Fri, 14 Sept 18

Back/Shoulder Stability

Yesterday was graduation from PT school after 3 loooooong years.  The ceremony was cancelled due to potential complications from the hurricane, although this turned out to be premature since we had basically zero effects from the storm other than it was cloudy and drizzled a little in the morning.  So the ceremony will now be next week, but I am now officially Dr. Andy Deck!  Now I've got 6 weeks to study for boards which I take at the end of October.  I won't be training events this weekend because I have a boards prep course for most of the day on both Saturday and Sunday.

Today's training focused on making my shoulder feel better.  The three main things I used to accomplish this are based on my own shoulder pain and may or may not work for others who try this.

1. Rotation of the shoulder blade (both upward and downward rotation)

2. Activation of the lat and serratus anterior

3. Strengthening the external rotators of the shoulder

I used weights heavy enough to be fatiguing, but maintain proper form with either zero or very minimal pain.  I also used slow eccentrics, pauses, or timed holds on most exercises to increase the total time under tension.  After I finished up this training and through the weekend my shoulder felt significantly better with less pain, less feeling "loose", and less catching.  Feel free to give any or all of these a shot if you've got some issues with your own shoulder or shoulders.  It shouldn't hurt though, so if it does, then try lowering the weight, limiting the range of motion, or doing a different exercise.

Neutral Grip Lat Pulldowns/DB Shrugs

10x70/---

3x{10x100/30 sec hold + 10x60}

I emphasized scapular depression prior to the start of each rep of lat pulldowns and focused on keeping it throughout the whole range of motion.  I also paused at the bottom for 1 sec and used a 4 sec negative for these.

On the shrugs I raised and held up for 30 sec before starting to count reps and used a 3 sec pause at the top for each rep.

Single Arm Seated Cable Rows/American Bar High Incline Serratus Press

15ea x 45/30 sec hold + 10x35

2x{15ea x 70/30 sec hold + 10x55}

I used a 3 sec negative on the rows and a 3 sec pause at the top on the serratus presses after the initial 30 sec hold.

OH Shrugs/Side Lying External Rotation

20x45/20 sec hold + 10ea x 5

20x65/20 sec hold + 10ea x 5

Getting the bar overhead and back down bothered my shoulder a little bit in the front rack position, but the weight was light enough that I could manhandle it to avoid it.  This combined with losing a lot of ROM during the second set of ER due to fatigue made me decide to limit these exercises to just 2 sets.