1. Starting Off Light
Whether building strength or recovering from injury, you can do medicine ball shoulder exercises to improve your workout. The overhead lift is a great medicine ball physical therapy exercise for the shoulders, as it is gentle and improves range of motion. You can either sit, stand or kneel during the overhead lift, simply make sure that your back is straight and neck relaxed. Hold a medicine ball between your hands, pushing it straight out in front of you until you feel a stretch and lift your arms overhead as you bend your elbows. Drop the ball as far behind your head as possible, keeping your elbows near your ears and then extend forward again. Start with five to ten repetitions, gradually working your way up to as many as thirty.
2. Getting Press
Chest press exercises are another great way to strengthen the chest and shoulders, and may also be performed while standing, sitting or kneeling. Again, keep your back straight. Hold the medicine ball at your chest with your elbows drawn into your body and use a full exhale to push the ball straight out in front of you. As you inhale, slowly draw the ball back in to your chest. Again, build slowly, starting with one to ten and working up to twenty or thirty presses.
3. Open Wide
Hold a medicine ball in each hand, extending your arms directly in front of you with palms face up. Breathe deeply as you slowly open your arms as wide as you can comfortably, squeezing your shoulder blades together and then coming back to center. Perform two to three sets of ten to fifteen shoulder exercises with the medicine balls.
4. Perfect Rotation
To improve range of motion for an injured shoulder, sit on a bench so that you can prop one leg up with bent knee. Hold a medicine ball in your hand and rest your elbow on your lifted knee, bending the elbow at 90 degrees. Slowly lower the medicine ball toward your center until the forearm is parallel to the ground and then gently lift back to center. Continue the movement, turning your arm out to the side as far as is comfortable and then repeat. Do fifteen to twenty reps with each arm.
5. The Power of the Push-Up
Push-ups are among the best shoulder exercises ever invented; however, you can get an even deeper workout by balancing on two medicine balls. As you do your push-ups, make sure that you back is straight, neck relaxed and arms directly below your shoulders. Start off with only five push-ups, as keeping the balls from rolling makes this push up technique far more difficult than you are used to. As you gain strength, add as many repetitions as you are comfortable with.
Member Comments