What do powerlifters and elderly women have in common? They both have banged up shoulders and hip mobility issues. Most of the problems in the shoulder are due to some form of impingement, tendonitis, stabilizer weakness, or poor mobility. As for the hips, I find most people don’t stretch the hip properly and have trouble activating their glutes.
The following movements have helped me and my powerlifting and elderly female clients with shoulder and hip problems. If you or a client has recently had surgery, I recommend performing these movements after the completion of physical therapy.
Assessment
To find out where your true problems lie, we’ll perform the “naked get up.” It isn’t a Turkish get up without clothes but a Turkish get up performed without weight. The get up will be used first as a movement assessment tool. This is why I say “perform it cold.” You want to really be able to check out faulty movement patterns. It’s best to have a trainer or training partner observe each phase of the get up because it will be tough to determine if you’re moving properly alone. If you’ve never preformed the get up, I will go over each phase of it in detail in the corrective section.
After a movement assessment, the naked get up will be used to correct stabilization and mobility problems. As you perform the get up, try and feel if you have any problems with stability in the shoulders, tightness in the mid back or T-spine, problems keeping the arms locked out or locking the hips out, or issues with sweeping the leg through. Perform one get up on each side of your body and mark down what areas you had problems with. You will reassess at the end of the corrective movements.
Mobility drills
Most routines for athletes start with a dynamic warm up and mobility drills. Not too many people go into too much depth of what these movements are and how important they are to your muscle and joint health. Most people also know that we don’t static stretch before movement because it decreases muscle tension. So mobility drills warm up the joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons, preparing them for work. Notice I didn’t say stretching the joints and ligaments but preparing them. If there is pain in any of the joints, stop! There will be some cracking and popping and that is fine as long as there isn’t any pain. I’ve had issues with tendonitis in both my left and right arms. I feel that the following drills played a major role in alleviating the pain. They’re simple to do, which makes it easy to skip over them. We perform these drills before every kettlebell workout or class. No wonder everyone who does kettlebell work has great flexibility, posture, and healthy joints! Well the kettlebell itself has a lot to do with that, but the drills will prepare you and will let you know if you have any problem areas that need to be corrected before you do something dumb with a lot of weight.
Neck drills: Stand up tall, tilt your chin back as far as you can, feel for any tightness, and then drop your jaw to stretch your neck. Next, tuck your chin into your chest and feel for tightness in the back of your neck. Then move your neck from side to side. Try to get your chin as close to parallel to your shoulder. Don’t roll the neck in circles. This isn’t proper movement for the neck. You can also go diagonally if needed. Hold each movement for about 3–4 seconds. Do three reps of each movement unless there is tightness. If there is tightness, perform as many as possible until the tightness decreases.
Wrist drills: Very simply lift the wrist up and extend the fingers so that you feel a stretch in the entire hand and forearm. Then reverse the movement and push the wrist toward the floor and curl your fingers. Try to either keep the elbows bent at your side or the arms extended straight ahead. Next, slide the wrist all the way to one side, extending the fingers as straight as possible. Lastly, perform wrist circles by rotating the wrist in big circles clockwise and counterclockwise. As the wrist is rotating, open and close your fingers or move them as if you were playing a piano. Perform ten reps in each direction. This will get all of the ligaments ready and the joints mobile.
Shoulder drills: The easiest and most overlooked drill is the arm circle. Perform them front to back, leading with the thumbs forward. Start big and end small. Then go back to the front, still leading with the thumb. Go big and then small or small and big. It doesn’t really matter. The key here is to try and keep the thumb leading and your arm fully extended. Don’t bend at the elbow. This will take tension out of the movement. Perform ten reps in each direction and in each length. If done properly, 40 total reps may even make your shoulder tired.
Shoulder, elbow, and wrist drill: Start by extending your arms straight out at shoulder height. Your body should make the letter “T.” You can either do two arms at the same time or just one. Doing two arms at a time will create more tension in the body, causing a greater stretch. Start by rotating the thumbs in toward your head, keeping your elbows as still as possible. The elbows should stay parallel to your shoulders. The wrist and forearm should rotate all the way around and back to the “T” position. At the “T” position, make sure your joints are locked out and the shoulders are screwed in the socket. After the reps are complete, reverse everything. Then perform the movement by bringing the hand down low toward the armpit. It should look like you’re putting your arm in the sleeve of a jacket. Perform ten of each movement for a total of 40 reps. Make sure that you’re twisting your wrist as much as possible and that you’re locking out your elbows. This will prepare your joints for heavy loads.
Hip, knee, and ankle circles: These are pretty self-explanatory, but you don’t want to skip over them. The hip circles are to be done with locked knees. Start by hinging the hips back and rotating to one direction and then back to the other direction. Each rep should end in a complete hip and knee lock out with a clenched butt. Moving on to the knees, bend and place your hands on the knees. Keep a straight back. Posture is always important. Perform circles to one direction. Your circle size will be determined by whether or not your feet are flat. If your feet are coming up off the floor or wobbling too much, you’re going too big so decrease the size. Knee lock out isn’t required. Repeat this for the other side. Finally, perform ankle circles. Stand on one leg and draw a circle with your heel on the other leg. After you do circles in each direction, flex and extend the foot. Perform ten reps in each direction with each joint.
Good thing that is over! I almost fell asleep writing it. I can imagine how you felt reading it. I know it’s boring, and I know it’s easy to skip over but don’t. You and your joints will thank me later. Focus in on the movement, feel for tender areas, and work them out.
Stay tuned for part two!