The shoulder can be a common area of pain and problems for many people. Fortunately, doing the proper shoulder exercises can help decrease many problems and even eliminate shoulder pain. When most people think of shoulder exercises, they think of working on the “Delts”. There is nothing wrong with doing shoulder exercises for the deltoid muscle, but the shoulder has many other muscles that are seldom targeted that contribute to a healthy shoulder.
Following are four shoulder exercises that are rarely heard of, and may help return your shoulder to a healthy condition. As always, consult with a health care professional to make sure it is permissible to do these exercises.
First is the lateral rotator. This works the external rotators of the shoulder. Begin with the elbow bent to 90, with arm at your side, even better place a small pillow between the upper arm and chest to keep arm outward a bit. Using an elastic band, pull outward.
Lateral rotation shoulder exercise
The second shoulder exercise is inward rotation. Begin just like the lateral rotator but pull inward.
Inward rotation shoulder exercise
Third is the empty can. Hold your arm at your side and arm rotated inward and lift upward at 45 degree to the body. Do not lift higher than shoulder level. At the top of lift your thumb should be pointed downward. Do not use weight or an elastic band, just use the weight of the arm.
Empty can shoulder exercise
Fourth is the ceiling punch. This shoulder exercise helps strengthen the Serratus anterior which helps stabilize the shoulder joint complex. Lay on your back with your elbow straight and arm pointed to ceiling. Hold a weight in your hand. Lift arm upward an inch or two, keeping back on the floor. Movement should come only from the shoulder blade.
Ceiling punch shoulder exercise
Doing these shoulder exercises with about three sets of ten, once a day or every other day, working in a pain free range is enough to usually start seeing results in a week or sometimes less. Of course these shoulder exercises are just a starter set and there are many more that should be done to maintain a stable and healthy shoulder. And as one might suspect, there is an app for that. One such app is called Healthy Shoulder and is available for the iPhone at the iTunes App store. More information can be also found at the Healthy Shoulder App website. It is inexpensive and contains over 45 exercise videos for the shoulder and a clear three step progression to resolving shoulder problems.