Shoulder injuries are common in our sport. Often these injuries are due to muscle imbalances. The muscles in the front of the shoulder become over-developed and the rotator cuff muscles in the back of the shoulder are under-developed. There should be a balance in your upper body training between pushing and pulling exercises. Excessive pushing exercise without exercising the pulling motion can create muscle imbalances that lead to injury. For example, if you do bench presses or push-ups, you should also do inverted rows or bent rows to balance the muscles.
And you should do rotator cuff exercises to work the smaller muscles around the shoulder. These are often weak in comparison to the muscles in the front part of the shoulder. Often, people have shoulders that are rounded and moved forward. This can create a situation where impingement is possible.
A board-certified orthopedist, Dr. Kirsch, has a unique approach to shoulder health. He says that we should be hanging from a bar daily to open up space in our shoulders. Our distance ancestors did this, other primates often hang from branches, etc. creating space in their shoulders. He says you can actually change the bone structure over time by hanging from a bar often. Here is a link to a video of some physical therapists talking about and demonstrating this approach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmt7uSU3mmU
Dr. Kirsch also recommends 3 exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff. Front raises, with a light dumbbell or other light weight, side raises, and back raises. This works the shoulder muscles in different ranges of motion to balance the different shoulder muscles.
The bar hangs aka dead hangs are also effective in lengthening the spine. This helps the body recover, so they are good at the end of a workout. And the dead hangs are also good for developing grip strength.
Some of you have already experienced shoulder pain. Others should do these exercises as prehab, a way of preventing injury. Part of your dry land training should be prehab, to decrease the odds of injury. And your strength training program should balance the pushing and pulling exercises for your shoulder health. Here is the link to the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmt7uSU3mmU
Comments