Shoulder Prehab?

So my shoulders have been giving me a little bit of trouble, some minor pain, and numbness. Ive seen a PT and done some research, and believe its thoracic outlet syndrome, or a trigger point in my upper scapula/trapezius area.

Ive read many of the articles on this site, about shoulders, and have a couple of questions.

So, i added into my workouts, some of the serratus anterior activation stuff, and some external rotations, like cuban presses and such.

I found that i am extremely weak at external rotations. 10 reps of the cuban presses with 20lbs is tough for me, and external cable rotations with just 10lbs was tough.

Also, I read that turkish getups can be good so i tried some of those. I used a 10lb dumbell and 5 reps was very tough.

I also read on here that a good exercise to do, is an overhead “lockout” not sure what its called, but basically the top portion of a Jerk, in a smith machine, isometrically.

One last thing ive been doing, is using a broom handle, to do basically reverse shrugs or something like that, and am thinking of starting on some overhead squats.

Thus i think i need to focus on some external rotations, turkish getups, and overhead “lockouts”.

Also, should i stick with BB overhead presses, or switch to single dumbell ones?

The rest of my routine is pretty good. Im following something similar to pavel’s 5x5x5 method, with frong squats, seated rows, overhead presses, and leg curls. I also, do some intervals on the rowing machine, pullups, and tabata BW squats.

Any other advice? Sorry for the long confusing post.

[quote]dankid wrote:
So my shoulders have been giving me a little bit of trouble, some minor pain, and numbness. Ive seen a PT and done some research, and believe its thoracic outlet syndrome, or a trigger point in my upper scapula/trapezius area.

Ive read many of the articles on this site, about shoulders, and have a couple of questions.

So, i added into my workouts, some of the serratus anterior activation stuff, and some external rotations, like cuban presses and such.

I found that i am extremely weak at external rotations. 10 reps of the cuban presses with 20lbs is tough for me, and external cable rotations with just 10lbs was tough.

Also, I read that turkish getups can be good so i tried some of those. I used a 10lb dumbell and 5 reps was very tough.

I also read on here that a good exercise to do, is an overhead “lockout” not sure what its called, but basically the top portion of a Jerk, in a smith machine, isometrically.

One last thing ive been doing, is using a broom handle, to do basically reverse shrugs or something like that, and am thinking of starting on some overhead squats.

Thus i think i need to focus on some external rotations, turkish getups, and overhead “lockouts”.

Also, should i stick with BB overhead presses, or switch to single dumbell ones?

The rest of my routine is pretty good. Im following something similar to pavel’s 5x5x5 method, with frong squats, seated rows, overhead presses, and leg curls. I also, do some intervals on the rowing machine, pullups, and tabata BW squats.

Any other advice? Sorry for the long confusing post.[/quote]

Alwyn C. and Chad W. had a good 6(?) week rehab shoulder program. It was a lot harder than it looked and it alleviated some pain I was getting from a heavy overhead pressing cycle I had done previous to that. The only problem is accepting the mental break from all other upper body stuff for those weeks, well worth those few weeks though.

If you like get-ups, then windmills would be in the same vein and worth the addition pre-workout. Jason C. Brown recommended doing 3-5 reps per arm as part of a good warmup. I had good success with that.

thanks, i’ll look into those

After a workout, I like to do L-flyes and external rotations for 2x20 with a light weight (10 lb DB) for prehab. Also, after working the upper body I do a stretch that I learned from Joe DeFranco called the shoulder capsule stretch.

You can check it out in the Ask Joe section of his site. The shoulder horn is another good idea. Not a whole lot of work to add on, but its done wonders for keeping my shoulders pain-free.