Due to their complexity, it can be hard to maintain good shoulder health, especially if you are a very active person. Here are a few points to keep in mind that I hope can help you get a sense of some ways to keep your shoulders happy.
BE MINDFUL OF REPETITIVE MOTION
The shoulder joint has a lot of muscles attached to it and when those muscles get out of balance with one another, the joint can be easily compromised. Sports that require a lot of repetitive movements such tennis, baseball, or swimming can end up over-strengthing and/or ‘tightening’ one set of shoulder muscles. This pulls the joint out of alignment and can lead to pain and injury. If you have a real passion for a particular activity, make time in the gym for working on the things that the activity does NOT cover. For example, if you spend a lot of time swinging a tennis racket, which utilizes a lot of anterior muslces (such as your pecs), do a lot of pulling exercises in the gym to help maintain balanced strength in your back muscles. You may also benefit from soft tissue work such as foam rolling or massage.
TAKE CARE OF THE ROTATOR CUFF
Your rotator cuff is not some structure like the cuff of your sleave. It is a group of four muscles that create internal and external rotation of your shoulder. They are extremely important in stabilizing the shoulder. A strong back, shoulders, and chest won’t make up for weak rotators. Try some exercises that demand a bit more from the stabilizing aspect such as push ups, dumbell presses, single arm cable rows, dumbell bent over rows, etc. Machines or straight-bars fix the shoulder in a strict path, removing demand from the rotator cuff, so make sure that you aren’t someone who only ever does these types of exercises. If you already have some shoulder trouble, have a physical therapist help you. They can show you some great ways to really bring up any deficits in shoulder musculature.
DON’T LET YOUR POSTURE GO
Our bodies are set up to do everything in front of us. Therefore, we have a tendency to slump down over our books, computers, phones, dinner plates, and so on. Over time, we slowly get pulled into increasingly worse posture. Poor posture tightens muscles (it’s a form of repetitive movement), narrows spaces within the shoulder joint, and can lead to uncomfortable pinching and banging of structures in the shoulder (known as impingement). Don’t spend too much time slouching during the day. If you are using a phone, reading a book, or typing at a computer, raise it so that it is in front of your face. Also, try not to spend too much time sitting. Get up for phone calls, or at least once an hour for a quick stroll.
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