How do you relieve shoulder stiffness?
Do you have limited mobility in your shoulder? You likely have pain when trying to reach or press overhead and when trying to rotate your shoulder. The glenohumeral joint can cause joint stiffness in the shoulder and needs to be treated different than muscle tightness. The best way to improve your shoulder stiffness is getting your ball and socket joint in the right place and a precise mobility program to get pain-free shoulder mobility.
What Causes Shoulder Stiffness
The shoulder joint is made up of four joints which can get stiff and cause the loss of mobility. When you have a stiff shoulder joint, you will notice a loss of rotation and an inability to reach overhead. There are multiple causes of shoulder stiffness, but the primary culprit is the ball and socket joint of the shoulder, the Glenohumeral Joint. To allow the shoulder to be the most mobile joint in the body, the Glenohumeral joints act like a golf ball on a tee. To keep the shoulder from coming out of the socket, you have deep structures of the shoulder including the joint capsule and shoulder labrum. Unlike muscles which can easily be lengthened and stretched, the capsule and labrum are inelastic and can cause the shoulder to become stiff. The most extreme case of this is Adhesive Capsulitis (Frozen Shoulder) in which the shoulder capsule becomes so tight many people can’t raise their arms above their heads. The your shoulder is stiff, you feel a deep stiffness and pain which limits your shoulder mobility in multiple directions and can be very painful at the end range of motion like reaching behind your head or behind your back. This loss of mobility can cause pain with daily activities and makes it difficult to Overhead Press, Bench Press, or Back Squat.
Should I Stretch If It Hurts?
Research shows that when you don’t have full mobility of a joint, you are more likely to have issues at that joint such as Tendonitis, Rotator Cuff Tears, and Arthritis. Getting shoulder mobliity back is crucial for long term joint health and needs to be addressed. However, shoulder stiffness can be very painful and because the root cause is from tissues that are elastic, stretching muscles can lead to pain and make the shoulder stiffen up even more. So before you stretch your shoulder so much it hurts, you need to get the joint moving. Unlike muscles, joints take longer to get warmed up and moving so before we stretch our muscles, you need to get your shoulder joint moving. Treating a stiff shoulder joint with the same prescription as a tight muscle is why you get frustrated that your shoulder stretching isn’t working. So rather than holding a doorway pec stretch for 1 minute, what should you do?
How Do I Relieve Shoulder Stiffness
It may suprise you, but sometimes Stretches Aren’t Good for You and not the key to health and longevity. So to address a stiff shoulder we need to think about two things. First we need to get the shoulder sitting in the right place in the joint, and then we can focus on getting the shoulder joint moving. Lets go into more detail of exactly how to do both of those things.
Photo Credit: Fitness Enhancement
Proper Shoulder Position
Along with Father Time, gravity is undefeated. Gravity and sitting will lead to your shoulder sitting forward in the socket causing rounded shoulders. To show you how shoulder position can change your mobility, try this quick experiment. Sit in as slouched a position as possible raise your arms overhead and assess how far your shoulders move. Now sit up tall and repeat. Crazy how much overhead mobility can change by getting your shoulder joint in the right position. Now before you go out and buy the posture strap you saw on TikTok you don’t need, you can work on your shoulder position. Think about it, if your back and core muscles were weak, would you wear a weightlifting belt 24/7 or work on getting stronger? To check your shoulder position, you can look in the mirror and check if the center of your shoulder sits in the same plane as your ear canal, or if it sits in front. More than likely, your position is sitting forward.
To get your shoulder in the proper position, I will prescribe the Shoulder Reset Mobility. To improve your shoulder stiffness, you want to get the joint warmed up and sitting back in the socket rather than jamming it at end range of motion with stretching.
Shoulder Mobility Routine
After you get your shoulder sitting back in the socket, now it’s time to work on the end range of motion to help improve the end range of motion. Moving the shoulder joint in and out of your limited range of motion will lead to less pain and a better range of motion. Rather than the classic pec and lat stretches, using a band to help pull the joint out will much more tolerable. When prescribing a mobility routine for a stiff shoulder, the sequence is best when you get the shoulder in the socket with the Shoulder Reset, improve the end range mobility you are most limited with a Band Lat Mobilization, then finish up with slow end range weight training with a Lat Eccentric.
Shoulder stiffness takes a long time to improve and the mobility work you do leads to temporary changes. The end range weight training works to “Save the Word Doc” and help you gain more mobility each time you work on it.
When should you get help?
If you are dealing with a stiff shoulder and aren’t getting relief in pain or getting more mobility, a personalized plan will expedite getting you back to the gym pain-free. A personalized prescriptive program and someone to hold you accountable to what to do, when to do it, and for how long is what it will take to fully resolve your shoulder stiffness.
Doing a Total Body Diagnostic to find the exact root of your back problem and outline a precise plan to work on your deficits and exactly what your back needs. No cookie-cutter back programs, no handouts with 10 pictures of stretches to do before you lift, only EXACTLY what you need to move better and feel better.
If you are interested in getting help, set up a Free Strategy Call to get clarity on your situation and set up your first visit where you can learn how to fix your back pain in the gym.
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Dr. Ryan
