6 Simple Steps To An Effective Shoulder Rehab Strategy
You never know how much you use your shoulder until you are not able to comb your hair, or take off your jacket without sharp shooting pain at the shoulder.
Is it a rotator cuff injury?
Is it your AC Joint?
Is it arthritis in the shoulder?
Regardless of what your diagnosis is, every shoulder rehabilitation program should have the following 6 steps in order to provide you the BEST outcomes possible.
If they don’t have these steps, then you need to schedule an appointment with Dr. Kauffman at The Athlete Spot and start your shoulder rehab today!
Let’s dive into the critical steps every shoulder rehabilitation program should have.
1. Build your range of motion. Critical to be regain full mobility of your shoulder. Work on passive and active movements and play around with various contractions.
2. Accumulate volume. You don't have to do 10,000 repetitions, but you have to accumulate volume to stimulate the muscles, tendons and joints. The more you do it, the better. Just don't push through the pain.
3. Add weight. At some point you are going to have to add weight to increase the strength of the muscles and tendons in the area.
4. Accumulate load. Now that we are going heavier, its time to control the load. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Keep this in the back of your head as you keep adding weight to your exercises.
5. Build on intensity. Slow movements, fast movements, reps for time, or a timed event help build intensity.
6. Build on speed. Specially if you are involved in throwing sports. Take your time, slow down the movement to control it as best as you can, and increase the speed of the movement. Again, slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
Keep in mind these are NOT the stages of rehabilitation in a good program. The stages of our program at The Athlete Spot™ are: Pain Management, Function, Performance. The speed at which you move through your shoulder rehabilitation program at The Athlete Spot™ is determined by:
1) your injury
2) your muscle mass
3) your recovery strategies
4) your nutrition
5) your health
If you are frustrated because you are not seeing progress in your program. Maybe you are missing one or two of these critical steps. If that is the case talk to your doctor. If they don’t address it then it’s time to start a program that builds you up for success.
