Call the Doc! I Have Another Shoulder Injury!

Muddy water up to my nips, Humerus out of my socket and 5k left. I found myself with another shoulder injury yet again. It was that moment I realized I no longer had the 'Superman streak'. First thing on my mind was to finish the race, then to address this pesky shoulder injury issue.

Dislocating my shoulder for the second time was one of the most disruptive things to my training schedule. I didn’t know what to do with myself besides leg and core workouts. So I took it upon myself to take the bull by the horns and properly address this shoulder injury head on. I researched the most effective shoulder rehab exercises to recover from rotator cuff injuries. I talked with other personal trainers, physical therapists, nurses, doctors. I scoured YouTube and Google to find best practices and the most commonly suggested exercises to help prevent a recurring injury. I found the one common thread between the answers is the importance of an ample warm up before jumping into your workout. A dynamic warm-up not just a 5 min treadmill walk. 

*Light bulb* Calisthenics workouts are high impact exercises that put stress on shoulder. For this reason, shoulder warm-ups with resistance bands is highly recommended. The RubberBanditz light orange resistacne band can do almost everything you need.

All these somewhat mundane and boring repetitive warm ups are really mission critical!  A warm up is important because it:

1. Gets blood flowing to the body

    a. Increases core temperature

    b. ‘Wakes up’ the body

2. Wakes-up your central nervous system

    a. Increases mind-muscle connectivity

    b. Increase muscle contraction intensity

3. Prepares joints and gets synovial fluid to the joints

    a. Allows the joints to go through range of motion better.

In order to make the most efficient warm up I could, I combined a series of rotator cuff exercises and then move into some light HIIT exercises.

How do you warm up your shoulders with resistance bands?

Here are the rotator cuff exercises with resistance bands I used to warm-up with before every single workout now.  

● Shoulder Internal/External Rotations○ 2x15-20

● Upper Extremity External Rotation ○ 2x15-20

● Front Raises with Resistance Bands ○ 2x15

● Lateral raises with Resistance Bands ○ 2x15

Try these on for size before you next workout. Take care of those shoulders and don't sleep on your warm-ups!