hey everyone my name is dr jeff peng this will be a quick
five-minute stretch routine to help provide relief for shoulder pain now i recommend
doing this routine at least three times a day in order to increase mobility and to
increase range of motion follow along as we go through all the different stretches in real time
you can also check out the time stamps or find the movements in the descriptions found below
we're going to first start off with a warm up so shoulder rolls forwards one two
three four five and backwards one two three four five the next thing we're going to do our arm
side crosses okay so one two three four five six seven eight nine ten next thing we're going to do
our scapular squeezes so imagine you're pulling something towards you towards the back like this
so one and imagine that shoulder blade in the back they're trying to touch each other one two three
four five six seven eight nine ten so the first stretch we're going to do is to open up our chest
so what i want you to do is put your hands together and clasp them behind your back push
down and then push back and we're just going to hold this for a total of 30 seconds and so what
you're going to feel is you're going to feel both sides of the chest the front of the chest over
here as well as the front of the shoulder gets stretched out so remember clasp your hands push
down then push back and as you hold this stretch you will be able to slowly push back even farther
to get a deeper and deeper stretch so 30 seconds good the next thing we're going to do is external
rotation and we're going to do this for 30 seconds so the goal is to get this and rotate it like this
now if you want to hold it like this and you're feeling a stretch like that already on the
outside that's fine if you want to try to get a deeper stretch what you can do is use this hand
bring it under your elbow and around kind of like a pretzel and then use it to gently push down so
that you can externally rotate it even more and we're going to hold this for a total of 30 seconds
remember this is going to be externally rotating your shoulder so good 30 seconds we're going
to switch sides so remember if you want to do this and just rotate out like that that's one
way of doing it otherwise you can bring your hand come underneath and around and then push
down and we're going to hold this for a total of 30 seconds and we are slowly
starting to externally rotate and gain some range of motion in our shoulder that way
so 30 seconds in three in two and one okay now the next stretch is our posterior capsule
so bring bend your elbow at 90 degrees pull it across your chest use this hand and push
backwards and what you're going to feel is you're going to feel a stretch in the posterior capsule
right back here and so again bring your elbow around you use this hand and push directly
backwards to get out of stretch now some people prefer to do this with their elbow fully extended
and that's fine or you can bend your elbow for 30 seconds switch sides so bend your elbow reach
across your chest use this hand and push backwards i'm going to hold this side as well for a total
of 30 seconds and this is remember going to stretch out the posterior capsule
and we're really moving towards so anterior then posterior we're going to do external and
internal rotation so all the different ranges of motions of our shoulder to try to increase that
range of motion and that'll really provide some relief so 30 seconds and 3 and two and one good
so now we're going to switch over to inferior capsule so bring this hand above your head
and bend your elbow and now use your other hand and push down so my right hand is kind
of around the base of my neck a little bit lower than that and my other hand is putting
gentle pressure downwards so that i'm stretching out the inferior capsule now this stretch is
actually a tricep stretch so you're going to feel it in your triceps muscle belly over here
but you're also going to be stretching out the inferior shoulder capsule so we're actually doing
two things at once here and so hold this position 30 seconds good and we're going to switch sides
so just like this side we're going to put gentle pressure down and remember you're going to feel
it here in the triceps but you're also going to feel it here in the inferior
joint shoulder capsule so every time you feel that it starts getting looser put a little bit more
gentle pressure down to get a deeper and deeper stretch good in 30 seconds so three two one
good so the last one is internal rotation so for this one you're going to need a small towel so put
your hand behind your back and with the other hand you're going to throw the towel behind your back
hold on with your right hand and then slowly pull up and so what this is going to do it's
actually going to internally rotate my shoulder so my right hand is not actually doing anything
it's just holding on to the towel whereas my left hand right now is actually pulling up
so pulling up ever so gently and each time i put more pressure pulling it up
my right hand or my right shoulder is getting internally rotated
and so we're going to hold this for 30 seconds in three two one i'm going to switch so now my other
hand on the other side holding onto the towel and pulling up remember the bottom hand is not doing
anything it's just holding on to the towel and the other hand is just pulling straight up on that
towel and every time you pull up you're going to feel that tension in the opposite shoulder
internally rotating that shoulder so we're going to hold this side for 30 seconds as well
which is almost up in 3 two one okay
i hope you found this useful remember five minutes that's all it takes to stretch out the shoulder
try to do this routine three times a day in order to provide relief for your shoulder pain