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Preventing Shoulder Pain: Installment 2

Avoid upright rows and never perform empty can exercises.

Both of these exercises create impingement in the shoulder.

The position of the arms causes the bones in your arm and shoulder blade to jam into the bursa and rotator cuff tendons. This can cause irritation, inflammation, and pain.

If you have to perform vertical rows, make sure you shrug your shoulders at the top.  The shrug will move the shoulder blade out of the way and decrease impingement.

The empty can exercise should never be performed. It has been shown that you will get better muscle activation without the injury risk if you perform the same type of exercise with the thumb pointed up.  So if you are doing the empty can exercise (thumbs pointed down) perform it with the thumbs up.

Preventing Shoulder Pain: Installment 1

Part 2: How can adhesion lead to pain?

Part 2 of 3: click here for part 1

In part one, we covered how adhesions form, but how can adhesion lead to all of the following problems?

  • Neck pain
  • Low back pain
  • Disc injuries
  • Carpal tunnel
  • Tennis elbow
  • Golfers elbow
  • Headaches
  • Plantar Fasciitis

Adhesions can create abnormal movement of a joint resulting in pain. The easiest way to visualize this is to look at the shoulder joint. Read more