What To Do If You Have Shoulder Pain When Doing A Side Plank

Today, I wanted to explain what you can do if you have shoulder pain when performing the side plank. The side plank is a great exercise that strengthens your core, especially your obliques.

Unfortunately, the side plank position can be uncomfortable or even painful in the shoulder. A lot of weight is placed on the shoulder in this position, as you support a lot of your body weight with your arm.

This exercise will work on building your shoulder strength from a position that puts less force on your shoulder, allowing you to build strength without pain or injury. Eventually, you will have built up enough strength and stability in your shoulder ^[1] that you will be able to perform the side plank exercise without pain.

In this video, I wanted to give you an alternative exercise. If you do a side plank and it is painful, you can do this exercise called the Farmer’s Carry.

CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube video.

Shoulder Pain When Doing A Side Plank

I will get Sonya to demonstrate it.

You want to strengthen the shoulder from a place of proper alignment. Grab a weight – a dumbbell works well. Hold it in one arm and then take the weight for a walk. As you walk, make sure to “pack” your shoulders. This means keeping your shoulder blades together and your shoulders down from your ears.

Farmer’s Carry

You can start using something lightweight but want to work up to a heavyweight. You are pretty much holding your weight up when doing a side plank. When you are doing it from your knees, you are doing it with three-quarters of your body weight.

At the start, you might go light, but then you want to crank it up to keep those shoulders and those hips parallel to the floor. The dumbbells are trying to pull you down, and you are fighting it the opposite way. So it’s almost like you are doing a side plank without all that pressure on your forearm, elbow, and shoulder.

If you have shoulder pain ^[2] when doing the side plank on the floor, give the Farmer’s Carry exercise a go. Make sure you have perfect technique because you don’t want to put unnecessary stress on your back. Increasing the weight once you are stronger and have perfected the form is important for strengthening the shoulder.

Final Word

Make sure to swing by ExercisesForInjuries.com. Enter your injury or pain into the search bar on the top right hand of the screen. There’s a good chance of an article, an interview, or a video that will help you overcome your injury or pain.

Secondly, if you’re watching this on YouTube, head up above and hit subscribe. When you subscribe, you’ll get a video like this every couple of days where I talk about tips and tricks on overcoming your injury or pain.

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Take care!

Rick Kaselj, MS

If you are looking for a program to help you overcome shoulder pain for good, click here to check out the Shoulder Pain Solved program.