Well, let's get right to it shall we.
This month I want to focus on helping you get out of shoulder pain. Far too many people suffer from it and there is honestly no reason to continue to live with it.
I can't tell you how many times I see someone getting up from doing a bench press and rubbing their shoulder. Instant hint that there is something going on that's about to get much worse in the shoulder. But shoulder exercises and rotator cuff exercises are not just for those that do bench pressing movements. Heck No!
Spend your day hunched over a computer?
Carry your child around the mall or at the park?
Tend to carry your purse or laptop on one shoulder consistently?
Sleep on your shoulders?
If you answered YES to any of the questions above, then this month is especially for you.
Our shoulders take a beating day in and day out. In our society we live our life in a forward posture all too often. This constant forward posture can lead to all sorts of problems, from the obvious shoulder pain or discomfort, to neck pain, and yes, believe it or not, even lower back pain.
Everything is connected!
If you spend your day in poor posture, no matter what the reason, it's only a matter of time before your body starts giving you signals that something is wrong. Now like most people you'll probably solve the problem by first avoiding the movements or activities that give you pain or discomfort. But that is only a short term fix. That's kind of like turning up the volume on the car radio when you hear a rattling noise in your car. And as we all know, turning up the radio won't fix the rattle. Likewise avoiding certain movements or activities won't make the problem in your shoulders go away either.
It's an alignment issue most likely. All of that hunching over the computer, sleeping on your shoulders, etc. all lead to creating a misalignment in your shoulders. And like your car tires, a misalignment is only going to wear your shoulder joint out sooner. But of course not before it gives you a great deal of pain in the process.
So every Friday this month I will share with you an exercise you can do to help re-align your shoulders. But of course being me, I want to get as much out of the movement as I can, so I'm going to ask you to perform these movements using a Swiss Ball. Using the Swiss Ball will force you to activate your core (think tensing your abdominal muscles). In this way you'll get a bit of core training while getting your shoulder back in alignment.
Always remember, when performing these movements be sure to keep your shoulders and ears as far apart as possible. The goal is to put your shoulders back in alignment, under your ears. I also want to encourage you to keep as much space as you can between your shoulders and ears. So during the movements be sure to reach for your ankles as you proceed backwards in each of the movements.