Shoulder Lifts That Won’t Stress Your Ligaments

Ligaments are bands of fibrous tissue that hold your joints together and connect bone with cartilage. The joint capsule in your shoulder is a collection of ligaments that connects the upper bone of your arm to your shoulder socket. Besides being painful, shoulder ligament injuries can prevent you from being able to exercise or perform ordinary daily activities. Strengthening and improving flexibility of your shoulders can help reduce your risk of a painful shoulder ligament injury.

The most common causes of injury to a shoulder ligament are activities that involve repetitive, overhead motion, such as weightlifting, swimming and playing tennis. Under-developed or weak muscles and ligaments can contribute to shoulder ligament injuries. Shoulder separation or dislocation of the shoulder joint may occur from a fall that separates the ligaments that attach your shoulder joint to your collarbone. Increasing the strength of your shoulder muscles can help reduce your risk of injury to your ligaments and muscles.Stretching your shoulder muscles can help improve flexibility and range of motion to reduce risk of ligament injury. Resistance band exercises can strengthen your shoulder muscles and improve ligament strength and flexibility. Shoulder strengthening exercises can be done as often as 3 times each day. Do 12 repetitions of resistance band exercises daily to improve shoulder strength. Resistance exercises include external rotation, internal rotation, pull-backs and pull-downs.

Warm-up and stretch your muscles before lifting weights. A normal military press is performed by facing the weights of a machine and lifting the weight from behind your head. This position places your shoulder ligaments and joints at risk of injury. Make sure that you are not lifting more weight than you can handle. Face backward on the shoulder press machine to avoid the risky position. Lift the weights straight up from your shoulders.

The lateral raise exercise is a good exercise to improve shoulder strength without stressing your shoulder ligaments. Performing the lateral raise with your palms pointed toward the floor can stress your shoulder ligaments and muscles. Use a neutral grip with your thumbs pointed toward the ceiling when doing lateral raise exercises to reduce stress on your shoulder joints and ligaments.