🥑 Shoulder Pain? Let's Un-Shrug That

Welcome back to The Wellness Pit.
Your shoulder shouldn’t feel like it just filmed its own stunt scene in a Mission: Impossible reboot. Let’s get that rotator cuff out of Tom Cruise mode and back to basic human movement.

🦴 Your Shoulder in a Snapshot

Your shoulder is the most mobile joint in your body, which makes it one of the most likely to throw a tantrum. It’s a complex system involving many players, and if one falls out of line, everyone suffers.

You’ve got the deltoids (front, side, rear) running the show, the rotator cuffs stabilizing like bouncers at a club, and the scapula (shoulder blade) syncing movement with the spine. Thoracic posture and mobility matters more than you think.

Other muscles like the traps, pecs, and rhomboids are all supporting actors in this drama.

Common injuries include strains, cuff tears, impingements, and inflammation from poor mechanics or repetitive abuse. Think too much pressing, not enough pulling; plus a dash of ego lifting for flavor.

The fix? Better balance, better form, and less pretending you're invincible.

🏋️ Test Your Shoulder Health

Before you jump into fixes, run a few basic diagnostics:

1. Wall Slide Test
Stand with back against the wall, arms up like a goal post. Can you keep wrists, elbows, and back flat as you slide up? No? Tight lats or poor thoracic mobility.

2. Shoulder Flexion Test
Raise your arms overhead while keeping ribs down. Arms should go vertical without pain or compensation. If not, cue mobility work.

3. Internal/External Rotation Test
Hold your elbow at 90° and rotate inward/outward. Major imbalances here? Your rotator cuffs are yelling.

4. Scapular Control
Do a push-up: does one shoulder wing out like a rogue chicken? Weak serratus or poor control.

💪 Bulletproofing Shoulder Exercises

NOTE: There are tons of ways to train shoulder health and most exercises are interchangeable with dumbbells, bands, or cables. After dealing with surgery, frozen shoulder, impingement, and chronic inflammation, the combo below has been key for keeping my shoulders strong and pain-free.

GOAL: twice a week in 1 exercise in each category for 3 sets of 8-15. Go SLOW (3-4 secs down) into the eccentric movement before going concentric. These exercises can be done as a warmup, sprinkled throughout your day, in-between other muscle group exercises. They are meant to be lighter weight and not main heavy lift!

Note: this more about keeping you from pain. If you have a legit injury, check with doc or pt first!

The ** indicates what I hit every week, I sprinkle everything else in randomly. I prioritize external rotation, spinal movement, and scapular control.

• Scapular: Scapular Pull-ups**, Y/T/W Raises

• External/Internal Rotation: DB External Rotation**, DB Internal Rotations

• Posterior Chain: Band Pull Aparts, Powell Raise, Rear Cable Fly**

• Spinal & Thoracic Mobility: Pullovers**, Windmills**, Cat-Cow (Warm Up Spine), KB Rotational Shoulder Press (Advanced)**

• Stability & Control Work: Bottoms Up KB Press, Single Arm DB Overhead Walk

Changing the form on some of your main lifts can promote shoulder health

• DB Chest Press: Emphasize a slow, controlled eccentric down, getting deep into the stretch with a lighter weight as shown in this video

• Shoulder Press: Going w/neutral grip and wrist facing inward allows you to get deep into a stretch and is a safer for those having issues as shown here

💡 Shoulder Saving Tips

• Warm-Up: Don’t you dare go beastmode without a proper warm-up

• Prioritize Daily Posture: Improve posture by raising your screen, standing and walking upright more, and moving every hour. Add back support and ditch heavy bags for less daily strain.

• Managing Pain at Gym: Pain during exercise? Lower the weight. Still hurts? Switch the movement. Still hurts? Skip the muscle, do cardio or sauna, and live to fight another day. Pushing through just re-aggravates it.

• Too Much Rest: Total rest feels good short-term, but without movement and light strengthening, the pain comes right back. Couple days rest if really flared, but get blood flowing before it flares again.

• Eccentric Control is King: Really focus on the eccentric part. Slow down, think 3-4 secs really concentrating on control and getting deep into the stretch…with lower weight is key!

• More Pulling than Pressing: 2x as often is probably ideal to offset all that forward leaning posture we all do so much

• Sleep Setup Matters: Avoid sleeping on the same side every night or cranking your arm under your head.

🧠 Final Thoughts

Your shoulders weren’t meant to live in a state of constant tension or impingement.

Whether you're a desk warrior or gym junkie, investing a few minutes a week into mobility and control can be the difference between healthy shoulders or an MRI bill.

Last weeks newsletter: 🥑 Read Food Labels Like a Pro

Don’t hoard the wisdom. Forward this to a friend who’s into leveling up.

“P.S. If this landed in Promotions or another folder, drag it to Primary so you don’t miss future drops!”