Building Shoulder Strength

“What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” Kelly Clarkson sings. Please, let’s not take it that far! But building muscle mass is important for increasing metabolism and fighting off both bone and muscle loss as we age.

One of the biggest fears that I hear when women come to the gym is they don’t want to get bulky or big. They, therefore, shy away from the work that would benefit them in several key areas. The other misconnection is that there has to be a free weight or machine involved!

Not true! Body weight, bands, kettlebells, wheelbarrows, and small children can all help you get strong as long as we use a progressive overload! More on that next time!

This time let’s do some simple pull exercises with our shoulder. The pull exercises help with muscles in our back, which help with our posture and our movements of daily life! Such as taking things off the shelf (boxes of holiday stuff) or pulling open a large door (think refrigerator).

We can always go bigger or heavier, but with these first strength exercises for the shoulders, lighter is better.

Sword Pull

• Place a band on the floor and put your right foot down to hold it.
• Take the left hand to about the mid part of the band and swoop across the body like pulling a sword.
• Then return it to the pocket. I chose to demonstrate this standing as there is more core engagement.
• Be sure to keep your shoulder blade down away from your ears.
• Repeat 10-12 times or until fatigued. On both sides.

A word of caution with this exercise, band or the lightest pulley at the gym is best. Progression may best be done with destabilizing rather than increasing weight.

Standing Row with Band

• Face the anchor point of the band.
• Start with arms extended and pull the band toward your body bending elbows at 90 degrees.
• Elbows should be close to the rib cage.
• Return to extended arms and repeat.
• Be sure to initiate from the back rather than pulling just with the arms.
• Do 10-12 reps, build to 3-5 sets.

These muscle help with posture!

Straight Arm Pull-Down with Band

• Face the anchor point of the band.
• Start with arms extended and pull your arms straight back with the band as if pushing back water behind you.
• Again, initiate from the back.
• Do 10-12 reps, build to 3-5 sets.

The muscles engaged are more the mid-back. You will also be engaging your tri-cep here but it is a helper, the back is the main muscle.

They look simple and they are! But they can provide relief from upper back pain and lower neck pain by strengthening muscles that are often not used, we don’t see them in the mirror!

As always these are done in a pain-free range of motion. If there is any pain, stop the exercise and seek advise from a Medical health professional.

Let me know how they work for you by leaving me a comment.