hey everybody it's doctor jo and cool remy, and today i'm going to show you stretches
and exercises for shoulder impingement from poor posture. so let's get started.
so before we get started, if you haven't already make sure and click on the subscribe button
down below because that helps my channel grow. so with shoulder impingement from poor posture, a lot
of times this happens because your shoulders kind of come up and roll forward and see that puts a
lot of pressure on the shoulder and gives it that impingement kind of thing. i know it has a lot of
other terms for it now, but most people know it as shoulder impingement. so with these stretches
and exercises the reps and the sets really kind of depend on how severe it is so i have a video that
talks about reps and sets and frequency and you can check that out in the link in the description
below. so the first one is going to be a shoulder squeeze or a scapular squeeze. and so these look
pretty easy, but it's really important to get the correct posture. so when we're trying to correct
that posture, we want to use good technique. so a shoulder squeeze is just how it sounds, you're
squeezing the shoulders back. you're squeezing those shoulder blades back, or those scapular
scapulae back. but what you want to do is use the muscles. so you're not just squeezing
back or just pushing your arms back, you're really squeezing with those muscles, but try and keep the
shoulders down. so a lot of times, people kind of squeeze up and be like am i doing it like that,
but keep them down. don't bring them up towards your ears, and really use those muscles. so you
can use your elbows as a guide in the beginning, but you can do these squeezes without using your
elbows either. but in the beginning, it's nice to kind of have that squeeze. and just hold it for
about three to five seconds really trying to keep the shoulders down while you're squeezing. and you
should feel you know those muscles in between. imagine someone's hand right there and you're
squeezing those shoulder blades together with the muscles. so the next one is going to be a levator
scapulae stretch. and so that muscle is the one it attaches to that shoulder blade or that scapula
and comes all the way up into the cervical spine. so a lot of times when we get stressed out,
or we sit a lot, we kind of come up like this. so again that's bringing everything up and we
want to bring everything back down. so with the levator scapulae stretch, you can either
put your elbow up this way, or you can kind of put it behind your back. i've always learned it
this way, so that's how i'm going to do that and that just kind of keeps that shoulder blade down.
so if i'm stretching this side, this arm comes up, but if you're if it's painful, like i said you can
kind of bring it down behind your back, or you can just kind of push your hand downwards to try and
keep that shoulder blade down. then you're going to turn your your head and your nose at about a 45
degree angle. so i usually say sometimes towards the opposite knee but when you're coming down
almost like you're trying to pull your nose down into your armpit. so it's not coming down
sideways, it's not coming all the way over, it's kind of at that angle. so put your hand behind
your head, not on the side, but behind it so you can really tuck everything in. and you should
feel that stretch all the way up here and then all the way down towards that shoulder blade,
really getting that nice stretch. if you need to turn a little bit more to feel it, you can
and then holding that for 30 seconds. do that three times on each side. so then the next one is
just going to be to kind of open up the chest area because a lot of times if you have those tight
pecs you're going to roll inward. so that coming forward movement, we want to open everything back
up to get that better posture. so an easy exercise to do is going to be a little bit of a stretch as
well. you can just do it in sitting. put your arms out in front of you and then just open
them up like a t. so just really getting that nice stretch and then coming back in. so this
isn't a big fast movement, it's slow and controlled. really getting that that stretch at
the end. you can squeeze those shoulder blades back, so kind of make it a combination move,
and then come back in. so you're really kind of opening up that area. so the next stretch
is going to be a lat stretch, or an upper thoracic side bend. and so for the lats,
you really want to stretch those out because a lot of people don't know they actually attach to those
shoulder blades, so if they're tight they're pulling everything kind of out of alignment.
so you really want to get those nice and stretched out too. so for a thoracic side bend, that helps
stretch out those lats. so just bring your hands behind your head, and so you're going to do a side
bend, but it's not down at your lower back that's not really going to stretch your lats as much.
you want to do it in the upper back area or that thoracic area. so really just kind of pulling
over like this. so see i'm not coming down, i'm not trying to bring my elbow to the ground, i'm
almost just trying to bring this elbow up towards the ceiling. so i'm stretching like this. i should
feel that stretch all the way through the lat in there. so this one is going to be a longer hold.
ideally you'd want to hold it for 30 seconds, but if that's a little uncomfortable, you can do maybe
15 seconds and just alternate back and forth. but really getting that stretch so you feel the lat
stretch in there. so the next ones are going to be kind of getting over onto all fours. so this
is we call it quadruped or all fours. so the next one really again just kind of getting everything
loosened up is the cat cow. i like to call it cat dog just because i like dogs, but i know
most people call it a cat cow. so making sure that your shoulders are in pretty good alignment with
your hands up and down so you're not stressing your shoulders out, and then your knees are
about hip width apart which is usually taking both fists together and and getting that width there.
so all you're going to do is when you come up into the cat, you're going to arch your back and
then tuck in your chin. so you're coming up like this getting that nice stretch in there, and then
you're gonna come down to that cow or that dog where you're just dropping your hips almost into
a saddle, and then looking straight up. so with this one, you can do you know just little pauses
maybe five to ten seconds, and then alternating back and forth. so nice big stretch into the cat,
coming down into the dog or the cow. and then the last one is going to be a prayer stretch,
but a little bit at an angle to help you get those lats stretched out a little bit. so you can do it
a couple different ways with the with the prayer stretch, or the child's pose, some people call
it that. you can start with your hands out further if you have knee issues and they don't bend a lot.
so you can kind of come this way, or i usually kind of start a little bit further back and then
stretch my arms out. so you can do that either way but to get the lats you're gonna go at a little
bit of an angle. so instead of going straight down, i might put my hands over here and then
drop my bottom back. so i'm getting that stretch all the way through there kind of in those lats.
and so this would be a full 30 second stretch. so again you saw you can put your hands there first,
or you can come back into that child's pose and then bring your arms over. so whichever one feels
best for you, but 30 seconds, three times. so there you have it, those are my stretches and
exercises for shoulder impingement from poor posture. i know. if you'd like to help support
my channel, make sure and click right there, and don't forget to subscribe by clicking down there.
isn't that right, oh my goodness. and remember be safe, have fun, and i hope you feel better soon.