Shoulder impingement?

"Gooserider" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

My left shoulder has a history of clicking and popping, and has given me a
slight pain off and on, so I visited my local sports medicine guy. He took
a bunch of XRays and diagnosed me with impingements in both shoulders AND
carpal tunnel syndrome. His course of treatment wasn't very encouraging.
He recommended cortisone shots for both conditions, and braces on the
wrists. Anybody who has impingements care to share how/if they were
treated?

Curious, is your sports medicine guy an MD?

"Gooserider" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

My left shoulder has a history of clicking and popping, and has given
me a slight pain off and on, so I visited my local sports medicine
guy. He took a bunch of XRays and diagnosed me with impingements in
both shoulders AND carpal tunnel syndrome. His course of treatment
wasn't very encouraging. He recommended cortisone shots for both
conditions, and braces on the wrists. Anybody who has impingements
care to share how/if they were treated?

For the shoulders, there is a stretch called the Egyptian I do that
really helps - my right shoulder almost always pops for the first few
reps but if I keep at it, the popping stops. The basic idea is that you
stand up, arms straight out to your sides, palms up, then you turn your
chest somewhat to the left while maximally internally rotating your
right arm. I get about 3/4 rotation, i.e., 270 degrees, so that my
right palm is now facing back. The key is that, while you're doing all
this, you pretend that your arms are being pulled out to the sides.
That means you do not let the arms drop below parallel. The "being
pulled apart by horses" is key to the exercise being effective - someone
who understands this stuff better than me might be able to explain why,
but if I forget that part, it doesn't help much.

Having gone left, you now go right. The right arm rotates externally
back to palms up while you turn to the right and the left arm rotates
internally as much as possible while you keeping the feeling of both
arms being pulled outwards. It doesn't seem to make much difference
where you look. I usually stay looking one way for a few reps then
switch. Your hips will move around, typically with your butt sticking
out toward the arm in the back - that's OK.

If you Google "egyptian shoulder stretch" you'll find it mentioned in
something the well-known exercise site http://www.exrx.net sells for
golfers, and also in Pavel's "Super Joints", http://www.kbnj.com/sj.htm
.. The free exrx.net site does not have a description of it that I can
find.

If you do it right, you'll find it pretty tiring. I find doing a
decently high number of reps gives me the best result. I usually do
about 20 or so. I use this as a warmup, typically the last one I do,
and I rest a bit afterwards before doing any pressing.

The other thing to consider is overhead squats. Start with just a stick
and try to work towards a narrower and narrower grip, ATG depth at all
times, and eventually move to using some weight but not a lot - I find
about 2/3 bodyweight works well for me. You just want enough weight to
keep you honest about keeping the bar where it needs to be. You can
also start these with a light stretch band which will allow your grip to
widen when the going gets tough. At least some of the time, you want to
do these for lots of reps with a light weight, e.g., I'll do 15 reps
with an empty Olympic bar.

I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV. 🙂 I have been diagnosed
with impingement in my right shoulder but my doctor just looks at me,
hears me describe the exercises and stretches I'm doing, and says,
"Sounds good, nothing else for me to do if it doesn't get any worse."
Regularly practicing both the above-described movements has made a huge
improvement in not only my shoulders but it's also helped my back as
well. Whether or not any of the above will work for you, or is even
appropriate for you to try, is a decision best made by you in
consultation with a sports medicine specialist.

Good luck.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

"Ranieri" <nah> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

"Gooserider" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

My left shoulder has a history of clicking and popping, and has given me
a slight pain off and on, so I visited my local sports medicine guy. He
took a bunch of XRays and diagnosed me with impingements in both
shoulders AND carpal tunnel syndrome. His course of treatment wasn't very
encouraging. He recommended cortisone shots for both conditions, and
braces on the wrists. Anybody who has impingements care to share how/if
they were treated?

Curious, is your sports medicine guy an MD?

Well, he's an orthopedic surgeon, so the answer is yes.

Thanks, Steve. I'll give those a try.

"Gooserider" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Thanks, Steve. I'll give those a try.

You might want to run that by your ortho first. He may want to reduce the
inflammation first w/ cortisone and rest and then give you some exercises to
help balance your shoulder musculature.

In article said:

"Gooserider" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Thanks, Steve. I'll give those a try.

You might want to run that by your ortho first. He may want to reduce the
inflammation first w/ cortisone and rest and then give you some exercises to
help balance your shoulder musculature.

Before you get cortisone shots, make sure you understand the
tradeoffs.

Seth
--
chown -R us /yourbase