The Shoulder

This one was the area I eagerly jumped to, after the section on the knee. Twenty years ago I got a pain in my shoulder. I attributed it to excessive use of the mouse, which I was probably clutching wrong, or so I assumed. Also my desk was way too high, being a desk that was originally a table. In fact the desk I'm working on right now is a dining table and it's several inches too high. Now, the sharp pain that went over the top of my shoulder didn't keep me from doing whatever else I needed to do. The worst one, though, was hefting a forty-pound saddle onto the back of a medium-sized horse. That one hurt like heck. So for a long time I knew that I had at least a tired muscle that hurt a lot, and wondered if maybe I hadn't torn it somehow without knowing it. But I really thought it was just sore. Anyway, I worked around it, tried hard to give it a rest, tried not to over-use it, I even favored it, hoping that I could rest it enough for it to get well. No such luck. Now along comes this book, and its entry-level exercises. I start doing them and lo and behold, the sore shoulder is ten times better in just a week. Not perfect, but I can move my shoulders now without all that pain. Yes, it's not all done yet; I can still feel it in certain positions but it's very mild compared to the last 20 years. The shoulder is the most flexible joint in the body, allowing movement in a large range; but it's also not well supported by a tough joint arrangement, such as is found in the hip where a ball is held in a socket by strong tendons attached to strong muscles. Thus, a healthy shoulder is one with strong muscles and tendons. But I wasn't going to dig right in with some wonderfully strengthening exercises. I've been doing baby pushups for months and working through the pain. I even had some improvement, having gone from 10 pushups to 18 pushups (thanks to the Marine 3x Workout Manual) but since I had started with a bad shoulder, I continued making that shoulder worse. Shoulder Examination First take a quick medical history: Does your shoulder feel unstable, dislocate, or slip out of position? Does your shoulder catch or lock? Do you feel any numbness, tingling, or weakness in your arm or hand? If you said yes, to any of these, go to a doctor. If you said no to all of these, go on to the next level. Does your shoulder feel stiff or achy following unaccustomed or strenuous activities? Do you avoid using your shoulder for certain activities such as carrying suitcase? If you answered "yes" to either question then you need to work on strengthening your shoulder. If you answered "no" to both questions, you may be in pretty good shape, but before you begin any exercise program you should still probably strengthen your shoulders. You don't want to go ahead and assume that because it doesn't hurt, it's good to go, and end up doing to your shoulder what I did to my knees, which is possible. So next comes the diagnosis in the mirror: Stand facing a mirror with your arms hanging at your sides. Are your arms hanging at your side? Are your shoulders the same height? Do they appear about the same size? Looking in a mirror, raise your arms with your thumbs pointing upward. Bring them up to the horizontal and stop. Are the muscles in the front of the tops of your shoulders, the anterior deltoids, the same size? Looking in a mirror, raise your arms out from the sides of your body. Do the tops of your shoulders stay at an equal level as you raise your arms? Or does one shoulder elevate sooner than the other? While standing, raise your arms from your sides and attempt to touch your hands above your head. Are you able to raise both arms above your head to the same degree? Standing with your arms at your sides, bend your elbows and put your hands behind your back. Are you able to move both hands an equal distance up your back? Lie on your back with your arms straight out from your sides and your elbows bent at a right angle. Now allow your hands to droop down to the floor. Do the backs of both hands touch the floor? If not, do both hands come to within an equal distance of the floor? If you answered "no" to any of these questions, one of your shoulders is probably weaker and less flexible than the other. In that case, you should strengthen that bad shoulder before undertaking any general fitness or exercise program involving your shoulders.