It’s important to build strong and healthy shoulders for many everyday tasks. As we’ve talked about before, your strength and muscle mass will decrease by an average of 8-10% per year unless you take action to stop it.
When muscle loss happens in your shoulders, it makes it harder to do things like push yourself up from the floor, reach overhead, throw a ball, or swing a racquet. Fortunately, it’s never too late to build shoulder strength and slow or reverse your loss of shoulder strength.
The quads and glutes are the most commonly used muscles in everyday life. Here are 3 exercises you can use to build strong and healthy shoulders.
Shoulder external rotation
To do this exercise correctly, make sure to keep your shoulder blade pinched back throughout the entire movement. Start with no weight if your shoulder is really hurting, otherwise start with 1 or 2 pounds.
Try 3 sets of 10 of these every other day, progressing to 3 sets of 15 as they get easier. Once you can do 3 sets of 15 with only mild fatigue, then your next session you can add another pound and start at 3 sets of 10 again.
Pushup
Pushups are a great foundational exercise to build strength in your shoulders as well as the rest of your upper body.
If you’re new to pushups, or haven’t done them in awhile and can’t do them on the floor, it’s better to start with your hands on a table or a weight bench than doing them on your knees.
This let’s you still maintain a full plank position and keep your core engaged throughout the pushup. As you get stronger, you can progress to lower surfaces until you can do them from the floor.
Think about pulling your self down and opening your chest up as you lower yourself down.
Find a surface height that you can complete 3 sets of 8 reps correctly at. Once you can do 3 sets of 12, pick a lower surface and start the progression again.
Do this 2 to 3 times a week for the best results.
Shoulder Abduction
This exercise is a great way to build strength in the supraspinatus and deltoid muscles.
The supraspinatus is a key part of your rotator cuff and the deltoid is one of the larges muscles of the shoulder. Both of these are key to helping you reach overhead and throw.
Try to keep your elbows out to your side and not in front of your shoulders when you do this.
That makes you keep your chest open and keep some of your shoulder blade muscles active. Pause for 1 second at the top, then lower back down.
Start with 3 sets of 8 reps and a weight that is 5 pounds or less. If there is no pain, or it feels easy, you can increase the reps.
Once you can do 12 to 15 reps for all 3 sets, then you can add more weight.
Do this exercise 2 to 3 days a week to get the best response.
Intensity Matters
Gains in strength and muscle size really occur as you increase the intensity. Use this table to guide you based on how difficult each set feels:
The number of repetitions remaining means that’s how many more repetitions you could have done at given level of difficulty. If you haven’t exercised in a long time, start at a 5-6 rating. You should just be focusing on maintaining good technique and getting comfortable with the exercises.
After you can do 3 sets of an exercise each session, you can start to increase the difficulty to an 8. You can do this by adding weight, or increasing the number of repetitions of the exercises.
If this seems really overwhelming or you’ve tried it and something doesn’t feel right, we can help you! At Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine, we’re experts at helping people build leg strength and can help you too.
Call us at 703-299-3111, or click here to request an appointment.
A member of our team will schedule you an appointment with one of our expert physical therapists.
What happens if you don’t build strong and healthy shoulders?
- You’re more likely to get hurt when playing sports like tennis or golf
- You have a tough time doing things like lifting overhead
- You end up with shoulder pain with everyday tasks because your shoulders aren’t strong enough.
Starting a program to increase your shoulder strength can:
- Make playing sports safer and improve your performance
- Help you lift things into and out of your car easier
- Increase your strength and ability to live the active life you want
The exercises above are a great way to get started. They can help you get moving and living stronger.
But if you want an expert to listen to you and guide you to success, a Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine physical therapist in Alexandria, Springfield, or Arlington, VA will create a plan specifically for you.
You’ll feel confident that you have the knowledge and capacity to do all the things you want.
Call us at 703-299-3111, or click here to schedule your appointment and get started.
Working to keep you living your best life,
The Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine Team
