Best shoulder therapy exercises?

Autoprax

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Jan 24, 2011
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Are you doing them?

I didn't used to get why people always said they are so great but you are hitting all kinds of planes of movement and those baby pattern things.

Natural Born Heroes is fun book about fitness. The TGU makes me think about it.

http://www.chrismcdougall.com/buy-natural-born-heroes-from-these-sellers/
 

freeride76

Michael Peterson status
Dec 31, 2009
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yeah, took me a while to figure the movements out, but it seems really good for shoulder stabilty and strength.

haven't had any shoulder issues for a while, touch wood.
 

VonMeister

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Apr 26, 2013
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I would suggest that someone with shoulder instability issues not use their arm as a weighted lever......but if a fun and challenging movement gets you there, more power to you.
 

freeride76

Michael Peterson status
Dec 31, 2009
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Lennox Head.
copy that.

I never had shoulder instability issues......just what seemed like normal aches/overuse issues from a lifetime paddling.
 

SurfDoc

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Dec 19, 2002
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Elephants, monkeys, and spiders.
1. Elephant-hang arm down like an elephant's trunk. Relax as much as possible and gently swing arm in small circles
2. Monkeys-scratch/pat tummy, then scratch back of head
3. Spiders-crawl fingers up the wall standing sideways BUT ARM IN FRONT OF YOUR EAR.

Never reach above and behind the head. Too much stress on the shoulder joint.
 

GromsDad

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Jan 21, 2014
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Took a longboard and paddled a mile in the ocean yesterday morning. Went half a mile with the wind working against me and then back with the wind working in my favor. Pretty sore this morning. Hoping I didn't over do it and set myself back. Pain is not in the joint but rather in the Teres Minor and Infraspinatus muscles. No icepick stabbing pain like I had when the shoulder was really f-ed up.

Its amazing how swimming and work in the weight room really don't translate to paddling a surfboard. There really is no substitute for laying on a surfboard, holding your chest and head up, balancing with your core and paddling.

My plan is to paddle like this as much as I can regardless of the surf either in the bay behind my house or in the ocean now that we have the added daylight in the evenings.
 

silentbutdeadly

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I did the same. I've been re-habbing my knee and haven't been surfing. Paddled a couple of miles in the bay recently and I was really sore. A lot more than I thought. Bouced back quickly. I tweaked it loading stuff for camping the other weekend and that took a bit of time to settle down. Gotta keep that thing moving and the muscles conditioned.
 

GromsDad

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Good news is that the pain went away after a couple of days so I'm guessing it was just that I was using those muscles in ways they weren't used to and that it wasn't the rotator cuff getting fired up again. Will paddle a mile again later today on a flat ocean (Lake Atlantic) and see how it goes. I'm one month out from a little surf road trip that I've been trying to prepare for.
 

gbg

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Jan 22, 2006
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If you do this upper back and back of your shoulder stretch before and after a surf, I guarantee you will not get all tight and hurt.

Lay out on floor. Arms out in front of you. Take your left arm and tuck it under your right arm. Palm up. Right arm still stretched out in front of you. Feel that stretch. The more you straighten your body, the more you feel it. Hold it 2 mins. 3 times. Before and after a surf.

This has helped me so much. Had a 700 yard paddle on my last surf trip to Mex. After surfing 90 mins, made that paddle over. First one there. 4 other good local surfers. In their 20s and 30s. I'm 49. Power. Once you really open those muscles up and you have full range of motion, you will see a big difference.
 

Mr J

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Aug 18, 2003
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patrolman said:
I have to agree with Casa. See a professional.

… .
If surfing is really important to quality of life, then do this. Trying to self diagnose on the internet is likely to end up with either non optimal or non effective remedy.

I think a physiotherapist will be part of the professional help (may need referral from doc). My previous post was explaining what professionals have prescribed me. They may not be applicable to anyone here - although I'd be surprised if elastic band rotator cuff exercise would actually hurt anyone, but then I'm not a professional. Yes I really was prescribed heavy dumbbell exercises for instability from a physio who looks after 2 of Melbourne's (Australia's) top footy teams.

As a bit of background I've seen physios/docs for shoulder instability i.e dislocation (surgically repaired quite a long time ago). Rotator cuff sprains and broken collar bones from skateboarding. Shoulder dislocation/instability was surfing/windsurfing a long time ago. Broken collarbones from skateboarding - once about 10 years ago and caused slight separation in ac joint and a few years ago which did not make the separation any worse.

I've done more skateboarding than surfing over the last 15 years, but recently that situation has reversed and I'm doing more surfing than skating. While my shoulders aren't perfect (separation still showed under x-ray and nothing is ever exactly the same after surgery), I can surf heaps - been doing 6+ sessions a week done in 2 sessions per day without any shoulder pain during or after.
 

GromsDad

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Funny or not so funny thing.......been busting my ass in the gym to rehab this thing and get back into shape. The original shoulder is almost 100%. Now the other shoulder has been fired up a bit for the past week. Guessing doing bench press even with light weights and many reps wasn't a good idea. Thinking that's what did it.
 

GromsDad

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I was having a problem with my right hip for quite a long time. Hurt to even sit on a surfboard. Two things fixed it.

1. Using the inner thigh machine at the gym. Doing this got rid of about 3/4 of the pain I'd been having. As the muscles around the hip got stronger I think the hip stayed in position in the socket better.
2. Laying on top of a tennis ball on the floor and moving my weight around so that the tennis ball finds all of the pain spots around the hip and upper thigh. Once I find a good pain spot I'll put my weight on it until it releases.
 

GromsDad

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heelnipstr said:
This removed shoulder pain for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8RmajuI8g8
Hanging helped my shoulders tremendously. At first I couldn't even hold half of my body weight due to the pain. Probably took six months before I could comfortably take my feet off the floor. I still probably couldn't do the rocking side to side thing he does in that video. When I'm done hanging I have to carefully lower my arms because a few times when bringing my arms back down something pinched or clicked and it created a setback.