5 Ways to Improve Your Shoulder Mobility at Home

The ability to move your arm in space and reach for objects is crucial for quality of life. Without it, we are limited in the things that we can do – both for work and fun. Anyone who has had a shoulder injury or surgery can attest to this.

If you have pain when raising your arm above shoulder height, laying on your side, or even when lifting overhead, these 5 exercises are for you. The best part is that you can do them at home and they don’t take a ton of time.

1. Thoracic Extension

This is an area that most people ignore and can really limit the effectiveness of the rest of your routine. The thoracic spine, or mid-back, is extremely important when it comes to the ability to raise your arm overhead. The thoracic spine HAS to extend (bend backwards) to allow for full shoulder flexion. Without it, your shoulder flexion is limited and can become painful. With this exercise, I am using a foam roll but you can get the same effect with a rolled-up towel.

2. Active Release

Stress and long hours at a desk tend to collect in the same two places: the neck and the top of the shoulder. Pin a tennis ball or lacrosse ball against a wall or the floor over one of those tight spots, then slowly move your arm through a small range of motion while you hold gentle pressure on it. It’s a quick way to loosen tissue that’s been guarded for a while.

3. Shoulder Internal Rotation Opener

Losing internal rotation is common after almost any shoulder injury or surgery, and it shows up in ordinary moments: scratching your back, fastening a bra, or doing a high pull at the gym. Loop a light resistance band behind your back, hold one end in each hand, and use gentle tension to ease that range open a little further than your arm can get on its own.

4. Overhead Band Opener

Losing the ability to fully raise your arm overhead is maybe the most common finding we see, usually from some mix of a stiff mid-back, tight tissue around the front of the shoulder, or a joint capsule that’s tightened up. Anchor a band overhead and use it to gently work your arm into that top range, rather than forcing it.

5. Thoracic Prayer Stretch

The latissimus dorsi isn’t a muscle most people associate with the shoulder, but it runs from your low back into the front of your shoulder, and a tight one can quietly limit your ability to reach overhead or rotate your arm outward. Kneel and reach forward while sitting your hips back toward your heels; it stretches the lat and the mid-back at the same time.

Have you tried exercises like these and you’re still dealing with shoulder pain or limited mobility?

That’s usually a sign the cause is something an at-home routine can’t reach on its own, and it’s exactly what a proper evaluation is built to find.