Fighting, and especially grappling, is very flexion-dominant.
What I mean by this is that the muscles that bend your joints are working way more than the muscles that extend your body.
The upper back is often rounded, shoulders pulled forward…
And you use the chest, lats and biceps a lot to control your opponents…
So these muscles get worked a lot just from training on the mats.
As a result, they tend to shorten and get tight.
When that happens, these muscles pull your shoulder blade forward, and pull the upper arm bone forward in the joint.
This is NOT optimal.
Ideally the shoulder blades are neutral or slightly back and the arm bone is dead center in the socket.
When it’s there, the shoulder joint is stable and you can move your arm around freely without limitation.
However, when it’s pulled forward even a little due to the chest and lats being tight...
The arm bone gets stuck against the top of the joint when extended, causing pinching and wear and tear of the tendons that run underneath.
On top of that, it simply makes the shoulder weaker and less powerful.
Now, of course your body also has muscles that pull it back in the socket (where it belongs):
They’re called your rotator cuff muscles, specifically the infraspinatus and teres minor (you can forget the names, it's much more important to know what they do and how to make them work better).
Unfortunately, they’re naturally much smaller and therefore weaker than the opposing muscles that pull your shoulder and arm forward.
Besides, you probably train them a lot less (when is the last time you purposely rotated your arm outwards like an Americana type movement in grappling?).
This causes an imbalance in the shoulder joint, which not only makes your shoulders weaker but can cause pain and injuries as well.
So to either fix or simply optimize your shoulders and make them stronger for grappling and mma...
You want to work these muscles and do special exercises for them.
This'll help reduce pain if you have any, and simply make your shoulders stronger (and as a bonus make them look better too).
There are many ways to do this, but one of my favorites especially for people who currently have shoulder pain, is the Super Slow Elbow on Knee Rotation:
Because you do these super slow (shoot for 8 seconds down, 8 seconds up), you won’t need many repetitions.
3-5 is plenty, and sometimes even 2 of these will already burn the muscle out.
You could also do them in a regular tempo but I recommend to do the super slow version for the first few sessions to really (re)build the stability in your shoulder.
How much weight to use?
VERY little at first.
Even Heavyweight UFC and Pride legend Mark Hunt was struggling with 2 pounds when I first made him do it, and he was one of the hardest hitters in the UFC so I don't think you need a lot more (at first).
Add them to your workouts or just do them at home a few days a week, your shoulders will feel stronger on the mats.
Of course, there are a lot more exercises you can (and should) do and I'll share them with you soon.
In the meantime, start with this...
And if you want to train but your shoulder is hurting, pick up an Anaconda shoulder brace to protect it:
