Shoulders-- strengthening and stretching

[CrippledAvenger]

So, I've been shadow boxing a lot the last few weeks, trying to get my form back in gear, and I've noticed that my right shoulder tends to hurt a little afterwords. Not intensely, mind you, but enough to make me think that something's not as strong as it should be or isn't stretched properly. I've done the shoulder stretches and rotator cuff stretches that I was taught in middle school gym class (which always seemed to be fine enough), but maybe I'm missing something? Or could it be a problem with my shoulders not being as strong as they were when I started boxing?

So, this brings me to my question: does anyone have any advice on how to strengthen your shoulders and rotator cuffs? Also, advice on how to stretch these areas properly would be greatly appreciated.

[inic]

Handstand pushups... and my favorite: carrying 20lbs groceries in each arm 1/2 mile walk home. My shoulders KILL after that. Good strength/endurance training though

[Toby]

Sounds like my osteolysis. I posted a bit of info on it a few months back. You'll find it on this forum. Also do a google search on "osteolysis ac joint". Let me know if I can help out with anything specific.

[fa_jing]

There is a variety of different maintanence-type exercises that you can choose from to improve your shoulder strength and flexibility. You will need to either pinpoint your problem or else just try a bunch of different things until you find a solution. One way to attack it would be to stretch some of the surrounding muscles in order to improve the alignment of your bones to optimize movement, for this I'd recommend you start with the shoulderstand from yoga.

[Tak]

Maybe it's not a stretching/conditioning problem at all, but that you're tensing your shoulders too much?

[CrippledAvenger]

I was kinda thinking along those lines too, Keith. Can you (or anybody else) recommend some basic excercizes for that area?

Tak-

It might be that as well. I'm going to pay closer attention to my shoulders when I shadow box and do my bag work this week.


Thanks for the input, everyone.

[vingtsunstudent]

overhead squats.

stretch and strengthen at the same time, awesome for the hips and teaches how to work the body as one unit.

vts

[fa_jing]

Overhead squats are the Shiznit. I'm working on them myself.

[zen_celt]

To build up basic muscular endurance in the shoulder area try doing these exercises:

Overhead hand-clap: Hold your arms straight out, palms facing upward, fingers and thumbs extended and joined. Raise them up above your head while keeping the arms straight to clap your hands. Bring them back down straight out and parallel to the ground. Repeat, repeat, repeat......

Iron butterfly aka Cherry pickers: Same starting position as the above exercise. First bend the arms to touch your shoulders then cross the forearms behind your head, back to the shoulders and straight out. That's one rep. Repeat....

Also, overhead presses w/o weight, palms up; reverse bent-over flyes no weight; arm circles both ways, and just holding your arms straight out or to the front at the end of a shoulder workout.

If your shoulder is injured/needs basic muscle rehab, try PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Fascilitation) patterns with a friend. You can get those off of the 'net or in a sports med book. They work well for basic strengthtning. They seem weak but try them for a min or two and you'll understand.

Good luck
-ZC