Shoulder strained

Frank Needham · 09-15-2007, 06:47 PM

Recently my left shoulder became overworked I guess. One day I woke up, bam, it hurt like crazy to lift my hand vertically over my left shoulder in the plane of my body. Other directions were not so good either but above my shoulder was bad. So, I say to myself after all the wise posts I've read on PM about injuries, it is time to chill on using the shoulders for a good bit. I decided to not do any upper body involving the primary use of the shoulder girdle for a month, minumum.

Of course this means lots of lower body, fs, ohs, bs, lunges, sprints, middle distance, etc. What I'm wondering is to what best effect could I mix this up over the next month of resting my shoulder(s)? Intent is to use this as an opportunity for concentrating on making the lower body stronger, not to dwell on the drawbacks of no upper body workouts.

Btw, I will do ROM/strength spot checks weekly to see where things are so far as the shoulder goes.

So, questions, comments, suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Derek Simonds · 09-16-2007, 06:36 AM

I hate shoulder problems. I have been on a lower body single arm workout for the last 4 - 6 weeks as I have been rehabbing my fractured arm. There were a lot of great suggestions in this post.

http://www.performancemenu.com/forum...ead.php?t=1435

I also have kept a record of what I have been doing in my workout log, you might peruse the last couple of weeks for some ideas. They are adaptations of what was suggested in the post above.

Good Luck and as Dr. G would say stay away from the nightshades.

Frank Needham · 09-16-2007, 08:11 AM

Thanks Derek, I had not gotten around to reading that thread yet but will. I don't anticipate this being an ordeal like you've had. Good luck to you also!

David Wood · 09-16-2007, 06:10 PM

On Garrett's recommendation, I started using Traumeel on achy shoulders (post surgery). Highly recommeded.

Also recommend taking all the time you need. I failed to properly deal with a strained shoulder back in Feb 2006. If I had dealt with it originally, it would have meant 2 weeks of light workouts. Instead, by the time I acknowledged that I had a problem, I had a *real* problem. Spent almost a year unable to do pullups, pushups or put a weight over my head. Finally did the rotator cuff repair (successful, thank God).

Take the time it needs. I lost a year of training to stupidity.

Frank Needham · 09-16-2007, 07:19 PM

Rotater cuff?! Yikes, that is scary! Glad to hear it worked out though. You have no problems with it at all? I'm going to give this a good long while and really work on my wheels a lot while doing so. I'm not to familiar with track stuff but I'm going to give that a real strong effort along with continuing all types of squats. Not to familiar with nightshades or things like traumeel but I'll check that out also.

MOD, I've read in your posts that you seem to do a lot of sprints. What type of program do you do? Windsprints or what?

Derek Simonds · 09-17-2007, 03:08 AM

I picked up the 10 X 100 M intervals with complete rest from MOD. I also have incorporated 200 M and 400 M what I call Lucy intervals (my 8 month old lab). They are basically fartleks where I try and out run my dog. Lots of fun for both of us.

Allen Yeh · 09-17-2007, 05:04 AM

Frank,

Earlier this year I had did a 4 week shoulder rehab routine while still doing lower body stuff like you had described, This was after months and months of heavy overhead pressing and my shoulders were unhappy with me. My shoulders felt so much better after doing phase I:
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=818555

How I incorporated Phase I with lower body training starting at post #56.
http://www.performancemenu.com/forum...p?t=420&page=6

Frank Needham · 09-17-2007, 05:44 AM

Derek: What the phrase "with complete rest" mean?

Allen: That is a great info. As I was scanning that t thread it occured to me that my shoulder mobility in particular sucks due to my back problems and I need to work on that. Thanks for the reminder.

Derek Simonds · 09-17-2007, 10:46 AM

For me it is 1:30 to 2:00 minutes. I think MOD sometimes does shorter rest intervals but I will let him give you all the details.

A lot of times I do it like I was swimming laps. I always run on the 2 minutes and rest until the next 2 minute. It is easy and you don't have to keep resetting your watch.

Robynne Chartier · 11-07-2007, 05:41 PM

I had to have surgery on my shoulder this past December because while wrestling in the past I ended up dislocating my shoulder backwards, so I had to have reconstructive surgery on my shoulder in order for it to work right again, and I still have problems doing normal everyday things with it. It can be totally fine and then all of the sudden it hurts like no other. Good luck with your shoulder pain!