21 Jan What you should pay attention to when training with shoulder pain!

We have a lot of personal training clients that come in the first time, telling us they have had a shoulder injury in the past. Most of them have a typical impingement problem, others might have a partially or completely torn rotator cuff muscle. As a personal trainer that is definitely something we need to pay attention to and work closely with our clients health care professionals. If you are older than thirty chances are you have had some sort of injury or problem that seems like it is taking the fun out of your training. you might still become your best though. 

Today the topic will be focused on shoulder injuries. There are too many different diagnoses out there with different treatment options. For that reason here are a couple of common sense tips that can help you maximize the training impacting your shoulders without getting hurt:

1. NO PAIN: this is the biggest rule, if you have any sort of pain you have to either correct your form or choose an alternative exercise.
2. Only work till technical failure. Muscle failure can lead to evasive movements and injury. Once your form is gone, you are done!
3. In our cubicle dominant world I would suggest increasing the ratio from pulling : pushing exercises from 1:1 to 2-3:1
4. Do vertical as well as horizontal pulling exercises!
5. Work on thoracic spine mobility and anterior shoulder mobility (pecs)
6. Supplement your training with rotator cuff exercises
7. Only do overhead exercises  if you have full range of motion without straining or pain (see rule no. 1)

I hope this helps you with your training. As usual please shoot me an email if you have any questions!

Sincerely,

Michael Anders