Whether you’re strictly a weightlifter, a CrossFitter or an average gym go’er getting after the dumbbells your shoulders often take a beating. There’s a lot of stress involved going overhead and dynamically pushing and pulling big weight or max reps (and, for CrossFitters, there’s extra mileage on your joints for all that kipping).
It can be tempting to just lay off the weights or scale your workout when your shoulder gets wonky and things start to flare up. But, chances are your problem stems from stability and imbalances and –if you’re not actively in pain– adding in these three moves could go a long way in keeping your shoulders injury free.
Stretching and mobility is great. But having stability and working the shoulder equally from all ranges of motion is how you really bulletproof them and permanently get out of pain!
You can work these movements in as part of your warm-up and stick with two sets of 8-10 reps at a manageable weight. If you want to push it, save them for accessory at the end and choose a challenging load that will have you go 12-15 reps and be close to failure on the last rep.
Do this 2-3 times a week, make sure you’re giving your rotator cuffs some love, and you’ll be amazed with how much stronger –and more stable!– your shoulders are.
RENEGADE ROWS
These are particularly important as they represent a HUGE hole in CrossFit: horizontal pulling. Strengthen your shoulder girdle (and hang from the bar pain free) by adding in more horizontal pulling. Single arm stuff is best, so you can sub with regular dumbbell rows if this variation is too hard. Yet another reason why people need to do more ring rows.
LANDMINE PRESS
This is one of our all-time favorites. There’s not a lifter who wouldn’t benefit from doing landline press. The key here is to control the movement the whole way. Keep the weight light and check your ego.
TURKISH GET UP
We’ve mentioned this gem of a movement before and with good reason. It will not only help your shoulder health, it challenges your midline and works your hips and glutes. Mobility and stability all in one move. You can go as heavy as you can maintain good form here. These are also awesome to do on an active recovery day.
Z PRESS
This one is really advanced –working your midline and hips– and you may have to stretch your hip flexors pretty good before getting into it. The preference here would be to do single arm presses to help even out any imbalances you may have. Sit up straight and don’t cheat! The set is over when you can’t maintain an upright torso. Start super light. This can also be done with dumbbells.