Hip problems get a lot of attention as you age. But tight, immobile shoulders, beyond making the gym miserable, put you squarely in old-man territory: You can’t pitch, bowl, or shoot a ball; you can’t pull something heavy off the top shelf; and you’ll never lift a carry-on bag into an overhead compartment again. That’s how important those ball-and-socket joints are. So before you start feeling any kind of pain, start your day, or your workout, with these moves.
A Crash Course In Shoulder Anatomy
When most people think of their shoulder muscles, they usually picture the large, three-headed deltoid that wraps over and around the top of the shoulder. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The shoulder is a highly complex joint that includes everything from your pecs, traps, and rhomboids, to the small stabilizing muscles of the rotator cuff. “The shoulder doesn’t act alone, and is dependent on other structures surrounding the shoulder, including the pectorals in front, as well as the shoulder blade and thoracic spine for overall motion,” says Matt Kraemer, a Doctor of Physical Therapy and the Director of Therapy Services at Banner at University Medical Center Phoenix. According to Kraemer, that’s why basic shoulder stretches alone aren’t as effective at improving mobility as a program that also targets the chest, scapula, and mid-spine.
Sleeper Stretch
If your shoulder rotation feels limited, Kraemer offers the sleeper stretch as a solution to help target two of the rotator cuff muscles, the infraspinatus and the teres minor.
- Lie on your right side, resting your head on a pillow or rolled yoga mat for support.
- Extend your right arm straight out from your body, so it’s perpendicular to your torso, with your elbow bent and perpendicular to the ground.
- Use your left hand to press your right forearm toward the ground. Stop when you feel a stretch, and hold the position for 20 to 30 seconds.
- Release and repeat two to three more times before switching sides.
“The nice push-up muscles tend to get very tight because so many of the things we do — driving, computer work, phone use, and so forth — require us to bring our arms forward and together, causing pec tightness,” says Lindsey Christian, a physical therapist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center’s Performance Therapy in Santa Monica, California. To stretch your pecs, Christian suggests a doorway pectoralis stretch.
- Stand in a doorway and place your right elbow and hand on a door frame with your elbow aligned at shoulder-height and bent at 90 degrees.
- Step forward with your right leg and lean your body forward as you turn your chest slightly away from the wall.
- When you feel a good stretch through your chest and the front of your shoulder, hold for 20 seconds.
- Repeat six times before switching sides.
Doorway Lat Stretch
If you notice your palms tend to face behind you when you allow your hands to hang down at your sides, Christian says you probably have tight lats. Unfortunately, tight lats can lead to shoulder pain and impingement when you reach your hands over your head.
- To loosen up the muscles of your back, stand facing a doorway and grab the right side of the doorframe with your right hand, aligning it with your shoulder.
- Press your hips backward and tip your torso forward as you pull your body away from your hand and the doorway to feel a stretch in your trunk.
- When you feel a good stretch, hold the position for 20 seconds.
- Complete six sets before switching sides.
Snow Angel Foam Roller Stretch
In addition to static stretches, it’s important to move your shoulder through a full range of motion while stretching in order to improve functional mobility. Joanna Hoch, a personal trainer and yoga instructor with DIAKADI who specializes in calisthenics, suggests the foam-roller snow angel movement.
- Lie on top of a long foam roller with your head at one end and your tailbone at the other.
- Place your hands at your sides, palms facing down, thumbs touching the roller.
- Take a moment to breathe deeply. You should maintain this deep, steady breathing throughout your stretch.
- Slowly sweep your arms out to the side, then over your head, as if making a snow angel.
- Try to keep your fingers in contact with the floor as you perform the movement, but allow you palms to rotate naturally as you move your arms. They will naturally rotate from facing down to facing up.
- Slowly reverse the movement, bringing your arms back to your sides. That’s a single repetition.
- Perform a total of 10 to 20 repetitions.
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