What Exercises to Avoid with Shoulder Pain

Shoulder pain can get in the way of everyday life. It might hurt when you reach for something on a high shelf or roll over on your side during sleep. It can even be a pain to carry heavy grocery bags from your car to your kitchen. Shoulder pain can make exercising harder and more painful. This blog post covers what exercises to keep doing and what to skip until your shoulder feels better.

Why Some Exercises Make Shoulder Pain Worse

You use your shoulders a lot when you exercise, play sports or move through your day. That's one reason why shoulders get hurt so often. Some common shoulder injuries are rotator cuff tears, dislocation and tendonitis.

Movement that puts pressure on your shoulder can cause pinching. Some movements press your tendons against bone.

Exercises To Avoid

In general, you want to avoid exercises that involve constant overhead movements. You also want to avoid workouts where you bring your arms behind your body. Specific exercises to avoid:

• Overhead press. During this exercise, you lift weights above your head. This can add pressure to your shoulders.
• Bench dips. When you lower your body down with your arms behind you, you can strain the front part of your shoulder.
• Pulldowns. Particularly, pulldowns behind your neck. This usually places your shoulders in an awkward position.
• Upright rows. Pulling weights up toward your chin rotates your shoulder and can pinch tendons.
• Deep push-ups. Dipping very low when you perform push-ups can strain your shoulders.
• Lateral raises. Lifting heavy weights to either or both sides of your body can make shoulder pain worse.

This list does not cover every exercise. If any movement causes sharp pain in your shoulder, stop right away. If you don't stop, you can hurt your shoulder more. If you have a rotator cuff injury, talk to your orthopedic provider before working out.

Workout Tips with Shoulder Pain

If your shoulder hurts, do exercises slowly and with lighter weights. Always warm up before any workout. Notice how your body responds to each stage of the exercise. Adjust exercises to place less stress on your shoulders. For example, you can try knee push-ups or using a resistance band instead of weights.

When To Talk to a Provider

If you have any questions about shoulder pain, reach out to your Baptist Health orthopedic provider. If you don't have a provider, you can find one on our provider directory.