Shoulders

Posted by thestidham on 4/16/2007

so lately I've been having pains in my shoulders (mostly my left one) and I've been doing exercises with a rubber band thing. I will keep my elbow against my body and pull the band across my body. then I turn the other way and pull it away from my body. example of what they are can be seen here:
internal: http://www.orthop.washington.edu/UserFiles/Image/exercise08.gif
external: http://www.orthop.washington.edu/UserFiles/Image/exercise09.gif
they seem to help a bit but I'm wondering from others out there (and I know your there) who have experienced similar pain and what you did or are doing to strengthen the stabilizers and get the shoulder equalized. I recently read an article that made me think that all the push ups I do are mabey adding to the problem rather than helping. I do them to work the push muscles to keep balance but maybe I should lay off to many push ups for a while? any help would be appreciated.

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Forum: Advice

7 comments

ON the BRINK says:

keep shoulders stretched. Practice keeping shoulders back and chest out. Stretch shoulders in a corner using your elbows on the walls while you lean your head and neck back and chest out. Get a really good stretch every day and often during the day. Think positively and don't carry any extra weight or burdens on your shoulders. Out!

by ON the BRINK on Fri, 2007-06-15 03:03

thestidham says:

thanks for the suggestions!

by thestidham on Sat, 2007-06-16 20:49

susanica says:

Hi, you posted this awhile ago so I hope you're feeling better by now. But shoulders are a very important part of climbing and as someone who has dislocated before, (my right shoulder, 2 years ago), i know all about the pain, stretching and rehab it takes to get back in shape and it can be very frustrating. So if I learned anything from it all, it's that injury prevention is key and strengthening your stabilizing muscles will only help you in the long run.

I recently ran across this article which is actually meant for swimmers but a lot of the exercises I had in physical therapy, like the front row and the one where you lift your arms. These appear VERY simple but they aren't--you have to pay a lot of attention to the position your shoulders are in. Look in the mirror, you shouldn't be cheating and "shrugging" your shoulders up when you lift your arms up, you should be using the small muscles and keeping your body very still. Hope this helps!

http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/ViewMiscArticle.aspx?TabId=445&Alias=...

by susanica on Wed, 2007-06-27 06:37

rudolphluciani says:

I'm currently working through a sprain of the super-spinaedus(sp?) in my right shoulder(too much damn gym bouldering). I was seeing a PT for a while and along with doing stym sessions and ice/heat, she showed me some exersises to do chief among them being a low weight(4lbs) high rep(3x10) raise both straight out in front and at a 45 degree angle to the body. They seem to help somewhat, but my shoulder still hurts like a bastard sometimes. Good luck!

by rudolphluciani on Thu, 2007-08-16 17:00

Luca says:

I have really loose shoulders and have dislocated/subluxed them many times over the past several years. A major contributing factor was that I never took the rehab seriously. I started climbing about 1.5 years ago and after climbing for 6 months subluxed my shoulder(partial dis-location that relocates by itself). After this last time I took rehab seriously and have seen a great return for the efforts that I have put into proper rehab. Several people have talked about stretching and while this can be very useful for those with naturally tight muscles/joints, if you have loose joints stretching can actually compound joint problems.

In your specific case, the first thing you probably should do is rest and ice. It is next to impossible to properly heal without this step. When you start rehabing, the two exercises that are called out in your post are good but (2) more exercises that are much more sport specific and helpful are the following:

1. stand with your upper arms parrallel to the floor and your forearms pointing to the ceiling. With the stretch chord tied to something behind you, pull on the stretch cord kepping your elbows still. This results in downward forward rotation of your hands. While doing this, make sure you keep your shoulders back and down with your shoulder blades pinched together.

2. same exercise and 1. but instead of facing away from the stretch chord anchor point, turn and face it. Reverse exercise 1..

These 2 exercises together have worked wonders for me. Finally nothing will help more than making sure your joints are properly warmed up before climbing.

Hope this helps

by Luca (not verified) on Tue, 2007-09-11 15:43