Exercises/stretches to accompany lifting

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Raegold
Raegold Posts: 191 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Can anyone tell me any shoulder/back/upper body exercises or stretches they do to help with barbell squats and deadlifts? I realized through my shoulder injury that I was probably neglecting in this area. I'm already doing bench presses, lat pulls/rows. Anything that would help with shoulder mobility and stability would be awesome. I'm up to 50 lb back squat and deadlift, so it's not insane amounts of weight, but much more than the 10-15 lbs I was doing 2 months ago.

Thanks!

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  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
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    i do the broomstick 'dislocates'. almost religiously . . . well, as close to religiously as i get about anything stretch.

    also band pulls. that's because the back part of anything can always probably use some more love. if my shoulder feels wonky and i feel responsible,, then i'll also do 'y' and 't' drills until i feel like my lower traps and other stabilizing stuff is awake. straight-downward 'retractions' on the cable-pulldown thing have been good for me in this respect too. you just start with a 'dead' hang where your shoulders are as up as they want to be, and then use your lats and low traps and rhomboids etc, to pull your shoulderblades 'down' and suck them in close to your ribs. that opens up the top part of your shoulder joint which leaves more room for your humerus to move unimpinged.

    for hips, i used to do the quadruped circles - sets of 10 forward, 10 back on each side. i've got something major that 'snaps' in one hip on them though, so lately what i'm trying is more just like a passive standing 'foot pendulum' thing to try and get fluid into the capsule and hopefully warm up the deeper hip muscles a bit.
  • Raegold
    Raegold Posts: 191 Member
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    canadianlbs wrote: »
    i do the broomstick 'dislocates'. almost religiously . . . well, as close to religiously as i get about anything stretch.

    also band pulls. that's because the back part of anything can always probably use some more love. if my shoulder feels wonky and i feel responsible,, then i'll also do 'y' and 't' drills until i feel like my lower traps and other stabilizing stuff is awake. straight-downward 'retractions' on the cable-pulldown thing have been good for me in this respect too. you just start with a 'dead' hang where your shoulders are as up as they want to be, and then use your lats and low traps and rhomboids etc, to pull your shoulderblades 'down' and suck them in close to your ribs. that opens up the top part of your shoulder joint which leaves more room for your humerus to move unimpinged.

    for hips, i used to do the quadruped circles - sets of 10 forward, 10 back on each side. i've got something major that 'snaps' in one hip on them though, so lately what i'm trying is more just like a passive standing 'foot pendulum' thing to try and get fluid into the capsule and hopefully warm up the deeper hip muscles a bit.

    Thank you, that's really helpful!!!

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