Posted on December 04, 2015 by Jenny Cromack
Many people get shoulder pain, and are told it is shoulder impingement, but shoulder impingement in itself is not a diagnosis so to fully rectify the problem you should seek an professional assessment and advice on how to overcome the underlying cause of the impingement. However, if you still have that urge to train and keep yourself ticking over, even whilst you rehab, here are a few tips and ideas for training with shoulder pain.
What Should I Avoid?
ANYTHING THAT HURTS!! Usually with most shoulder impingement related issues, regardless of root cause, horizontal or vertical pressing movements exacerbate the pain and flare ups. These may be the first things you minimise or even temporarily remove from your training. Bench press or overhead pressing are the main culprits.
DON’T SHRUG IT OFF!!Another thing to consider is any movement that either requires, or causes, you to shrug your shoulders. Shrugging the shoulders lifts the head of the humerus and can cause it to rise up in its socket and therefore close the acromial arch. This causes the tendons and tissues that pass through to become nipped, compressed, and result in the pain. Therefore we need to minimise this shrugging movement. Examples of these movements are the obvious shoulder shrugs, upright rows, or side raises.
What Can I Do?
LEGS!! Your lower body is unlikely to result in any flares ups of the shoulder pain. There is no excuse to remove leg day. The thing to consider here is your posture and shoulder positions. If you are squatting just monitor your position. If barbell squats cause the shrugging we have mentioned then alter your squat variation to dumbbell squats with dumbbells at your sides for example. Similar with any deadlifts make sure you avoid shrugging your shoulders.
GET PULLING!! Up your pulling work and retrain those scapulae (shoulder blades) and shoulder girdle. Seated rows, straight arm pulldowns, and dumbbell rows are a great way to wake up those retraction muscles. Ensure that you initiate your rows with the shoulder blades pinch them back together and then follow with the arms movements. Create an awareness of how your shoulder blades are moving and make sure that your shoulders are staying relaxed and depressed back and down into the socket leaving plenty of room for those tendons and tissues.
Example Workout
Warm up with any of your rehab specific exercises you have been given. Also begin by setting your posture in a good starting position and monitor this throughout.
A1 – Dumbbell Squat (Arms at Sides) – 4 x 8
A2 – Single Arm Row – 4 x 8
B1 – Straight Arm Pulldown – 3 x 12
B2 – Alternate DB Lunges – 3 x 12
C1 – BB Sumo Deadlift – 3 x 12
C2 – Seated Row – 3 x 12
Summary
The above is not a long term fix to your shoulder pain but it gives you an idea of what may be possible to run alongside your rehabilitation in order to keep you training with shoulder impingement and maintain some strength, avoid any flare ups or setbacks, and keep your hand in the weight training game.