Easily one of the most common problems I’m asked to address by aspiring weightlifters is limited shoulder mobility. This can be one of the most frustrating and protracted processes out there, but its necessity is very apparent—without adequate flexibility, a weightlifter simply cannot support maximal weights overhead in the snatch or jerk. Additionally, shoulder immobility can restrict clean and particularly jerk rack positioning.

This is a simple guide to improving shoulder flexibility in order to improve the positions and movements required by weightlifting. It will not be exhaustive in scope, as there are far too many potential variables to address here, and in many cases, conditions that are best (or necessarily) handled by a professional such as a physical therapist or chiropractor.

Part 1: Correct Positioning

Before any time and effort is channeled into corrective work, it makes sense to ensure that the athlete is actually attempting to achieve the proper positions. Occasionally an athlete will actually be trying to place him or herself in a position that is incorrect or in some manner beyond what is necessary, and consequently believing he or she needs some improvement of flexibility that isn’t actually necessary.

Overhead: Snatch: Shoulder blades retracted, upwardly rotated and slightly elevated. Elbows turn to point halfway between down and back. Barbell over the back of the neck. Head pushed through.

Overhead: Jerk: Identical to snatch overhead position with narrower hand placement.

Rack: Clean: Shoulder blades protracted and slightly elevated with thoracic spine extended and elbows held high.

Rack: Jerk: Shoulder blades protracted and slightly elevated with thoracic spine extended and elbows slightly in front of the barbell and spread to the sides.

Part 2: Diagnosing

Once it’s been verified that the athlete is in fact attempting to achieve the correct position, and it is legitimately prevented by a lack of flexibility, we can move on. Diagnosing the actual source of the problem is a bit of a gray area. Most of us are not keyed-in to a degree that allows genuine precision in terms of determining the actual anatomical cause of a given flexibility limitation, especially in an area of the body as complex as the shoulders and upper back.

Fortunately, such precision in diagnosing is unnecessary in my opinion. Most of the time, even if you’re by whatever means able to determine that there is a particular muscle responsible for the problem, it’s not possible to isolate it correctively anyway (other than by massage or other manual soft-tissue work). Instead, it’s typically just as effective, and far simpler, to use more of a shotgun approach that blasts a somewhat wider area containing the problem spot(s).

There are a few basic shoulder functions that we can consider when deciding how to attack the problem: shoulder flexion, scapular retraction and protraction, scapular elevation and depression, and scapular rotation. Each of these play roles in achieving positions required in weightlifting, and generally are interdependent to some degree like most things in the body. This is another reason to not worry about precision diagnostics.

The overhead positions of the snatch and jerk demand great shoulder flexion with some degree of scapular retraction, elevation and upward rotation. The rack positions of the clean and jerk require minimal shoulder flexion, but a great degree of scapular protraction and slight elevation. All require extension of the thoracic spine (or a minimization of its natural degree of flexion).

Part 3: Flexibility & Mobility

There are an endless number of ways to stretch the various structures in question, and virtually all of them can be effective if implemented well. The key to effectiveness is experimentation and determining primarily by feel what is hitting the areas in question and what is not. Generally flexibility efforts will be focused on the shoulder girdle and the musculature that attaches to the humerus from underneath the shoulder (e.g. lats, teres, triceps).

Stretches

Dislocates: With a wide grip on a length of PVC, strap or band of some type, pass the implement overhead to behind your back and return it to the front. Move the shoulder blades up, back and down as you move through the range of motion.

Press Behind the Neck: Starting with a wide grip, press a PVC pipe from the back of the neck to overhead. Start with the shoulder blades retracted and upwardly rotated tightly and finish with them in this position. Gradually move the hands narrower until you’re unable to maintain proper positioning, then back off slighly and work at the narrowest grip that allows a solid position with a bit of a challenge.

Y/I Hold: Lie prone on the floor or a bench holding a length of PVC with a wide grip. Lift the PVC pipe up with extended arms and an extended thoracic spine. Keep the head and neck neutral, i.e. create the correct overhead position at a horizontal orientation rather than a vertical one. Hold the top position for a few seconds, focusing on the activation of the back musculature that is fighting the pull of the shoulder girdle. Gradually work the grip narrower until you reach the narrowest hand placement that allows you to reach the finish position without bending the elbows.

Bar Hang: This is about as simple as it gets—hold onto a pull-up bar and hang. Keep the head pushed through the arms and bring the shoulder blades back together a bit. For those of you who have any amount of chest and shoulder mass, you may find that this position prevents breathing. Hang in there as long as you can and let the shoulder girdle, lats and all that other stuff that wants to keep the shoulder close relax.

Door Jamb Stretches: Stand in a doorway and place the anterior aspect of your forearm against the casing with the elbow bent. Push your chest through the doorway to stretch the pecs. Play with different degrees of elbow flexion and upper arm orientation to find the tightest spots. This stretch can also be done lying face down on the floor and placing the forearm down, and then turning the opposite side of the body up.

Front End Alignment: Extend the elbows and place the hands on a box or similar object at about shoulder height. Keeping the elbows extended, drop the body below the level of the hands and hinge at the hips to flex the shoulders maximally. Leaning slightly back away from the box will help open up the shoulders more.

Overhead Squat: The classic active stretch for the overhead position is of course the overhead squat. Ideally this is done following some preliminary shoulder loosening work. Begin with a wide grip and gradually bring the hands in to the narrowest placement that allows a full depth squat and correct shoulder and bar positioning. A pause in the bottom position will allow some nice active stretching using the musculature of the back to counteract the pull of the shoulder girdle.

PVC Javelin: Hold a length of PVC like a javelin over one shoulder, letting the back end fall down along your side. Reach across your body with the other hand and grab that trailing end of the PVC. With the PVC caught under your shoulder, pull the end up and/or across the front of your body, searching for limitations on which to focus.

PVC Elbow Hook: Place the back of one hand behind the same side hip. Thread a length of PVC through the hole created by the bend of the elbow and your side. Keeping your trunk erect, push the other end of the PVC back, using your trunk as a fulcrum to pull the elbow forward and toward the midline of the body. This stretch can also be done by pushing the back of the elbow against a wall, or if you’re flexible and skinny enough, reaching across with your opposite hand to grab the elbow.

PVC Towel Stretch: With a length of PVC in one hand, lift the elbow straight up over the shoulder, bend the elbow to drop the hand down, and grab with your other hand the PVC pipe behind your back. Keeping the trunk erect and the down elbow pulled back with the hand against your back, use the other arm to pull the PVC pipe (and your lower arm) up. To make it easier if you’re fat and unconditioned for such endurance events like me, once you pull the stretch tight, wedge your head up under the forearm on top to brace it.

Tricep & Lat Stretch: This is a good one from Kelly Starrett. Get your elbow bend and up overhead for the classic tricep stretch position, but instead of grabbing your elbow with the other hand, push it up against a wall to push it into the stretched position. Once there, use your free hand to push against your other forearm to flex the elbow of the stretching arm maximally.

Barbell Clean/Jerk Rack Stretch: Load up a barbell and place it in a rack at the height you would normally use for squats. Place your hands in either the clean or jerk rack position, then partially squat under the bar. Keeping your hands, shoulders and elbows in the correct position, push with the legs to drive your shoulders up into the bar.

Behind the Neck Elbow Lift: This one comes from Mike Burgener. Rack a bar on your back as if for a back squat with a clean grip on it. Keeping the bar on your back and your hands closed around it, lift the elbows as high as possible and push the shoulders forward.

Foam Rolling

Thoracic Spine: Lie on a foam roller with your spine oriented perpendicularly to it. Roll up and down the thoracic spine, allowing it to relax and extend.

Lats/Teres: Place a foam roller on a high plyo box, reach the arm up to expose the insertion area of the lats and other local muscles on the underside of the arm, and lean that insertion area onto the roller. Place as much pressure onto the roller as possible rotating your trunk periodically to hit all aspects. This area can also be rolled on while lying on the ground to get more weight on it.

Pecs/Anterior Shoulder: With the same setup described above, roll the insertion area of the pec and its tie-in with the anterior delt. This again can be done on the floor for more pressure.

Part 4: Strength

The primary focus of corrective strength work will be on the muscles that move and stabilize the scapulae from the posterior aspect of the body. This will be both for the basic advantages of shoulder stabilization, but also more specifically to counteract the pull of the shoulder girdle and internal rotators on the shoulder blades and upper arms.

Press Behind the Neck: This is the same exercise described above as a stretch, but using weight. Eventually work to a jerk-width hand placement. Don’t increase the weight so much that it forces the shoulders to round forward and the structure to collapse as the bar starts moving. Focus on scapular retraction and thoracic spine extension.

Push Press Behind the Neck: This is the same as the above, but the use of the legs means more weight can be put overhead. Hold the overhead position for at least a second on each rep.

Push Press: A conventional push press from the front can be used to overload the overhead position if pressing from behind the neck is not yet accessible. This is less desirable, however, because it reduces some of the scapular retraction involved in the movements from behind the neck.

Snatch Sots Press: This is one that may not even be accessible for many until some progress has been made with other exercises. With a barbell on the back of the neck and the hands in a snatch-width grip, sink to the bottom of a squat. From this bottom position, press the bar overhead. This will require a forceful back extension and very aggressive scapular retraction. If you’re not flexible enough yet, don’t force this exercise—you will regret it.

Overhead Squat: Not much needs to be said on this one. Do it right, and do it tight. Move the grip in for more upper back extension work.

Snatch Push Press: This is the best exercise for basic snatch overhead strength. The key of course is putting the barbell in the correct position overhead—remember, if it’s in the wrong position, the right one is not getting stronger. This is a great corrective drill for poor overhead positioning as well—it’s an easy way to get some loaded practice of the right way in. Hold the bar overhead for at least a legitimate second on each rep, focusing on shoulder blade stability.

Hise Press: This is an obscure exercise that can be thought of as an overhead shrug. With the bar pressed into the overhead position, depress and elevate the shoulder blades, focusing on tightly engaging the correct overhead position at the top of each rep. This can be done with a snatch or jerk grip.

Jerk Supports: Jerk supports allow a great deal of weight to be held overhead, but caution should be used to ensure it’s being held correctly. Again, there is no use in strengthening an incorrect position.

Shrugs: Shrugs are awesome and everyone knows it, even if they won’t admit it. They can be done standing with a barbell, dumbbells or kettlebells at the sides, or a trap bar; they can be done seated to reduce cheating with DBs or KBs; and they can be done with a barbell, DBs or KBs with the chest supported on an incline bench to change the orientation of the shrug to involve some scapular retraction along with elevation. These exercises will allow some big weights to be moved, but of course weight should not exceed what allows exactly the movements and positions we’re after. It’s a good idea to hold the top position for a second or two on each rep.

Barbell/DB Rows: For a basic horizontal pulling exercise to hit the upper back, it’s hard to beat barbell and dumbbell rows. In this case, strict pulling with an emphasis on a forceful contraction in the top position is key. Do not let the shoulders round forward or the body to dive to the weight.

Inverted Row: This is simply a barbell row in which the athlete is flipped and lifting his body instead of an implement. Hanging from a barbell in a rack (or rings or similar), the athlete will elevate the feet to the height of the barbell, keep the body extended and rigid, and pull the chest to the bar, squeezing the shoulder blades together and back tightly at the top. Resistance can be reduced by dropping the feet and bringing them back toward the bar.

Face Pull: Assuming most readers of this publication don’t train with cable stack machines, this exercise can be performed with a band or even with dumbbells. With a band attached at face height to a rack, grip the other end and pull the hands to the face, keeping the elbows up and out. The same movement can be performed with a pair of dumbbells if the athlete simply hinges at the hips to bring the torso horizontal.

DB/Band External Rotation: There are probably more ways to perform external rotations than I can count—all are effective if the movement is done correctly. The first of the two most basic variations are lying on your side with your elbow bent to 90 degrees and the upper arm flat against your side. Rotate the upper arm to lift and lower a dumbbell. The other is with the torso upright and the arm abducted 90 degrees from the body (the upper arm horizontal and straight out to the side). With light weight, this can be done without supporting the arm. As weights increase, the elbow will start dropping, so the arm should be supported. This can be done a million different ways—find one that supports the upper arm in the correct position but doesn’t impede rotation. This exercise should not be painful. Use a reasonable weight and a controlled tempo.

Dumbbell Y/I Lift: This is the same exercise described previously as a stretch, but with added resistance in the form of dumbbells. Lying prone on a bench or the floor with a DB in each hand, extend the arms completely and flex the shoulders, extend the thoracic spine, and retract the shoulder blades. Hold the top position for a moment before returning to the bottom. This can be done with the arms in an orientation that simulates a snatch grip, all the way into one that places them straight forward.

Programming This Stuff

Obviously which of these exercises are used, how often and how aggressively will depend on individual need and the availability of time and energy. Most of the strength exercises incur minimal damage and can be tacked on to an existing program without much concern. More taxing exercises like the press variations need to be more carefully inserted into the program.

A basic but effective approach is to select 2-3 exercises that address the needs of the athlete and hit them for a series of exposures before re-assessing and rotating to new exercises. For example, the first cycle might use the snatch push press, DB rows and DB external rotation, each once weekly. For each exercise, the demand should be increased each exposure as tolerated, either by increasing the loading or the volume.

Flexibility work can and should be done in great volumes—as part of the warm-up (assuming the athlete is already warm enough for it to be effective and not injurious), during the workout, after the workout and on days off. Generally speaking, more is better when it comes to improving flexibility. Again, experiment with the stretches and find the ones that work—you will know it when you find them.