has anyone used the “shoulder horn” it is a device that holds your arms in place so you can do rotator cuff exercises i had shoulder surgery a few years ago and i think there is still a lot of weakness in my rotator cuff muscles
thanks
hard trainer
I’ve never used the shoulder horn, but regarding your rotator cuff, I think a lot of the weakness in the rotator cuff comes from chronically tight muscles and consequent restrictions and adhesions, rather than a lack of specialized strengthening. Have you seen a soft tissue specialist (e.g., ART) to make sure your rotator cuff muscles are working properly? If you have had any work done on them since the surgery, chances are you have scor tissue and chronic tension in those muscle just from the surgery itself. Once you have that cleared up, then you can worry about specific work, if needed at all. Adding extra work to muscles that are not functioning optimally, might just land you in trouble again.
I had a torn rotator cuff and believe it helped in my rehab. After using the shoulder horn during and after rehab, I’ve had no further shoulder problems.
T-mag reviewed this in their Stuff We Like column a while back. Just do a search for it over at the main site. I can’t remember if they gave it a good review or not.
Highly recommend it. I used the shoulderhorn to bring my shoulder back from a pretty bad RC injury several years ago and it really helped. Keep in mind that there are other Rc excercises that you can do, but the shoulderhorn helps to fix your arms in the correct position to isolate your rc. This is especially important after an injury when you want to make sure you are using correct form.
Would it help? Yes. Is it absolutely necessary to strengthen the rotator cuff? No. There are plenty of exercises that you can do with a good ol’ dumbbell alone that will markedly improve your shoulder problems.