Joint pain is a reality for many athletes and lifters alike.
We’ve all had shoulder aches and pains at one point or another.
I’m not here to play Physical Therapist, of which I am not, rather I want to provide some helpful tools in the form of exercises to help you bulletproof your shoulders and minimize irritation & injury down the road.
#5: Banded Lat Row
This exercise targets the lats and long head of the triceps, which are often neglected from being worked through their full Range of Motion. The lat row is a great way to counter lots of reps of overhead pressing and kipping gymnastics movements where your arms are overhead.
#4: Band Pull Apart
Often the muscles on the back side of the shoulder are worked less than the front. People do lots of bench press, burpees, push-ups, dips and strict presses, but they don’t do the same number of reps in a pulling pattern. This exercise focuses on strengthening the muscles that anchor the scaps, which is the foundation for strong, healthy shoulders.
#3: Banded External Rotations
Both pressing and pulling exercises bias the internal rotators, based on tendon insertion points for prime movers, like the lats and pec major. The thing to know as an athlete is that if you are doing lots of pressing and pulling, you need to offset this work with doing some work for the external rotators.
#2: Banded Face Pulls
Once again, we are strengthening the posterior (back) side of the shoulder, namely the rhomboids. Also, the arm moves into external rotation as it approaches the end of the exercise, targeting the rotator cuff. The rotator cuff consists of four small muscles that keep the humeral head in place and also turn the upper arm into external rotation.
#1: Banded Crossover 90-90 Raises
This is my favorite shoulder health exercise because it combines the qualities of the first four exercises into one. You target strict pulling, upper back development and external rotation. Your shoulders will benefit from better stability, greater control of the range of motion, and ultimately you’ll move better with less pain.