I have a great guest post to share with you today by my friend and fitness expert for men and women over 50, Richard Schuller, author of “A Guide To Getting Younger After 60“.

Want a really great exercise to strengthen your shoulders for any recreational sport? The overhead dumbbell walk is a great movement devised to strengthen all the support muscles in the shoulder to help prevent injury, and enhance overall performance.

Overhead Dumbbell Walk

The overhead dumbbell walk was developed by trainers for teams in the National Football League to help prevent (and also rehabilitate) shoulder injuries. Since first appearing in 2009, this movement has spread to other sports where athletes put a lot of strain on their shoulders. Tennis players, swimmers, baseball players and other athletes are using this very simple movement to help build resilient and healthy shoulders.

The cool thing about this movement is that it is very simple to perform, and it can benefit anyone who wants to protect their shoulders for any type of recreational activity. The movement is simply while standing, take a dumbbell in one hand, press it to arms length overhead, and keeping it overhead walk forward about 70 to 100 feet. At that point, switch hands and put the dumbbell overhead with the other hand and walk back the same distance.

Benefits from this movement are that all the muscles that stabilize the shoulder are activated when you walk with the weight overhead. Literally every muscle from the tip of the fingers to the tip of the toes is activated in some degree.

It is prudent to begin with a weight that you can handle easily for walks of 70-100 feet. You should begin by doing two circuits with a light dumbbell. You can add one walking circuit each time until you are doing five circuits. At that point you can increase the weight, and drop back to doing two to four circuits. As you get stronger, it will be easier to walk with more weight. You can vary the intensity of the training by adding more distance to the walk, or using a heavier weight.

This movement can also be used to help rehabilitate shoulders that have been injured. It is advised that if you have a shoulder injury, you be cautious about the amount of weight you use. If your injury is severe, it is strongly recommended that you get help from a fully qualified physical therapist.

It is hard to believe that such a simple movement could bring so many benefits.

About The Author

Richard Schuller, is the author of A Guide To Getting Younger After 60. Helping men and women improve their strength and quality of life, ensuring maximum enjoyment out of what should be the BEST years of your life. At 71 years of age he is living proof that there is absolutely no reason why you need to accept physical decline as you age.

Richard is going to be our resident expert for men and women over 50 here at the Fat Loss Quickie blog. He’s contributed some great tips to this blog during the past year and will now contribute articles on a very regular basis. I have learned a lot from him over the past few years and am looking forward to seeing you benefit from his expertise.