There are many things that we do as kids and they just feel natural. Nobody teaches those things to us, we just figure them out. Then fast forward to a couple of years later and we are just scratching our heads surprised wondering why is everything going downhill and getting worse.
As kids, we climb trees. Throw balls up the sky. Hang down from places. At a point, probably adults even swing us while being held by the hands. Up and down, back and forth and around like a swing ride at the fun fair. Maybe you do it to other kids and you just wonder how do their arms not break out of their shoulders – because, right now if you had to do the same, yours would. The answer is simple: they have never lost the ability to use their shoulder to their capacity (yet) like we did.
The only worse thing than losing the ability to do something is if we have never even had it in the first place. Sadly, children nowadays often don’t have the opportunity to climb on trees or climbing frames or just monkey around while playing.
Simply saying, as long as you move around and do all kinds of stuff, your joints remain mobile and they will be able to do all kinds of stuff too. Possibly, you need to build strength to be able to do certain things, but that’s a different question. You don’t need much strength to lift your arms above your head and ironically if your shoulders are not willing to move into that position, no amount of strength will get them there.
Hanging is one of those underestimated little efforts that could do more good for you than the most expensive running shoe ever will. Yet, we really don’t hang often. Whether that’s because we don’t think of doing it, can’t do it, or don’t want to do it is a different question. The end result is the same: at any age, we should be able to lift the arms fully above the head and keep them there without any discomfort or effort. If you can, continue doing it. If you can’t, it’s time to work.
I have one of those cheap portable pull-up bars hung up (pun intended) on one of my door frames, so I can hang, stretch my body, or do a pull-up or two whenever I either remember or want to. Yes, I also use my shoulder to walk on my hands and lift heavy weights – but I do those things because hanging for me is not a problem, and I can gain benefits from doing so.
But I’ll go further than the shoulder health. When hanging down, gravity is your little helper. It lengthens and stretches the body as it pulls away everything from the hands, increasing space between most of the joints. When you are standing upright, gravity is compressing all those joints as the weight of your head is pushing everything down toward the ground. Do you know what they call people at greater ages, who have an over-compressed spine? I’ll let you guess.
So, get into hanging. If you can’t hang fully, do a half effort (keep your hands up against something and bend your body away from it through the hips).