Shoulder Exercise to Prevent Impingement and Improve Shoulder Flexion

If you have access to gymnastics rings, another suspension training system like TRX, or even a stable overhead bar, you can lean into it with your hands while your arms are straight overhead, and gently induce flexion through your shoulder joints.

The benefit of using gymnastics rings is that in this position, you can take your arms through a wide range of motion up and down along your sides as you would doing jumping jacks. By taking your arms slowly through this arc around your body while your shoulders are slightly flexed (at the sides of your face or even slightly behind your ears), you will have excellent shoulder mobility for overhead activities.

If taking your arms through a full arc along your sides makes you feel uneasy, you can simply maintain any degree of shoulder flexion that feels comfortable, and gently pulse your upper body forward an inch or two at a time to carefully induce more flexion into your shoulder joints. You can even move your arms outward a few inches at a time while maintaining shoulder flexion - every little bit of controlled movement that you can put your shoulders through while they are above your head in flexion is helpful to long term shoulder mobility.

For an overview of exercise progressions that you can work at to improve your mobility and balance in a systematic way, please feel free to visit our Mobility Exercise Progressions page here:

Mobility Exercise Progressions

For some suggestions on how to set up a simple workout area at home, please feel free to view:

Suggested Resources for a Home Gym