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2006/01/03, 05:37 PM
What can I say, I got bored:
The shoulder is the most complicated part of your body. It is not one, but a series of joints, as well as a group of muscles, connecting your upper arm to your torso. Shoulder problems are one of the most common injuries, but most can be avoided.
My shoulders have plagued me since I began sports. After my first injury (a dislocation), I resolved to learn all I could about this wonderful bodypart. For the past year, my shoulders have finally felt good. What did I learn along the way?
The shoulder is very complex. It is this complexity that makes it prone to injury. The shoulders crave two things... mobility, and stability. With these two things present, most shoulder injuries are preventable.
Stability is the foremost important aspect of shoulder health. Many gym-goers bring shoulder injuries upon themselves with imbalanced training. Many athletes fall into a rut of "training what is being used". This couldnt be further from correct.
You see it all the time. Guys go into the gym, and immediately make their way to the bench press. Then, they do endless curls, and leave. This quickly leads to an imbalance of strength between the anterior and posterior deltoid. This is one of THE MOST common indicators of a future injury. How do we prevent it?
Balance your pushing and pulling. If you are doing the bench press, why would you neglect pull ups and rows? Training these exercises will bring balance to the shoulder joint. Also, though not as common, training the medial deltoid with lateral raises and overhead presses is also helpful.
Athletes often cause similiar problems with "sport specific training". A new member asked in the powerlifting forum what were some good exercises for baseball. His first response "train what you feel you are using in practice." As gatormade put it, this is like telling your athlete to go out and get hit by a bus.
If you are a pitcher and all you do is throw for 2 hours a day, do you really think your shoulder needs more internal rotation? Do you think that your anterior delts are not getting enough work in these two hours? Training like this would further this imbalance, and lead to injury.
The shoulder demands balance in order to grow. If this pitcher were to train his posterior deltoids, correcting this imbalance, he would immediately see an improvement in strength in throwing. Why? Because your body will only allow it to get so far out of balance before it stops growing bigger and stronger. Your biceps will only grow so much if you don't train your triceps.
Stability also takes in other factors. The rotator cuffs are a group of muscles that stabilize your shoulders, and they are the most commonly strained muscles. Why? Because with the exception of olympic style weightlifters, the external rotators are usually weak. A good ratio of internal to external rotation is 4:3. While this number is not necessary, most people need more external rotation. Especially you bench press addicts. Overhead work, pulling, as well as external rotations would be very helpful in this instance.
Similarly, don't neglect your trapezius muscles, as they to are important to your shoulders.
Mobility is another important concern. Pavel Tsatsouline, russian powerlifter, and author of "Super Joints" says that one of the best exercises for the shoulders are simply doing arm circles in the morning. Doing arm circles supposedly strengthens the joints better.
Pavel, as well as many others recommend an olympic stretch that I have found helpful. One coach goes as far as saying this stretch alone should cure 80% of all shoulder pain during exercise. While I am skeptical as to this number, I do feel many people could do good with shoulder dislocations.
Take a broomstick, wide grip at first, arms relaxed and in front. Bring the broomstick overhead, continuing the motion until the broomstick is behind you. Keep your elbows extended and straight. Then, without letting go of the broomstick, bring it back overhead and in front of you. This is one rep. I have heard 50 reps is a good number. I prefer to do sets of 25 reps, after my upper body workouts, and whenever I feel like it. Do a full 50 reps, and your pectorals should feel pumped, but well stretched.
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Pain is only temporary, it is in your mind. If you can still walk, then you can still run.
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Quoting from 7707mutt:
The squat cage is holy ground.
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2006/01/10, 01:29 PM
Unless your shoulders are healthy, you may want to avoid doing any exercises that creat impingement on the shoulders. Behind the neck (BTN) pull downs and presses, as well as upright rows are the first examples that come to mind.
However, with healthy shoulders, low volume of these exercises should not be a problem.
I have grown to hate those "worst exercises" lists, and lists of exercises to never do. It seems like everytime I visit a a site online, someone has come up with a new one, listing new exercises to avoid. The list grows everyday. This is BS. It's like it makes these guys feel important or like they know what they are talking to prohibit something or write a list.
Telling a client at the gym to avoid something may make it sound like you know what you are talking about, but unless you have genuinely taken the time to study the physiology of the shoulder and how it works, and WHY not to do it, then don't try to talk to me about why not to do a snatch grip BTN overhead press (in which there is NO impingement due to the ulta wide grip).
Also, studies have shown that ligament strength is best built up with high rep sets (20-40). Every now and then, I like to do a couple high rep sets of something like DB overhead presses. I usually do this during my deload weeks, instead of maxing. This allows me to recover while ensureing ligament integrity.
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Pain is only temporary, it is in your mind. If you can still walk, then you can still run.
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Quoting from 7707mutt:
The squat cage is holy ground.
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