A Simple Exercise to Prevent Shoulder Injury and Pain

The shoulder is a complex, sensitive and critical part of your body.  It is crucial to do the right exercises that not only strengthen this area, but also protect, stabilize, and improve flexibility to avoid injury and the pain that comes along with it. It is easy to damage the shoulder and it is very frustrating to deal with shoulder pain. If you have ever experienced a dull pain deep in your shoulders that disturbed your sleep, or pain that caused difficulty doing things like combing your hair and lifting small objects above your head, you likely know what we are talking about.

Just as you build a house from the ground up you must strengthen the muscles of the shoulder from the foundation. The rotator cuff is this foundation.  It is a group of four muscles (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis) and tendons that help stabilize the joint.  If the rotator cuff is weak you can easily cause damage to the shoulder. Your body will thank you for spending a few minutes each week strengthening this muscle group to protect yourself.

At Cureve, we recommend the following exercise to build up strength in the rotator cuff to help naturally avoid pain in your shoulder. This exercise is simple, easy and only needs to be done one to two times a week. You only need a resistance band and something to attach the band to (you can easily get a cheap resistance band off of Amazon). 

To begin, set the resistance band at about belly button-height. You can wrap it around a pole or a railing. Stand sideways next to the anchor and grab the resistance band handle with your outside hand. Keeping your elbow tucked into your side, pull the band out to the side by squeezing your shoulder blade towards your back. With control, bring the band back to the start position and repeat. Complete two sets of ten to twelve reps.

 Doing this simple and easy exercise just one to two times a week will have huge benefits for your shoulder and help you avoid pain in this critical part of the body. If you are unsure of how to properly execute this exercise, we suggest consulting a trainer.  As always, feel free to contact us with any questions or comments: info@cureve.com