Whining - Comparing Aches and Pains

Beth: Thanx, I'll give these a try and see if I can get to the PT. My wife has said that since swimming, my shoulders do roll forward. I was going to try some weights to balance the muscles. I assumed I should do Flat Bench and inclined bench; the Pec Deck; and torso pull over and stay away from lat and back exercises (Pull downs, rows, or military press). Am I backwards on this and making things worse? I don't have a big chest and I thought the free style just worked the lats, back, Triceps, and Delts, and very little chest.:confused: Do you know a good work out plan that will help with muscle imbalance?:bow: [/QUOTE Hi Bill!! My Dr. and my PT told me that swimming, especially freestyle, develops your chest and pec muscles and that I really needed to work my upper back, scapular and rotator cuff muscles to balance my upper body/shoulders. I'll try to explain the main exercises I do : I use a 3 lb barbell. You want to use very little weight and do these s l o w l y so you are working the little rotator cuff muscles and not your big muscles in your shoulder and neck. 1) Lie on your side. We'll say the right side for explanation purposes. Hold the barbell in your left hand. Place a small towel under your left arm. (VERY important) With your upper arm alligned with your body, bend your arm at the elbow so that your arm is bent 90 degrees. Keeping your upper arm still, lift your lower arm and hand up 10-12 inches very slowly. Concentrate on using the small muscles around your shoulder joint (rotator cuff) to lift the barbell. Do 2 sets of 10 on each side to start with. You can slowly increase (ie 2x15, 2x20, 3x10, 3x15, 3x20) When 3x20 is easy you may want to try to increase to 5lbs. Start at 2x10 and increase again. I was told to never go over 5lbs because you have to stay light with the weights to work the rc....otherwise you recruit the bigger muscles. 2)Stand with your shoulders relaxed. Hold 3 lbs in each hand with your thumbs up. Slowly lift the barbells up with your hands at "10 and 2" (like your hands are at 10:00 and 2:00 positions on a clock). Lift them up till they are parallel to the floor. Do 2x10 and increase slowly like the above exercise. 3) Now do the exercise the same way but with your thumbs down. (This was harder for me! You may need a lower weight for this one to start out.) Start with 2 sets of10 and increase slowly. 4) a)Lie on the floor with your face down and your arms out to the side at 90 degrees. Try to lift your arms up off the floor and hold for 15 seconds. Relax. Repeat 10 times. You can increase the difficulty by first increasing the time you hold to 20 sec, then 30. If your neck is injured, you may want to be VERY careful doing this exercise at first. Maybe you should just hold it 10 sec. for 5 repetitions at first. After you've built up strength you can add weights.... b)Lie on a bench or your bed and hang your rt. arm off the edge. With the dumbell in your hand, concentrate on using your scapular muscles (in your upper back and the back of your shoulder) to lift your arm out to the side. Do these slowly! 5) In the same position as 4b above, lift your arm back as you would do on a freestyle arm stroke finish. Start with 2x10...... 6) In the same positon as 4b, lift your arm forward. Make sure you do this slowly so you don't use your neck/trap muscles. If you can't do it without stressing them, decrease your weight. I hope this helps you. I am a religious follower of RCology! :bow: My PT told me I would have to do these exercise for the rest of my life. I didn't beleive her at the time. Whenever my shoulder hurts, it is usually directly related to lack of rc exercises on my part. As long as I do them, I'm almost pain free. Just make sure you do these with little weight and SLOWLY so you work the right muscles. When you do the standing lifts with the barbells MAKE sure you are not using your neck/trap muscles. My pt made me do them in front of a mirrror at first so I could make sure I didn't do this! Concentrate on relaxing your neck and shoulder while doing these exercises. You may feel like you're not getting much out of them but believe me...you are. GOOD LUCK BILL! I hope you are able to nip this problem in the bud. If your shoulder hurts, stop and stretch and put on fins if you need to. If it continues to hurt GET OUT! It is better to miss one or two workouts than push it and be out 3 months! I've learned that lesson the hard way! TAKE CARE!!!!:wave:

Beth: Thanx, I'll give these a try and see if I can get to the PT. My wife has said that since swimming, my shoulders do roll forward. I was going to try some weights to balance the muscles. I assumed I should do Flat Bench and inclined bench; the Pec Deck; and torso pull over and stay away from lat and back exercises (Pull downs, rows, or military press). Am I backwards on this and making things worse? I don't have a big chest and I thought the free style just worked the lats, back, Triceps, and Delts, and very little chest.:confused: Do you know a good work out plan that will help with muscle imbalance?:bow: [/QUOTE Hi Bill!! My Dr. and my PT told me that swimming, especially freestyle, develops your chest and pec muscles and that I really needed to work my upper back, scapular and rotator cuff muscles to balance my upper body/shoulders. I'll try to explain the main exercises I do : I use a 3 lb barbell. You want to use very little weight and do these s l o w l y so you are working the little rotator cuff muscles and not your big muscles in your shoulder and neck. 1) Lie on your side. We'll say the right side for explanation purposes. Hold the barbell in your left hand. Place a small towel under your left arm. (VERY important) With your upper arm alligned with your body, bend your arm at the elbow so that your arm is bent 90 degrees. Keeping your upper arm still, lift your lower arm and hand up 10-12 inches very slowly. Concentrate on using the small muscles around your shoulder joint (rotator cuff) to lift the barbell. Do 2 sets of 10 on each side to start with. You can slowly increase (ie 2x15, 2x20, 3x10, 3x15, 3x20) When 3x20 is easy you may want to try to increase to 5lbs. Start at 2x10 and increase again. I was told to never go over 5lbs because you have to stay light with the weights to work the rc....otherwise you recruit the bigger muscles. 2)Stand with your shoulders relaxed. Hold 3 lbs in each hand with your thumbs up. Slowly lift the barbells up with your hands at "10 and 2" (like your hands are at 10:00 and 2:00 positions on a clock). Lift them up till they are parallel to the floor. Do 2x10 and increase slowly like the above exercise. 3) Now do the exercise the same way but with your thumbs down. (This was harder for me! You may need a lower weight for this one to start out.) Start with 2 sets of10 and increase slowly. 4) a)Lie on the floor with your face down and your arms out to the side at 90 degrees. Try to lift your arms up off the floor and hold for 15 seconds. Relax. Repeat 10 times. You can increase the difficulty by first increasing the time you hold to 20 sec, then 30. If your neck is injured, you may want to be VERY careful doing this exercise at first. Maybe you should just hold it 10 sec. for 5 repetitions at first. After you've built up strength you can add weights.... b)Lie on a bench or your bed and hang your rt. arm off the edge. With the dumbell in your hand, concentrate on using your scapular muscles (in your upper back and the back of your shoulder) to lift your arm out to the side. Do these slowly! 5) In the same position as 4b above, lift your arm back as you would do on a freestyle arm stroke finish. Start with 2x10...... 6) In the same positon as 4b, lift your arm forward. Make sure you do this slowly so you don't use your neck/trap muscles. If you can't do it without stressing them, decrease your weight. I hope this helps you. I am a religious follower of RCology! :bow: My PT told me I would have to do these exercise for the rest of my life. I didn't beleive her at the time. Whenever my shoulder hurts, it is usually directly related to lack of rc exercises on my part. As long as I do them, I'm almost pain free. Just make sure you do these with little weight and SLOWLY so you work the right muscles. When you do the standing lifts with the barbells MAKE sure you are not using your neck/trap muscles. My pt made me do them in front of a mirrror at first so I could make sure I didn't do this! Concentrate on relaxing your neck and shoulder while doing these exercises. You may feel like you're not getting much out of them but believe me...you are. GOOD LUCK BILL! I hope you are able to nip this problem in the bud. If your shoulder hurts, stop and stretch and put on fins if you need to. If it continues to hurt GET OUT! It is better to miss one or two workouts than push it and be out 3 months! I've learned that lesson the hard way! TAKE CARE!!!!:wave: