Supraspinatus friendly exercises and overcoming this injury....

[EddieEdwards]

Well, after almost 6 months of mucking about, I've finally been beaten by my poorly rotator cuff! I've had scans last week and have been confirmed with a full thickness pin hole tear of the supraspinatus and mild impingement.

I started training around one year ago, things were going great, I got bigger, much stronger and then suddenly one day it all went pear shaped! My R/C problems coincided exactly with using barbells for pressing, though this could be purely coincidental, or down to my own poor form. Who knows, this could be an old rugby/cricket injury that has been antagonized?

To be honest, I never felt a problem, or a point of injury, but my shoulder would ache after training. At the time, I thought it was a niggle that would pass and I continued to train through (and gain strength) not really knowing what it was. In June I started physio and carried on training and very little progress has been made. Finally, having had the injury confirmed, it has focused my mind on giving up training certain body parts and concentrating on doing what I can and stepping up the physio (along with buying cissus, glucosamine and giving wotan's glutamine protocol a whirl).

With my injury in mind, what exercises would you say do not engage the supraspinatus overly? So far, I've come up with squats, deads, lunges, split squats, calf raises, shrugs (sorry!), bicep curls (sorry!) and my physio work (rotations/ raises etc). I have a power rack, bench, DB/BB. Also, have any of you guys had a similar injury and what are your experiences?

To be clear, I'm not looking for any medical advice (or to get myself or others in trouble), just hoping to share frustrations and prepare myself for what lies ahead!

Thanks

Eddie

[Zeigler]

This isnt my advice to you - its what I'd do.

No deads or shrugs dude. Deads are still an upper body move too, and shrugs involve your whole shoulder girdle. Id honestly just work on lower body. All upper body stuff involves the muscles around your r/c and your entire shoulder girdle.

After resting for a while i'd bring in leg extensions, possibly leg press, glute bridges. Db lunges and split squats still need your upper body to stabilise the loads by your side so....I'd miss them out unfortunately.

When your injured - "Rest is best!"

[EddieEdwards]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.... though it's hard to take, I think you may well be right. Even squats place the shoulder in a relatively difficult position.

So calf raises only, for the upside down johnny bravo?!!!

[Zeigler]

Haha thats the one. Tbh though, I've not seen many guys around that I've thought "he could lay off the leg training!"

[EddieEdwards]

Ha, ha.... and therein lies the R/C problem! Usually taking a battering for 75% of the time.... even in a fairly balanced full body routine.

[Zeigler]

This is a good read on the Rotator btw - Cracking The Rotator Cuff Conundrum
May help you when your back to full health

[EddieEdwards]

Hi Zeigler - thanks a lot for your replies and the link above. There are some new exercises (cuban press, l laterals) that I'll be able to use along with the existing ones that I have.

Of all the RC stuff on the web, the T nation stuff seems to be the most in depth. The shoulder savers pts 1,2 & 3 were really good sources of information too.

Hopefully, I will, one day, come back stronger. When I do return, I think I'll come back using a stronglifts protocol with an empty bar and adding 2.5kg increments.

Cheers

Eddie

[blindprop]

Eric Cressey seems like a big player in the shoulder health game. You could check out some of his stuff although I think it'll probably cost quite a bit. (try torrents if you're into that kind of thing I guess )

[Zeigler]

+1 for Cressey. Bought quite a bit of his stuff this year so I'd definitely recommend it....and paying for it of course!

[blindprop]

I definitely support purchasing! I've always bought the exercise literature that I've read (little disclaimer there), it was just a suggestion.