What lifestyle changes can you make to help improve shoulder mobility?
It’s important to maintain good shoulder mobility because this helps keep your body healthy and able to perform daily activities without pain and discomfort.
Poor shoulder mobility, however, may be caused by many conditions such as:
- Arthritis
- Tendonitis
- Inflammation
- Decreased Strength
- Soreness and injuries
- And more…
As you can see, the reasons for poor shoulder mobility can be unrelated and far-reaching. That’s why it’s essential to incorporate simple lifestyle changes you can make right now to improve your shoulder flexibility.
This article will discuss easy ways to improve your shoulder mobility by reducing tight muscles and increasing flexibility.
How do I know if I have bad shoulder mobility?
If you experience any of the following symptoms:
- Unable to reach behind your back to touch your back pocket
- Unable to touch your ears with your arms straight out in front of you
- Unable to lift arms overhead
- Unable to do pull-ups
- Unable to unhook your bra
- Unable to reach for your wallet
Healthy shoulder should be able to move your arms freely without worrying about injuring tissue, joints or ligaments. Good shoulder mobility is important for everyday activities as well as many sports.
A simple test you can do is to raise your arm up over head, your shoulder should go up to have your biceps reach in line with your ear. You should also be able to rotate your shoulders in their sockets without pain or restrictions.
Poor shoulder mobility can lead to pain or injuries as well as difficulties with daily activities and sports. This article explains how to improve your shoulder mobility.
What is shoulder mobility?
Our shoulders allow us to perform a wide range of movements. We can swivel them to look in different directions. We can lift our arms above our heads and cross them in front of our bodies.
We should be able to reach backward as far as possible. This means our arms should be able to stretch backward at least until the middle of the lower back.
This kind of flexibility allows us to avoid injuring ourselves while performing everyday activities or performing in sports. It also makes it easier for us to lift heavy objects across our backs and below our necks.
To test your current shoulder range of motion (ROM), you can perform the following test: Lay on your back with both arms extended by your side, palms facing up. Lift both arms up until they are parallel to the
Weakness in these areas can lead to injuries as well as discomfort and pain. This article explains how you can improve the range of motion in your shoulders.
How can you improve your shoulder mobility?
Here is a quick video to improve your spine flexibility and gain better shoulder ROM. Being able to reach across your chest means you have lateral flexion in your shoulders. This movement allows you to get more thoracic spine extension, thus freeing up how your shoulder blades then rotate ultimately improving shoulder overhear mobility.
To further enhance your shoulder mobility, you can also use a broomstick or dowel while on the foam roller to increase the end range of motion.
Making sure you stay safe while working out is key to ensuring you can build strength and stay healthy. To reduce the risk of injury to your shoulder when exercising in the gym, it’s important to make sure you always warm up properly before starting any lifting.
Additionally, it is important to focus on your form when performing each motion and to not be too ambitious when it comes to lifting heavier weights- it is better to increase weights gradually over time.
Don’t forget to take rest between sets to prevent overworking your muscles.
Following these mobility tips will help to ensure you stay safe while working out and minimize the risk of injury to your shoulder for everyday tasks.
In conclusion, these mobility exercises are great for stretching and mobilizing tissue surrounding the shoulder muscles. It can be done two to three times daily for the best results. It is important to move slowly and with control, focusing on stretching the muscles without overextending them. To maximize the effectiveness of this exercise, you can move into discomfort but never move into pain.
If these tips helped you but you’re still struggling with pain or (everyday) performance please don’t hesitate to book an appointment with us today.
