Deltoid exercises (if you can't lift up your arms and are weak)

yirara

So yeah. My deltoid is shot due to having fractured my proximal humerus. I'm allowed to do everything as long as it doesn't hurt. Obviously I still have physio, but we're currently trying to figure out what causes problems and what doesn't. Bone is stable. But I can't lift up my arm 180 degrees non-passively due to having a shot deltoid (plus lots of other muscles), and I can't do many exercises because I can't lift up my arm And yeah, all deltoid exercises I find require this particular skill and/or lots of equipment. Any ideas?

Equipment: A bench, a 6kg bar, 2 small bars for dumbells, various weight disks (need to get them up 4 floors without a lift though), kettlebells of 8 and 12kg, rubber bands, a pullup bar, wooden stick.

What can I do: 12 one-sided bendover or bench-kneeling rows with the 8kg kettlebell, 25 bench presses with the empty bar, foot-supported hanging from the pullup bar to do scapular movements. I guess bendover flies without weights would work but not sure how useful those will be in getting stronger again, I can kind of do undertable pullups with the bar on the holders from a glute bridge. Generally higher reps with low/no weight.

Can't do: kneeling pushups (I can do 3 not quite controlled down-movements), obviously no 1 rep max , no triceps extension (standing or laying) or any other movement requiring grip with inside of hands to the front when letting arms hang down due to an impingement issue.

Any ideas?

tomcustombuilder

First off a 1RM is a totally useless thing to persue so no need to think of it in your training. If it doesn’t hurt you should be ok with certain exercises but since you have a physio they would be the one to determine the best approach.

I feel for you. When I had shoulder issues life sucked. No surfing and gym activities were limited. A bad shoulder and it’s super difficult to do so many things.

snowflake954

I did a lot of work with bands at home when I had frozen shoulder. It helped so much, but agree that your doc should clear anything you try. Hang tight.

yirara

snowflake954 wrote: »

I did a lot of work with bands at home when I had frozen shoulder. It helped so much, but agree that your doc should clear anything you try. Hang tight.

i'm cleared to do anything slow and controlled. No issue there. But I can only do movements with either on the back and arms straight up, bent over and arms straight down, or things like dips (if I had the strength). And that sucks.

yirara

So I guess I have a few exercises now that I can do:
Push: bench press, pushup, seated dips (my bench has a dip station, but I don't dare doing that yet)
Pull: bendover row, kettlebell row, under table inverse row, biceps curl

I'm considering some kind of flies as well, but I'm not sure I can do them without problems. Will test it.

I do need a new pullup bar, because my really old one is not staying in place anymore. Those you can support from the door frame look cool, but the bar is too high for me and I don't trust my doorframe. So I guess a new one that I can screw into the door opening.

Retroguy2000

It sounds like you have a lot of good options.

Bench press and pushups will target the front delt. Rows for the rear delt.

How far can you do lateral raises? Consider too the Lu raise variation. Another option for you here might be holding on to a door frame and leaning away while doing lateral raises.

You may want to do a light weight external rotation move to work the rotator cuff, e.g. laying on your side and with your higher arm against your body, lower arm raised so it's in front of you, raise and lower the light weight.

You can get a great stimulus from the OHP with an isometric hold with your upper arms at 90 degrees. And any range of motion higher is great, even if you can't go all the way (yet).

For seated dips, have your hands pointing away from your body. If they are facing forwards like many guides will show, that's internal rotation of the shoulder which is bad.

Just in case, you may want to verify your form is good on the flat press and pushups, i.e. arms not flared out to the side 90 degrees which will put more stress on the shoulder.

yirara

Thanks a lot @Retroguy2000 I’ll look up your suggestions tomorrow evening. Now it’s time for sleeping 💤

AnnPT77

If you can do dips, can you do bent over triceps extension, i.e., with your upper arm in fixed position alongside your torso? That may be a stupid idea, I'm not sure, as I'm having difficulty creating a picture in my head of what you can/can't do.

yirara

Thanks again @Retroguy2000 and @AnnPT77

Lets see what's possible.

Bent over triceps extension: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYmMgABABog Should work! Yay, good one!

Lateral rises are currently a no unfortunately. Lu raises require an overhead lift? Nope, unfortunately not. I can hold a stick and pull the injured arm up with the other arm Working on it though. Will have to experiment with bentover flies, or laying on the bed, arms stretched to the side and then lifting the arms. Lets see if a) it works and b) which muscles it touches upon.

Yes, the rotator cuff exercise you mentioned works. For some reason this is difficult for me because the upper elbow won't stay where it's at. I can also do this with rubber bands standing. But otherwise all rotations are currently taboo.

I'll try the other hand position for the seated dip. This might also not work as it's a rotation. But maybe it does. Time to find out tonight.

For a bit of fun I might try one-legged romanians, and possibly add some weighted squats. Could place my bar on the dip station of my bench to start from.

Thanks a lot guys. Next physio session on Thursday, so maybe I'll get more ideas there as well. If the physio doesn't faint because I've taken to the weights But hey, he told me I can do everything. So of course it's weights

Retroguy2000

@yirara

You don't have to do Lu raises full ROM. Sure it's probably better, I'm just saying in your case partial ROM is probably better than no ROM, and hopefully over time improve that ROM. If you can lateral raise to ninety degrees, great. If a bit less, fine. The Lu raise variant may work for you because it has a different internal shoulder variation to the typical lateral raise. Or maybe it will be vice versa for you.

To clarify for the seated dips. You face forward, left hand fingers point away to the left, right hand fingers point away to the right. Generally though I'd be wary of dips at all for now given all that you've said.

For the tris, you said you can bench press and pushup, so you could also do close grip bench and variants like diamond pushups.

yirara

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

@yirara

You don't have to do Lu raises full ROM. Sure it's probably better, I'm just saying in your case partial ROM is probably better than no ROM, and hopefully over time improve that ROM. If you can lateral raise to ninety degrees, great. If a bit less, fine. The Lu raise variant may work for you because it has a different internal shoulder variation to the typical lateral raise. Or maybe it will be vice versa for you.

To clarify for the seated dips. You face forward, left hand fingers point away to the left, right hand fingers point away to the right. Generally though I'd be wary of dips at all for now given all that you've said.

For the tris, you said you can bench press and pushup, so you could also do close grip bench and variants like diamond pushups.

Cool, I'll check out the Lu raises again. Maybe I find a better video explaining them
The seated dips work the way you described them. No pain, no real issues, and, I realized today I've been doing them like that anyway.

still have to work a lot on pushups. Currently I can do kneeling pushup, so diamond-ones are very far down the line. Hey, I just lost literally every bit of strength in my especially right upper arm, but also upper back, chest, etc. and only trying to come back I think I can try close grip bench though.

Today I did push, thus tomorrow is pull. Lets see if I can find one further exercise for that one: I got bent over kettlebell row or barbell row, inverse undertable row (well, I use the bench and barbell), and biceps curl. So maybe I'll try fly variations in addition.

Oh, and of course I built a far too convoluted spreadsheet to track progress. Every nice project needs a big spreadsheet!

yirara

Pull day. For some reason my pulse went super high up when doing biceps curls. Wow, that was very intense for some reason.

Ok, the lu ones don't work at all. They seem to trap a nerve for which I will go and see a neurologist next week. Not good. I think I'll add something like front raises to 90 degrees. I can do that without pain, and it might add something for the front deltoid.

Retroguy2000

Sorry to hear. How much ROM on the Lu or regular lateral raises?

YMMV, I get enough activity on my front delts without adding front raises. For most, it's the rear delt not getting enough.

Can you do face pulls? If no cables, wrap weight in a towel, bend over, do face pull.