Effective SHoulder/Cuff active recovery

[coolcolj]

This works remarkable well!

first stick your arms out to the side, thumbs up, or a position where pain and clicking is minimised. Then do a circular 6 inch rotation forward for 10 reps, and then backward for another 10 reps.

rest 30sec to a minute.

then repeat but with a larger circular motion, say 18inches

rest

once again, but now arms straight at the sides.

so that 60 reps, do this everyday for the first week and then twice a day after that. Take a break off it once a week if you like.
The first few days you shoulder/traps/cuffs will be sore and maybe in pain depending on your injury, but surely enough. As the days go by you will feel better and better, and then one day you can start benching and pressing again

once they are ok, start doing a sound rotatry cuff strengthening protocol as part of your workouts. Make sure you balance, vertical and horizontal pressing, as well as vertical and horizontal pulling. Add some snatch thumbs up dumbell face down incline raises as well as side raises.

Keep doing these rotations however, but once a day is enough, I infact use them as part of warmup.



someone who did something similar

I've had shoulder problems in the past (never diagnosed - but once I couldn't bench or shrug anything more than 50% 1RM for over 6 months without pain).

However, what made a big difference in the life of my shoulders was doing something similar to the 100-rep protocol. Three or four times per day (nearly every day) I would do a couple sets of unweighted arm circles.

I started doing a set of 10 with arms straight out from sides and fists moving in a circle about 6" in diameter. Then a set of 10 about 18" in diameter. Then a set of 10 with full range. Then do one set in the opposite direction.

I worked up to doing a total of 60 reps 3 times/day.

It's important to find a "groove" that is pain-free. Try not to just bull through the pain for the first couple of reps until it loosens up. Find a way to do these so even the first rep has no pain.

You can experiment with arm-speed and hand position throughout the circle to alleviate pain and "clicking".

After a couple of months of this I was able to resume benching, and have been benching heavy (for me) and pain-free for two or three years now. My bench has gone up from an abysmal 200 to an almost respectable 285 in that time.

PS: I also discovered many rotator cuff exercises when I started reading this web-site about 18 months ago. I think they've been important in keeping my shoulders healthy as my numbers increase.

 

[Toozee]

Awsome man. Anything I can add to my RC work is much appreciated. I'll add these on days I don't do internal/external rotations, etc. K to u!

 

[PlatnumKowboy]

Is this with or without weight

 

[coolcolj]

no weight

it's especially effective for people who stoop over a desk all day long! The same thing works for your eye muscles as well, if you stare at a computer screen a lot - major vision improvment!

 

[Mike_Rojas]

Nice CCJ. I just tried it and it feels good.

 

[coolcolj]

I wonder if something similar could help folks with knee problems?

say non-weighted leg extensions - 100 reps at day?

I did something like that for my past ankle injury from landing on a BBall, and it helped a lot. Ankle rotations and toe curls etc many times a day

 

[thebrute]

awesome..i was doin somethin like that for awhile...i believe i'll do those now!! tb