Fitness After Sports: Injury Prevention: Shoulders

Note to the wireless universe out there: if you want your body to be in good shape, don't be an athlete. Seems like a smart plan, hours of conditioning, playing, and weightlifting should make having an amazing bod easy. That's a dirty lie. What actually happens is the total destruction of your body, making you feel like a senior citizen. Hence the hip injury prevention exercises. And now the shoulder prevention exercises.

I never did these in college but watched all my hitters go through this every day. I thought it looked way more fun than my own rehab workouts. I feel like I'm about to prove myself wrong.

Shoulder Injuries

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Fun fact: apparantly the shoulder is one of the most movable joints in your body. This is what makes it prone to injury, as you need to have the right combination of strength, flexibility, and motility for it to funtion properly. Common injuries are grouped into 2 categories:

Instability: general concept of dislocation. One of the joint pieces moves out of place possibly causing pain when lifting the arm or the shoulder might feel like it's slipping.
Impingement: caused by rubbing of the shoulder muscles against the top part of the bone, called the acromion. Usually due to repetitive movement above your head.

Check here for more info.

Prevention Exercises

Many shoulder strengthening exercises are already within my workout plan, for example, Cuban presses, pushups, 3-way lift. But here are a couple good exercises that are more rehab focused, for those times when you can't even do basic exercises.

Behind-the-neck Pull Apart

Pretty simple. Start holding the band with arms held high shoulder-width apart. Pull the band behind your head until your arms are at 90 degrees. Don't let your head move forward/lean forward.