Something I am having trouble with that is interfering with upperbody lifting is my excessively protracted right shoulder. I can retract it only a little bit, beyond that, it just doesnt go. I believe it is also elevated quite a bit too.
Right now ive been doing the following to try to fix it:
stretches:
-pec stretch with elbow bent at 90degree angle
-shoulder stretch with elbow bent at 90degree angle (same as pec stretch but arm raised a little more overhead.
-shoulder stretch - arm straight and overhead
-lat stretch
-internal rotator stretch
-neck stretch
exercises:
-reverse cable woodchops
-dipshrugs
-serratus pushdown exercise (kind of like doing isolation pushdowns for your lats)
-external rotation/rear delt exercise from t-mag (it is basically a lateral/rear delt raise across the body)
I had been doing scapular retractions for a few months but I could barely pull it with the right side, if at all. My arm would just bend and I would kind of curl the weight back rather than using my scapula. They didnt help my situation at all either so i eventually just took em out.
The past few days Ive been doing some tennis ball “foam rolling” stuff allover the back/shoulder/pec/neck area but so far its just made me extra achey. I might try ART if you guys all suggest it, but I only have access to 1 ART provider and last time I went to him for a problem his efforts didnt help at all but cost me hundreds of dollars…
Most of this stuff has been reccomended to me be a physical therapist, but ive been doing this stuff with little success for months and he is pretty much out of ideas. Some of the stuff has been through my own research.
I am not doing ANY other upperbody exercises, so except for my lowerbody stuff, which does hit the traps quite a bit, nothing else should be worsening the problem too much.
Any fresh ideas on how to fix this crap and lift some heavy weight?
Something that springs to my mind is that you’re doing some fairly advanced shoulder rehab exercises while still having marked symptoms.
When you first received treatment did your therapist spend a lot of time ensuring you activate your muscles properly… i.e. hands on stuff feeling for muscle contraction against gravity or in gravity minimised positions?
It’s essential that you have the correct pattern of muscle firing and force coupling before doing more advanced exercises.
Just to share some personal experience with shoulder rehab - it took me quite a few weeks just going through technical exercises where I did not use any loading greater than the weight of my arm. At the beginning I couldn’t do any resisted overhead training. Now after a few months I’m close to my short term goal of a bodyweight overhead press.
If your therapist has gone through this kind of stuff, might it be time to be referred to a more experienced or specialised practitioner?
Your problem sounds serious if you can barely retract one side. Your physical therapist is not doing the job if he/she is “out of ideas”. I would be very concerned if my physical therapist actually said this to me as well as pissed off. I know it is hard fixing someone, but to run out of ideas is beyond me. Like the other person said, go to someone else. Do some research, find someone who deals with stuff like this a lot and go there. I doubt anyone online is going to be able to help you. Injuries are no fun at all and I hope you find someone who can help.
The current PT did a great job helping me with some lowerbody issues where other PTs had failed. He has gone through muscle function testing and such. He had proved his worth to me, which is why I am feeling pretty desperate when he hasn’t fixed this issue yet.
I find it to be very unlikely that I’ll find a better PT in the area. However, I have been researching alternative ART practitioners and have found a few. 2 that would be a pure gamble as to their quality, and 1 that is a 2 hour bus/subway journey away but should be very good.
Thanks for the advice guys, it seems my best option now is to try out the far-away ART guy next.
And just as a warning to all you readers, rehab is fucking expensive (and frustrating and time consuming), so keep yourself healthy!!!