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Shoulder training for people with rotator cuff problems?

Fast Twitch Fiber

New member
Does anyone have any suggestions? My RCs are killing me when I try overhead presses (or incline bench) My shoulder workout has been reduced to pussy exercises like lateral raises and upright rows on the friggin Smith machine. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good strength/mass workout without being able to do overhead presses?
 
Same story here!

Would love to know what others do.

My doc said it could take 6 months to recover, I need to find alternatives as there is no way I can skip upperbody for up to 6 months.
 
Go see a DEEP TISSUE massage therapist TODAY...
I couldn't do anything with my shoulders for 2 years... it hurt to lift my arm.

7 different doctors told me I was hooped and had to live with it.

I went to a deep tissue massage therapist and within 4 sessions I was benching again pain free...

It may take longer for others to recover.. but go get it done and then take care of your cuffs!
 
My plan of attack was to stop doing overhead movements for a while, and start working the infraspinatus, rhomboids, rear delts, etc...to make them stronger. Once I rehabbed them, I worked on building strength in them. Now I can do overhead stuff with no problem, but I usually don't, just because there's no carry-over from overhead movements to my bench press. I stick with bench-plane moves.

It took me about 6 months to be pain free, and almost a year to be "normal." Now I continue to work on increasing the strength in the muscles that support that area.
 
DrBones said:
Go see a DEEP TISSUE massage therapist TODAY...
I couldn't do anything with my shoulders for 2 years... it hurt to lift my arm.

7 different doctors told me I was hooped and had to live with it.

I went to a deep tissue massage therapist and within 4 sessions I was benching again pain free...

It may take longer for others to recover.. but go get it done and then take care of your cuffs!

yep-- this sounds good...also I wouldnt use the Smith for shoulder workouts at all-- could be making your problem worse...just use lighter free weights.
 
Yeah smith machines restrict a natural movement making the movement awkward (That's how I felt). Yeah I'm quite interested to know how to work the rotator region. I think I put a stop to overhead lifting except for incline bench...which is not really overhead =/.
 
And by the way, upright rows can be dangerous to the RC's depending on your shoulder structure...that can cause pain to (it caused me pain a few hours/days afterwards).
 
I hurt my rotator cuff pretty bad on military press, and just couldnt get it to heal. I recently switched over the to hammer strength over head press (I normally hate machines) and my shoulders have continued to grow while feeling 100% better
 
I bought a book on rotator cuff rehab when I hurt mine doing ...drumroll... military press (taking it off the rack too far behind me, actually). There was only one exercise that seemed particularly useful for bodybuilders because of all of the other shoulder work we already do. It worked very well for me. I recovered in a couple of months (couldn't lift a towel over my head at first, and was back in the gym full-force after).

Lay on a bench, on your side. Hold a LIGHT (5-10 lbs, more is not better) dumbell in the hand that's on the top side. Rest your elbow on your hip and make sure you keep it there. Keeping your elbow at a 90 deg angle, slowly lower the dumbell to about bench level, then raise it up as far as you can comfortably. Repeat. Do a couple sets of maybe 10-15 for each arm, each workout. Increasing weight isn't really necessary, and beyond a certain point probably isn't good.

The exercise is called...external rotation, I believe. It works a particular small muscle in the rotator cuff that doesn't normally receive much attention.

The book mentioned a few exercises that everyone should remove from their workouts, due to particular stresses put on parts of the rotator cuff. One of those was upright rows (impingement of the shoulder ACL), and another was behind the neck presses (don't remember why, or maybe the list was too long).
 
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