Prevent Shoulder Injury With This Upper Body Warm Up Routine
There’s a pretty good chance that if you’ve played sports or have been active at all over in the past you’ve had to deal with a shoulder injury at some point. Having an upper body warm up routine is critical if you are going to stay healthy and injury free!
Shoulder injuries (specifically the rotator cuff and labrum) are a part of almost every athlete’s life. Playing baseball and softball for 25 years has certainly caused me to deal with my fair share. In fact, after several shoulder dislocations and a possible torn labrum my doctor recommended that I have surgery to fix the issue. I considered it … however, after hearing that I would only be able lift 5 pounds over my head for 6 months or more I chose to try to rehab it myself first.
MY RESULTS: I went from only being able to bench press 95 pounds without pain to over 275 pounds pain free! No surgery needed!
The warm up plan below is the exact plan I used to rehab my shoulder and shore up any injuries. I stick to this upper body warm up routine before performing any pressing movement. You should too!
At a Glance | Upper Body Warm Up Routine
- Forward Arm Circles (25 – 30 reps; each arm)
- Specific Warm-up Set #1
- Backward Arm Circles (25 – 30 reps; each arm)
- Specific Warm-up Set #2
- Shoulder Rotations (20 – 25 reps)
- Specific Warm-up Set #3
- Shoulder Rotations (20 – 25 reps)
- BEGIN YOUR WORKOUT!
Upper Body Warm Up Routine | Detailed Description
1. Forward Arm Circles
25 – 30 arm circles forward for each arm.
a. Specific Warm-up Set #1
20 reps or more. Choose a (very low) warm-up weight for the first exercise of your workout plan. When using this upper body warm-up routine, this first exercise will generally be one of the following pressing movements: Barbell Bench Press, Dumbbell Bench Press, Barbell Shoulder Press, Dumbbell Shoulder Press, or Arnold Press. When I say choose a “very low” weight, I mean lower than you think. More than likely the bar will suffice for most. Using the bench press as an example, I almost always warm up with the bar, even if I plan to use 225 pounds or more during my work sets. The goal is just to get some blood flowing to the areas I’m going to attack … not to exhaust myself before I get started.
2. Backward Arm Circles
25 – 30 arm circles backwards for each arm.
a. Specific Warm-up Set #2
15 – 20 reps. Choose a (low) warm-up weight for the second set of your first exercise. This weight should still be low, but should be quite a bit heavier than your first warm-up set. Continuing to use the bench press as an example, I would probably choose to warm up with 95 – 115 pounds for my second set.
3. External Shoulder Rotation (Arm Abducted 90?)
20 – 25 reps. I use 5 pound plates for this exercise, but you could also use 5 pound dumbbells or resistance bands. Go light on this exercise. You don’t want to injure yourself while warming up!
Source: https://orthoinfo.org/
a. Specific Warm-up Set #3
10 – 15 reps. Choose a (medium) weight for the third and final set warm-up set of your first exercise. Again, this weight should be quite a bit heavier than your second warm-up set. For the bench press, I normally choose 135 – 185 pounds for my final warm-up set.
4. External Shoulder Rotation
20 – 25 reps. I use 5 pound plates for this exercise as well, but these resistance bands are probably even more effective.
Source: https://orthoinfo.org/
a. BEGIN YOUR WORKOUT!
Here’s a Quick Recap Using My Example Weights From Above
- 0 lbs — Forward Arm Circles (25 – 30 reps; each arm)
- 45 lbs (just the bar) — Bench Press Warm-up Set #1
- 0 lbs — Backward Arm Circles (25 – 30 reps; each arm)
- 115 lbs — Bench Press Warm-up Set #2
- 5 lb plates or dumbbells or Resistance Band #1 (1/4″) — External Shoulder Rotations w/ Arm Abducted 90? (20 – 25 reps)
- 165 lbs — Specific Warm-up Set #3
- 5 lb plates or dumbbells or Resistance Band # 1 (1/4″) — External Shoulder Rotations (20 – 25 reps)
- BEGIN YOUR WORKOUT!
- Bench press — 5 sets of 5 reps with 225 lbs