Try These 8 Resistance Band Shoulder Exercises in Your Workout Routine
Resistance bands are one of the most popular training tools for keeping in shape at home. Training the muscles that surround the shoulder joint will be a component of training the upper body in your strength training sessions, so having a variety of exercises will be important. Unfortunately the resistance band is not very effective at growing the muscles of the shoulder, but very effective for keeping it stable, healthy, warming it up and working on mobility. In this article I provide exercises which cover all these goals so you will find plenty of variations that you can consider using in your training programme.
Get weekly roundups of the best training tools in your inbox, every Monday.
No spam – just thoughtful training advice
- Benefits of Resistance Bands for Shoulder Training
- Shoulder Health
- Mobility
- Maintenance
- Challenges Training The Shoulders With Resistance Bands
- Muscle Gain
- Lack of Variation
- More Shoulder Variations with Bodyweight
- Try These 8 Resistance Band Shoulder Exercises in Your Workout Routine
Benefits of Resistance Bands for Shoulder Training
Shoulder Health
As you can see from multiple variations in the exercises above, the resistance band can be effectively used for developing shoulder health. It is a very effective tool for strengthening the rotator cuff with both internal and external rotations variations. Also exercises like the banded pull apart are great ways of building shoulder strength that can help mitigate injuries, I personally like to include these in warm ups prior to upper body training.
Mobility
Using the resistance band can be an effective way to both prepare for training in warm ups and progressively improve mobility through putting your shoulders through challenging ranges of motion in conjunction with strength training through your full range of motion. When we consider exercises like the banded pass through, these can be very effective exercise to warm up for vertical pressing work. They can also be incorporated between sets of vertical pressing to help develop mobility.
Maintenance
Having a resistance band can help you maintain vertical pressing capability while traveling or just when you do not have access to free weights. This is one of the main advantages of resistance bands, they can be transported anywhere due to their light weight. If your going on a vacation where you know you do not have access to weights but want to stay in great shape then consider traveling with a resistance band.
Challenges Training The Shoulders With Resistance Bands
Muscle Gain
Creating a long term training cycle, with sufficient overload and exercise variation is not going to be possible with just a resistance band. The resistance band is just not very effective at targeting the vertical press movement pattern, which is key to developing the muscles of the shoulder.
Lack of Variation
As you can see from the exercise list, if your goal is hypertrophy and strength gain then there simply are very few variations at your disposal. This can make training a little mundane and un-motivating. The same can be said with bodyweight training. There are not many bodyweight vertical press variations for those who are not advanced gymnasts.
More Shoulder Variations with Bodyweight
Buy a Bench ↗
Try These 8 Resistance Band Shoulder Exercises in Your Workout Routine
Buy Bands ↗
Buy Bands ↗
Buy Bands ↗
Buy Bands ↗
Buy Bands ↗
Buy Bands ↗
Buy Bands ↗
Buy Bands ↗
If you enjoyed this resource you can find more below or try Programme, a fitness app that plans every workout for you – based on your progress, equipment and lifestyle.
This resource was written by Sean Klein. Sean Richard Klein has thousands of hours of coaching experience and a BSc in Sports Science with Management from Loughborough University. He owns a gym in Bayonne France, CrossFit Essor, which runs group classes and a Personal training studio.
Sean Klein
