Two days ago after my usual workout (serving), i got this shoulder pain which disallows me from raising the arm. To give you an idea,
i am unable to raise my arm with a thumbs down (as suggested in a
rotator cuff thread)
After a day of unsuccessful warming, i tried icing and it gave temp relief. today evening i did some light hitting, mainly forehand, some backhand and it feels better.
I am unable to pinpoint what stretch or exercise might have caused this - it's on the front part of the shoulder. I hardly do any stretching but that day post-workout
i did cycle my arm round, forwards and backwards. I also
regularly do light dumbell work for shoulders: standing lateral raises, front raise, shoulder press.
I need to avoid getting this in the future, Are there any known stretches or light dumbell exercises one should AVOID ?
thanks. (p.s. i am going through the other threads on shoulder and rotator cuff)
Exercises to avoid :
1. AVOID what hurts.
2. Bench press with barbell. Do bench press with dumbells with neutral grips (palms face each other).
3. Overhead press with barbell. If you insist on doing overhead press, do with dumbells with neutral grips.
4. And I agree with Phil's post about the lateral raises, upright rows and behind the neck pulldown.
If you're going to be doing lateral raises, one great way to ensure long-term shoulder health is to position the upper arm in the same plane as the scapula. If you do the exercise directly out to the sides, your arms are in the frontal plane, and the humerus is actually extended, placing the humeral head anterior to the acromion process of the scapula.
This position greatly increases the likelihood of the humeral head pinching the tendons of your rotator cuff underneath the acromion process as you raise your arms. A simple solution is to just move your arms forward about 30° so that it's in the scapular plane.
If you want to make it extra safe, you can do the exercise with your thumbs up; this repositioning will externally rotate your humerus, giving the humeral head and rotator cuff a little more room to breath under that acromion process.
Oh, btw, here's my post at other thread :
Many of you are going to hate me for what I’m about to say. I don’t let my overhead throwing clients (tennis players are in this category) overhead press or bench press with a straight bar.
There. I said it. Call me all the names you’d like but ask yourself this:
“Am I cursing Ano’s name because I think that the cost-to-benefit ratio of overhead pressing and straight bar bench pressing justifies their use, or is it because I feel naked without these options? I have to bench press. I can’t start an upper body day with any other exercise.”
As a fitness trainer/consultant/writer, lifting is a means to achieve an end, not an end in itself.
Athletes lift weights to prevent and rehabilitate injuries and indirectly enhance performance through neural, muscular endocrine and biomechanical factors.
If an athlete is injured, he/she cannot perform—period. This sentence alone should convince you that the cost-to-benefit ratio of any training intervention should be as low as possible. My number one job is to not hurt a client in training.
With respect to the glenohumeral joint—one of several articulations comprising the shoulder girdle—there are five different characteristics of any exercise that I take into account.
1. Traction versus approximation: Pull-ups and pull-downs (like most cable exercises) are an example of traction exercises. They pull the head of the humerus away from the glenoid fossa (shoulder socket).
Conversely, pressing exercises are approximation exercises. They drive the humeral head into that socket. Approximation exercises increase the likelihood of rotator cuff impingement far more than traction, and this is why exercises like pull-downs, pull-ups, and shrugs can be integrated into rehabilitation programs before various presses.
It also explains why many people with external impingement respond well to traction work with bands. They’re basically giving the rotator cuff tendons room to breath.
2. Adduction/extension versus abduction/flexion: Does the movement have the arm further away from the body (elevated) or close to the side? We know that an elbows-tucked (more adducted) bench press is much safer for the shoulders than an elbows out (abducted) style of bench pressing. The same can be said for overhead pressing (scapular plane versus frontal plane).
3. Closed-chain versus open-chain: Movements where the distal segment is fixed and the proximal segment is moving (closed-chain; e.g. push-ups) will always be safer for the shoulder than movements where we are stable proximally and moving distally (open-chain; e.g. Bench Press).
For this reason, you’ll always be able to integrate push-up variations in a shoulder rehabilitation program before you move to barbell and dumbbell pressing variations.
4. Dumbbells versus barbells: We know that external rotation of the humerus repositions the humeral head and gives the rotator cuff tendons more room to “breath” without impingement as we elevate our arms.
We also know that external rotation of the humerus ties in closely with forearm supination—just as internal rotation is associated with pronation.
A barbell fixes us in a pronated position so we’re locked into more of an internally rotated position. Dumbbells allow us to supinate a bit more. In turn, we are able to get more external rotation during the pressing motion, therefore protecting the rotator cuff a bit more than with barbells.
5. Isometric versus ballistic (and everything in between): It should come as no surprise that low velocity movements pose less injury risk than those performed ballistically. We don’t play sports at a snail’s pace, though, so it’s important that we prepare our clients for the dynamic nature of their sports. However, we still need to recognize that isometric and lower velocity movements have merit in certain instances, especially if we’re looking to deload the athlete.
