How to Improve Shoulder Strength and Mobility with Yoga

Don’t let your shoulders keep you off your mat!

While lower body strength and mobility gets far more attention, especially when talking about aging and osteoporosis, your upper body matters too. Whether you’re hauling around laundry or a grandchild, or you’re pulling weeds in the garden, your upper body strength will determine your longevity in these activities.

When I was an early teen, I had next to no upper body strength. I had to stand up in order to lift a kettle to pour water for tea (true story). When I joined the swim team at age 15, I developed upper body strength for the first time in my young life. When I started yoga in my early 20s, it only grew from there.

Back then I loved practicing Handstand, Scorpion pose, Crow pose and the like. Going upside down and supporting myself on my arms was exhilarating! I still practice these poses from time to time, but I have found that foundational yoga poses keep my shoulders strong and flexible in my now 54 year old body.

No need for extreme poses anymore, simple poses and movements do the job.

Why yoga?

Unlike other physical activities, yoga builds functional strength and mobility in a balanced way. We are one-side-dominant creatures. If you are right handed, most of your daily movements happen with your right hand. Your poor left hand remains pitifully ignored.

Even with seemingly symmetrical movements, we tend to dominate with one body part working more than the other. I notice this when weight lifting. Unless I do one side at a time, when I am doing a symmetrical movement, like a leg press or bicep curls, I tend to work my right side more than my left. I need to fully focus to get my left side to work as hard.

Yoga cultivates mindfulness, encouraging you to pay attention to what you’re doing while you’re doing it. If you don’t pay attention, autopilot usually tips you to your dominant side. Over time, left/right imbalances can lead to pain and injury as other muscles try to compensate. If you play a one-sided sport, like tennis or golf, this imbalance is even worse.

While you’ll never be 100% symmetrical, no matter how much yoga you practice, moving toward symmetry keeps you feeling less pain.

Commentary about the shoulder joint

The shoulder is a complex joint. It has multiple muscles and tendons passing through the joint so that we can move the arm in all the directions. Because it is such a complex joint, we need to perform movements in multiple directions to keep it strong and mobile.

There are 4 rotator cuff muscles, the biceps, the triceps, the deltoids, and other muscles that connect the shoulder to the chest, back, and neck. There are many ways that things can go wrong in this joint, especially with repetitive movements. Keeping the muscles of this joint strong and mobile will keep you functioning properly for as long as possible.

Practicing yoga is a great way to build strength and mobility in the shoulders as well as the rest of the body. Understanding good shoulder mechanics helps. When practicing, it is rare that you shrug your shoulders. Press the shoulder blades toward your waist. When your arms are overhead, bring them slightly forward so that you can see your biceps in your peripheral vision. When practicing Chaturanga, don’t let your shoulder joint go lower than your elbow joint. Press your shoulder blades actively toward your waist so that you don’t collapse into your shoulder joint.

More on Chaturanga Dandasana here:

Does Your Yoga Practice Make Your Shoulders Cry?

Yoga poses for shoulder mobility

Here are a few poses you might want to play with to improve your shoulder mobility. You might notice a difference in how your shoulders feel while swimming, gardening, playing tennis or golf, or even generally in your day to day life. You can do them all or pick and choose, depending on how much time you have.

Shoulder mobility with a strap

This is a helpful way to warm up the shoulder joints, whether you’re practicing yoga, going swimming, playing tennis, or something else. As long as you have a strap, towel, or belt, you have everything you need.

Sit or stand comfortably and hold a strap in your hands, one hand on each end of the strap. There should be a little tension on the strap between your hands, but they should be pretty wide. Your arms should hang down in front of you, the strap touching the fronts of your thighs.

Inhale to move the arms forward, then over your head, then backward until the strap hits the back of your thighs. Exhale to reverse the movement. With each repetition, walk your hands slightly closer to each other on the strap. Move slowly and mindfully. The idea is to warm up the shoulder joints, not to struggle, strain, or force the movement.

When you’ve gotten the hands as close together as your body allows, move back and forth 3 more times.

Reclining Twist with arm circles

I love this pose for shoulder mobility. Reclining Twist by itself creates chest opening that helps undo a day of slouching. Adding the arm circles creates mobility through the whole chest and shoulder joint while gradually warming it up for some of the more strengthening moves.

Begin by lying on your left side, your knees pulled toward your chest, your right hip stacked over your left hip. Sweep your right arm downward toward your right hip, forward in front of you, over your head, and backward into the Reclining Twist. Draw as large a circle on the floor as possible. Allow your chest to join the movement of your arm so that you are rolling in and out of the twist as you go.

Inhale as you sweep the arm down and forward, then exhale as the arm moves over your head and backward into the twist. Do 4-6 big circles then repeat on the other side.

Eagle arms with neck rolls

Sit comfortably, either kneeling or cross-legged. Reach your arms to the sides, like a T, then cross your right arm underneath your left arm. Try to get the elbows to cross each other if possible. Either grab opposite shoulders with opposite hands, or bring your right palm to your left.

Press the shoulder blades downward and apart as you reach the elbows forward and upward. Exhale to drop your chin toward your chest. Breathe deeply a couple of times into the neck and upper back between the shoulder blades.

Roll your left ear toward your left shoulder as you inhale. Exhale to move the right shoulder blade downward and to the right. Hold as you inhale, then exhale the chin back toward the chest. Repeat rolling your head to the right, the repeat the whole thing with the left arm under the right arm. If you are sitting cross-legged, switch the leg that you have in front.

Bow pose with outward facing grip

I love Bow pose to strengthen the back of the body (spinal muscles, glutes, hamstrings), but this pose is also terrific for shoulder and chest opening, especially with an outward facing grip.

Normally this pose is done by grabbing the feet or ankles from the outside, palms facing inward. This is wonderful for strengthening the triceps and rhomboids, similar to Yoga Mudra. In this variation, you want to grab the feet/ankles from inside the legs with the palms and elbow creases pointing away from each other.

Start lying face down on the floor (prone). Bend your right knee so that your right foot aims for the ceiling. Reach your right arm to the right, palm facing forward. Carry that arm backward to grab the inside of your right foot/ankle. Don’t roll your shoulder inward to grab the foot, keep the shoulder blade moving inward toward your spine. Repeat with the left arm.

If you can grab both feet simultaneously, do one side at a time, reaching the other arm forward on the floor. Press your foot/feet into your hand/hands to try to straighten your legs. They are not going to straighten, but you’re going to try anyway. Engage your glutes and lower abdominals. Hold 3-8 breaths then rest in Child’s pose. If you are doing one side at a time, do both sides before Child’s pose.

Yoga poses for shoulder strength

Once you’ve warmed up and opened your shoulders, now it’s time to strengthen. If you are short on time, you can choose one or two poses from each list. It’s not enough just to stretch, you need to strengthen too. Sometimes muscles feel tight when they actually need to contract more.

Downward Facing Dog

This pose strengthens the whole body when done correctly, but here I will focus on the shoulder strengthening aspects.

Start in Table pose, spreading the fingers wide on the floor so that the whole surface of your palm is on the floor. Spread the shoulder blades apart and slightly toward your waist. Actively press the palms forward and downward into your mat while lifting your hips upward and backward. Feel the oppositional movement of your palms and pelvis as they reach away from each other.

Make sure that you don’t shrug your shoulders. Imagine that the arms connect into your back, instead of just the shoulder joint. Try to spin the elbow creases forward toward the front of your mat (they won’t go all the way forward, let that be okay). Let the head hang, relaxing your neck. Hold 5-8 breaths, then rest in Child’s pose.

To read more about this pose, check out this post:

Ask a Yoga Teacher: Downward Facing Dog/Adho Mukha Svanasana

Side Plank

From Downward Facing Dog, shift forward into Plank pose/Phalakasana. You might need to wiggle the feet backward a few inches. From Plank, drop your heels to the right and aim your toes to the left. Shift your weight into your right arm. Inhale to lift your left arm toward the ceiling, coming into Side Plank/Vasisthasana.

Make sure the right shoulder is stacked directly over your right wrist in a vertical line. Press your outer feet into the floor to engage your legs, glutes, and inner thighs. For more support, lower your right knee to the floor under your right hip. Press the shoulder blades toward your waist and apart, toward your hands.

Feel the entire left side of your body reaching toward the ceiling as you press into the floor. You’ll feel (hopefully) your right obliques turn on for core support. Stay 3-8 breaths, then repeat on the other side. Rest in Child’s pose after you’ve done both sides.

Downward Dog Push Ups

Make your way back to Downward Facing Dog. As you inhale, press your elbows and shoulder blades out to the sides as you lower your head toward the floor. Your head doesn’t need to touch the floor, but go as low as you can control your alignment. As you exhale, squeeze your arms toward each other and straighten back into Downward Dog.

Repeat at least 3 times, or as many times as you can without shrugging your shoulders. Feel your upper back and shoulder muscles working, not the muscles of your neck. When you are done, rest in Child’s pose.

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