A lot of my personal training clients suffer with stiff shoulders, so we often spend a good chunk of our warm-up focusing on mobility in this area.
It’s actually a common problem for Americans, according to Dr Dickran Altounian, a certified specialist in physical medicine, rehabilitation and pain management.
“If you’re sitting at your desk for long periods in a slouched position with bad ergonomics, that poor posture increases the risk of tightening muscles and weakening opposing muscles, resulting in stiffness and tension,” he says.
The best way to deal with this issue is with regular movement and stretching.
I often use drills like the ones below as a warm-up for my clients, but you can also use them as a simple mobility break during the day.
How to do the mobility drills
The moves come from trainer, mobility coach and stretching specialist Movement By Alisa—all you need to do them is a yoga block.
Take your time and aim for 10 repetitions per arm, completing two to three rounds in total.
Why do so many of us have limited shoulder mobility—and what can we do about it?
Dr Altounian says that we should all be moving more often if we want healthier shoulders.
“It’s important that if you do have limited shoulder mobility and are mostly sedentary, especially for work, that you take frequent breaks every hour to stretch, including overhead reaches, stretching the shoulders with different positions,” he advises.
He also suggests that you try resetting your posture regularly, checking that your head is up, shoulders back and chin tucked into a neutral position. It's easier to maintain this position if you have a proper working set-up.
“Be mindful of proper ergonomics, adapting your workstation—desk, chair and screen height—to encourage upright position and posture.”
If your shoulder pain is significant or gets worse, then contact a medical professional.
How these drills helped my client
One of my personal training clients was struggling with her shoulder mobility, which was impacting her ability to do exercises like triceps extensions.
For the last few weeks, we practiced doing the above drill—we found that the internal and external shoulder rotations and arm sweep moves really made a difference to her mobility.
She’s now progressed from being unable to get the dumbbell behind her head during a triceps extension to a lovely, fluid movement with full range of motion.
