What must I avoid when doing arm waves for internal rotation?

Common errors when doing the arm-waves exercise (an exercise that helps restore normal range of motion to the shoulder joint) for internal rotation include:

• If your shoulder pops up immediately when moving your arm, increase the thickness of the padding under your elbow until you can comfortably perform the exercise and feel a stretch. Or decrease the angle of shoulder abduction from 90 degrees to 70 or 60 degrees -- whatever allows your shoulder to stay down. As you improve, slide your arm back to a 90-degree position.
• If you feel pain in your shoulder when moving your arm, then you may be trying too hard to push your hand down. Relax and let gravity help you instead.

Many injuries that occur at the shoulder, elbow and wrist can be attributed to poor Glenohumeral internal range of motion. The arm waves for internal rotation exercise will help correct this issue. When performing this exercise it is prudent to watch for the shoulder to begin to rise or translate. You can avoid this by keeping the shoulder depressed in to the table or floor.