List of helpful shoulder exercises

Hello,

I was talking to a colleague who is about to go in for shoulder surgery- and the topic of PT after came up. He hasn't yet had any PT, but it made me wonder about any known good lists of shoulder mobility/flexibility/strengthening exercises that would be beneficial in our sport. Does anyone have a good online reference of shoulder exercises for our discipline?

Thanks,
Chase

There is one I learned in PT last year that is like drawing a sword. Describing here working the right shoulder. A light resistance band is held by both hands. Left hand is immobile through the exercise, held at left hip. Right hand starts at left hip area like drawing a sword from left side scabbard, with palm facing Away from you. Slowly draw the sword, lifting in an arc so it ends up with your arm fully extended above and a bit to the right of your right shoulder. Importantly, your palm rotates through this movement so that at the top of the stroke your palm is now facing you. Then gently return to starting position and repeat for 8-12 reps.  We experimented with all sorts of exercises and this one I felt was most productive to my recovery from surgery and back to shooting.

PT warned me against excessive stretching/mobility of the systems used for shooting. She said gymnasts are very unstable in static positions - that excessive mobility would be a detriment to hold stability.

An aside: Bullseye is way more than a grip strength and shoulder sport. None of us are lifting the gun in a vacuum—we are stabilizing it with our whole bodies every shot. All around strength and mobility will improve your shooting to the limits of your eyeballs and mindset.

If someone is brand new to strength training, I always recommend a copy of Mark Rippetoe’s “Starting Strength” and joining a local gym with barbells and free weights.

As for shoulder PT exercises, I’m in PT right now because of open heart surgery, and PT is not much different then my pre-op strength training—the weights are much lighter and I have nurses monitoring me the entire time. Lateral raises, front raises, cable flies, dumbbell flies, rear delt flies, overhead presses, Arnold presses, crossbody cable pulls, cable face pulls, dumbbell and trap bar shrugs, cable woodchoppers… those hit the delts directly or target the muscles and tissues around the delts (pecs, labra, traps, rhomboids, rotators, lats).

There are probably fifty YouTube videos from CPTs demonstrating each one. Good luck to your colleague!

I have been swimming laps quite a bit over the past yr and a half. It feels great (low impact exercise) and works the upper body quite well.

This works well. 1 minute intervals, rest one minute, rinse and repeat until too tired to lift. 

My PT uses them, so I bought one for myself. It comes with an instruction sheet, different types of exercises. I extend it out, just as I I were firing a pistol.

https://www.amazon.com/Bodyblade-50864-Classic-Kit/dp/B0065PTC80/ref=asc_df_B0065PTC80/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167134995961&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14127201837467745276&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9016243&hvtargid=pla-307401337417&psc=1

The "Thrower's Ten".

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=throwers+ten

Bodyblade is great too. I recommend the lightweight (yellow) one however, better for conditioning and recovery. The long black ones require much more strength.

https://www.amazon.com/Bodyblade-BBCXYLNT0-CxT-Kit/dp/B00CPBIA3G/

I've had PT for both shoulders.  I remember they told me not to do exercises that lift objects over my head, like military presses.  I follow that advice.

PM me a email address and I will forward my PT info.
jk

look up anything that has to do with rehabbing a shoulder from rotator cuff surgery. After I had mine done my PT told me whatever I did to try to improve my upper body for shooting, the key was light weight, lots of repetitions

After my shoulder work, the doc and PT told me to lean over on a table edge hang the affected arm straight down and make easy small circles.  Start slow.

For strength on a healthy shoulder, PT said tie stretch tubes to the bed post and pull outward and inward with the elbow down against the ribs.  Forearm is horizontal.  Start easy.

shooterer wrote:PM me a email address and I will forward my PT info.
jk

JK,

Thanks much!

Ric

Jack H wrote:After my shoulder work, the doc and PT told me to lean over on a table edge hang the affected arm straight down and make easy small circles.  Start slow.

For strength on a healthy shoulder, PT said tie stretch tubes to the bed post and pull outward and inward with the elbow down against the ribs.  Forearm is horizontal.  Start easy.

 I do that exercise Jack, and it's a good one for prevention of shoulder tears also.
Stan