Your shoulder joint has a very large range of motion compared to other joints in your body. The trade-off is that has a tendency to be unstable. The way your body manages these two opposing factors is to use muscles to control the position of the arm in the shoulder socket. Of course, those muscles are under the total control of your nervous system. If these muscles get injured or the nerves to them get compromised by subluxation in the neck, you can develop shoulder problems.

These exercises are designed to strengthen these stabilizing muscles of your shoulder and are good to do in conjunction with spinal adjustments to maximise nerve flow to them at the same time.

Exercise 1 – External Rotation

1. Lie on your side, on the edge of a bed or couch. Place a weight (anything around the home that is heavy and not too large e.g. can of baked beans, small hand weight etc.)
2. Put your elbow at your side, keep it at 90 degrees.
3. Slowly raise your hand keeping your elbow fixed at 90 degrees.
4. Lower to below horizontal.
5. Don’t push into any painful region.
6. Repeat 15 times. This is 1 set.
7. Roll onto other side; and repeat as above.

Do 1 or 2 sets each day.

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Exercise 2 – Internal Rotation

 

1. This time use the arm on the bottom. Lie so you don’t quite have your weight on your arm.
2. Do the same as for Exercise 1, keeping your elbow at 90 degrees
   

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Exercise 3 – Side Raise

 

1. Lay on your side. Your upper arm will do the work. Keep it fully straight, weight in hand.
2. Slowly raise your arm – just 15-20 degrees is all we need.
3. Lower. Repeat. 15 reps is a set.

Do 1 or 2 sets each day.

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 Exercise 4 – Shoulder Push-Ups

 

1. Begin in the push up position, resting on your knees.
2. Drop your body between your shoulders keeping your arms straight.
3. Squeeze your shoulders blades together, as if to make your shoulder blades meet at the back, and hold for 3-5 seconds.
4. Lift your body up and out from between your shoulders. Elbows stay straight the whole time.
5. Repeat 15 times. This is 1 set.

Do 1 or 2 sets each day.

You can do more reps and more sets if you like. The more you do, the faster your strength will improve.