As a climber, snowboarder, and martial artist it may not be hard to imagine me hurting my shoulders.  The climbs I get on while pushing my grade often require strenuous shoulder moves. When I'm snowboarding I have a hard time not trying new tricks and techniques, which often leads to some beautiful falls. Then, I find myself in some uncomfortable positions in class at karate while learning and practicing self defense.  My shoulders were always sore and on the verge of injury until I started to do the Stop Slouching Routine you can get for free by CLICKING HERE.

What was happening?

I had the problems I did with my shoulders because I had some muscles that were chronically tight and others that never helped out while I was moving.  This lead to poor posture, a constant slouch with my head jutting forward, and regularly fighting pain and discomfort in my shoulders.  The solution for me and many other adventurers was a three step plan and only takes about 10 minutes 3-5 days a week.  The first step is to get the tight muscles to relax. Then, we have to strengthen the lazy ones. Finally, we re-train some movements to get them all working together.

Step 1: Relaxing Tight Muscles

You may think this is just getting some stretches in but, to get the best results, you need to do a little SMR too. (What IS SMR?) This means you are going to identify which muscles are too tight for you, usually this is either your pectoralis (pects) or your latissimus (lats). My problem was mostly my pects, but they were working together so I hit both a little. Then, we massage and stretch them. This one, two combo maximizes your effort and gets you results faster than just stretching alone.

Step 2: Isolated Strengthening

After loosening tight muscles, we isolate and strengthen the ones that aren't helping as much as they should. You likely have seen a lot of these exercises if you have ever gone to a physical therapist because this what they do too. You should be using light weights and be supper focused on form as it can be really easy to start recruiting muscles you don't mean to.

Step 3: Re-training

This last step is usually an exercise that requires multiple joint movements so you can re-learn how to your shoulder should work with the joints around it.  I like to finish with a couple hangboard pull ups as climber, but a squat to a shoulder press can work just as well.

I stop my shoulders from hurting by incorporating a corrective exercise routine that also improved my posture. You can get the routine I used for free by clicking the button below.