The shoulder girdle workouts are best created when understanding the joint that most likely would be considered to have the largest range of motion in the body. This joint is made up of a variety of bones, ligaments and tendons and is often house to a variety of injuries due to the fact that it quite often moves beyond its range of motion.
So when creating the shoulder girdle workouts the structure has such a wide range of movement, it is forced to give up some of the stability it would normally have. It is a ball-and-socket joint that has one strong ligament holding it together called the coracohumeral ligament. This helps to support the weight of the upper arm.
There are three main bones that comprise the shoulder girdle. The first one is the clavicle, which lies above the thorax and articulates medially with the sternum. It is the long bone that is often known as the 'collarbone'.
Just below this is the wide flat bone called the scapula. This bone forms a large part of this joint and articulates with the humerus and clavicle. Located on it is your often-called 'shoulder bone'.
Lastly, comes the humerus, which most people know as the main arm bone that lies directly above your elbow.
To avoid getting injured in this area of the body, always ensure you are performing a short cardiovascular session before any lifting or straining activities to increase the range of motion and get the blood flowing through the joint and muscles. After the exercise session has taken place, also perform some simple stretches as a cool down to aid in the reduction of tight muscles and ligaments.
Swimmers are some of the most frequent athletes to experience problems so they may want to start adding some easy shoulder rolls and shrugs to their warm-up before getting into the pool. While they definitely will have strong muscles from all the rotating movements they do their ligaments can easily become over worked.
So make sure you take necessary precautions to reduce injury to this area of the body. With so many bones, ligaments and muscles involved, if one becomes painful it is likely that others will experience problems as well.
