Exercises for good shoulder health

[Hanzo]

I dont know if this is realted to me rowing, or just overall bad luck, but every now and then I get issues with one of my shoulders. Normally it passes if I just take it easy for a a week or two. I'm currently having some pains in my left shoulder, and I'm thinking it's from rowing, or the fact that I normally sleep on the side with my hand tucked under my head. Last week the pain was so bad I would wake up during the night and have issues falling to sleep again. It's much better now, but it's still sore. I dont feel any pain from rowing, but it seems the night after a rowsessions it gets worse.

Can someone please help point me in the direction of some good exerscises or streachings that could help sort out bad shoulders? If it matters, the pain is usually from the very top of the should

I found this picture pretty much spot on with pain location:

[Dangerscouse]

I love doing halo movements with a barbell plate, dumbbell pullovers (they secondarily work the delts) and another exercise that I have no idea of what it's called but it follows the motion of the waving cat that I see in Chinese takeaways in England.

Stand against a wall lift one arm out to 90 degrees with your tricep pressed against the wall and the forearm bent also to 90 degrees (so you're holding a light dumbbell directly out) and then lift the dumbbell up and down for reps; repeat on the other arm. Hope this makes sense!

[stupefaction]

I found this picture pretty much spot on with pain location

Where is the spot? I can't see anything definite beyond that giant blob of plasma or whatever it is on the translucent man's shoulder. Is it supposed to be a lens flare?

[Hanzo]

New photo, displaying my awsome photoshop ability. And no, thats not me, I'm more of the IT guy bodytype...

[jamesg]

https://beta.nhs.uk/conditions/tendonitis/

There may be something here that can help you.

[Hanzo]

Thansk, I have had this, or similar issues a few times and normally it sort itself out pretty nice. My main goal in posting this, was asking for advice on exersices or stretches that helps strengthen my shoulds to avoid this. I hate having to take a break from my weekly schedule. Does anyone know if shoulder issues is normal with rowing, or do rowing usually strengthen and help shoulder be better? Reading up on it, shoulder issues are the most common after back pains, so I'm defently now alone.

[jamesg]

I had some tendinitis and broken/frayed tendons (long biceps and supraspinatus).

Physio had me do shoulder lift and drop and rotation both ways, all forced, and back and front shoulder muscle work; this done standing feet apart, by leaning with horizontal forearm in front and wrist against walls/trees, both sides and both ways. Only need to shift weight off one or the other foot or use something elastic. Another one was with straight arms horizontal in front, drawìng circles in the air. All isometric, no weights. A complete cycle took about 20 minutes.

In my experience rowing cures a lot more trouble than it causes, if we're careful how we lift the boat out of the water.

[stupefaction]

another exercise that I have no idea of what it's called but it follows the motion of the waving cat that I see in Chinese takeaways in England

Yes! The motion of the Maneki-neko is a perfect way to describe what is said to be one of the best lifts for strengthening the rotator cuff.

I've read that the very best weight-lifting exercise for the rotator cuff is the side-lying external rotation. I find it hard to do properly, and maybe that's the point.

In general, rowing has been very good for my shoulders. Both of my shoulders are unstable. They used to get dislocated with alarming frequency starting in my late teens. Sometimes one or the other would spontaneously and fully dislocate while I was sleeping, and it would take me an hour or more to get it back in. On one especially horrible occasion, both came out at the same time. Rowing has essentially cured the problem. I haven't had a dislocation in ten years.

[Cyclist2]

I injured my shoulder in a cycling crash. After the doctor determined that it wasn't anything requiring surgery (I had an MRI) he sent me to PT. The exercises the PT gave me were lots of light weight (2-5 pounds) and resistance band rotations, flexions, extensions, abductions. I have the sheet with the photos of how to do them and can send it to you via PM if you want, but there are lots of Internet resources you can look at with specific info for your situation. The shoulder muscles are all pretty small, so not a lot of weight is needed to get some good strengthening and stretching.

[Hanzo]

Thanks guys, appriciate the feedback. I will look into the exercicses mentioned in this thread. One more question, do most warm up before you start rowing, even for steady state rowing? I mostly go 10k and 15k rowing, and I just sitt down and start going. Once a week I do intervals, and then do a 10 minutt warmup before I start the hard work.

[Cyclist2]

One more question, do most warm up before you start rowing, even for steady state rowing?

Yes. For longer UT1 rows, warm ups are shorter, but I don't like to dilute my workout stats with the slower warm up efforts.

[Hanzo]

Well, I went to the fysioterapist today after I woke up at 4:00 with shoulderpains. According to him, it's from overdoing the rowing, and I should try other froms for fittness for atleats two weeks... Hate it when that happen,but I guess I have no choice. According to him, my rigth shoulder was noticable more stable and thight, so he recommended me 3 exercises to strengthen the shoulders. He also felt that 4 days with roing 10 or 15k a day without rest was pushing it for a 42 yeard old IT guys

[Dangerscouse]

Nah. I'm 44 and I've done 152km in the past week and I'm planning on doing another 100km on Sunday.

It might be a specific problem to you but it's not generally an issue. If you look on the C2 holiday challenge the leader, the ages and KMs completed the vast majority are late 40s or older, some significantly older.

Work on those exercises and get stronger but don't listen to comments that rowing isn't suitable; you just need to be prepared for the toll that it takes.

[Dangerscouse]

My only warm up is walking from the car to the gym, and then to the erg!

I do stretch my heels and hip flexors in the house before I leave but that's just because they are tight at the moment.

It's also worth doing reverse planks. They will strengthen shoulders and open up your chest which is great following rowing

[Steve-BPRC]

The Website of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) has a several pdfs with exercises for different parts of the body (spine, ankle, hip, ankle). The pdf with exercises for the rotator cuff is particularly complete and well done. The link is
https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/globalassets ... oulder.pdf