This post is not to replace any professional medical advice and isn't supposed to be detrimentally relied on.
I hope all my bro's-in-iron take care during the colder autumn & winter months to prevent injuries.
Some of the stuff included are ways to point u in the right direction for supplements & other aids that can help prevent & cure shoulder injuries...or books to help you learn more about this common type of injury.
Shoulder injuries are the MOST common bodybuilding injury. One of the best things for older people like myself (41 y.o.) and you to do is to go to a chiropractor every so often--I think every 1-2 months, but I'm not sure. The chiropractor will put the body in balance. The medical/pharmaceutical community wants to prescribe medication and make lots of money. Chiropractor's should charge only $35-$50 for an adjustment. The initial/consultation visit will be a little higher cos some chiropractors take x-rays.
Chiro's use electro-stimulation to relax your neck, your lower back, your traps, your shoulders. They stretch out the bod and then push it back into alignment. I highly recommend not only an NT, but a chiropractor--cos a chiro is all-inclusive--the entire bod. An N.T. is a Neuromuscular Therapist. 4-time Mr O Jay Cutler uses 1. The guy's in L.A., Calif. & Jay schedules a meeting with him, when he's in the area. Jay Cutler has been blessed 2 be injury free for the most part during his career, cos his N.T. stretches hard to reach muscles and tendons and ligaments. These areas take longer to heal, because they don't get any air or heat, they are subcutaneous areas. The N.T. stretches Jay's bod better than Jay himself according to the dvd "Jay Cutler: From Jay to Z". The stretching of Jay's big mammoth muscles, tendons, joints, etc., gives them both better elasticity, heat, and very important: BLOOD FLOW. These rotator cuff exercises mentioned here & elsewhere are designed to give heat to these areas so that better blood flow & circulation occurs. It's this increased blood flow that prevents & helps cure injuries.
Ultra-sound deep tissue massage with an applicator is done by N.T.'s, physical therapists, & chiropractors. This ultra sound is different than the type used on women to determine if a fetus will be a boy or a girl. It's deep-tissue ultra sound massage using sound waves. I've had it done on my shoulder and after treatment it felt 90% better when before that all my heating pad and shoulder exercises didn't work too well. I highly recommend ultra-sound deep tissue therapy!
Physical therapy is only body-specific and is not as thorough on the whole body as a chiropractor is. Plus, ask your chiro (after u get a referral for a chiro from your fam doctor) about a cutting edge treatment called "Laser." This is a little expensive, but excuse the pun--it's ultra-sound on steroidsx times better!
Get yourself also a McDavid hot/cold gel pack shoulder strap pad about $40 on amazon.com. WARM UP WITH A HOT GEL PACK BEFORE TRAINING AND like my physical therapist recommends put ice on the shoulder after working out cos it helps with healing. I thought ice was only immediately after an injury, but it also is a big step in speeding up recuperation and healing muscle fiber tears post-workout.
Also "Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff" by Jim Johnson, PT (physical therapist) can also be purchased on amazon.com. There are like 500 reviews with at least a 4 star rating on this book. I have it myself. You will learn about your rotator cuff, its function and also what exercises to do prior to training, during training and how to add strength and HEALING WARMTH to this weak part of the bod--the rotator cuff of the shoulder joint.
Finally, when you are doing flat bench presses don't do full range of motion don't bring the bar all the way down to your chest. Also don't completely lock-out. When you were younger you could do full range of motion for a better stretch, but it's a real strain on the little rotator cuff joint when your older.
Also when you do upright rows you know how you bring the bar down and kind of let it hang at the bottom of the movement? Don't do that anymore. That's a big strain on the rotator cuff, too. You don't want to hang anymore even though it seems kind of natural. Like also when you do dumbell shoulder shrugs at the bottom, there's a tendency to let that dumbell hang and pull & (maybe rest) before bringing it back up to your ear, BUT *that really stresses the rotator cuff joint in the shoulder--don't do that.
*Also a full-range of motion on especially the bottom part of a flat bench press is NOT recommended. This may cause a deeper stretch or burn, or a deeper full range of motion, but it wreaks havoc again on the tiny rotator cuff joints.
Glucosamine vitamins and fish oil vitamins are very helpful & effective for joint health.
Other "medicines" like Tb 500 & Deca-durabolin are also effective. The below is more info. on synthethic supplement Tb-500 (I'm only recently learning about this myself).
Tb 500 is an amazing joint supplement & dosage: (I think it’s an injectable).
For those not Familiar with TB 500, TB-500 is a synthetic version of the naturally occurring peptide present in virtually all human and animal cells, Thymosin Beta 4 (TB500). It is a first-in-class drug candidate that promotes the following*:
Endothelial (blood vessels) cell differentiation Angiogenesis (growth of new blood cells from pre-existing vessels) in dermal tissues
Keratinocyte migration
Collagen deposition; and
Decreases inflammation.
One of TB500 key mechanisms of action is its ability to regulate the cell-building protein, Actin, a vital component of cell structure and movement. Of the thousands of proteins present in cells, actin represents up to 10% of the total proteins which therefore plays a major role in the genetic makeup of the cell.
As you already know, and it's hard to do especially when a gym is busy/crowded, & you want to pop in on a piece of exercise equipment before some dude and his 3 other friends get on there at rush hour....BUT I can't stress this enough...."Get into the habit of incuding warm up sets as part of & INTEGRAL to the workout. Always do 1-2 warm up sets with like 15 reps."!!!
I'm grateful to have helped my fellow lifters in a small way cos like I said shoulder probs are a very common bodybuilding injury--the rotator cuff is an INHERENTLY tiny, weak part of the body, and I'm happy to help because I myself also want to repair my own shoulder problems and to prevent further.
The mind is your best tool..mind over matter!...you can and WILL get your shoulder as close to 100% better!
*The recently stated is 1 of the core tenants of bodybuilding (1 of bodybuilding's many useful principles called VISUALIZATION = clearly visualizing an outcome or future goal in detail before it comes true. This valuable principle should apply not only to adding more poundages but also to getting your body healthier after an injury.
Take care everyone, and let us know of your shoulder injury prevention progress & rehab at another post.
Reply With Quote