Having healthy shoulders is essential for most daily life activities, not to mention workouts! Did you know that the prevalence of a rotator cuff injury goes up ~10% with every decade after 30? So… 40% of 40 year olds, 50% of 50 year olds…etc. have a greater risk of tearing one of the muscles?? (DON’T WORRY — not all are painful, but realistically more compromised in tissue integrity!)
So how do we keep them healthy?
We keep our joints mobile as well as keeping the surrounding musculature strong through all planes of motion (the directions you move).
Ready for some education? 🙂
The shoulder is a ball and joint socket making it one of the most mobile joints of the body. It moves in 8 different directions – flexion/extension, abduction/adduction, internal/external rotation, and horizontal abduction/adduction.
These movements occur synergistically with the humerus (upper arm) and the scapula (shoulder blade) working together. The shoulder “socket” is relatively shallow, so in order to have all of that MOBILITY, we need to also have STABILITY – or strength through our available range of motion.
So, let’s break that down:
To have healthy shoulders:
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We have to have shoulder mobility and stability
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We have to have scapular mobility and stability
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We have to keep moving our whole upper body (our thoracic spine is a whole other story!)
These are important, but there are so many other factors that can come into play – start here and see how your mobility stacks up!
Can you go through all these motions without compensation or pain/pinching?