What Exercises Should You Avoid with Shoulder Instability?

This is a good question. People ask what exercises you should avoid when you have shoulder instability.

First off, keep it simple. Don’t do stuff that hurts. If it hurts, don’t do it. In general, if you can’t see your hand, right? Like right there, I can see my hand. And then I’m like pressing in the scapular plane, everything’s locked in. But, if you can’t see your hand, you’re putting your shoulder at the end range of motion, and your ability to stabilize dynamically with muscles decreases. You’re just putting it at the end arc and the muscles can’t fire to keep everything nice and tight.

It’s often working through a mid-arc, so you’re not all coming super deep when you’re benching. Also, old-school benching, or I should say, old-school powerlifting, is to keep everything pinned back with your shoulder blades, letting your shoulder blades glide and move because then they’re moving with the ball and socket a little bit.

But generally, avoid things that hurt and where you can’t see your hand. Pressing and using your shoulder when it’s unstable is the safest way.