Safe shoulders

June 20th, 2008 at 04:26pm Mike DeDoncker

A bunch of us were having dinner after a game of golf a couple of weeks ago and, as older athletes are prone to do, we started talking about the body parts we’ve injured over the years during the course of our workouts.

Not very far into the conversation, it became clear that almost everyone had either undergone some type of shoulder surgery or was nursing a current shoulder or rotator cuff problem.

That reminded me of a segment I saw way back when ESPN still covered bodybuilding competitions.

The speaker in the segment talked about how the rotator cuff , being made up of four very small muscles — the teres minor, infraspinatus, supraspinatus and subscapularis — and in a part of the body where they don’t receive a lot of blood circulation, are very susceptible to injury when performing exercises for the chest or shoulders.

The injury, more often than not, occurs when the lifter is stopping the weight rather than performing the lift.

He suggested these exercises to help avoid injury:

Shoulder rotation – Think of the motion of an old-time pitcher’s windup or of one of those wind-direction indicators that looks like a wooden duck on a pole. Rotate the arm backward from the shoulder joint and then reverse and rotate the arm forward. Continue for 20 to 30 seconds in each direction for each arm.

Reach across — Reach to the left with your right hand straight across your chest. Use your left hand to grasp your right elbow and gently pull your right arm a little closer to chin. This should not be a big movement, but you should feel a little more stretch across the shoulder. Then switch and reach to the right with your left hand. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds for shoulder.

Overhead reach – Reach to the left with your right hand over your head. Use your left hand to grasp your right elbow and gently pull it a little bit more to the left. Again, this should not be a big movement, but you should feel a little more of a stretch on the back of your shoulder. Switch and reach to the right with your left. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds for each shoulder.

Do these before performing barbell or dumbbell chest presses, flys or exercises for the deltoids and you’ll be more likely to have something else to talk about at dinner.  

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized