Instant Shoulder Reset — No Equipment Needed

I just had a client with shoulder pain at a pickleball tournament flare up. We use these 3 easy moves you can do from anywhere to get rid of the pain. The first one is very basic. It's a chest wall stretch. What we did is you're going to push your arm against the wall, activate your pec muscle, and then turn your body off the wall and stretch it. This way you release your nervous system. So the first thing you do is make an L, push into the wall with your arm, flexing your pec, And then release, turn off the wall. Her chest was really tight and dominant and pulling that shoulder joint. Most of us, because we spend so much time in a forward position, have really dominant pec and shoulder muscles that pull us forward. The next one is one of the most basic shoulder rehab exercises you could do, the scapular retraction. All you're going to do is move your shoulder blades together and push them apart. That's it. But for most people, this feels really chunky. So test it out for yourself. Put my hands on the wall, elbows extended. I'm going to pinch my shoulder blades together and then push them apart. You want to do about 10 of these until it feels smooth. Now it may not happen on your first day that it feels smooth, but think of the scapula or the shoulder blade as your foundation for the shoulder joint itself. If this is off, the rest of the shoulder joint is going to be off too. Lastly, we did a pendulum swing. Now what this does is it distracts the joint lightly, meaning it pulls the joint apart, not it takes it off of its task. What we're doing is creating space in the joint so that it can relieve inflammation and also getting new blood flow into the joint itself. Now make sure as you do this, you maintain a straight back and you don't want to use any muscles in the shoulder joint. You want to let it hang and let the weight do the work of pulling it down. So you're getting that distraction. Next, move your hips side to side or in a circular motion. So that the actual weight can create a slight little movement in the joint itself. You want to go 30 repetitions one way and then 30 repetitions the other way. Then retest. No matter what shoulder issue you're having, these 3 moves should make it feel better.