Shoulder pain attacks even the best of athletes. And when it does, you stop exercising, you stop lifting weights, and your life turns into a series of ice packs, heat packs and pain relievers. But even with an injury, there’s no reason to completely stop all upper-body training.
In fact, by strengthening the muscles correctly you might actually get rid of the problem that’s causing the shoulder pain in the first place. You just need to make sure you’re using the right exercises specifically tailored to your body’s movement mechanics in a way that won’t aggravate anything. These moves usually have two things in common: (1) they limit the range of motion in your shoulder joint and (2) they require total-body activation to assist your shoulder in moving the right way.
If shoulder pain is wrecking your workout, use these seven exercises to continue to build your upper-body while giving your joints a break.
The dumbbell scaption works with your body. Instead of pressing overhead and pinching your joints, you’ll only lift the dumbbell to shoulder height and build the same muscles withoutstress and pain. Also, you’ll lift the weights slightly in front of you, which matches the angle of your shoulder blades.
Grab two dumbbells and hold it at your sides. Stand tall with your shoulder blades squeezed together and your glutes tight. Raise the dumbbells to your sides and slightly in front of you (about 30 degrees in front of you). Repeat.
Pressing directly overhead is difficult for most people with shoulder problems. It requires a range of motion (ROM) at your joints that, unfortunately, a lot of guys don’t have. Instead, remove pressure from your shoulders by pushing slightly less overhead with the high-incline bench press.
Set your bench to about a 70-degree angle so that the bench is more vertical than horizontal. That way, you’re still pressing overhead(ish), but at a safer ROM.
By placing a barbell in a landmine, the bar becomes a lever and moves in an arc. This is a great alternative for people with shoulder issues because they don’t have to press directly overhead. Also, by getting on just one knee, you’ll spike your core activation because of the instability challenge.
Get on one knee and hold the end of the barbell with the side that has the knee down. Squeeze your trailing glute and keep your entire body as tight as possible as you push overhead.
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Pullups
Pullups are the best bodyweight exercise to build a strong and wide back. You need the grip strength to support yourself and muscles in your lats and upper back to pull yourself up and touch your chest to the bar. Keep your shoulders squeezed together and your chest up the entire time—this ensures you use the correct muscles.
This exercise looks easy, but give it a try and you’ll be shocked. Suddenly, you won’t lift anywhere near as heavy as before. That’s because this exercise doesn’t test your strength as much as it tests your coordination and your ability to fire your muscles in a correct sequence (although it does measure your strength a fair bit). That might sound confusing, but the beauty with this exercise is you don’t have to think about it—as long as the kettlebell stays up, you’re doing it right.
Stand and hold the kettlebell with the weight portion above your hand (bottom-up). Squeeze the handle hard and squeeze your glutes as you press it straight up. Don’t think about pushing the kettlebell up, think about pushing yourself into the ground. (It makes a big difference.)
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Tall-Kneeling Press
This is great for people with minor shoulder problems. For them, it hurts to use heavy machines and press a barbell, but for most other exercises, they’re fine. With the kneeling press, they’ll be able to press overhead without pain because it allows you to rotate your arms and tense your body.
Get on both knees, squeeze your glutes, and pinch your shoulder blades together. Push a kettlebell overhead by imagining that you’re pushing yourself into the ground.
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Prone Ys
This is a wonderful exercise that every guy needs: it fixes your posture, strengthens the muscles in your shoulder girdle that get weak and abused, and builds healthy shoulders. It also doesn’t require much, if any, weight and they’re safe. (Just a 2.5-lb. plate in each hand will make a tremendous difference.) Feel free to do these until your arms fall off.
Lie prone (chest-down) on a bench and extend your arms in a Y-shape. Start the movement by squeezing your shoulder blades together and then lifting your arms. Avoid using your lower back to cheat the exercise.
