Holistic Corrective Exercise For Fitness Professionals

Chest and shoulder presses have gotten a pretty nasty reputation for causing shoulder injury pain and are typically one of the first exercises that most health and fitness professionals recommend to avoid at all costs.

They have been blamed for everything from placing excessive strain on the shoulder joints to causing rotator cuff tears to impingement syndrome.

Unfortunately, if you have ever suffered a non-traumatic shoulder injury the common medical advice is usually not to lift your arm above shoulder level or to avoid lifting anything overhead.

While simply avoiding normal, functional everyday movements like lifting and reaching overhead may help alleviate painful symptoms, the relief is often temporary at best.

The truth of the matter is that most chronic shoulder pain isn’t actually caused by overhead movements.

It’s really caused by repetitively using the prime movers (deltoid, upper trapezius, levator scapulae, pectoralis major and minor, latissimus dorsi) which become tight and/or dominant while the shoulder stabilizing muscles (rotator cuff, mid & lower trapezius, etc) become progressively weaker and inhibited.

And–I’m going to make many health and fitness professionals cringe–when performed properly, overhead presses are one of the MOST EFFECTIVE shoulder injury exercises that can help eliminate shoulder pain.

Here’s why…

In most cases, chronic shoulder pain and non-traumatic injuries are usually caused by any of the following:

• repetitive movements (overuse)
• muscle imbalances
• inefficient shoulder mechanics
• poor alignment
• shoulder instability
• overemphasis on training the anterior upper body musculature such as the shoulders, chest and upper traps

When any of the above conditions exists, shoulder pain and injuries are often the end result. 

But, that doesn’t automatically mean that pressing exercises need to be avoided.

In fact, pressing or pushing is one of the 5 functional movements we use all the time in our everyday lives…

Overhead and pressing movements are used for a number of activities such as: to drive a golf ball of the tee, to serve in tennis, to throw a baseball or football, reaching up in a cupboard, brushing hair, picking up a child.

…And, since overhead movements such as lifting and reaching are necessary they should be included as one of the shoulder rehab exercises for overuse injuries.

I’ve even had success in helping injury sufferers overcome shoulder pain with bench presses.

Avoiding overhead movements may temporarily alleviate shoulder pain but as soon as overhead lifting and reaching are performed regularly the pain usually comes back.

Contrary to popular belief, to prevent shoulder injury pain, the movements that contribute to the pain or injury shouldn’t be avoided–they should be corrected.

Strengthening weak scapular stabilizing muscles, correcting alignment issues, establishing proper shoulder movement mechanics and restoring proper muscle balance are all key factors that can help prevent or rehabilitate shoulder injuries.

In the video below I demonstrate:

• How overhead presses can be used as an effective shoulder rehab exercise
  

• The 3 mistakes most people make when performing overhead presses that lead to shoulder injury pain–and it’s not the exercise itself that’s responsible

• How the 3 mistakes can lead to other injuries beyond the shoulder

• A simple corrective technique to turn overhead presses into an effective shoulder injury exercise by establishing better shoulder alignment, stability and movement

One thing I did not mention in the video was how tightness of the lattisimus dorsi can contribute to shoulder pain. If I get enough responses to this video perhaps I’ll address it in another post.

Also, if you notice the dark shade under my right eye it’s not bad lighting…and no, I didn’t get punched by a health professional for my often ill-advised rehabilitation exercises.

Actually, my 2 1/2 year-old daughter caught me real good with her elbow–TWICE–during one of her tantrums and gave me a pretty good shiner.

Post your comments and let me know what you think of the video and if it helped you out and be sure to check out how you can eliminate shoulder injury pain with behind the neck presses:

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