This quick upper body warm-up includes active movement, activation, and mobilization. You'll need a barbell, a foam roller, and a couple of resistance bands.
Perform the following:
Bentover Row
Push-Press
Barbell Curl
Pull-Aparts
Foam Roller on Lats
Thoracic Rotations
Do all the above for two complete rounds, then grab your band for three shoulder and lat mobilization drills as shown in the video.
The mobilization will take place after we've already had the chance to increase core temperature via dynamic movement. The purpose of our mobilization isn't to put ourselves in pain. Quite the contrary. We're simply trying to prepare the primary muscle groups that will be directly involved with that day's upper-body workout.
Landmine presses are an effective "middle of the road"exercise between overhead work and true horizontal pressing exercises.
If you're dead-set on returning to barbell overhead pressing as you come back from a shoulder injury, test the waters with a bottoms-up kettlebell variation first.
Athletes need to earn the right to train lats. You aren't allowed to do pull-ups or pulldowns until you pass the back-to-wall shoulder flexion test. No exceptions allowed.
Don't train the rotator cuff to failure. Fatigue is your enemy when you're trying to establish a strong and effective rotator cuff.
A lot of athletes refer to me as the "Shoulder Guy." This is probably because I've personally evaluated more than 3,000 shoulders. With that experience comes a lot of new expertise in the shoulder arena. Below, you'll find three examples of new things we're doing to keep shoulders healthy and performing at high levels.
1 – Bottoms-up kettlebell overhead drills are a great early stage, return-to-overhead-pressing progression.
My role of the "shoulder guy" was actually born out of necessity, as I have a right shoulder that's structurally a mess. Still, I've managed to work around it to move some solid weight for a guy my size, and it doesn't give me any problems at rest unless I do something stupid – most notably overhead pressing and even incline pressing.
Still, I miss my overhead work, so I tinker and experiment with things quite a bit to see what works. For instance, landmine presses are an effective "middle of the road" exercise between overhead work and true horizontal pressing exercises.
If you really think about the arm path, this isn't much different than an incline press, so why does the incline press often cause people more shoulder problems than landmine work? I suspect it has to do with the fact that having the upper back pinned against a bench limits the ability of the shoulder blades to freely rotate upward; they get stuck down into scapular downward rotation.
This year, to build on the "how you can overhead press without really overhead pressing" theme, I experimented with a lot with bottoms-up kettlebell overhead carries and pressing. I like the idea of starting with a carry because it teaches people where an appropriate "finish" position is, and then you can work backwards from it.
If you've successfully completed overhead carries, you can go to a 1-arm bottoms-up kettlebell military press:
The bottoms-up setup is more shoulder friendly because the unstable environment shifts more of the muscular contribution to joint stability than actual force production. In this regard, it's very similar to doing a push-up on an unstable surface. So, if you're dead-set on returning to barbell overhead pressing as you come back from a shoulder injury, test the waters with a bottoms-up kettlebell variation first.
2 – Athletes need to earn the right to train the lats.
I have a true love/hate relationship with the lats. On one hand, lats are awesome in that they make you look jacked and contribute to high performance on a number of athletic fronts, from sprinting speed to throwing velocity. On the other hand, athletes love to use them to excess for other actions like breathing and core stability, and they shouldn't be doing that much work. The end result? A lot of aberrant postures that look like this:
This guy uses his lats to do absolutely everything. Notice the crazy arching of his lower back, and the fact that his elbows sit about four feet behind his shoulders at rest. Additionally, most guys who overuse the lats will have heavily downsloped shoulder girdles (scapular depression), as well as limited shoulder flexion, as becomes apparent if you test them on their backs. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, the upper arms in the picture below should actually make contact with the table:
Nowadays, we spend a lot of time trying to teach athletes how to shut lats off when they shouldn't be on. However, I know we aren't going to talk you out of trying to develop that V-shaped torso with lat work, so what are some guidelines?
First, you aren't allowed to do pull-ups or pulldowns until you pass the back-to-wall shoulder flexion test. No exceptions allowed.
If you can't pass the test, make sure you're foam rolling and stretching your lats out regularly, and practice this drill:
Second, if you find that your posture is like the one above, work hard to get out of extension on a daily basis. In other words, you likely need to posteriorly tilt the pelvis and flatten the lower back a bit – and then try to maintain this during your exercises. Yes, it sounds silly, but you might actually need to flex more and stop arching your back to improve your deadlift and squat technique.
Third, make sure you're doubling up on the volume of overhead reaching in your program in order to iron out the top-to-bottom imbalance at your shoulder girdle. Good additions to your program would be wall slide variations, overhead carries and presses, and overhead reaching during warm-up drills.
Let's say you're doing four sets of six weighted chin-ups for a total of 24 reps. How would you get 48 reps of overhead reaching in during your training session?
Warm-ups: 1 Set Dead Bugs 8 reps/side 1 Set Wall Slides with Upward Rotation 8 reps 1 Set Overhead Lunge Walk 4 reps/leg 1 Set Alternating Lateral Lunge Walk with Overhead Reach 4 reps/leg
Training Session: 3 Sets Overhead Variation 3 x 6 reps = 18 reps
It's pretty simple, and it makes you realize that simply getting the arms overhead more – and with a neutral core posture – can easily shift your program back into balance. Remember, though, you have to earn the right to even train lats in the first place!
3 – Get rid of the YTWL series.
You're probably familiar with the YTWL series that has gained a lot of popularity over the past decade or so. It's particularly common among strength and conditioning coaches who want to train a bunch of shoulder functions in a short amount of time so that they can get to the "big bang" stuff. Effectively, you take four exercises and do them in order with no rest – each for 8-12 reps.
The theories are admirable: healthy shoulders and training economy. Unfortunately, the outcomes are not. I can honestly say that I've never seen an athlete perfectly execute all of these movements on his first day – much less under the conditions of fatigue you'd get with a longer series like this.
That said, I love the Y; it's awesome for developing lower trapezius control, which allows us to get appropriate upward rotation with plenty of scapular posterior tilt.
I also love the T; it helps us to recruit both middle trapezius and the posterior rotator cuff and deltoid – while making sure that the humeral head (ball) doesn't glide forward on the glenoid socket.
The W is a great exercise, too, as it trains the ability to differentiate between movement of the glenohumeral joint (ball-and-socket) and that of the scapulothoracic joint (shoulder blade on the rib cage). You want the former, not the latter, and making sure that takes place means you're getting great rotator cuff recruitment without "tugging" with the lats.
To be honest, I don't particularly care for the L, as it's too lat dominant. Still, even if I did like it, it wouldn't matter because most athletes have butchered all three other drills by the time they even get to it!
Beyond the lack of technical coaching most athletes receive on these exercises, the problems are magnified by the presence of fatigue. The research is pretty clear that the best way to train the rotator cuff for high performance is perfect technique, but not even coming close to failure. Fatigue might be your friend when you're doing a drop set for your quads or biceps, but it's your enemy when you're trying to establish a strong and effective rotator cuff. The ball just rattles around the socket instead of staying nice and centered.
The solution is very simple: replace the series with the individual parts spread out through the week. We might do a Y (prone 1-arm trap raise) on Mondays and Thursdays during lower-body days, and the T (prone horizontal abduction) and W (external rotation) on Tuesdays and Fridays on our upper body days.
Prone 1-Arm Trap Raise (Y)
Prone Horizontal Abduction (T)
Cable External Rotation at 90 Degrees, Scapular Plane (W)
You can sum this entire point up as, "Do things correctly before you do them a lot or under fatigue."
If you're an athlete or a lifter, chances are your shoulders have given you some trouble. In fact, no other body part is as prone to dysfunction.
Movement is king. Where crisp, clean movement is found, the ability to train without pain is soon to follow.
You can access your own movement with self-diagnostic testing, then rid your shoulders of nagging pain.
The Shoulder Complex is... Complex
When it comes to strength training and fitness, there may be no region in the body that's as chronically dysfunctional and painful as the shoulder complex.
Simply put, the four joints comprising the shoulder girdle are battle-tested on a daily basis, not only in training but also sports like desk jockeying and frantic finger pounding into your smart phone (which are both up for review to be added to the 2020 Olympic Games.)
This region is termed the shoulder "complex" for a reason – mostly due to the insane complexity of the soft tissues that encompass multiple joints all working together to elicit smooth and powerful movements in coordination with the rest of the body.
Even with advanced orthopedic evaluation, the likelihood of even the most talented sports medicine specialist pinpointing the exact origins of pain with palpation alone is about as likely as that snowball's chance in hell you've heard about.
One thing holds true: Movement is, and will always be, king. Where crisp, clean movement is found, the ability to train without feeling like you're being impaled by ice picks every time you bench is soon to follow.
Movement: It's Kind of a Big Deal
These days, assessing posture in my physical therapy practice has become a useless waste of time. No matter if we're evaluating an elite overhead athlete that cashes million dollar checks or an overweight mother of four, one thing holds true: their postures are atrocious.
Computers and smart phones aren't going anywhere soon. The posture of the general public is going to get worse. But athletes, lifters, and fitness fanatics are still going to move.
Assessing shoulder mobility and movement patterns with just a few simple screens can largely influence whether they move well while continuing to move often.
All you need is your own body, a mirror, and the willingness to stare at yourself shirtless without a pump.
Isolated Movements of the Shoulder
The ball and socket type shoulder complex has the ability to move within the three cardinal planes of motion, making it one of the most mobile joints in the body.
Wide ranges of movement capabilities also make the shoulder joint more susceptible to injury, especially when lifters are pushing their bodies to the absolute limits in both hypertrophy and strength.
It's important to know and appreciate the movements of the shoulder joint in order to screen yourself for possible mobility impairments and movement dysfunctions. Here are the three cardinal planes of motion and the movements the shoulder is capable of using within these planes:
SAGITTAL PLANE: FLEXION
SAGITTAL PLANE: EXTENSION
FRONTAL PLANE: ABDUCTION
FRONTAL PLANE: ADDUCTION
TRANSVERSE PLANE: EXTERNAL ROTATION
TRANSVERSE PLANE: INTERNAL ROTATION
TRANSVERSE PLANE: HORIZONTAL ABDUCTION
TRANSVERSE PLANE: HORIZONTAL ADDUCTION
Remember, we aren't cyber-kinetic organisms. We have the capability to coordinate smooth movements in all planes of motion simultaneously.
This makes the isolated shoulder movements described above all but obsolete, especially for assessing your own movement with self-diagnostic testing with goals of corrective movement and ridding your shoulders of nagging pain.
Multi-Articulated Movements of the Shoulder
Screening functional internal and external rotation of the shoulder joint can play a huge role in not only identifying mobility deficits, but also identifying painful local areas within the shoulder complex.
The term "functional" doesn't mean we're going to test mobility while flailing around on a physio-ball. It simply refers to a combination movement that correlates more specifically to coordinated movements of the shoulder complex as a whole.
Functional internal and external rotation can be described as the combination of three distinct shoulder movements all performed in conjunction with smooth and rhythmical movement patterns in a certain range of motion.
Here are the breakdowns of both of these functional mobility tests:
These movements can be tested unilaterally or in reciprocal fashion. First thing's first: Get both arms moving simultaneously while in a standing position.
The Apley's Scratch Test will show how both shoulder girdles work in coordinated movement along with mobility capabilities of each of the shoulder girdles separately.
The right will be moving into functional internal rotation while the left is moving into functional external rotation all at the same time. The goal is to try and approximate the fingertips of each hand to touch behind your back while being symmetrical from shoulder-to-shoulder when both sides are tested.
No cheating on this one by breaking neutral posture at the spine or ratcheting your hand up your back little by little.
Take into account the distance between your hands for both sides moving through functional internal rotation and external rotation at the same time. Also note any pain or movement differences from side to side.
What you feel internally is the most important aspect of this test, with the coordinated dual shoulder range of motion a close second.
If after completing the Apley's Scratch Test and finding asymmetrical movement, pain, or notable mobility deficits (your fingers not even close to touching), it's time to break the functional movements down to identify where the faulty movement is originating.
By moving one arm at a time, the thoracic spine and ribcage are largely taken out of the mobility equation.
While moving both arms reciprocally during the Apley's Scratch Test, the thoracic spine is also being tested in how well it's able to coordinate a stable extended position while the shoulder girdles are approximating end-range motion. This leaves us able to focus in on the shoulder movement itself.
Screen one shoulder at a time in both functional internal and external rotation. While moving into functional external rotation, the goal is to be able to touch your fingertips to the bony spine of the contralateral shoulder blade.
As for the functional internal rotation screen, touching your fingers to the inferior angle of the shoulder blade on the opposite side shows normal mobility within that pattern.
The testing positions are the same as the pictures above showing proper functional internal and external rotation.
Thoracic Spine Mobility Deficit?
Chances are, when you broke down the test into one shoulder moving at a time, your range of motion, along with the rhythm of the movement, was notably better. If so, your shoulder pain may be secondary to poor thoracic spine mobility.
This is a great finding because you're well on your way towards taking action steps in your p/rehabilitation program. Focus on these three thoracic spine mobility drills before and after your training:
Gleno-Humeral Rhyme and Rhythm
Now that we have some metrics on the amount our shoulders are moving through functional internal rotation both reciprocally and unilaterally, it's time to assess rhythm and coordination.
As your shoulder moves into elevation, a few things must happen in order to complete a full and pain-free range of motion to end range. First, all joints of the shoulder complex must be working together, but also kicking in at advantageous times.
An asymptomatic shoulder joint with normal range is usually able to get to about 180 degrees of motion at end range. Obviously every shoulder girdle is as unique as the person it's connected to, so this is a ballpark number.
For the shoulder to move through this range without compensation patterns dominating the movement, the shoulder blade and humerus (bone of the upper arm) must be moving in synergistic and rhythmical fashion. We call this scapula-humeral rhythm.
Pristine scapula-humeral rhythm simply means that for every 2 degrees of motion the humerus moves into elevation, the shoulder blade must upwardly rotate 1 degree of motion to achieve end range.
However, the numbers don't tell the entire story. The point at which the shoulder blade starts to kick in is also very important.
Testing Scapulo-Humeral Rhythm
When assessing your own scapula-humeral rhythm, it's important to not only look at ranges of motion, but also when the shoulder blade starts to move.
At approximately 120 degrees of upper arm elevation, the shoulder blade should just be starting to upwardly rotate. If you find your shoulder blades become highly visible at the sides of your body before 120 degrees while slowly moving your arms into elevation, this is indicative of posterior shoulder soft tissue tone and tightness.
Also, assess the symmetry of the movement from left to right. Are your shoulder blades starting to rotate at the same times, or is the rhythm off and asymmetrical?
If your rhythm is off, your best course of action is to start in on a posterior shoulder girdle soft tissue and mobility program.
This can simply be movement targeting the latissimus dorsi and other surrounding muscles with foam rolling or Hands-On SMR, or mobility focused movements such as loaded stretches into your programming.
The choice is yours, and the only wrong decision is to not address these issues at all.
The Painful Arc of the Shoulder
Finally, if you nerd out on mechanics of human movement and dysfunction, you most likely want to figure out what exact anatomic location in the shoulder complex is causing you discomfort every time you hit the gym.
Let's go back to the scapula-humeral rhythm testing position and switch our focus on pain provocation.
The most commonly injured sites in the shoulder girdle are the gleno-humeral joint (GH-Joint) and the acromio-clavicular joint (AC-Joint). Though these two joints work together in upper extremity function, they're responsible for playing in primary movements at different points of the movement arc into shoulder elevation.
The painful arc of the shoulder states that if pain in the shoulder is present when your upper arm is within 45-120 degrees of motion, the most likely culprit causing pain is within the GH-Joint.
On the other side of the arc, if pain in the shoulder is only present at end range shoulder elevation, between 170-180 degrees, the AC-Joint is likely the portion of the shoulder complex that isn't functioning correctly.
If your own self-diagnostic findings point to GH-Joint pain and dysfunction, enhancing your dynamic and static shoulder positioning, especially under load, is going to be the one of the most efficient ways to leave pain in the dust while continuing to train hard.
As for the AC-Joint, relieving unwanted joint stresses at end range can be avoided by decreasing the tone of the muscles and structures of the posterior shoulder girdle, allowing better tracking patterns of the scapula and shoulder joint as a whole.
Nagging front-sided shoulder pain: you've probably felt it before. If so, you know it can be a death sentence for your training. It's common for lifters, but you can eradicate it and train without limitations again. How? One movement: the band pull-apart.
The band pull-apart and the three variations below can clean up achy shoulders and prevent future injuries. But for it to work, you've got to do them correctly and daily. Yes, every single day – that is, if you want your shoulders to stay healthy. But it's not as complicated as it sounds.
1 – The Traditional Band Pull-Apart
What makes the traditional band pull-apart so effective? It retrains shoulders to function around pain by getting them to move in the opposite direction that they're in most often.
As we sit and slouch over computers, cell phones, and steering wheels, our shoulders stay in a rounded forward posture. The shoulder blade is forced into protraction (forward), upward rotation (up and around the side of the thoracic cage), and elevation in a forward and internally rotated position secondary to rounding at the thoracic spine.
This position becomes habitual. The intrinsic scapular stabilizers and posterior shoulder musculature change as a result. How? Well, over time these muscles become functionally shortened and weakened, which is bad news for the stability and strength of the shoulder joint, especially when it comes to the big compound exercises.
Think of the pull-apart as a practice that'll cancel out shitty posture. When you do it, you're moving the shoulders into horizontal abduction – a commonly neglected plane of motion among lifters.
With the shoulder and scapula moving pristinely, the thoracic spine will also be trained to move into a more neutral position on the backside of the movement. This completes the triad of pull-apart awesomeness.
The traditional band pull-apart is best programmed as a warm-up or primer movement for anterior-chain dominant training (lifting with the front side) like right before you bench press. When programmed with multiple sets between 10-20 reps, this movement provides the correction and activation the posterior shoulder girdle needs to function pain-free and support big pressing movements.
2 – The 3-Way Pull-Apart
Preparing your shoulders for heavy lifting should involve more activation work and less mobility work, especially through the upper back and scapular musculature. This variation activates the entire posterior shoulder girdle from multiple angles.
Take the traditional pull-apart and diversify the angles of pull. This will emphasize the activation of certain scapular musculature and it'll be closely matched to the main training movements of the day. Just keep it simple and focus on three different angles:
Start by elevating your arms and pulling apart from your forehead in the first overhead position. Do 8-12 reps.
Move the band down in front of your neck and knock out another 8-12. This angle should feel very familiar as it's close to the traditional pull-apart line of pull.
Finish off at the height of your lower sternal notch just below the chest.
The first position, at forehead height, integrates the function of the upper trap with the shoulder blades. The second angle, in front of the neck, moves the scaps in more of a straight protraction while placing an emphasis on thoracic spine extension. The final position targets the lower trap and will help you smooth out movements of the shoulder blades into upward and downward rotation.
Do this variation before rowing and deadlifting. Doing 25-40 reps per set can be pretty challenging, so use a band resistance that'll allow you to use good form and get a pump. Focus on quality over quantity.
3 – The Star Pattern Pull-Apart
This one combines the traditional pull-apart with pulls that initiate the shoulders into overhead side positions. The position of the upper arm should mirror your overhead squat grip and angle, while your lower arm will pull down at approximately 30 degrees off your side.
Between each different line of pull, you'll return your hands to the original front-of-chest position while maintaining tension through the band. As you pull it apart in any direction, focus on peaking the end range of motion of the contraction and focusing on the rotation of the hands and shoulders.
To make it even more effective, try driving the hands away from one another as far as you can while moving the shoulders into slight external rotation at the back side of the rep. This should happen naturally, but if you're using the star pattern to initiate rotation, this is another variable to consider.
Program these in your dynamic warm-up with 2-3 sets, 4-6 reps in each direction before any upper body training days that involve pushing, pulling, or rotation at the shoulders.
4 – The Alternating Overhead Iso Pull-Apart
This variation is great if you struggle with activation. You may be lacking the ability to externally rotate to create maximal tension through the muscles and position at the shoulder joint. So how do you fix this? By simplifying the dynamic component of the movement.
After the initial pull-apart driving the hands away from each other and flexing the back hard, one hand is going to rotate up into the overhead position while the opposite side will come down to the side.
The top hand will move into the overhead position, maintaining the tension in the band and externally rotating to pack the shoulders and keep in a centrated position. The bottom hand will reciprocate this movement, bringing the arm down to around 45 degrees and moving into internal rotation.
People rarely need more shoulder mobility. If you struggle with keeping your shoulders healthy, you need better stability and control through the range of motion you have.
Mobility isn't a cure-all. If you want healthy shoulders you can't depend on doing the same old stuff that's never worked in the past. This is why I love dynamic stability drills like this one. You can do it before ANY upper body lifts.
What makes this drill so powerful is the dynamic stabilization of the shoulders moving into elevation, depression, internal rotation and external rotation, all while coordinating the movement with the entire upper body and spine.
Move slowly and keep maximal tension through the band at all times. After a peak hold at the top, you'll alternate and bring the opposite side up. The movement pattern itself is similar to the star pattern pull-apart, but you're focusing on dynamic stabilization instead of training active ranges of motion in the overhead and shoulder to the side positions.
"Feel" your way to perfect execution. Move slowly through 2-3 rounds of 5 reps on each side to prep the shoulder before your next pull-emphasized training day which involves things like pull-ups. Maintain glute, core, and shoulder tension while actively contracting throughout. The more focus you put into this, the more you'll get out of it.
