TOP 3 Exercises for SHOULDER PAIN

First of all, how can I even say these are the top three shoulder exercises?
Because weakness or dysfunction in three muscle groups are a major contributing factor in a majority of cases of shoulder pain (1)(2). So simply by targeting these three areas with specific exercises first, we can improve our shoulder mechanics directly!
Think of all the large, powerful muscles around your shoulder: Your lats, pecs and delts. The scapular muscles are fighting against them to keep the humeral head in the glenoid fossa of the shoulder blade as we move our arm. If our scapular muscles are not strong enough to maintain alignment in the shoulder then it's a fast track to pain.
The three areas in particular that we need to focus on: the serratus anterior, the lower fibres of the trapezius and the rotator cuff, specifically the external rotators. Weakness in each of these three areas has been identified as a contributing factor to many cases of shoulder pain (3)
Sauces
(1) van der Windt DA, Koes BW, de Jong BA, Bouter LM. Shoulder disorders in general practice: Incidence, patient characteristics, and management. Ann Rheum Dis. 1995;54(12):959-64.
(2) The Association of Scapular Kinematics and Glenohumeral Joint Pathologies, PM Ludewig, JF Reynolds, J Orthop Sports Phys Ther
(3)alterations in shoulder kinematics and associated muscle activity in people with symptoms of shoulder impingement", Paula M Ludewig, Thomas M cook
(4) Scapular and rotator cuff muscle activity during arm elevation: A review of normal function and alterations with shoulder impingement Phadke V , Camargo PR , Ludewig PM
(5) Decker MJ, Hintermeister RA, Faber KJ, Hawkins RJ. Serratus Anterior Muscle Activity During Selected Rehabilitation Exercises. The American Journal of Sports Medicine. 1999;27(6):784-791.
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If you're still reading, I hope you have an awesome day :)

[@DecideToBeYou]

love these suggestion. With the dynamic punch if there is pain when using the band, do you start without using the band?

[@Sammy_T56]

Nikki delivering the goods once again! Thanks for the handy info

[@QEDFitness]

Thanks Zygmunt 💪

[@sixro]

You deserve more subs! Thanks!

[@QEDFitness]

Thank you 🙏

[@vertex.shader]

these graphics are incredible, so glad I found this

[@QEDFitness]

Thank you so much 😊

[@James-mr5kb]

Good info and excellent production quality

[@QEDFitness]

Thank you 🙏

[@melitasorbian5386]

Thanks Nikki - great video thank you! Thank you for sharing your knowledge so we shall have power 👍🏼🙂

[@QEDFitness]

Thanks Mel!

[@edwardsorbian7621]

Have had sore shoulder so will try these exercises. Great info. 💪

[@QEDFitness]

Awesome to hear!

[@louismiddleton3127]

Hey, thanks for the video - I buggered my left shoulder and was diagnosed with bursitis in the left shoulder after doing too heavy a bench press around 8 months back. Due to not being able to gym from agonizing shoulder pain I started running more frequently and I did a pretty hard run about 6 months ago and the next day my serratus anterior (all along my rear rib cage) was in absolute agony I could hardly breathe for about 3 days and spent most of my time in bed and it hasn't been quite right since. Its felt constantly tight and sore - especially when doing a light chest exercises or back exercises. I can't run, can't bench, can't do latt pulldowns or rows without pain. Ironically the only exercise I can do without pain is a light shoulder press and it seems to somewhat make my serratus feel better for a little bit. Not sure if you would have heard of this happening to anyone else, I see a physio but I only live in a small town and she is really good but I guess my circumstances are complicated and rare. She has helped improve my flexibility a heap as I could hardly raise my arm above my head before. I can now but the pain is still always there. I know this is a longshot but if you have heard of this happening before or have an answer I would love to know - Cheers mate - I have liked and subscribed - thank-you for your video!

[@QEDFitness]

It sounds like you’ve got some pretty major issues going on that have lead on from each other, the bursitis and then this says to me there’s a pretty big issue somewhere in the chain. You will have to pretty much have to start again as far as finding out what the problem is and build the shoulder back up from the ground. Either you or you and your physio are going to have to sleuth it out and if she isn’t giving you a hard answer as to what it is, you’re going to have to do trial by error with her recommendations or your own ideas. All I can say is start with the most common mobility issues. Thoracic mobility, internal rotator tightness, external rotator weakness etc and try some solutions - and make sure you stick to them for a few weeks - then decide if it’s helping and keep it or toss and move on. Sometimes it’s really hard and frustrating to solve this issues, but you’ve just gotta try and stay motivated and push through regardless on the days when you aren’t

[@Against_Gravity]

Great video. One question though: is that external rotation exercise (1:10) isolating mostly the supraspinatus? I'm asking this because there's another external rotation exercise variation: the 'side lying external rotation' that isolates the infraspinatus. So I wonder if it's necessary to do both variations for a more complete external rotators strengthening.

[@QEDFitness]

Supra adducts the upper arm so it would be contracting isometrically to hold the arm up, but not really more than that. The infra and teresminor externally rotate the upper arm so they are the muscles being targeted here

[@nikosellinas1151]

When I do the scapular pull, I feel pain in my left shoulder in combination with some kind of "cracking". And this is worse when I try to also retract the scapula to do an arch hang. Should I do the rest of the exercises and the scapular pulls with the band?

[@QEDFitness]

I’d say go see a professional about it to get to the bottom of it. But at the very least don’t do anything that causes you pain!

[@1nf3ct3dTT]

Very good content. I found the back music a little too loud tho (or maybe too much bass/snare?)

[@QEDFitness]

Thanks, the backing track came out a bit louder than I anticipated after the upload 😬

[@christianmiller6046]

came for the shoulder pain, stayed for the cool full body tatoos

[@QEDFitness]

💪💪

[@zetadroid]

nice, unfortunately I cannot like it more than once

[@QEDFitness]

I feel the same about this comment 🙏