10 Simple Shoulder Mobility Exercises to Reduce Pain and Improve Flexibility

Shoulder tightness can slowly creep up with age, affecting your ability to get adequate sleep, lift grocery bags, scrub the bathtub, or push open heavy doors. Maintaining shoulder mobility usually doesn’t become a focus until these daily activities of living become impacted—or pain and stiffness get unbearable.

That’s why it’s important to take preventative action in keeping your shoulders healthy and strong with shoulder mobility exercises. “Shoulder discomfort or pain happens to many of us as we age from overuse, repetitive sports or housework movements, and injuries,” says Nicole Glor, fitness instructor and creator of NikkiFitness YouTube Channel. “Repetitive overhead movements can put pressure and stress on the shoulder joints, causing stiffness and pain.”

Shoulder mobility exercises that improve flexibility and range of motion can keep the shoulders strong and help you live life to the fullest, all while protecting you against injury and pain, Glor says. “Flexibility is part of mobility, but the difference is that mobility means to be flexible enough to move a muscle through its full range of motion with control, and that takes muscle strength,” Glor explains. Both are important to keeping the shoulders strong and open.

These shoulder-specific exercises can build strength and mobility in your muscles and joints. Add them onto your normal fitness routine about two to three times a week to reap the benefits of strengthening one of the most important areas of the body. Read on for 10 shoulder mobility exercises and stretches to perform each week to reduce pain and stiffness, according to Glor. All you’ll need is a resistance band and some light dumbbells.