In part 1 we talked about general recommendations of exercises to avoid for elbow pain. Now we move up the humerus to talk about the shoulder.
The most common shoulder injury we see as personal trainers are an imbalance of the tight internal rotators (pectoralis major and subscapularis) vs the weak external rotator (infraspinatus and teres minor). The truth is that most popular exercises seen in a gym work in internal rotators that overtime cause the external rotators to become overpowered and prone to injury.Add poor posture and lack of flexibility in the extension of the thoracic spine and you got a whole bunch of problems.
Here are 7 modifications you can make.
Drop the barbells: Barbell incline, flat or decline bench press. Instead use dumbbells and even better use the swissball to allow your scapula's the freedom to move.
Use the door frame: Stretch your chest and subscapularis by placing your forearm on the door and leaning forward at the waist. Hold the stretch 20 seconds and release. Do this between sets of back work.
Foam roller for spinal extension: Lay your back on the foam roller, cross your arms and place your hands on your shoulders. Roll up and down 5-6 times not going lower then your mid back and then stop, hold your head and stretch back keeping your hips down. Hold 3 seconds and repeat 4x. The more often you do this the better.
Rubber band external rotation: At the end of each workout grab a rubber band and externally rotate away from the body keeping your elbows tight against your side. perform 3 sets of 12 repetitions
No overhead: Drop all overhead movements, it will just aggravate the pain. The first overhead exercise to introduce once the pain is gone is light standing dumbbell presses.
Give it 99%: Forced reps are your enemy when it comes to a bad shoulder. When you feel a little twinge it's best to let your body tell you when it's time to stop. A spotter is great for helping you get that last rep and make you force 101% but in this case stop at 99% and keep the spotter for emergencies.
Row wide: A wide row will help target the rhomboids and mid traps to help strengthen the antagonistic muscle group. The cause of shoulder pain is often caused but too much pressing and not enough rowing.
Once the pain is gone, I hope you learn your lesson and keep up these habits because this will keep your shoulders healthy and pressing for ever.
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