Our shoulder joint is anatomically called the Glenohumeral Joint and it is naturally the most unstable joint in the body. It is a ball and socket joint, with a very shallow socket, and that is why it is able to move in so many directions and planes. This is where our ligaments and rotator cuff muscles are necessary to stabilize the joint so it doesn’t dislocate constantly. It is important to be able to move through all ranges of motion pain-free, but also to have your joint supported through those ranges.
By strengthening around the joint, we help support it! The muscles of the rotator cuff include the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis and teres minor, and they are ones we want to focus on strengthening, along with the rest of your arm muscles (think deltoids, biceps,pecs, lats etc).
As you can see in the picture below, they go from the shoulder blade onto the arm to keep the head of the humerus attached, as well as move it in different directions as needed.
Beyond the strength exercises shown below, you want to make sure that you are always performing a dynamic warm up before your swim. If you are not properly warming up your shoulders, they can be stiff through your workout and may cause compensations that we want to avoid. It may also cause muscle strains if you are asking too high of demand for a muscle before it’s ready.
Save the long hold stretches for AFTER your swim, and focus on getting your blood moving and your muscles awake prior to the swim!
Dynamic Warm Up For Shoulders:
Jumping Jacks x10
Plank to Downward Dogs x10
Plank-T Rotations x10 Total (5 each side)
Pushups (elevated or knee if you cannot do regular yet) x8
perform 2-3 rounds of the above exercises
See video for demo of the warm ups!
Stability exercises for shoulders:
Prone Swimmers
- Lay face down on a bench or the floor with your head supported by a rolled towel
- Keep palms face down and begin with your hands at your sides next to your hips
- Lift your arms up off of the bench and bring them all the way around until they are overhead and your biceps are by your ears and then return them back down to your sides in the reverse of the motion you just performed
- Make sure you hold the elevation of the arms through the entire range of the movement
- Don’t let your shoulders scrunch up to your ears!
Bilateral ER with progress to 90*
- Hold a Theraband with palms facing up and your elbows tucked next to your waist
- Pull both ends of the Theraband laterally while keeping your elbows in place
- Return back to starting position slow and controlled
Banded Scaption
- But a looped band (or a Theraband tied into a loop) around both hands
- Keep arms straight and pull tension on the band to bring you into shoulder scaption
- Lift your arms up as high as you can go without losing tension
- Keep tension as you return back down
Arm Bars
- Reference video for this one!
- Key things to remember:
- Elbow STRAIGHT
- Eyes on the weight at all times
- Palm facing toward your body
- Slow and steady
See video for demo of strength exercises!
Remember to focus on form first, and to not continue any movement that causes you pain.
If you do experience pain, are already injured, or just need further guidance, we’d love to help you reach your goals. Shoot us an email at info@bodymoksha.com or call/text us at 973-310-2678 and we can help!
Authored by:
Doctor of Physical Therapy