- The shoulder is a complex joint
and it's designed to be able to produce
a large range of movement.
But in order to function efficiently,
it does rely on all of the supporting muscles
to be firing correctly.
In this video, we're going to be going through
our top five exercises
to help keep your shoulders pain free,
and the best part is,
you don't even need any equipment.
(electronic twinkling)
(meditative music)
(meditative drumbeat)
We're starting off with awareness
of our shoulder position
and the movements that it can do.
So our first exercise,
you need to move into four point kneeling,
making sure that you've got your hands
directly underneath your shoulder
and your face pretty much parallel to the floor.
Keeping the rest of your body still,
especially your elbows and your wrists,
then you're going to use gravity
to help you drop your chest gradually towards the ground,
while imagining you're squeezing
your shoulder blades together.
Do this slowly and controlled,
so you're actually working your muscles
slightly eccentrically,
rather than just dropping yourself into that position.
Then, slowly push back up to neutral
and then beyond,
so you're bringing yourself into a rounded position.
Return to neutral,
and hold it there,
before repeating with full range of movement,
and repeat this 10 times.
Then, with the weight still through your hands,
I want you to try and draw circles with your shoulders,
five times in one diretion,
and then five in the other.
Come back to another 10 of the up and down movement,
remembering always pause in the middle
at that neutral position,
and, if you're feeling really advanced,
you can now try and draw a circle
with one shoulder,
followed by the other.
In total, make sure you do three sets
of the up and down movement,
and three sets of the circles.
(upbeat electronic music)
This next exercise is stretching more of your body
than just your shoulders,
but obviously,
today our main focus is on the upper body.
So from your four point kneeling position,
you're going to lift your hips up,
push your heels down,
extend your arms and your knees,
into downward dog.
Try to drop your head down towards the ground
without forcing it.
This should naturally help to open up your shoulders
into that extended position.
And then, imagine you're pulling your hips
to the ceiling or the sky,
making that line from your hands,
through your shoulders to your hips,
as straight and long as possible.
So from here,
just take your knees to the ground,
then your bottom to your heels,
keep your arms extended,
and drop your head and shoulders
down towards the ground into child's pose.
Take a moment to enjoy this stretch,
and then, take your right arm
and thread it under the left shoulder,
as though you're reaching to the opposite wall,
with your palm facing towards the ceiling.
This should bring on a stretch feeling
across the top of your back and shoulder.
Hold this for five deep breaths,
return to the centre back into child's pose,
and then repeat on the other side.
Rise back up into downward dog,
and then repeat the full exercise three times.
(upbeat electronic music)
Right, onto your back for this next exercise.
You're going to have your arms out to your side,
so you're in a T position, like this,
and then just bend your elbows to 90 degrees
so you make this position.
Once you've established this starting position,
lift your knees and your feet off the ground
so you're engaging your core to hold them there.
From here, gently slide your arms,
led by your hands,
up towards the direction of your head.
The whole time, just skimming the ground.
If you feel your arms losing contact with the ground,
stop there, that's the end of your range.
Hold for the count of three
and return to the starting bent arm position.
This exercise is very much about control,
so do it slowly,
and concentrate on form,
repeat it a total of 10 times.
(upbeat electronic music)
So this exercise is designed
to stretch out the front of our shoulders
and especially any tight pecs.
Most of us probably will have tight pecs
that are effecting our posture.
There's a couple of options to this,
so work out which position works best for you.
First off, we're gonna be in kneeling,
into hip extension,
squeezing your glutes so you've got good posture here,
and then interlink your fingers together behind your back,
straighten your arms,
and you're gonna pull your hands down towards the ground.
Again, for this exercise,
imagine that you're squeezing
those shoulder blades together,
but also for this one,
try and make sure you keep your chin tucked in
so it's not poking.
And the other option is to do it in prone lying,
and then obviously you're gonna be working
against gravity with your arms,
so it's a little bit harder.
If you are feeling flexible
and want a bit of a challenge,
then you can take this stretch to the next level,
by getting hold of your ankles,
so bend your knees and bring your feet
towards your bottom.
Once you've got hold,
you can then gently extend your feet away,
and this will naturally stretch out
the front of your shoulders that bit more.
(upbeat electronic music)
So to finish up,
we're gonna work on our posterior muscles,
so the muscles on your back,
and these are the ones
that get lengthened and weakened with poor posture,
so they're especially important
to get firing correctly.
Now you remember the T position that we had on your back,
this time we're gonna do the same position,
but face down.
So from here,
once keeping your face on or just off the ground,
want to try and lift the arms off the ground as well.
If you find this easy or comfortable,
then extend your arms,
as the added litre makes it a bit harder.
Squeeze the shoulder blades
and hold that position for five breaths
and then relax your arms back down to the ground.
If you are ready for more of a progression,
then the next step would be to move the arms
up towards the head,
while keeping them just above the ground,
still focusing on squeezing the shoulder blades together.
Whichever option you choose here,
do five reps and then repeat each set three times.
These exercises are a great place to start,
and I've kept them simple,
I've left out the need for any equipment
so that you could easily implement them
into your daily routine.
Now try and do them at least three times a week,
and you will start to notice a difference
in your shoulder function.
And soon we'll be going into more detail,
for more shoulder exercises,
so make sure you don't miss those
or any other videos on GTN.
You can subscribe,
just hit the globe to do so.
And if you want to see a video
that Mark made on seven exercises
you can do with a resistance band,
including quite a few shoulder activities,
that video is just here.
And if you want to see a video I did
on eight key stretches,
which also includes some shoulder stretches,
that's just here.