Forward pressure for shoulder health?

[chris hansen]

Hello,

The shoulder problems that have plagued me for so long are mostly resolved now. The left is still a bit loose so my current project is to improve the shoulder stability.

I took a look at Forward Pressure and it seems that, with all the angles and directions that are moved through, it should do a good job strengthening all the muscles around the shoulder and might be good to help improve stability? Would it be a good idea to do some kind of pulling exercise to help balance all the pushing?

I admit that Forward Pressure looks like fun and I'm looking for an excuse to give it a try but my first priority is shoulder stability so I wanted to see what people had to say.

Thanks.

[James Boelter]

I actually think that the "compensations" chapter of FP might do as much (or more) to re-establish your shoulder health as the rest of the program. There are some extremely worthwhile joint health drills in there - in fact, I found the key to resolving a hip/psoas injury that I've been dealing with for years, and that wasn't even what I was looking for at the time. Similarly, I think that if you spent a significant amount of the time you devote to FP (say 30-50%) on the compensations, you might be very pleased at how well your shoulder problems respond to the program. That's been my experience, anyway.

Of course, you want to be very conservative with the volume and time in the first few weeks until you learn how well the exercises go with your condition. And of course, it wouldn't hurt to discuss the program with a sports-oriented physical therapist or orthopedist.

[chris hansen]

Thanks for the reply.

I'll be spending time with the compensations for sure. I wouldn't mind doing a little extra though if there was something productive that could be recommended, especially since the doc seemed concerned about my shoulder retractors and external rotators. The doc said I could do pretty much anything that doesn't bother me but, as you suggest, I'll be easing into the exercises carefully.

I actually think that the "compensations" chapter of FP might do as much (or more) to re-establish your shoulder health as the rest of the program. There are some extremely worthwhile joint health drills in there - in fact, I found the key to resolving a hip/psoas injury that I've been dealing with for years, and that wasn't even what I was looking for at the time. Similarly, I think that if you spent a significant amount of the time you devote to FP (say 30-50%) on the compensations, you might be very pleased at how well your shoulder problems respond to the program. That's been my experience, anyway.

Of course, you want to be very conservative with the volume and time in the first few weeks until you learn how well the exercises go with your condition. And of course, it wouldn't hurt to discuss the program with a sports-oriented physical therapist or orthopedist.