Shoulder Recovery

[Yellowjacket]

Awhile ago, I had an injury.  I hurt my left brachioradialis lifting a heavy suitcase the wrong way.  It took an incredible amount of time to recover, even to 90% functionality.  When I started trying to build back, my right rotator cuff had weakened to a point that it made progressing extremely difficult.  I ended up hurting it and I've spent time recovering since about last OCT.

It hurt during bench press, back, shoulder press, and even arm work.  Half decent weight would cause the right shoulder to become unstable and there was a lot of motion in the GH joint.  Grinding, popping, etc.  Kind of frightening =-(

 

What I did:  Realizing the rotator cuff was the problem, I nearly stopped most upper body training and focused on doing just rotator cuff and very light rear delt movements.  From there, I started to add more shoulder movements.  Dumbbell press.  Front Laterals.  Front laterals were a biggie since the front delt on the right side was not activating right.

About 3 or 4 weeks back, I tried barbell bench press and barbell military press.  The front delt on the right size was incredibly uncomfortable and kept pulling, but it felt better and better as the weight climbed.  Chest has been just 5 x 5 bench press and shoulders are more complete workout:

5 x 5 military press

1 x 8 - 10 arnold press

1 x 5 front laterals

1 x 5 side laterals

2 x 5 rear laterals.

Rotator cuff work

(Lying L flyes and standing L flyes.  Two sets of 15 reps each.)

Lots of stretching.

 

I did 210lbs x 5 reps on Bench Press and 120lbs x 5 on military press.  Consider, I couldn't even lift over 60lbs on military press before because of the right brachioradialis injury.  So I'm feeling younger and pretty excited.

Bad news though:  My left knee has been bugging me all summer.  It pulled a bit when I was deadlifting 315lbs for reps in the spring and it's been irritated since.  It makes lower body training difficult  =-(  Started stretching seriously to see if this helps.  Getting older here, I guess.