How To Keep Strong Shoulders With Age

By Dr. Beth Templin

Your shoulders are some of the most mobile joints in your body. They allow you to move your arms in all directions, and carry out many of your daily tasks.

Your shoulders are also one of the least stable joints in your body. Many other joints have stability through the bony structures in our body, but our shoulders don't really have much bone to bone contact. Instead, they are held together largely by your ligaments, tendons, and muscles.

This means they are highly susceptible to injury. As you age, you naturally lose some of your muscle strength, about 3% each year. This decreased strength means the shoulder joint has less support and can even start to fall out of alignment.

Rotator cuff tears become very common in the aging population due to poor strength and alignment. Other issues that arise with aging are increased stiffness in our muscles. This often leads to decreased motion and in extreme circumstances, can result in frozen shoulders. In most cases, it just means you have trouble reaching overhead or behind your back. 

It may not seem like a big deal until you start to think about all of the activities that weak and stiff shoulders start to impact. Simple things like putting on a coat or reaching up to wash your hair start to become hard. You may have noticed it's getting harder to put dishes away on the top shelf, or reach for an item on the top shelf at the grocery store.

Recently, I went on a trip and was surprised by how many people, of all ages, needed help to put their luggage in the overhead bins. It's pretty common. The good news is, there are many things you can do to maintain strong and healthy shoulders as you age.

The first steps are to make sure you are maintaining your flexibility and good alignment. The position of your shoulders are greatly impacted by your posture. If you've noticed you're a little more hunched over, or your head tends to sit in front of your body, this is placing additional stress on your shoulders, especially when you try to reach over your head.

It can cause pinching in the shoulder and lead to pain and rotator cuff issues. This is why it's important to maintain good tall posture when reaching overhead. Stretches should focus, not only on making sure you have good motion in your shoulders, but also making sure you are keeping that good posture. A complete stretching routine will make sure to cover the areas that need the most attention. Strengthening activities will also ensure strong, healthy shoulders as you age

Since the shoulder moves in so many directions, a comprehensive program will make sure to cover all of them, with the priority being on the weakest ones.

Most people have simply gotten weaker and stiffer because of the lack of regular exercises to these joints. Once you get on a good program, it's easy to see strength and flexibility gains. These gains quickly translate into improved independence and confidence in your day to day life.

So whether you are having limitations due to arthritis, weakness, pain, a rotator cuff tear or frozen shoulders, exercise can help! There are so many options when it comes to shoulder stretches and strengthening exercises, it can be overwhelming to know which ones are right for you and which ones are the most important.

? Dr. Beth

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