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Good shoulder PT for skiers?



 
 
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  #1  
Old February 9th 08, 12:05 AM posted to rec.skiing.nordic
jeff potter
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Posts: 191
Default Good shoulder PT for skiers?

Anyone know any good stretches or exercises for shoulder stress for XC
skiers? I'll look up the stanard rotator cuff info but I'm thinking
that XC skiers put unique stresses on shoulders. So that they might
need some special exercises---possibly PT people who don't really
understand XC might not know the best exercises/stretches to suggest.
Ideas? --JP
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  #2  
Old February 9th 08, 04:49 AM posted to rec.skiing.nordic
Mitch
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Posts: 27
Default Good shoulder PT for skiers?

On Feb 8, 7:05 pm, jeff potter wrote:
Anyone know any good stretches or exercises for shoulder stress for XC
skiers? I'll look up the stanard rotator cuff info but I'm thinking
that XC skiers put unique stresses on shoulders. So that they might
need some special exercises---possibly PT people who don't really
understand XC might not know the best exercises/stretches to suggest.
Ideas? --JP


My experience only, having spent a lot of time in PT on both
shoulders,
one after rotator cuff repair surgery, and the other after a broken
clavicle,
is that a good PT knows how to rebuild the muscles you need in the
shoulders. Once I felt ready from the PT program I immediately moved
on
to double-poling on rollerskis. Lots of it but building up
gradually. I doubt
it's a question of the PT understanding XC. If they can't help you
build
strong shoulders, that's a question of their basic competence as a PT.

For the PT folks I've been exposed to, the biggest issue for them is
simply
getting their patients to do the exercises they assign for them.
They're
quite used to saying "So how are the exercises going?" and getting a
sheepish response with eyes averted that starts off "Well, um, I've
been
pretty busy this week, etc..." They get really charged up about
helping
you when you do all the exercises and come back for the next visit
with
detailed feedback about what went well, what didn't, thoughts about
what
you need to work more on, etc. XC is important to us of course but
it's
only a small factor in the overall PT process.

Work with your PT first to build up strong shoulders and you'll have
no
worries about whether they understand XC. When I got to the point
that
XC specificity even mattered, I showed them what I wanted to do and
they helped me customize the exercises and pace my progression so
that I was continually improving, and not setting myself up for
setbacks
due to trying to progress to fast.

-Mitch
  #3  
Old February 10th 08, 09:03 PM posted to rec.skiing.nordic
jeff potter
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Posts: 191
Default Good shoulder PT for skiers?

PS: It seems that the shoulder injury I recently got from just
slipping when I was standing on my skis hasn't affected my skiing. It
hurts in a range of motion that the poling action doesn't seem to
involve. I skied 1.5 robust hrs today without noticing anything. Altho
if I sit and scrunch my shoulders I can make a pain occur. So
something got tweaked but poling doesn't bother it.

My complaints aren't bad enough to warrant going to the doc at this
point---but I'm interested in preventative measures.

I googled some and found serious info---but it all spun over to either
tennis or baseball pitching. But in general it seemed to involve
conditioning in all directions---so maybe I'll just try that. I think
I can do such motions with my TheraBand elastics---maybe I just need
to brush up on my core or on motions that aren't dominantly used in
poling---I'm sure those are fine.

I mentioned XC specifics as I've noticed that I seem to have fine
shoulder mobility, strength, etc.---but, as I said, sometimes I notice
weakness/soreness when pulling a t-shirt off. Maybe that's a standard
shoulder issue---but it seems to flare up during ski season. So I was
wondering if anyone knew how that kind of weakness relates to XC and
how it might be a problem and how to fix it.

Also, if I keep up on all-round strengthening (not just going skiing!)
maybe I won't be as likely to get hurt when I just slip'n'fall. Ugh!

--JP

  #4  
Old February 11th 08, 02:54 AM posted to rec.skiing.nordic
Mitch
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Posts: 27
Default Good shoulder PT for skiers?

On Feb 10, 4:03 pm, jeff potter wrote:
PS: It seems that the shoulder injury I recently got from just
slipping when I was standing on my skis hasn't affected my skiing. It
hurts in a range of motion that the poling action doesn't seem to
involve. I skied 1.5 robust hrs today without noticing anything. Altho
if I sit and scrunch my shoulders I can make a pain occur. So
something got tweaked but poling doesn't bother it.


Well that sounds familiar. I lived with a torn rotator cuff for 20
years
and it didn't really bother me when skiing either, classic or skating.
Bothered me a lot during various other activities, particularly
swimming, though I did still manage to get somewhat proficient at
triathlon for a period during that time. Ski poling is pretty much
straight forward and back, which you can get away with. Many
other activities have a lateral component that rotator cuff sufferers
find painful.

My complaints aren't bad enough to warrant going to the doc at this
point---but I'm interested in preventative measures.

I googled some and found serious info---but it all spun over to either
tennis or baseball pitching. But in general it seemed to involve
conditioning in all directions---so maybe I'll just try that. I think
I can do such motions with my TheraBand elastics---maybe just need
to brush up on my core or on motions that aren't dominantly used in
poling---I'm sure those are fine.


There's a variety of theraband exercises that are appropriate, in the
proper order, but one of the bigger preventative measures has to do
with re-training the muscle firing sequence. I forget the names of
the
muscles involved, but the gist of it is that when you injure the
rotator
cuff, you unknowingly pick up a bad muscle sequencing habit that just
makes thing worse. What you have to re-learn is to first contract the
muscle in your back that pulls the ball downward out of the shoulder
socket before you raise your arm. This opens up the joint enough
that the bones aren't grinding away at the tendons when you raise
your arm. Any decent PT should be able to set you on the right
course, but the important part is to start with very low resistance,
just
the weight of your arm is plenty, and get the muscle firing sequence
working properly first. It's easy to overdo it and just make things
worse if you try to self-coach this.

-Mitch
  #5  
Old February 11th 08, 02:06 PM posted to rec.skiing.nordic
jeff potter
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Posts: 191
Default Good shoulder PT for skiers?

Ah---I recall reading some of this---maybe they call it "setting the
scapula" before doing other motion. Yes, it sounds like real PT is
called for in case of real injury.

Hopefully mine is just irritation at this point.

GR: I have also found that regular push-ups are BAD on my shoulder.
Maybe it's time for that "perfect pushup" gadget.

--JP
 




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