Simple Shoulder Exercises Changed My Life In Just A Couple of Months

It seems hard to believe but shoulder exercises helped me to get fit and lose weight or to be more accurate helped me get back in shape.

About a year ago I tore my rotator cuff. Until then I was a reasonably fit person, I went running three times a week, I had occasional bouts of gym membership, swam once a week, played golf, played squash and looked after myself pretty well. I was in my early fifties, looking good and proud of it.

And then I managed to tear my rotator cuff. I woke up one morning with a sore shoulder. I knew I had hurt it the day before lifting something awkwardly but had thought little of it. Over the next few days my shoulder deteriorated. What started out as a sore shoulder became an arm that ached constantly; lifting my arm to the side or front caused extra pain. Getting showered, getting dressed all became difficult. The more I used my arm the worse it felt.

The gym stopped, swimming was impossible, golf and squash both had to stop and finally the running became too painful. Every step caused shooting pains through my shoulder.

I took myself off to the doctor, who diagnosed a problem with my rotator cuff and referred me to a specialist. The specialist confirmed a torn rotator cuff and gave me a steroid injection to ease the inflammation and pain. It helped for a while but the pain came back. Another steroid injection had the same effect so in the end I was booked for surgery to free up a trapped tendon.

All this was taking time, time in which I was barely able to exercise because of the pain. A gentle walk was about all I could manage. I put on weight, my general fitness levels went down and all because of a simple shoulder injury.

I was booked for surgery but it was three months away so in desperation I started looking into shoulder injuries and their treatment. I discovered that shoulder exercises feature strongly in most shoulder therapy programmes especially rotator cuff problems.

Your rotator cuff helps to move and stabilise the shoulder joint especially when you rotate your arms or raise them above shoulder height. If you damage your rotator cuff it can become inflamed and in some cases the tendons can become pinched against the shoulder blade. This is what happened in my case.

The idea with shoulder exercises in rotator cuff injuries is to strengthen the shoulder muscles to give extra support to the rotator cuff and allow it to heal. The important thing is to treat the inflammation, resting the shoulder completely to let it start to heal before you try any exercise. I gave it a go.

By now my shoulders had become quite weak through lack of exercise so I began with some simple stretching exercises aimed at improving mobility, following up with low resistance, low weight exercises to begin strengthening the muscles. Gradually over the next few weeks I increased the intensity of the exercises. My shoulder started to get better. I could feel it improving and getting stronger as each week went by. The exercises focused on control and flexibility as well as strength.

I am now back running, have had my first swim and even played a round of golf. The surgery is postponed, the weight is starting to go and I feel a lot fitter. So don't underestimate the power of simple shoulder exercises. They definitely changed my life for the better.