Is your shoulder mobility normal?
a test and a fix
I’d say 99% of the clients I see with shoulder pain have stiff shoulders.
The ROM that’s missing the most is overhead ROM.
Most of the time the main culprit is the lats. When you’re stiff here you can feel all kinds of different pains like (but not limited to)
neck pain
front of shoulder pain
impingement pain
upper back/middle of shoulder blade pain
Here’s an easy test to see if your lats are the problem
Overhead shoulder mobility test
There’s 2 parts.
Part 1 is laying with your legs straight.
If you can get your arms fully overhead, it may be a mirage.
Stiff lats will force you to arch the low back and give the illusion of full overhead ROM.
If you can’t get your arms overhead here you REALLY need work.
Part 2 is knees to your chest
This flattens the low back and forces the motion to come just from the shoulders.
Here’s how to address it
Overhead reach with weight
This is simple, the test is the treatment.
Lay with your knees to your chest, grab a 5-10 pound weight, and REACH overhead.
Try to get 15-20 reps. Do multiple sets.
I’m flexible, now what?
A rule of thumb is a stiff muscle is a weak muscle. Makes sense, you have never been able to USE it through a full ROM, so your strength in that full ROM will be limited.
So you were stiff AND weak. Now you’re flexible AND weak.
That’s okay, upgrade your subscription and fix the weak part with our Shoulder Rehab Protocol.
Grab it below.