Tips for Shoulder Rehab.

Catching some air in Montezuma Bowl at Arapahoe Basin 2011

About 3 seconds before the crash

Some of you may remember that a year after my first knee surgery, in 2011 I lost a ski in some Spring snow and ended up cartwheeling for a good distance before a collision with a large boulder ended my fall.  I ended up needing surgery for a inferior dislocation and a Hills Sachs Fracture on the head of my humerous.  Despite the surgery I was able to quickly heal and I ski'd over 70 days the next season.  During that nexy season though, I crashed again going to fast in very low snow conditions and dislocated my other shoulder.  I relocated this one by myself and fortunately it has never come out again.  Both of my shoulders were prone to pain and to some instability, but neither has fully dislocated on me again.  It took a while but eventually I was able to regain enough strength and stability that by the time Summer came, and Summer came early, I was back to climbing three to four days a week at Thrillseeker's the gym in Denver.

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Again this is only meant to supplement an actual physical therapy program. But here are some additional ideas that I found made the recovery easier.

First, warm up with some arm circles, starting small and getting larger, and not letting your arm get behind you.  Do roughly 20 backward and then 20 forward and you will then be ready to move on to the light exercises.  Make sure you keep your hands from floating behind the level of your back and face.

Rotator Cuff Exercises (30 Reps)- These involve having your forearm and your arm above the elbow being perpendicular to each other.  Then, one rotates the arm at the shoulder so that the forearm travels 90 degrees towards the sky.  Finally, you rotate the arm back to the starting position, and that is 1 repetition.  These are usually done in the gym by able bodied people with 10-20 lbs dumbbells.  However, if you had a shoulder injury or surgery you probably will not be able to start out that high.
My solution was to use a Nalgene bottle, you can start out with it empty and add water each time you do the exercise to slowly increase the weight.  Here is a video that demonstrates the technique, he uses a resistance band which is also ok, but pay attention to the motion and how he holds his elbow at 90 degrees and does not over-rotate his arm behind his body or head. Rotator Cuff Exercises

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Shoulder Press (30 reps): Do the samething with the Nalgene bottle that you did with the rotator cuff exercises.  Literally, start out by shoulder pressing an empty or near empty Nalgene bottle.  Once you can do a full bottle, it is then time to move on to weights.  Be very careful that a your shoulder does not go back behind your head, it is for this reason amongst others that you must increase the weight gradually. Here is a good video on proper shoulder press technique Should Press Technique

Tricep Push Ups:  Some of you may have done these. A tricep pushup utilizes the muscles of your arm more than of your shoulders and chest.  This is why they are good to do after a shoulder injury or surgery.  To do a tricep push up, just make a triangle with your hands below the center of your chest.  Properly done it does not take many tricep push ups to really feel your muscles work.  As your shoulder gets stronger you can start to add traditional push ups as well, but don't move to that stage too fast, it could jeopardize the process of your whole recovery.  Here is a video with an attractive women to show you how tricep push ups are done. Tricep Pushups

Finally, it will be very important to stretch your injured and healthy shoulders every day.  Here is a website that has some good information and pictures of multiple stretches that you can do to increase your range of motion after an injury or a surgery.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/Shoulder Stretches

Do these exercises in addition to listening to your Doc and Pt and you will be back to climbing and/or skiing stuff like this in no time!

Finally, I truly believe that acupuncture and massage can help a great variety of injuries.  When I hurt my second shoulder it bothered me for a long time, but it basically healed completely after some rounds of massage of acupuncture.  Insurance may not cover it but it is still cheaper than going in to see a Doctor or Physical Therapist and especially cheaper and less of a hassle than surgery.

Alright that's it for now, Good Luck to Anyone who is injured or expecting surgery and God Bless Everyone!

-Colin Griffith