THE SHOULDERS
Strengthen your most vulnerable joint to avoid injury and boost performance
We’re kickstarting our Bulletproof series with the most mobile joint in your body, the shoulder. Unlike your hip joint, which we’ll cover later in the series, the socket in your shoulder is super-shallow; your arm is literally held in place by a couple of ligaments and surrounding muscles. It’s thanks to this high degree of mobility that we can reach up and grab the last box of Cheerios on the top shelf in the supermarket. It’s also what makes the shoulder joint very injury-prone.
As mountain bikers, we’re all too familiar with acute shoulder injuries like dislocations, separated AC joints and broken collar bones, all of which are related to impacts or trauma. Less obvious are the chronic problems that creep in from overuse injuries caused by sitting at a computer, driving, riding, or simply focusing too much on your mirror muscles – think big pecs and biceps. And it’s these imbalances and overuse injuries created by daily life that can leave the shoulder joint weak and injury prone.
The good news, though, is that by restoring range of motion, addressing muscular imbalances and building strong, healthy
EXTERNAL ROTATION
shoulders, we can mitigate most of the chronic injuries and provide some extra protection and stability when we accidentally shoulder barge a tree. As with all joints, asymmetries in shoulder function can have knock-on effects further down the kinetic chain, which is why it’s important to access each shoulder separately even though we’re going to test them at the same time. The assessments double as great shoulder stretches and we’ve also outlined some key stabilising exercises before layering on some pure strength work to really reinforce your shoulders.
In the same body position as the overhead reach, bring your elbows against the wall at 90 degrees from your torso and with palms pointing forwards. From there, rotate from your shoulder only, until your knuckles hit the wall or you can’t reach any further.
The angle at which you stop is an indication of your mobility.
INTERNAL ROTATION
As above, but this time rotate downwards until your palms hit the wall or you can’t reach any further. It is common to be less mobile rotating internally but still extremely important for good shoulder function.