If you are into calisthenics but forget about your form sometimes it can lead to shoulder injuries. Shoulders are often underdeveloped due to lack of training. About 3 percent of the population has shoulder injuries. This article provides you with some recovery shoulder exercises. You can use them in case you are or have been suffering from shoulder problems.
Make sure you are not in pain while performing any of these exercises. If you experience pain go to your general practitioner or a physiotherapist first to help you get rid from the pain. After you recover and are able to work in a full range of motion (ROM) again you can start this program.
Warm-up for Shoulder Exercises
The shoulder joint has a great mobility. It is important to have a good warm-up before you start exercising.
- Rotate arms and shoulders forward 2 x 20 seconds
- Rotate arms and shoulders backward 2 x 20 seconds
- Exorotate arms with the elbows in your side 3 x 15 reps
- Shoulder abduction circles forward + backward 3 x 20 seconds
- Shoulder presses in the air 3 x 15 reps
These exercises focus on the smaller muscles around your shoulder blade, mostly the serratus anterior, teres minor and trapezius ascendens. These muscles stabilize your shoulder joint. This article also contains exercises for your rotator cuff. The rotator cuff muscles keep your upper arm in your joint. A strong shoulder blade and rotator cuff decrease the risk of injury.
1. Scapula pull-up
Grab a bar with a regular pronated grip. That means palms of your hands facing away from you. Make sure your arms stay stretched and you contract your shoulder blades. Retract them and do not lift them up. Your abdomen are contracted. Instead of pulling yourself up with a pull-up, you keep your arms stretched and retract your shoulder blades, make sure to pull them as low as you can. Now slowly let go of the tension, but make sure they keep contracted a bit. Nice, you did your first scapula pull-up!
2. Scapula push-up
Lay on the ground with your hands next to your chest as if you were to do a push-up. Tuck in your toes and stretch your arms fully. Now make sure you retract your shoulders and keep them as close to your body as possible. Do not lift them up towards your head. The rest of your body is contracted like a planche.
Your arms keep extended during the exercise and you just push your shoulders forward and backward. You’ll keep them retracted during the entire exercise. This can be quite challenging in the beginning. Alternatively, you can do the same movement against a wall.
3. Resistance Band Shoulder External rotation
Put the resistance band on a bar by putting it around the bar and run it back through the band. Now pull it tight and together. For this exercise it should be around elbow height.
Stand next to the bar with your left side (non-working side). Grab the band with your right hand (working side) and put your elbow in your side. Walk away from the bar in this position until the band is pulled tight and your arm is still in a neutral 90 degrees elbow flexion against your ribs position.
Your elbows keeps touching your ribs for the entire exercise. Now pull your forearm outwards (external rotation) until you hit the full range of motion (ROM). Slowly return to the starting position.
4. Resistance Band Shoulder Abduction
Stand next to the bar with your left side (non-working side). Put the bend on knee height and grab it with your right hand (working side). Keep your arm in a neutral 90 degrees elbow flexion against your ribs position.
Grab the band with your right hand (working side) and put your elbow in your side. Walk away from the bar in this position until the band is pulled tight and your arm is still in a neutral 90 degrees elbow flexion against your ribs position. Now pull your arm in 90 degrees abduction (shoulder height) and try to keep your elbow bended.
If this is too easy for you, make sure your arm is extended and pull it to a 90 degrees abduction.
5. Elbow in the Pocket
Retract your shoulders and put your elbows in your side in the shape of a W. Make sure you push your shoulder blades down as much as possible.
Start from the W position and slowly extend your elbows while keeping your shoulders in the retracted position. You should feel contraction in the low side of your shoulder blades.
Shoulder Exercises – How Often?
Make sure to perform 3 rounds of these exercises with 15-20 reps for each exercise. If you are unable to do this, start with a lower number of reps like 5 and over the weeks build them up until you reach 20. Perform these exercises 3 times a week. In case of the scapula pull-up you can use a resistance band if it is too difficult. In case of the scapula push-up you can push against a wall if it is too difficult. As physiotherapists, we always see great progress in patients that use these exercises. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
More Than Shoulder Exercises
Of course, you can do a lot more than just shoulders injury prevention exercises. Calisthenics is the way to train your entire body and become lean, strong and muscular. If you need any of the equipment we mentioned above, like resistance bands or pull-up bars, check out the recommended calisthenics equipment that we use ourselves.
