Essential Shoulder Soft Tissue Work

With just a tennis ball, a foam roller and a few well thought out stretches you can keep your shoulder pain and injury free.

The shoulder is a very mobile joint, one nor built for stability. Saying that, even a small biomechanical imbalance can mean an injury. Shoulder injuries are both common and painful. Overuse problems such as tendinitis can sneak up on you and are relatively hard to get rid of without rest or constant treatment. Luckily there are usually a number of easily fixable underlying problems. Some of which we will be addressing here

Self soft tissue work is probably the beat recovery you can do on your own. Considering not all of us have large wallets, getting professional help all the time is difficult… But you can get almost the same benefits whenever you want with some very cheap tools.

The parts we will look at working on today are jut some typical problematic areas. These are usually tight or issues on a lot of people and cause problems. Be aware that this might not be you, but there is a fair bet that these will give you some relief.

PECS

The pec muscles, minor and major are responsible for shoulder flexion, adduction and also contributes to internal rotation. Whether it be too much bench press in relation to back work ( common mistake) or simple sitting at the desk too much or walking with terrible posture… A lot of us have some sort of tightness in the pecs. This means that your shoulder are rounded, and your already small and squished in Glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) becomes even smaller and with less space for tendons to move through. Pec releases and stretches will go a long way to loosening and opening up your shoulders.

Excerpt taken from Tennis Ball series…Yes, I look a little like a dead fish, but it’s the most effective way to get at these babies. You will find the best response comes from the upper pecs, where the muscle starts to get smaller and go into your shoulder. It’s a big muscle, so play around. Lay on the ground with the ball underneath you. Roll around a little until you find tight and tender spots, then hold. This is a pretty painful one, but very necessary in almost everyone.

Pec Stretch

LATS

Instead of going through everything again I will direct you to a post I wrote not long ago on the lats…. The why and how.

Latissimus Dorsi Soft Tissue Work

INFRASPINATUS AND TERES MINOR

Maybe it’s just me, and highly likely given my volleyball profession, but this muscle causes me a lot of problems. Get it with a tennis ball. Again head to this Tennis Ball post and scroll down to Rotator Cuff…detailed explanations on how to hit it there.

There are many other spots you can work, but I find if you hit the pecs and lats constantly, you will be going a long way to keeping your shoulder pain and injury free

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