Category — Shoulders

If you’ve ever played baseball or football, odds are you’ve experienced shoulder pain at some point. How you deal with and treat that pain ultimately determines how quickly you can get back on the field.

Men’s Health provides some good tips and treatment suggestions for shoulder pain and impingement. They focus on developing flexibility in the area and treating it with rest and anti-inflammatory medications. Also, mild to moderate weight training in the area can help in developing strength.

Remember, all of us love to play recreational sports, however you have treat yourself just as a professional athlete would — you have to take care of your body and the areas that you put stress on when you compete. If you do that, your body will thank you and you’ll be able to participate in the sports you love for many years.

Hitting plateaus can be frustrating, especially when it seems like you’re not making anymore gains. For me, my shoulders have always been an area that has needed constant “shocking” and exercise variation. We’ve all done military presses and shoulder rows, but MensHealth.com has come up with a variation on the pushup that will help you breakthrough those stalemates and experience serious shoulder gains.

It’s called a jackknife pushup and it works by training your chest and shoulders while maintaining core stabilization throughout. It trains each shoulder individually which also helps to eliminate any imbalances you may have.

They also offer a modified version of the exercise so you can slowly work your way to mastering it.

MensHealth.com reports that using simple equipment like a medicine ball and elastic resistance can increase power in your throwing shoulder. Researchers at the University of Delaware have concluded that doing these exercises for 8 weeks can increase your fastball by 2 mph. 

It may not seem like much but if you’ve ever played baseball you can probably attest that an 88 mph pitch is a little easier to hit that a 90 mph one.

Plus, the exercises will strengthen your rotator cuff and make you less prone to shoulder injuries.