Pain in the top of your shoulder with overhead movement is very common. We often associate this with weakness in the rotator cuff and periscapular muscles. However, evidence has shown that an exercise-based program to help strengthen the involved muscles significantly alleviates pain from this diagnosis.
Watch this short video to see how to perform these exercises to help manage your shoulder pain.
Shoulder Impingement Exercises
- Sidelying Shoulder ER
- Prone T
- Serratus Punches
- Quadruped Push-Up Plus
- Shoulder Raises in Scaption (45 degrees away from the body)
- Sword Pulls
The main important element is to strengthen all the muscles around the shoulders ensuring they are performed correctly without compensation from other musculature. Research has shown that performing these exercises helps to decrease pain from subacromial pain syndrome significantly, and therefore recommends strengthening over-stretching exercises.
As always, monitor your systems when performing activities if you have pain. If you’d like further guidance on the proper performance of these exercises, feel free to reach out to one of our physical therapists at SetPT to get thoroughly assessed. Happy Moving!
Source adapted from:
Hotta, G. H., Gomes de Assis Couto, A., Cools, A. M., McQuade, K. J., & Siriani de Oliveira, A. (2020). Effects of adding scapular stabilization exercises to a periscapular strengthening exercise program in patients with subacromial pain syndrome: A randomized controlled trial. Musculoskeletal science & practice, 49, 102171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msksp.2020.102171
