Shoulder Rehab
by Bill Starr…
“If you have some time this trip, I’d like you to help me do something about my shoulder.”
“What’s the problem?”
“I fell on my left shoulder about three months ago. The doctor said I had a slight dislocate. The kind they don’t adjust, as it was jammed, rather than actually separated. I laid off it for a couple of weeks and it got well. Then, just about two weeks ago, I lost a snatch over my head and it’s been bothering me again….”
“Can you pinpoint the pain?”
“Pretty much.” He pressed his thumb on a spot just where the frontal deltoid meets the top of the biceps.
“It’s right here.”
I reached across the table and pressed at the spot he indicated, then proceeded to trace up the deltoid to the trapezius and down the biceps to the elbow.
“Right, THERE!” He jumped as I hit the sensitive spot.
“Frontal deltoid….”
“What exercises are you able to do?” I asked.
“I can’t bench, incline, standing press – anything where I set the bar on my chest of shoulders. I can still do my pulling and squatting, but I haven’t been able to work my shoulders since I re-injured it.”
“Have you ever tried using dumbbells for your shoulder exercises?”
“No, I’ve never used dumbbells, except for a couple of sets of curls every week. Why?…
“Sometimes you are able to position the dumbbell in such a way that you are able to avoid the pain….
“Normally I squat, then do cleans, clean hi-pulls and presses of some sort. I’m only able to pull and squat just now and I wanted to see what you had in mind for me before I started….”
“The first thing that I want you to do, even before you squat, is to do one rehab circuit with light dumbbells. Do one set of: frontal raises, lateral raises, seated dumbbells and curls. Use as light a weight as you need in order to get twenty reps. The idea is to pump blood into the injured area and to insure that it is warmed up thoroughly. Quite often, lifters with shoulder problems will reinjure themselves while squatting since they lock the shoulder girdle in an isometric contraction during the movement.”
“I know what you mean. My shoulder has really been talking to me after I squat. I knew that I was irritating my shoulder but I sure didn’t want to give up my squats.”
He proceeded to go through the prescribed exercises as I did my warm-up sequence.
I walked over to watch Davey finish his set of curls. “So, how’s it going?”
“You know, the pain is gone just now. But what delights me the most is to find that I can do seated presses with the dumbbells. It’s a light weight, I fully realize, but that’s the first thing I’ve been able to do for my shoulders in weeks….”
“One of the things I appreciate about the dumbbells is that they afford the lifter a wide variety of movement. The Olympic bar is less restrictive than the machines and the dumbbells are even less restrictive than the free bar. In many instances, you are able to position the dumbbell so that you can avoid the pain. Let’s try some benches and see what happens. Start with the 25-pounders, just to see if you can find a position that doesn’t hurt your injury.”
He eased the dumbbells to his chest and laid back on the bench. Gingerly, he pressed them to arm’s length. I could see him grimace as the dumbbells touched his chest.
“Does that hurt?” I asked.
“Some, just at the bottom.”
“Try turning your hands so that your thumbs are facing your shoulders.”
“OK. That doesn’t bother me at all. How many reps?”
“Do a dozen, then we’ll work up.”
He did five more sets of 12 reps, working up to the 75-pounders for his final set….
“On the bench, if I turn my thumbs back towards my shoulders it doesn’t bother me, but on the incline bench, I have to turn my thumbs so that they are facing each other to avoid the hurt. Isn’t that sort of weird?”
“Well, I guess it may be but that’s sort of what I mean when I talk about experimenting. It always takes a bit of trial and error. Now let’s see if you are able to do some standing presses.”
“Am I using the 25-pounders again?”
“You got it. Always start extra light.”
He cleaned them and set them steadily on his deltoids. He pressed them overhead quite easily but I could see that he hit a painful area as his face contorted. He turned his hands slightly on the second rep, but it still brought forth the same look of pain.
“Try turning your hands about halfway in between the two positions you just tried.”
He did and the weight popped to the top and he grinned. “That’s it!”
He did six more sets, moving on up to the 60s, all for 12 reps….
“So,” I began, “now you know that you can continue to exercise your shoulders, but in all likelihood you’ll probably have to stay with the dumbbell work for a few weeks before going to the Olympic bar.”
Should I try to push the weight up on my dumbbell work or do more sets?”
”I’d stay with fairly high reps, 8-12, for at least a week just to be sure that you’re not irritating your injury. Then, I can see no real reason why you can’t attack. I can assure you that using heavy dumbbells will greatly enhance your overall shoulder strength. I know of a great many strength athletes who use them during certain cycles in their yearly program. If you can get to where you are handling 100-pounders on either your inclines or your standing presses, you’re going to be one strong puppy. Pressing a pair of 100s is the equivalent of doing 250 on an Olympic bar in my book.”
“What about that little warm-up routine I did? Should I keep that in my program?”
“Absolutely. Go through that circuit at the onset of every workout and do it again at the very end of your program. It is most therapeutic….”
Posted by tim 
