How To Improve Shoulder Mobility

Shoulder mobility isn't just about stretching.

If you want to comfortably press overhead, throw, carry, climb, or perform other activities that require a lot of shoulder motion, you also need the strength and control to use the range of motion you have.

In this episode of The Black Lion Blueprint, I break down seven areas you can work on to improve your shoulder mobility:

1. Improve thoracic extension
2. Improve thoracic rotation
3. Address lat stiffness when it's limiting your motion
4. Address pec minor stiffness when relevant
5. Strengthen the muscles that control your scapula
6. Strengthen your rotator cuff
7. Strength train through your available range of motion

You'll also learn why strength training and mobility work don't have to be separate and how training through a comfortable range of motion can help you build strength while maintaining or improving mobility.

If you want help applying this to your training, book a free call.

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Free Guide - download The Full-Body Workout Blueprint here: https://black-lion-performance-coaching.kit.com/e3a299048d 

Transcript

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If you want to improve your shoulder mobility, stretching isn't the only thing that you should focus on. In this episode of the Black Line Blueprint, I'm going to share with you seven things that you can do to improve your shoulder mobility. Let's get right into it. So the first thing is to improve your thoracic extension. Why this matters? So when you try to elevate your arm overhead, so let's say you're doing an overhead press or any type of movement that requires overhead range of motion or for you to elevate your arm, your scapula also has to move in a way that allows that arm to have free and clean movement overhead. And if that scapula isn't moving correctly, because it has to move across the rib cage and maybe you don't have thoracic extension, then you won't have clean movement overhead and you may have limited range of motion due to that. So you want to improve that thoracic extension, or let's just say the relative amount of flexibility that you have in your thoracic spine because essentially there is a flexed position that it's already in, and you're just trying to improve or reduce the amount of flexion that you have in your thoracic spine. So think about a hunchback person. That person lacks a lot of thoracic extension. So we want to create more extension and reduce how hunched over they are through their upper back. So that's what we mean by thoracic extension. So this matters primarily, again, like I said, with overhead pressing movements, throwing, carrying something overhead with Olympic lifts, or even reaching for something overhead, let's say reaching in the cabinet or reaching on top of a shelf. So all that matters, your thoracic extension plays a huge part in that. So, how do you improve your thoracic extension? So you can do this through mobility drills. So you can do this through thoracic extensions over a foam roller. So you're lying on your back, hands behind your head, and then you're just extending uh through that upper back to try and gain more access to that position. You can also do this with kind of this yoga movement, so we would call it the child pose movement. So really focusing in on extending through that upper back as you perform that movement as well. And you can also do this by strengthening the position that uh strengthens the muscles that help with that extension. So movements like row variations are really good for that. And we're not talking about the row variations where your arms are so tucked into your side, it almost looks like you're really extending through your shoulders more. We're talking about row variations where you almost like an arrow with your arms and you're really squeezing back and get some good scapular retraction. And then also movements like good mornings, you can do back extensions, and the list goes on. But a simple variation would be lying face down and just extending up like you're Superman on the ground. That's another way, a basic way to strengthen that position there. So again, you're not looking for the perfect posture, right? We think about the hunchback position, and then we think about the person that's completely upright. We're just looking for somewhere in between that allows us to get into the positions that we need to perform the movements that we want to perform. All right, so the second thing is to improve your thoracic rotation. So thoracic rotation becomes especially important when you're performing movements that require your trunk. So your torso, your upper back, your scapula, or your shoulder blades on the back side of your um upper back, then also your shoulder to work in conjunction with each other. So this is throwing, this is punching, this is pulling, this is uh pushing, um, rotational sports, anything that requires you to actually rotate and connect all those things together, you need to have good rotation. If you don't have enough rotation, you may have some type of movement compensations when you're performing those things, and your shoulder may have to work a little bit more in order to access that range of motion that it needs during those specific movements. So, what do we like to do when it comes to improving those thoracic rotations? One of my favorites and one of the simplest exercises you can do is a sideline thoracic rotation. So you're just lying on the ground on your side, and then you're just rotating open as much as you possibly can. So uh the big point here is when you're rotating on the ground, what you're trying to do essentially is to get the top shoulder to the ground, essentially, without your legs completely rolling over. Um, so your legs just stay stacked and you should be able to rotate as much as possible to where your up shoulder or the top shoulder is touching the ground. So those mobility drills, sideline um thoracic rotations, you could also do half-kneeling thoracic rotations, um, as well as quadruped thoracic rotations, all those are good variations to do, as well as strength training through those ranges of motion. So even adding a band to those motions. So if you're doing a sideline thoracic rotation, maybe now you add a band and you do a pull apart with that motion, just reinforcing the strength and control through that movement. And then you can also do row variations with a rotation as well. So the key is the consistency of performing the mobility drills that you're doing with those things. So if in all your upper body days that you perform, you do the rotational and extension drills. Um, whenever it comes to the exercise selection, there's always going to be, let's say, some exercise that reinforces thoracic extension or thoracic rotation. You always have to have those things in there so that way, one, your body gets used to the position. And then two, especially if you don't have access to it, you give your body enough time to adapt and gain that access to those positions. All right, so moving on to number three. So you want to address lats stiffness if it's limiting your overhead motion. So lats contribute to that extension of your arm, that adduction or pulling your arm in towards your midline, as well as internal rotation. So rotating that arm inward. Now, if this is particularly stiff, if that lat is stiff and it's non-compliant, it doesn't want to get out of that stiff and tightened position, then it's gonna reduce your ability to actually elevate your arm overhead. So if you find that performing some type of soft tissue work with the foam roller or a lacrosse ball or tennis ball, or doing some type of lat stretch helps with your overhead position, you may be a good candidate to improve your or reduce your lat stiffness. So, but again, you want to make sure that it's actually your lats and you're not just stretching them out just to be stretching them out because you just think that that's the thing that's prohibiting you from getting overhead. So things that you can do again is latch stretches. Again, like we said before, the child's pose, that's another one. It does help with extension of the thoracic spine, but it also helps with the lats as well. Um, bench latch stretches. I really like that one. Um, to where you're on a bench or you're on the ground, slash on a bench, and then you have your hands behind your head, your elbows are on the bench, and then you're just pushing your head through your arms and you're extending like that. That's another really good one because you're putting your arms in a position to where it's in opposition to the exact motions that the lats perform. So you're really getting a good stretch through your lats when you're performing that motion as well. And again, like we talked about some mobility stuff. So soft tissue work with the foam roller, a lacrosse ball can also help. And those things are temporary. So you want to do those first, and then you want to reinforce it with some strength training through the range of motion. So you can add a load to uh your the rasc extensions on the foam roller. You can take a plate, you can take a dumbbell, bring it overhead. You can also do uh negative pull-ups, so you can allow yourself to go down in an extended position. Um, also, if you're using a cable machine and you're doing lap pull downs, make sure you go through that full range of motion. If you have a ton of volume in, let's say um vertical pulling motion, so um pull-ups, lap pull downs, uh single arm lap pull downs, a lot of motions like that, then you can try to reduce the amount of volume until you gain access to that overhead position, and then you can try to introduce that volume as well. I've seen it work for one of the clients that I I uh work with. We reduced the amount of volume in the pull-ups, and then we also um incorporated the the latch stretches for an extended period of time. It took about a good three months to improve that range of motion. Um, and even then, we still weren't in the best position, but we got a lot more range. So it just takes some time, um, but you have to be willing to stick with it and stay consistent with it, and it will actually improve over time, especially if it's something that's more so uh a stiffness and a lack of mobility, and it's not some type of structural joint um issue. All right, so number four, uh address pec minor stiffness if it's relevant, just like the lats. So the pec minor um definitely contributes to the way that your scapula moves, right? So in order to get good overhead positioning, your scapula needs to posteriorly tilt, so tilt enough, and then it needs to upwardly rotate in order to clear some space for that arm to elevate and move overhead efficiently. Now, the pec minor actually contributes to anterior pelvic, uh not pelvic, but anterior um scapula tilting, and then also some depression, so it pulls that scapula down as well. So that is in opposition of the movements that we want. If that muscle is stiff or is very overactive, um, then it will prevent us from again getting that clean overhead movement and restrict our mobility. So if you find that performing some type of soft tissue work with a lacrosse ball or a tennis ball getting in there or even a foam roller, um, and it actually helps your overhead positioning, then that may be something that you want to focus on. But after you reduce that stiffness or overactivity, you want to strengthen in the range that you are trying to gain and also strengthen those muscles that do the opposite motion. So the the lower traps, the uh serratus anterior, you want to strengthen those muscles in order to um oppose what's going on with that pec minor. So uh we already talked about all the things that you need to do for that. And the next thing is to strengthen the muscles that control your scapula. So the reason why all of this is important when it comes to you don't just need passive mobility of your arm to get overhead, right? So just being able to kind of force your arms in that overhead position, you also need to be able to control that range that you do have so that way you can generate some force um and power in those positions. So um you want to strengthen those muscles that contribute to scapular movement. So your traps. So primarily we look at lower traps, your mid-trap area, even your upper traps at times, depending on what issues you may have. Um, but primarily I see more lower trap when it comes to getting that arm overhead and staying in a good strong position, as well as your serratus interior, the muscle that kind of protracts or pushes that that shoulder blade forward and then also helps that scapula upwardly rotate and also posteriorly um tilt um in a proper position. So you want to make sure that you do train those muscles around the scapula that allows it to one stay in a strong, good position, stable position so that arm can move efficiently up overhead. So one of the movements that I like for this one are like serratus wall slides. So let's just say your forearms are against a wall, you're pressing away, pressing your chest away from the wall, keeping that position, and then you're just sliding those arms up the wall until basically your your elbow is right above your shoulder, and then you're bringing it back down. Um, scapular push-ups or push-up pluses, uh, prone wise. I really like that one for primarily targeting the lower traps more, um, as well as inclined trap raises. So it says trap raises, but we're primarily again targeting that lower trap. Uh row variations as well, and then overhead carries are good also because it requires stability. And if the scapula is one again in a good position and it's working hard to stabilize, then you are still targeting that muscle, and you're also getting good, good strength gains in that area because it's contributing to the whole entire movement instead of you focusing in on trying to primarily strengthen that area. So you really want to focus in on strengthening the scapula, and you can do this by adding those things into your warm-up for a few repetitions or even just like one set, or you can add it on the back end of your training as accessory movements to make sure you maintain that strength in those areas and you don't start to overcompensate because you're doing other movement patterns way too often and not addressing the other areas that are really important for stability. Um, so the next thing is strengthen your rotator cuff. So your rotator cuff muscles obviously they help stabilize that humerus, so your upper arm bone, um, into that shoulder socket, so that shoulder joint there. And if the scapula or the rotator cuff muscles aren't strong enough or um have enough stability, then it's gonna make it a lot more challenging for you to actually control the positions when you do get into those vulnerable positions. So those external rotations as well as overhead position, you need a good amount of rotator cuff strength. I would keep wanting to say scapular stability, but you need a good amount of rotator cuff strength in order to maintain those positions. You can have all the passive mobility in the world, but if you don't have the stability there, it's gonna be hard for you to actually generate a good amount of force and strength in those positions. So, uh, how do we strengthen that rotator cuff? We can do this by primarily targeting um the motions that the rotator cuff muscles do. So that external rotation, that internal rotation, the scaption, or let's say the abduction there. Now, those are like trying to really target that. We still work the rotator cuff muscles when we are generally pressing, pulling, carrying, doing all those motions, still target the rotator cuff, but not as directly as the rotational movements. Now, we can create some instability that gets that rotator cuff a little bit more active, but we don't want to over-emphasize instability of these movements. The reason why we don't want to overemphasize instability is because the less stable an exercise is, the less amount of force you'll be able to generate. So we can't build as much strength if we're doing so much instability work. So we want to create just enough instability. So let's just say going from a barbell overhead press to a dumbbell overhead press. So that creates some instability, but not too much to where we can't develop a good amount of force and strength in those positions. Okay. So strengthening the rotator cuff, primarily what I usually see people having issues with is the external rotation. So doing banded external rotations, sideline external rotations are one of my favorites. You can use a small plate like a 2.5 pound plate, a five-pound plate, you can use a dumbbell. Um, it's very, very convenient to do um sideline external rotations. So you can do those as a part of your warm-up. I really like them as a part of the warmup because they kind of help, once again, stabilize that shoulder joint. And the pressing motions just feel so much stronger whenever I do those motions right before I actually do my upper body exercises. But you can also add them on the back end of your workout as well. So instead of doing them as the warm up, you can do them as an accessory exercise. Now, again, when you do these exercises, you don't want to think about um that you're trying to completely fatigue the muscle. You're just trying to work it enough to get a good burn, or if you're doing it as a part of your warmup, you're just trying to work it enough to just feel that those muscles working enough to get active and get into your exercises. Okay. So again, we can activate the rotator cuff by doing those external and internal rotations, but we can also do it a lot more if we're doing the carries as well. So if we're doing overhead carries, we're doing front right carries, we're doing single arm carries, um, we're doing, let's just say we got, oh, kettlebell windmills. There's a ton of different exercises that you can do in order to improve your uh rotator cuff engagement during exercises. All right. And the last one goes without saying number seven is strength train through your available range of motion. So if you want to improve your mobility, but also maintain that mobility, you have to train through the range of motion that you need access to. So again, if your sport or activity requires you to be overhead, if it's throwing, if it's punching, if it's spiking a ball, volleyball, if it's tennis, doing a serve, um, if it's literally that your job requires you to just have your hands up overhead or rock climbing. Again, whatever motion requires you to be overhead, you just need that range of motion for that position. And you have to train through that range of motion too. You can't just passively be um have access to that range of motion because, again, if you don't have the active uh stability in the rotator cuff and the strength in the scapular muscles as well, it's going to be hard for you to generate force in that position, even though you do have access to it. Because one of the primary reasons why we're trying to get that range of motion is to perform a certain activity, right? And if we don't have the control in the that range of motion, then the activity that we're trying to perform isn't going to be performed to the best of our capabilities. Um, so again, you want to train through that range of motion as well. So when you're doing your overhead presses, go through the range that you do have. Obviously, if you still need to improve your range of motion, you continue to work on that, but go through the range of motion that you do have. And also in the research, it does show that strength training is as effective at improving range of motion as just stretching. So just know you can strength train and improve your range of motion at the same time. It doesn't make you, it doesn't mean that you're gonna be stiff. And that is a big misconception that people always um kind of tout online, is just that, oh, if you strength train too much, you're gonna be stiff. That's only if you're not training through the full range and also balancing out from one side to the other, right? So if I'm pressing overhead, then I want to pull as well. So if I'm pulling vertically, right, doing a whole bunch of pull-ups, I want to make sure I can press completely overhead as well. So that way I'm training that motion. So train through a complete range of motion. So when you're doing a bench press, don't just stick to the floor press all the time. Also get on the bench and do a bench press to let that shoulder go through an extension. Um, when you're doing your uh vertical presses, like I said before, you want to make sure that you're pressing as far overhead as you possibly can to get that complete range of motion. Um, so there's a ton of different uh things that you can think about when it comes to the overhead carries. You know, get into the top position, the best position that you possibly can. Um, but again, it has to be comfortable. Again, if the position isn't comfortable, you don't have access to it, you can be doing more harm than good. So just make sure you do have access to that range of motion. All right. So, big picture. If you want to improve your shoulder mobility, it's not just about stretching more or just having that passive access to that range of motion. It's also about building control and stability and then strengthen that position so you can control that motion. So if you want help applying this to your training, you can book a free call with me by going to the link in the description or the show notes. Once again, thank you for tuning in and I will see you in the next one.