The Simplest Way to Improve Shoulder Movement and Pain
“The wise soul without great doings achieves greatness.”
– Lao Tzu
The shoulder is the joint with the broadest range of motion in your body. It takes 8 muscles to move and stabilize the shoulder. Although the shoulder is complicated, there’s a simple way to improve your shoulder’s range of motion and reduce shoulder pain.
Dead hangs.
To do a deadhang, grab a pull-up bar (or other stable, horizontal bar) and simply hang from it. Hanging from a bar puts your arms into an overhead position while your weight pulls the shoulder muscles and joint, stretching everything out.
As simple as the exercise is, executing it can be difficult, especially if you have limited range of motion in your shoulders. To get started:
Grab a bar you can reach while keeping your feet planted. Holding your arms overhead with no weight might be a good place to start for some people.
If that doesn’t feel like a stretch, bend your knees to create tension on the joint.
Work your way towards putting less weight on your legs and eventually into a complete hang.
When you start, it may be difficult to do this for more than a few seconds at a time. Hang for as long as you can, and take a minute break before repeating. You can do this for up to 10-15 minutes a day. You will likely see some fast results.
One thing to note is that doing dead hangs does not feel good and will likely hurt a bit. You’re stretching a complicated joint, so pain is not unusual. Just don’t push yourself too hard.
—Erik Pavia, CEO
Related Resources
The deadhang as treatment for injury was researched by John M. Kirsch, an orthopedic surgeon. He wrote a book on his deadhang research.
You can watch a video on how hanging helps your shoulders from the most famous PTs on the internet.
A great tool for stretching your shoulders is the humble PVC pipe. Hold on to the pipe with both hands and move it around your head like this. You can get 6-foot long, 1-2 inch pipe from any hardware store for $15. Or use a broomstick to start.
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