Strong shoulders built at home

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Ciao everybody and welcome back to another fitness blog post! This week, I’d like to share some of my favorite exercises you can do anywhere to build strong and balanced shoulders. 

First, a little context into how I discovered these exercises and why I chose to share them here. In November of last year I cancelled my gym membership as a way to give myself the challenge of staying fit without all of the fancy gym equipment at my disposal. I wanted to see if I could get in a challenging workout each day from home using mostly my own body weight. Well, five months later, I’m very happy to report that it is entirely possible to build a strong and well-balanced physique all from the comfort of your living room (or wherever you choose to workout). 

Another benefit to working out at home is that you save time (the commute to the gym for me is about a 15 minute walk each way) and therefore remove a factor that could potentially tempt you into skipping your workout. For me, working out has to be as convenient as possible or I won’t do it consistently. Removing any piece of friction between you and your workout (e.g. gym commute, feeling embarrassed where you workout, having the right equipment/ gym clothes) is key to sustaining an enjoyable and long-term fitness journey. 

So, in this post I’d like to lay out some of my favorite shoulder exercises that I’ve been practicing for the last few months to keep my shoulders strong and healthy. Many of these are yoga-inspired as I have been on a bit of a yoga kick (currently getting my certificate to become a yoga teacher) so they will not only make you stronger but will also keep your shoulders healthy and mobile. As they are all bodyweight you can make them as easy or as difficult as you wish. I’ll be posting a corresponding Youtube video this Thursday with a detailed voiceover of how to perform each move correctly along with modifications to build up to the final move. As a general rule of thumb, correct form is the most important so if you find you can’t do the final move, use the modifications or adjust the amount of time until you can safely perform it. 

So without further ado, let’s get into these fabulous exercises:

Warm-up:

I recommend a two-part warm-up when working shoulders. As with any exercise it’s important to make sure you’re nice and warm before you start, particularly in the areas you plan to train. Some examples of solid warm-ups for shoulders would be 30-40 seconds of push-ups, 1-2 minutes of jumping jacks, 1-2 minutes jumping rope, or even 40 seconds of jump squats. The goal here is to increase your heart rate and core temperature before you start working into specific muscle groups.

The second part of the warm-up has to do with the wrists. All of the following exercises are bodyweight and a large portion of them are done on the hands (wrists), therefore, it’s crucial to properly warm up the wrists before you start so that you build healthy and mobile wrists and prevent injury. 

Wrist warm-up:

  1. Start on all fours. Make full circles on your hands pushing into all ten fingers as you do. You should be going forward (shoulders past the hands) and backward (elbows closer to the knees) in order to warm up the full range of motion. 

  2. Use your thumb and middle finger to pinch the wrist of the opposite hand. You should be able to “separate” the joint by applying pressure with these two fingers. Then, roll the wrist in a full circle four times one direction and four times in the other. 

*A full breakdown of the wrist warm-up I do will be in the Youtube video. If you have any other exercises that you do which are good for wrist health, I welcome you to leave them down below :)

Full shoulder workout:

  1. Scapular shrugs (modification: on knees)

  2. High plank hold 30 seconds (modification: on knees)

  3. Hold down dog 30 seconds (modification: bend the knees in order to keep the arms as straight and long as possible)

  4. Down dog to dolphin x6 reps (modification: one arm goes down at a time)

  5. Dolphin nose taps x 6 (modification: bend the knees as much as necessary)

  6. Low Pincha (forearm stand) crunch against wall (modification: hold elbow plank for 30 seconds)

  7. Full Pincha hold against wall (*This one is advanced so if you’d like to progress to it, simply practice #3 and #6 with modifications to work up to it)

Cooldown: 

5 full vinyasas (downdog -> high plank -> chatarunga -> upward dog -> down dog)

Follow with full shoulder stretching sequence (e.g. puppy pose, cross body stretch, pull shoulders behind the back, etc.)

As I mentioned above, I will be uploading a Youtube video showing this entire workout with a detailed voice-over this Thursday :) If you do this workout each week (or twice a week if you are really determined/ active), I promise your shoulder strength and flexibility will improve. 

Are there any bodyweight exercises that you all love that I missed? Which body part would you all like to see next? Yoga has given me a new perspective (and subsequent challenge) on working out and the myriad ways to move your body to make it stronger and more efficient. If there’s something specific you’d like to see, please leave a comment down below or send me a message on Instagram and I’d be happy to do my best to make a post on it. 

Until next week!

Xoxo,

Alexandra