Warm up your Shoulders with these Moves

Warming up your shoulders properly can go a long way towards improving shoulder function during your workouts and helping to prevent those pesky shoulder injuries that often creep up over time. In this article, we will discuss some shoulder and upper body drills to help you warm up your shoulders and prevent shoulder injuries. You can do these exercises after a more general aerobic warm up (jogging, jumping rope or brisk walking) for three to five minutes.

Shoulder Dislocates

Shoulder Dislocates don’t really dislocate your shoulders. However, they do allow you to increase your range of motion before starting a workout. Hold a band or a PVC pipe with an overhand grip. Raise the band with straight arms overhead until your arms complete a full circle (band now touches your lower back or the the back of your legs). Then reverse the motion to complete one rep. As your range of motion improves, you can position your hands closer together on the band. Try 5-10 reps during your shoulder warm up.

Can Openers

Can openers are another good exercise to improve thoracic spine rotation. Improving thoracic spine rotation can help you avoid compensation movement patterns that may increase stress at the shoulder joints.

To perform this movement, get on an all fours position. Position one hand on the back of your head. Reach that elbow up towards the ceiling as you rotate through your upper back, while keeping your hips and lower back still. Hold one count before reversing the motion. Try 5 to 10 reps on each side.

Band Pull Aparts

Band pull aparts are a great way to get the rear delts and upper back muscles activated to stabilize the shoulders. Hold a band at shoulder height. Keep arms straight and neck relaxed as you pull the band apart, until it touches your chest. Try 5-10 reps. If you don’t have a band handy, you can also substitute rear delt flies for band pull aparts.

IWTY’s

IWTYs (also sometimes referred to as blackburns) are another great exercise to warm up the rear delts, upper back and rotator cuff muscles. This exercise also prepares you to perform complex shoulder movements in sports or during your workout.

Get in a hip hinge position or position yourself face down on the floor or incline bench. Make an I, W, T, and Y with your arms, keeping your shoulders relaxed. Try 3 to 5 reps of each letter with a slow and controlled tempo.

Walkout

Walk outs are another great way to warm up the shoulders, upper back, wrists and to integrate some core stability as well. Put your hands on the floor in from of your feet. While keeping your core tight, walk your hands out until you are in a long arm plank position. Hold one count and then walk your hands back to complete one rep. For bonus points, add either a push up or a shoulder tap in the long arm plank position. Try 3 to 5 reps.

Scapular Push ups

Scapular push ups are a great way to finish your shoulder warm up after completing all the other exercises on this list. Get in a push up position. While keeping your neck relaxed, squeeze your shoulder blades together. Then pull your shoulder blades apart to complete one rep. Keep your arms straight throughout. Try 5 to 10 reps.

Final Thoughts

Warming up your shoulders properly before a workout can really help you to improve performance and prevent pain. Try three to five of the exercises on this list (or each move!) to warm up your shoulders properly before your next workout! Hopefully you will feel a difference right away in the way your shoulders function and perform once you start adding some of these exercises into your workout.

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