shoulder workouts for injury prevention
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recently started getting out most weekends and the gym a couple times a week and have been having some shoulder pain. |
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I think the best thing you can do is stretch and warm up your shoulders before you climb. Also lifting lights weights Dumbbells are fine military press bench press to slowly build your shoulder strength should also help. Most important listen to your body. If it says rest or go easy try to accommodate . |
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A lot of articles out there on this topic. Here are a couple: |
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I've had my right shoulder surgerized and at this point it is an ongoing project to keep both shoulders in reasonable shape. I weight train about 3x/week and warm up by going for a brisk uphill walk to get heart rate up and muscles warmed up, then light theraband arm and shoulder exercises before the weights. Emphasis on "light" theraband work. A lot of the shoulder stability musculature is comprised of small muscles. Don't hurt them with heavy resistance. |
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Thanks for the advice. It seems like the way to go is using some resistance bands. Anyone know anything in particular to avoid while using them? I've heard you can go too far in some directions when doing rotator cuff stuff. |
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Patrick Wilder wrote:Thanks for the advice. It seems like the way to go is using some resistance bands. Anyone know anything in particular to avoid while using them? I've heard you can go too far in some directions when doing rotator cuff stuff.Patrick, While some folks have posted a number of good ideas and suggestions, your best bet is to schedule a visit or two with a PT. Maybe even try a couple different ones. They can help you sort through all of the different exercises, discuss frequency of workouts, and develop an overall plan. Most importantly they can identify appropriate form and ranges of the exercises. |
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Patrick, |
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Jon Clark wrote:your best bet is to schedule a visit or two with a PT. Maybe even try a couple different ones.Yes ... There is a wide range of possible motions of the shoulder joint. If you really tried to strengthen all of them, you'd spend (and waste) lots of time. Different climbers have different bone configurations (and different previous injuries) - so they are pre-disposed to different kinds of shoulder injuries. And even if you select only the most appropriate ones for you, but do them in the wrong way, you'd waste time because they'd be less effective. There is one (or two) "standard" rotator cuff exercise, which has a special resistance machine at many health club gyms -- but not clear how relevant it is for preventing the most frequent injuries of climbers. There are one or two exercises (esp. scapula retraction) that have been recommended widely by experienced climbing coaches (including Dave MacLeod) specifically for preventing an injury of serious climbers. A Physical Therapist could give you a couple of other clever exercises to strengthen motions that are specific for the (so far) minor injuries that you seem to be pre-disposed toward. . . . (and get Dave MacLeod's excellent book, Make or Break -- if nothing else so that you some indication of whether your PT does or does not have a clue for what you need as a climber). Ken P.S. One shortcoming of elastic bands is that it's difficult to _measure_ the resistance level (and also to some extent the Range-of-Motion). So you don't know how much strengthening is "enough", or what was your previous "normal" level (helpul to know after you come back from a lay-off or trip). |