This week, we are focusing on shoulder mobility and stability. If your shoulders are off-balanced and week, or if you lack range of motion in the rotator cuff and shoulder girdle, your neck and spine will have to do some work to compensate. This can lead to tension in the neck, shoulders, and mid-back.
Try these 2 moves out to gain mobility and strength through the whole shoulder.
This week, we are working on keeping those shoulders DOWN. Cold and stress can keep those shoulders up by the ears. Try these two moves to help bring them back down where they belong.
This week, we are focusing on the internal rotation of the shoulders. A lot of people think they don’t want to work on internal rotation because their shoulders are rounded forward. However, it could be a lack of internal rotation that drags your shoulders, neck, and upper back forward. If you can’t move properly from the shoulder joint, everything else will have to move to compensate. Long story short, stop ignoring the shoulder capsule. Make sure it moves properly…in all directions.
We are finishing our lat week of Joint Health Month focused on the knees.
A lot of the time, our exercises only focus in the knee in it’s most neutral position. In the first video, try this rotation and mobility exercise to find the full range of your knee. Explore how it moves so you can train smarter.
Our knees need the hamstring. Weak hamstring = weak knees. In the second video, try this version of a bridge to target the whole posterior chain system and start supporting those knees.
We are focusing on the shoulder joint this week. The shoulder is a ball and socket joint which means it can move it a large variety of ways. The first movement allows you to explore the full range of the joint. Not only will it help create more movement in the shoulder, it will also show you the places where you could use more motion.
Once you have created all that mobility, add some stability to the shoulder with the 2nd video. Most often, the biggest impact our shoulder’s take is when we reach out when we fall. Try this shoulder press to gain some shoulder strength and stability to keep the joint happy and prepared.
This week, we are focusing on the ankle. A lot of the problems that show up in our feet and our knees, are usually due to the fact that our ankles don’t move correctly. The moves below work on both dorsiflexion (toes towards the shin) and plantar flexion (toes pointed away from shin).
I threw in a bonus exercise for those of you that need some mobility laterally with your ankle movement.
Bonus Exercise!
All month long we are going to be focusing on keeping your joints happy and healthy (and hopefully, creak-free).
This first week, we are working on the lumbar spine. Need some mobility in that area? Try this first exercise to get it moving. Need some stability? Try the second exercise to turn on those low back stabilizers and give your spine some support. Want to have a healthy back? Do both. 😜
This week, we are all about the rotation. From the shoulder to the spine.
This spinal twist is perfect after any activity, not just skiing or snowboarding. It gives your spine a gentle twist while opening up the chest and hips. Plus, if feels amazing.
The shoulder exercise below, rounds out our shoulder strength for things like poling, falling, and pushing ourselves back up again.
We are moving away from the hips this week and out to our extremities.
After spending all day in our boots, our ankles can become lockdown and stiff. Try this first video to gain some range of motion in the ankle joint.
And it is not just our legs the need attention. Our upper body needs to be strong to help us with everything from poling to getting back up after we fall. Try the videos below (bonus video from Gerry) to get those arms and shoulders ready.
Last week , we worked on hip external rotation. This week, we are focused on hip internal rotation. Why all the focus on rotation? Because rotation is where we can access the stability and strength of the hip joint. Not only do our muscles need to be strong, but we also need to have stable joints so we can use the full capacity of our strength.
We can test out that strength and stability with the BONUS VIDEO from Gerry Halverson.
Brenna Backe 