When people ask me what would I change working with clients 5-10 years ago versus now and the answer I would give without hesitation is – If a client presents with poor shoulder mobility or has currently ANY shoulder pain be EXTRA cautious and be overly conservative on ANY exercises that present a high degree of risk.

Why?

Because if you’ve had a shoulder issue you will know that they can be really difficult to fix and can heavily affect your training and worse still, can lead to elbow issues which I have found can be even more difficult to fix. For the record, I’ve never seen an elbow issue that didn’t have as it’s origin a problem with overall shoulder mobility and stability.

Overall, good shoulder health is formed through the combination of an ideal balance between shoulder strength and stability. No point in having strong shoulders yet can’t pass any of the shoulder mobility tests or have good shoulder mobility yet can’t pass any of the shoulder strength tests.

So let’s get started on what you need to do and please keep in mind that NONE of the following is going to be of any use to you what so ever if you keep going to the gym and abusing your body with excessive amounts or loading of pressing movements e.g. bench press, dips, push ups, burpees, any overhead pressing, handstand press ups, muscle ups etc yet expect all of what I present to allow you to handle that kind of volume and loading. No amount of preventative work can out perform a poorly designed program or an over enthusiastic individual that’s hell bent on killing themselves!

Shoulder Mobility

1. Do some soft tissue work and if your shoulders are really bad, get to a recommended therapist for some work
2. Perform the following stretches:-

Banded Pec Stretch

Banded Lat Stretch

Handing Shoulder Shrugs

Plate pullovers

Crab walks

Shoulder Strength

Now we have the shoulders moving correctly it’s smart to strengthen them so the exercises I recommend are –

Powell Raises

External Rotation Exercises

Band pull aparts

IYT Exercises with Bands

All of these should be supported with plenty of upper back exercises as shown here.

So as a summary –

1. Work constantly on shoulder mobility through first using soft tissue work
2. Use active shoulder stretches to get them in better positions – pick one exercise per session
3. Strengthen shoulders – pick one exercise per session
4. Refrain from excessive pressing or if doing crossfit excessive kipping movements e.g. muscle ups, pull ups etc in all sessions and completely back off if there is even the slightest sense that the shoulder could be further damaged through certain movements.

Hope this helps and any questions just ask.