Building Resilient Shoulders

Shoulder impingement can be treated. You first have to calm down the painful symptoms and then determine why the pain occurred. When your shoulder is in pain, rest, ice, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) such as ibuprofen can help to decrease the pain and inflammation, but these alone won't solve your problem. Strengthening, increasing flexibility, improving mechanics, maintaining good posture, and using a sound training program are beneficial and may reverse the syndrome. Focus on the reason for the impingement. If it is an overuse syndrome, rest and make alterations to your lifestyle to address that overuse. If muscular weakness or imbalance is the culprit, specific exercises will address strengthening the rotator cuff and other scapular stabilizer muscles. If posture is a problem, upper-back strengthening plus body awareness is the key.

Several exercises can help prehabilitate and rehabilitate the shoulder and help improve posture. Prehabilitate means doing these exercises as preventative medicine before an injury even occurs. Hopefully by doing these exercises, both you and your shoulder joint can bear up under the weight of the world.

SCAPULAR RETRACTION

SCAPTION

CEILING PUNCH

Ys, Ts, AND Is

STRAIGHT-ARM LAT PULLDOWN

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ROTATION