Training with shoulder pain

I’ve been having a few shoulder issues recently, since I’ve begun playing cricket again. So I thought it would be a good idea to give you an insight to my pre/post workout stretching routine.

Here’s a few pointers for getting over tightness in the shoulder

1. Increase rage of motion before you train:

Some people are dead against stretching before you train, as you can lose some of the strength caused by the reflex effect, which is the muscle ‘springing’ at the bottom of a rep.

However, If you’re suffering from shoulder pain, strength shouldn’t be your concern right away anyway (although you should work towards it once you regain stability/mobility).

2. Work through a full range of motion (no partial reps)

This should be an obvious one, yet people still often don’t bring a barbell below their chin at the bottom of an overhead press.

You should be looking at increasing your strength throughout the entire range of motion that your shoulder can safely endure.

3. Hang, constantly, for as long as you can

One of the reasons a vast number of people experience shoulder pain, is because we neglect maybe our most basic functions.

End your workouts with a few sets of dead hangs, or start each back day with a pull up.

(Our shoulder girdle is derived from primates btw)

4. Pull:Press ratio should be at least 2:1

Look around in the weight section of any gym and you’ll see a good number of people with rolled over shoulders.

This is caused by pressing far too often, and neglecting any sort of pulling motion.

Realistically, if you’re experiencing shoulder pain, you should be looking at pulling twice as much as you press, to avoid the same happening to.