The glenohumeral joint, aka the shoulder joint, is one of the most involved and almost by default vulnerable areas of the body. I often recite this saying, ‘you cannot fire a cannon from a canoe’. What I am getting at is the importance of solid foundations and that if you want to progress in the gym, which in turn will help you progress with your figure, you need to ensure you work from the ground up.

Shoulder injuries are rife among people who participate in a lot of sports and weight training. Today I want to go into why people often pick up niggles in their shoulder joints and how they can help avoid this happening.

The shoulder joint is a ‘ball & socket’ joint which means that there is a relatively free range of motion within the joint. Before we get into the whys and hows I want to share with you a bit more theory to gain a better understanding of the mechanics.

The shoulder joint consists of the humerus (the upper arm bone), the clavicle (the collar bone) and the scapula (the shoulder blade). Beyond the ‘ball and socket’ joint there are actually three other joints which complete the ‘shoulder joint’ as a generic term. These are as follows:

Acromioclavicular – AC Joint

Sternoclavicular – SC Joint

Scapulothoracic – S Joint

All of these are relevant, some more than others when considering overall shoulder health and performance. In my experience there are three main areas we need to consider when focussing on shoulder health and sustaining it.

1. Mobility

Our world is a very aesthetic one which means the ‘look’ is highly regarded and craved by many people; almost as a by-product there is less regard or care shown for the inside. ‘As long as I look good …’ is the usual mind-set. This is where the problems begin to start, a lack of care, almost laziness sets in with regards to any form of exercise that isn’t necessarily about sculpting a figure for the eye to enjoy. When you take all of the exercise done to achieve that perfect body, you can almost guarantee mobility issues will arise as a direct result. This means that there could be imbalances between muscle groups within the upper body, chest and shoulders, which in turn cause poor mobility within the shoulder joint. Over time if this isn’t addressed this can lead to added pressure on the joint, pain and ultimately poor performance in the gym.

To combat this, doing 3–4 short stretches a day on your joint can be the difference. Stretch your arm back behind you, hold on to a surface for resistance and hold for 20 seconds, completing 3 stretches per side, 3–4 times a day.

2. Posture

Modern-day living often means that you sit or stand with bad posture: especially those who spend 8 hours of their day slouched in an office chair. Typically your shoulders will lean forward due to a weakness (lack of development) within your lower trapezius muscles (centre of your back). As a result the front of your shoulders become tight which can cause shoulder joint pain.

To combat this, combined with the stretching above, make a conscious effort to sit up right, hold your shoulders back and engage your back muscles.

3. Big Muscles, Little Muscles

When you lift in the gym you will almost exclusively recruit big muscle groups to lift the weight which is how they develop, great. However, the smaller muscles which aren’t ‘on show’ which act as fixators to the joint won’t get a workout when you are lifting like this because the weight used is too much. Again, coming back to patience and intelligence I recommend you spend time every week using very light resistance to strengthen the muscles within the joint.

Improving the mobility within your shoulder joint with flexibility and strength work is crucial to the longevity of the joint. Whilst we all love to focus on looking good we must remain grounded and realise that without a strong foundation your building will begin to crumble.