I want to focus on helping you get out of shoulder pain.  Far too many people suffer from it and there is honestly no reason to continue to live with it. 

Spend your day hunched over a computer?

Carry your child around the mall or at the park?

Tend to carry your purse or laptop on one shoulder consistently?

Sleep on your shoulders?

If you answered YES to any of the questions above, then this is especially for you. 

Our shoulders take a beating day in and day out.  In our society we live our life in a forward posture all too often.  This constant forward posture can lead to all sorts of problems, from the obvious shoulder pain or discomfort, to neck pain, and yes, believe it or not, even lower back pain.

Everything is connected!

If you spend your day in poor posture, no matter what the reason, it's only a matter of time before your body starts giving you signals that something is wrong. 

Now like most people you'll probably solve the problem by first avoiding the movements or activities that give you pain or discomfort.  But that is only a short term fix.  That's kind of like turning up the volume on the car radio when you hear a rattling noise in your car.  And as we all know, turning up the radio won't fix the rattle.  Likewise avoiding certain movements or activities won't make the problem in your shoulders go away either.

The bottom line is often times people believe that just stretching your shoulders will be enough to get rid of the shoulder pain.  Actually that is partially correct.  There is definitely a stretching component that needs to be included when trying to get rid of shoulder pain, but you also need exercise.  You’ll need some specific exercises to correct the alignment that is off from certain muscles becoming overly tight, while other muscles have become overly relaxed.   Simply, the shoulder needs to be placed back in alignment through the use of stretching of the tight muscles and strengthening of the weak muscles. 

Here are 2 exercises to help you get out of pain and back on track. Put these together with my other suggested shoulder stretches and you’ll be on your way to pain free shoulders.

3 Stretches to Get Rid of Shoulder Pain

Whether it’s sleeping on your shoulders, spending hours at your computer, or looking down at your phone in less than perfect posture, shoulders tend to get tight and out of alignment if you do any of these too often. Your shoulder(s) being out of alignment can cause not only shoulder pain, but neck and upper back pain as well. I suspect we all know how uncomfortable that can be. . . .

After some good self-massage try these 3 shoulder stretches to get you out of pain and start the healing.

Each of these stretches should be done in a doorway. In a split stance position. Your lead foot should be slightly through the doorway, while your back foot should be slightly behind the doorway.

Hold each stretch for 7-10 slow breaths.

For this stretch, your hands should be reaching out and up towards the top of the door way. Your posture should look similar to the letter “Y”. Your hands will be resting on the door frame.

For this stretch you’ll want to bring your arms down so that your elbows form a 90 degree angle. Both your forearms and hands should be supported on the frame of the doorway.

For this stretch you’ll want to move your hands down the door frame so that they are at about a 45 degree angle.

Most of us could afford to do each of these stretches daily. Some of us could afford to do them a few times a day. Start with once a day and see how they work for you. Please be sure to do a bit of self-massage (rolling) before hand. That way you’ll be able to maximize the benefits.

Shoulder Pain?

I know you're going to think I made this up, but it is 100% true. 

Not more than a week ago, a client of mine expressed that he was having pain in his right shoulder and neck area, and couldn't figure out why. 

So we reviewed the new movements he was doing in his program -- actually had him go through a few of them.  No, those didn't seem to be creating any discomfort. 

We talked about his work -- the amount of hours sitting at his desk have actually gotten less over the past the few months. 

So we explored what has changed at home -- outside of the obvious -- he recently had a child.  --BINGO!--  Originally, he didn't notice it, but recently he's been picking his newborn up more, carrying him, and holding him for extended periods.  So far that has really been the only change that he can think of in his daily and weekly routine.

This is not the first time I've heard this.  Trainers, clients and friends have all commented at one time or another about one shoulder being more sore than the other a few weeks or months after having a child.

And 9 times out of 10, you know what else?

When they are consistent with their shoulder stretches and exercises the shoulder pain goes away -- mysteriously.

I shared this client's experience because I have worked with literally hundreds of people, that start using one shoulder more than the other, each for different reasons, and end up with the same, "I don't know what's going on, but this shoulder has really started bother me", experience. 

Shoulder pain can come from the most common activities that we do everyday and don't think about it for a second.  Whether it's a wonderful new addition to the family, the posture you sit/lay in while watching TV or reading the paper, a laptop, sleeping on your shoulders, or too many pressing movements at the gym.  Shoulder pain is often times just an issue of alignment.

Practice the stretches I've shared with you along with the shoulder movements from this month and you'll be out of shoulder pain fast!

Don't just take my word for it -- Try them.