How To Improve Shoulder Mobility In Minutes
November 14, 2011 | Author Kevin Yates
One of the BIGGEST contributors to shoulder problems is poor mobility resulting from muscular imbalances.
One of the most common muscular imbalances of the shoulder exists when there’s dominance of the levator scapulae and upper trapezius along with inhibition of the middle and lower trapezius.
A tight levator scapulae elevates the scapula causing the humerus to butt up against the acromion leading to shoulder impingement and rotator cuff injuries.
A tight levator scapulae can also create tension along the cervical spine and decrease the space of the intervertebral foramina which can cause irritation of the passing nerves.
If left unaddressed the natural upward rotation of the scapula is thrown off during overhead movements and over time can cause pain and dysfunction to the neck and shoulder.
The mid and lower trapezius which assist with the upper traps in upward scapular rotation become weak or inhibited.
So, the goal to re-establish proper upward rotation of the scapula is to engage the mid and lower traps.
In the video below I show you a highly effective exercise with a unique twist to help improve upward rotation of the scapula in just minutes.
Once you’ve got healthy shoulder mobility restored you can incorporate other shoulder exercises. Here are 3 shoulder rehabilitation exercise tips to consider before beginning a shoulder rehab conditioning program.
4 Responses to “How To Improve Shoulder Mobility In Minutes”
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Kev
I get a lot of problems with my shoulder and LS. My LS are constantly pulled and for the longest time I have believes that it was because the LS was weak. Recently I figured that maybe I am addressing this wrong and looked into exactly what pulls the shoulder downwards and so started working on the mid/lower traps and also the Serratus anterior too.
I love this simple explanation and exercise to help with this problem and explains why I am getting impingement in the shoulder. I hadn’t put both issues together before.
gonna be adding this exercise in too and hopefully get rid of this problem once and for all. Would you do this exercise every day?
Dean
Great job identifying what was going wrong Dean. And, yes you could perform the exercise daily since you’re using light loads. Actually, it’s a better idea to at least for now perform it daily as the weaker muscles will benefit from it. Kind like the old adage ‘practice makes perfect’.
Thanks Kevin for the video.
While trying to fix my shoulder problem and after doing some research, I intuitively started doing this exercise (without the dumbbells).
I liked your explanation, specially that you show the difference of doing it with a barbell and with dumbbells.
P.S. Thanks for maintaining your website I have found many other things that have been beneficial.
Kev,
Great video’s. !!! going through shoulder rehab now. Not a serious injury. My specialest told me today that I have basically an imbalance in my shoulder and need to work on exercises that strenthen all side of the shoulder because mine is moving due to weaker supporting muscles. Keep up the good work. Easy to understand and helps me to do things right by showing me (your video’s ) want to / and not to do. Thanks brent