Guest post written by: Kate Galliett
Make sure you’re heading the right direction before you put the pedal to the metal.
If you excitedly drive off toward the horizon only to realize 100 miles down the road that you weren’t quite on the proper path, you’ll find yourself very off-course and requiring a drive back to where you started in order to get back on track.
One part of the body that routinely gets driven down the wrong course at high speed is the shoulders. And it’s not surprising why that can happen when you look at the complexity of the shoulder girdle and at the crummy ways we use/don’t use our shoulders in modern-day living.
Here are pictures of the shoulder girdle showing all of the soft tissue on the front and the back of that joint, and another picture showing you what lies deeper than the muscles you see in the first picture.
That’s a lotta stuff running through one region! And if it doesn’t have good organization of movement and pliability of soft tissue, you’ll never get where you want to go with your shoulders.
And lest you think you don’t do much with your shoulders, just wait till you injure one. Everything from reaching to grab a glass of water in front of you to taking your shirt off becomes a painful endeavor, and forget about working out your upper body.
How do our shoulders head down the wrong path, anyways?
Overhead pressing when the overhead reach mobility isn’t where it needs to be.
Sitting at desks, not even with bad posture, just ‘sitting at desks’, it’s enough to impair high-quality shoulder movement.
Typing on a smartphone with your head dropped down so much that your neck is practically at a right angle with your torso, and your shoulders are rounded forward to allow your hands to meet the tiny screen you hold in front of you.
Doing the same few repetitive motions (for example, carrying your shoulder bag on the same shoulder all the time, which can cause a slight elevation and protraction of the shoulder to keep the bag in place) over and over again.
Doing only a tiny range of motions with your shoulder, meaning a great expanse of soft tissue in your shoulder girdle doesn’t get worked or moved ever, and the ‘use it or lose it’ principle kicks in.
Signs you need to stop and ask directions for your shoulders
You have a tweak in your shoulder that seems to have stuck around for months now.
Neck tension shows up on the regular.
Your pull-ups and push-ups aren’t improving the way you think they should be.
Your chest looks like a hollowed out indentation and/or your shoulder blades stick out like angel wings.
(reminder: if you have pain or an injury that is concerning you, always seek attention from a doctor)
So what do you need to do?
Working for shoulder strength is key, but that is equivalent to ‘heading down the path’. Make sure you’re going the right direction by getting all of the muscles & ligaments that run through the shoulder girdle mobile and organized properly so that each part of the shoulder is working at the right time and not working at the wrong time.
Shoulders need to glide and move. There was an old cue of “lock your shoulders down and back” that did a lot of disservice to shoulders. There are times when I ask a client to hold their arms overhead and then shrug and they physically can’t figure out how to do it. Because they’ve only ever known to hold their shoulders locked “down and back”.
I filmed three simple shoulder movement-prep drills you can do to get your shoulders starting to point in the right direction. These are simple drills you can do to activate better movement in your shoulders before you go loading them up with weighted movements. Remember, we want the basic movements to work and work well, then we want to add on from there.
This is FAR from comprehensive (remember those shoulder pictures above? there is a massive amount of prep work that can be done for shoulders) but we can cover more of that in a future post. For now, watch the video, try the movements and get your shoulders pointing in the right direction.
Kate Galliett is the creator of Fit for Real Life where she brings together body, mind, and movement to help people become highly-charged and fit for real life. She coaches clients in-person, online, and through her foundational strength & mobility program, The Unbreakable Body. She holds a BS in Exercise Science and has worked as a fitness professional for 12 years. Her secret ingredient is always smoked paprika.
Thomas Weitzel says
Is it possible to share the links to the shoulder movement-prep drill videos. I was not able to find them.
Sampie Brown says
I did not see a link to the video with 3 movements mentioned in this article. Can you please point me to the link with this video?
Respectfully,
—Sampie
Colleen says
I don’t see a link to the videos. Am I missing something?
Carlos says
A link to the videos referenced would be helpful.
Prairie Roots says
Great! Thanks- I fractured and then had my clavicle plated (the plate stays in), and since then (2 years ago) learning my way around my shoulders, chest,and upper back has been literally an incredible journey. Miraculously, now I can hold my arms overhead and shrug!
Peter Defty says
Fabulous Post…..in the past few years my left shoulder has been suffering such issue due to “stiff-arming” car seats with the kiddos then subsequently the kiddos themselves and have started on the path to recovery using ART and this video is consistent with what the ART therapist said I needed to do…..thanks!
Kate says
Hey Peter,
Super cool to hear you enjoyed the post. Thank you!! Good luck with the kiddos (they’ll be big enough to carry you soon it sounds like) 😉