3 exercises for shoulder pain

Tutorial Tuesday: 3 exercises for shoulder pain

Do you have shoulder pain? It is one of the most common problems we see in the clinic and often causes a lot of grief when lifting, especially overhead.

Jordan (Lifecare Physio) and Louis (JLF Owner and Head Coach) run through 3 exercises you can do to help strengthen the shoulders and get rid of the pain.

Exercise 1: forward raise

The forward raise is a great place to start when rehabbing your shoulder. Most of the time lifting forwards is much more comfortable than lifting out to the side and stopping at eye level allows you to strengthen the shoulder muscles without causing much irritation to the structures in the shoulder. Ensure you don’t shrug your shoulders or lean backwards.

Exercise 2: lateral raise

The lateral raise is the harder version of the forward raise as it isolates the shoulder

muscles further. Once again ensure you don’t lift higher than shoulder height and if it becomes too painful, move back to the forward raise

Exercise 3: shoulder press

The shoulder press moves into the overhead range which can be quite challenging and potentially painful if you have shoulder issues so start off lightly! Ensure you’re moving through the full range, reaching all the way up at the top and lowering so the arms are parallel with the ground. As with the raises, you can start with a flexion movement (elbows facing forward) and progress to abduction position (elbows pointed out to the side).