Awesome, Effective Advanced Shoulder Stability Exercise

Looking for an excellent, if not awesome, way to strengthen your shoulder.? We've got an exercise for you including a video demo! Here is one of Liz's favorite exercises that she is incorporating into her March daily fitness challenge - which is alternating between the hip and shoulder stability and strength.

The shoulder joint is a "ball and socket" joint. It has a lot of freedom to move in a variety of directions, which is means it needs stability and strength in multiple directions. This exercise is a constant isometric force into external rotation pushing out with the wrists which strengthens and challenges two of the rotator cuff muscles, in particular, the teres minor and the infraspinatus. As you push constantly out through the band you will simultaneously raise your arms overhead which works additional shoulder muscles including shoulder blade (scapular) muscles responsible for upwardly rotating it. These muscles include the serratus anterior and the lower trapezius, which when weak can lead to shoulder impingement, bursitis, and rotator cuff tears and injury. 

This is not an exercise to perform when your shoulder is very weak. For that you want to exercises that place less demand on your shoulder. If you missed it, a video we created for that is this:

Mixing things up with "easy" and "hard" exercises is good for a healthy shoulder. I've been doing exercises from each of these videos as I seek to have an even stronger and healthier shoulder than I already have.

Have you started a daily fitness challenge? If so, what are you trying?

Not started yet, but thinking about it? What are you considering? Even the considering, is a step forward and progress! The planning stages count for fitness and health.

Stay tuned for next month's daily fitness challenge which will be headstands and handstands! April is almost here. Would you like to join me? At this time, May is scheduled to be ankle and foot stability, so reach out with any questions or suggestions for that if that provokes some interest from you. This is particularly meaningful for those of you with "weak" ankles, foot and ankle pain, history of ankle sprains or foot/ankle fractures (broken bones). 

Let's Get to the Source, and TOGETHER, Let's Get Moving

Liz

3 Simple Strengthening Exercises to Prevent Climbing Shoulder Injuries

Today we have a guest post from a friend and fellow colleague on preventing shoulder climbing injuries. Dr. Jared Vagy - The Climbing Doctor - out of Los Angeles, California works with high level climbers and teaches at USC. The following is an excerpt from his blog post. 

"It is the end of the day. You are tired and beat, but you decide to give it one last go on your project. You get to the crux move and give it everything you’ve got. Suddenly you feel a sharp pain in your shoulder. You know that you likely injured your shoulder. What happened and what could you have done to prevent this?

The tendons in the shoulder slide through a very narrow passageway and attach to the shoulder bone. Impingement occurs when the space between the bones in this passageway is reduced. This can occur from repetitively moving the shoulder into a stressful or suboptimal position. When this occurs, the bones in the shoulder pinch down on the tendons and cause shoulder impingement. You should be aware of the dangerous movements that can lead to shoulder impingement. These movements include hanging on your arms during rest stances, climbing with a hunched posture and strenuous overhead reaching."

Bent over T's, Y's, and L's:

Dirtbag tip - use items you have around: cans, bottles to provide the weight.

These should not cause any shoulder pain! 

Climb INJURY-FREE

Dr. Vagy just released another book! 

You can find it on Amazon now.

Thanks, Dr. Vagy for the helpful content.

Any questions? Comment below.