[quote]LoRez wrote:
No pain while pressing (very light). It feels a little weird at the top of the movement, but not in a bad way. If it makes any sense, it’s almost like whatever “something” I tore/stretched/pulled was hindering me, and now it’s gone and so I’m even stronger on my left side overhead.
No rotator cuff discomfort either. Lateral raises have a tiny bit of twinging (maybe you saw my comment over in that thread in CT’s forum), but nothing that wasn’t preexisting.[/quote]
well that pretty much rules out anything serious. I have heard about people kind of “popping” open adhesions in the muscle that feel weird when it happens but give them better ROM afterwards. Might have been that.
As for you laterals problem, try this:
-pull your shoulder blades back and down. Lock that shit tight.
-lean forward 45 degrees.
-hold the dumbells off-center, with your grip closest to the top bell.
-raise the bells up and slightly back, slowly, stopping when you make a T.
-lower the weights under control
-you should be able to reverse direction at any time during the movement.
If I don’t really concentrate on my form then laterals bother my shoulders too, but really focussing on the above points has me doing them pain free.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
The only way I can feel any pain is this: take my left hand, put it across the front of my body and on my right arm by the shoulder, then try to pull down and across the front of my body. It more like a tight or overstretched feeling through my lower traps. Sort of like if I pulled any harder, I might hurt something.[/quote]
That’s quite a weird position for your shoulder to be in anyway, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that, especially if pressing and shit like that doesn’t hurt.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
I’ve been working through a number of daily prehab/rehab exercises for the shoulder girdle for several months now. Recently with the chiro/rehab people the focus has been focused more on retraction.[/quote]
Well if your physio is concentrating on retraction, then I would trust them. I often find people focus too much on retraction and not enough on upward rotation, and considering most people with shoulder pain have really nasty, fibrotic rhomboids, a focus on retraction won’t necessarily fix it. I’d certainly never tell you to disregard your physio’s advice though!
[quote]LoRez wrote:
I’ve not done scap pushups before though.[/quote]
Do them. Do them in your warm up on upper body days.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
Overhead pressing with heavy retraction has been a staple for the last several months, which is mostly upward rotation as far as I understand. This has been literally over-the-head pressing, and not from the front of the body, sometimes to behind the head no lower than the ears.[/quote]
ya, overhead pressing works it, but I’d still add some prone Ys (seem to work best for higher reps, like 20 or so) or face pulls. Prone Ys have made a HUGE difference in my shoulder training. Really take the heat off your rhomboids.
Overhead shrugs are a nice addition too, but hard to load up heavy.
All this shit I’ve told you here might not even really apply! But it’s good, shoulder health stuff anyway so might be worth adding some of it, especially considering you have a history of shoulder problems (I’m assuming you must considering ou are seing a specialist).