Jeremy Likness - The Shoulder Joint!

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Some of the most common weight training injuries involve the shoulder joint. More often than not, these injuries are due to improper form or lack of control when doing non-shoulder specific exercises. Learn how you can prevent these kind of injuries and all about your shoulders!

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I recently injured my shoulder (though the injury was likely a long time in the making) -- a pretty severe impingement, with lots of swelling in the bursa. It hurt like hell and I could hardly lift my right arm over my head. Now, after a good deal of physical therapy, it's pretty good, if not yet 100%. Lots of the exercises they gave me to do are similar to the ones presented in this article. They're humbling to do (they look strange and involve very light weights) especially if you are used to being one of the stronger guys in the gym, but for the most part I've laid off the benches, wide grip pullups, etc. and just concentrated on building up my rotator cuff and back/shoulder stability with very good results.

Here's what I've been doing:

Warm up w/10 mins cardio -- to a decent sweat.

All the rotator and scapular drills mentioned in this article (and a few others) -- some w/weights, some w/ cables -- additionally, all the rotator drills I've done w/ the scapulae squeezed down and together the whole time (tiring, believe me). These are the lightweight, humbling exercises.

Seated cable rows -- starting w/ a light warmup weight for a minute or two and really watching good form, then pyramiding up through another 3 or 4 sets -- up to the heaviest weight I can handle w/good form for 8-10 reps.

Some lower ab and leg work (as these are also stabilizing muscles).

Side benefits so far:

I stand lots straighter.

Feel more solid and coordinated in other lifts.

I still haven't started heavy benching or curling yet, but have sort of "test-driven" some weights, just to see how they feel. Even though my chest and bis are visibly a little smaller from lack of use, the weights actually felt easier -- I think because the supporting muscles were lots stronger.

Which goes to show how much you use them.

I wrote the above post. One thing I didn't mention -- should be obvious, but you never know:

All exercises were done w/both injured and uninjured shoulders, w/ identical sets, weights, reps. You don't want to develop an imbalance.

Additionally, if you ARE recovering from an injury, you've got to balance making it stronger w/being careful not to irritate/re-injure it. If you're a bit OCD like me, it's easy to overdo it -- listen to your gut when you work out.

As for the article, not only good info, but better written than lots of stuff on here.