Shoulder Health, Maintenance, and Training: A Series on Shoulder Mastery

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This start position, is hands down, 100%, no questions asked, the only thing in human movement, that may benefit EVERYTHING. Mastering, understanding, and practicing this position will relieve pain, make you stronger, faster, quicker, improve balance, agility, coordination, and improve your breathing, stress levels, and allow you to connect with your body.

The shoulder. Oh, the lovely shoulder.

There are two places on the human body that I get to talk in depth about on a daily basis, the low back and the shoulder. So much so that I wrote a sweet eBook on the low back that you can download (seriously, read it, it is really informative and I am very proud of it).

The shoulder however is a full beast on its own. The shoulder is the least stable joint, has the largest range of motion, and can move in more directions than any other joint in the body. With that comes a lot of instability and that instability leads to a lot of nicks, dings, and injuries.

Before we get into training the shoulder joint, we should talk about the other 23 hours of the day when you are not at the gym.

In that other 23 hours, you spend about an hour sitting in your car with a gangster lean and one arm on the wheel, eight of those hours is spent hunched over a computer, and another eight of those hours you spend asleep, most likely with your arm over your head with an internally rotated shoulder.

It is easy to see the gym is not your problem. The one hour a day at the gym is barely enough to counteract the imbalance created in the other 23 hours.

The focus of this series is to understand how the shoulder works, develop habits that allow you to heal yourself, and find exercises that will develop proper range of motion and create health, strong, pain free shoulders.

The Universal Start Position

If there is an art to coaching, it is in connecting pieces of a puzzle, finding themes to movement that benefit everything.

If I have not sold you by now, just sign off.

So what is it and how do we get there?

As you read this article, you are most likely sitting. So stand up. Gently roll your shoulders back and pull them down towards your hips. Next, gently tense your abs to about 20- 30% of your best summer selfie beach pose. Finally squeeze your butt to about 20-30% tension. That is it. So simple, so versatile, yet incredibly misunderstood.

What does this accomplish?

Allows proper shoulder position, externally rotating shoulders.
Draws the ribs down – develop musculature to protect spine, relieves emotional stress in the sympathetic nervous system, and allows for diaphragmatic breathing
Creates a neutral pelvis – protects lumbar spine, stops over-extension, and pelvic tilt.

So simple, right? I know. But this is the starting point to any discussion on healing pain and healing shoulders.

Every time you do anything, stop, roll your shoulders back and down and find tension in your glutes and abs. It also would not hurt if you took one deep breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.

More to come on Monday.

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Anders Varner

Anders Varner has focused on fitness and sport since he was able to walk. At the age of 14 he left home to pursue his dreams of playing ice hockey. While obtaining his business degree in undergrad at James Madison University, much of his attention was still focused on health and fitness.

In 2007 Anders was introduced to the CrossFit ...