One Of The Best Exercises For Shoulder Health And Injury-Prevention For BJJ

When performing strengthening and shoulder health exercises, I wanted to think about what equipment would be most available at Jiu-Jitsu gyms or what equipment can fit in your equipment bag.

Most BJJ practitioners will have their belt and can easily get access to a resistance band, so I felt this would be an ideal variation of this exercise. This technique is one of my absolute favorites for shoulder health and posture.

You are strengthening the shoulder blade muscles, rotator cuff muscles, while also working on overhead shoulder mobility. Not only is this a challenging and valuable exercise for shoulder health and injury prevention, it is also an essential training tool for anyone that needs to build proper technique and muscle strength/activation with overhead lifting and tasks.

Adjust the resistance as appropriate to ensure proper technique.

1. Start with bracing the core/abdominals.

2. Bring the elbows up to shoulder height.

3. Squeeze the shoulder blades together and perform a high elbow rowing motion.

4. Externally rotate the shoulders (bringing hands up).

5. Maintain this plane of motion and press straight up to the ceiling without allowing hands to migrate forward (Do not shrug the shoulders).

6. Hold overhead position for 1-2 seconds.

7. Return to start position.

8. Perform 10-12 repetitions, 1-2 sets initially and can increase sets/reps as appropriate.