Stretches for Healthy Shoulders

Posted On May 19, 2016 By Tom Holland

Stretches for Healthy Shoulders

The shoulders are the most mobile joints in your body, making them extremely susceptible to injury. The added freedom of movement makes them less stable and more prone to dysfunction. The two primary ways to keep your shoulders healthy is through proactive strengthening and stretching. You want the shoulder muscles to be strong and balanced to stabilize the joint, as well as being flexible to allow them to move through a smooth, natural range of motion.

Far too many people wait until they experience shoulder pain before engaging in strengthening and stretching exercises for rehabilitative purposes. All it takes is a few minutes several times a week to keep your shoulder joints healthy and pain-free! Here are a few simple stretches to get you started:

Do each stretch for about 20–60 seconds. Before you do the stretches, make sure you warm the shoulder muscles up first by doing a quick jog in place to increase the blood flow to your muscles. Then do some slow shoulder circles for about 30 seconds in each direction.

It is also important that you don’t try to stretch any injured muscles. If one or both of your shoulders are currently injured, hold off on doing these stretches until the injury is fully healed.

Want more quick workout ideas? Check out our Quick Workouts playlist on our YouTube channel.