Simple Exercises to Relieve Shoulder Pain and Creaky Joints

TL;DR: Most shoulder pain comes from poor communication between your shoulder blade (scapula) and upper arm bone (humerus). The shoulder joint is a mess: lots of muscles, ball and socket joint, and when things get thrown off (like from poor posture), you get pain and popping. Halos with a kettlebell or dumbbell are great for restoring that communication. The key is keeping your ribs down and head still. Don't let your body take the easy way out.

Today we're going to talk about exercises and movements that are really gonna help with those creaky shoulders. Or if you're like me, always dealing with your shoulders popping, making popping noises, or your mobility is just a little bit lacking.

These are great exercises to work into your warm-up, your exercise routine itself, and some daily movements.

Why your shoulders are a mess

Halos are great because what they're doing essentially is restoring communication between your humerus (upper arm bone) and your scapula (shoulder blade).

They're meant to have a communication with each other. They meet at the shoulder joint. The shoulder joint is pretty much a mess. There's a lot of muscles there, a lot of bone, being a ball and socket joint. So there's a lot of little things that can throw something off.

For example, if our posture is poor, we're going forward, we're overstretching one side and having the other tight. That can lead to any kind of issues. It could be causing discomfort or any kind of popping. Could be a million different things.

Regardless of what it may be, halos are great for giving that communication back between the shoulder blade and the humerus.

How to do a halo

You can use a kettlebell or dumbbell.

Start with it right underneath your chin. Bring up one elbow, and try to reach behind your head, all the way around, and then back down.

Try to keep one elbow at your side for as long as possible until obviously you reach that point where both come up. Reach behind your head, keep the other elbow down, keep it down, and then it comes up. Then get that other elbow down as quickly as possible.

The point is to keep the movement nice and concise. We're not just getting wild because that's not really serving any purpose.

The two biggest mistakes

1. Leaning forward

Try to keep your head as still as possible. If we lean forward, we've pretty much cut the shoulder some slack. Our body is always trying to take the easy way out.

If we want to challenge the shoulder joints so we can improve that mobility over time and hopefully get you feeling better, we need to keep the movement strict.

A lot of my clients tend to kind of go over. They're not getting back, they're leaving something behind. Do your best to really reach behind your head.

2. Letting your ribs pop up

Focus on your ribs. Don't let yourself pop up. That's our body taking the easy way out. That's our thoracic spine cutting the shoulder joint some slack and making it so we don't really challenge that mobility.

Keep those ribs down throughout the movement. Don't let yourself pop.

Another thing: if your ribs pop up, it's putting a lot of pressure on your spine. You can create a pinching motion in the lumbar that can lead to discomfort. And if you have some weight in your hand, it can lead to some pretty serious injuries that we definitely don't want.

Make it part of your routine

There's the halos. You can do those with kettlebell, dumbbell, whatever. Great exercise for your warmup and the exercise routine itself. Very flexible.

You can also do these:

• As part of your daily movement practice
• Before upper body workouts
• Whenever your shoulders feel stiff or creaky

The key is consistency. A few minutes a day can make a real difference over time.