Experiencing Shoulder Pain? Incorporate these 4 exercises into your daily routine to relieve your shoulder pain.
Shoulder pain can stem from a variety of reasons. For me in particular, I’m experiencing should pain from breastfeeding my daughter. Breastfeeding can pull my shoulders forward, leaving me tight in the front and really weak in the back. So, in order to combat shoulder pain, there’s a couple of great exercises to do. What I love about these stretches is that you can do it at any time of the day. Follow these steps and we can relieve our should pain together.
2 Exercises to Relieve Shoulder Pain
1. Shoulder Rolls (0:27):
The first exercise is just a really easy postural correction. Typically, everybody’s has shoulder that round forward. So, go ahead and pick up your posture by drawing your belly in and then standing tall. That way you’ll be able to open up your diaphragm and breathe a little better. Roll the shoulders back and down and then set them into place. By doing this, you’re activating your lats and right between the shoulder blades, your rhomboids. So were just going to draw your shoulder blades together and then release and pull. We’re not trying to use your upper back, just use the arms. This will result in a little scapular retraction.
Next, reach forward. You might even feel some crunchies, I do. Let’s get rid of those crunchies by completing 20 repetitions at a time. Remember to hold and squeeze. Just made sure those shoulders are not lifting towards the ears; keep them down and back. Breathe out as you pull back, breathe in as you reach.
2. Cactus Arm Rotations (1:23):
Now the second exercise, I really love doing first thing in the morning. I call these cactus arm rotations. So, what you want to do is take your arms to a 90 degree. Next, you’re going to reach forward and open all the way back and then down, making a big circle. I love doing this first thing in the morning because when you’re sleeping, you may be crunched up to the side. This causes everything to round in and you begin to get more comfortable that way. It doesn’t leave you in a good state for your shoulders later on in the day.
I would complete 20 cactus arm rotations. Inhale up, exhale back. You’ll notice it starts to feel really good, and again you’ll feel those crunchies moving around. But, you just need to work it out. If you want to go a little bigger, reach higher. Get wider, but get those elbows down and back right along the spine. Start to open up those tight areas and start to work those weak areas too.
2 Stretches to Relieve Shoulder Pain
Now let’s get into the stretches. I have two classic stretches to do. All you need is a doorway or really any wall will work.
1. Doorway Stretch (2:18):
First, get your body through that doorway, hook the hands, thumbs facing up. Next, get the shoulders away from your ears. You’re just going to lean your body forward and start to feel the stretch right up in the chest, opening those pecs. This will get your shoulders to open up too. You’re going to look up, breathe in and breathe out. Lean forward getting a deeper stretch. It’s good to hold this for about 20 to 30 seconds or maybe 6 to 10 breaths.
A way to modify this is to get your arms to a goalpost and lean in. You’ll already feel the stretch.
You will notice that you don’t have to lean very far. But if you want to deepen this stretch, you can take one hand a low V. Keep your right hand back, then step your right foot forward. Then, rotate your body to the left and lean into the right. As you look over your left shoulder. Again, breathe in and breathe out. Deepen the stretch. Do that to both sides. What you do on one, you always do to the other. Step the left foot forward with the left arm back. Lean in and look over. Breathe. That feels really good. So again, 20-30 seconds on each side and that will start to feel amazing.
2. The Hand Clasp (3:33)
The second stretch is just a classic grab your hands behind your back. You can do this anywhere and you don’t need anything. First, grab your hands. Then, push them down past your hips and lift your chest up. If you can go a little further, push your arms away from your body and feel a deep stretch up in those shoulders and up through the chest. Breathe in and breathe out.
Now I recognize not everybody is able to grab your hands. You might be really tight. So, what do you want to do just find a towel or something that you can grab on to. First, roll up the towel and make sure you have a good grip on it. Remember, you always want your thumbs to face . Get your hands as close together as possible. Next, pull that towel apart, shoulders down, away from your ears, opening up a little more if you can, holding for about 20 to 30 seconds.
So those are my top four exercises to help you get rid of your shoulder pains. If these moves worked for you, please share it with your family and friends.
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