Help rehabbing a shoulder injury...

cerrajean

I'm probably going to be seeing a doctor for this, but in the mean time I thought I'd ask around here.

A year ago I injured my shoulder hanging on to an overhead bar in an airport shuttle van as the driver maniacally slammed the brakes and hit the gas between the hotel and airport. Since I'm only 5'4" and the bar was probably around 7' high (it was kinda like a party bus?) my arm was fully extended and I strained it somehow as I was trying not to fall over and crush the small children seated around me.

I avoided a lot of lifting and straining on it and it seemed to get better until one day when i decided it seemed strong enough to do some yoga. Within the firs 3 minutes of the DVD, I'd put my hands on the mat behind me, lifted my bum off the ground, and just like that my shoulder was hurt again.

It has been a slower recovery since then (6 months ago?) and I really don't want to re-injure it. My question comes with regard to a DVD I purchased tonight (Jillian Michaels - Fat Shredder & Metabolism Booster) and one circuit almost entirely takes place in a plank position. They go over alternatives if you're not strong enough to plank the whole time (moving to knees, etc) but nothing is ever mentioned for alternatives to placing all your weight on your shoulders.

If anyone has any suggestions or advice on what I could swap in to these exercises (mountain climber, etc) please let me know. I think just the aerobics will help make the shoulder itself stronger, but I really don't want to be at a point that I can't do anything at all because I've re-injured it working too hard.

Thanks everyone!

zlem

I have a bad shoulder too, your shoulder injury might be completely different to mine (different muscles or ligaments or whatever) but I have noticed a huge improvement after doing these http://www.bodyresults.com/e2rotatorcuff.asp with a 2kg dumbbell (probably should have been a little lighter to start off with but it was the lightest I had).

I have only been doing them every 2nd day or so for 2 weeks but my shoulder is much more stable and slowly getting stronger, I hope I will be able to do those tricky shoulder moves on JM dvd's some day soon but for now I just skip them

but yep probably best to see a doctor!

cerrajean

Yeah I'm sure it's going to hurt tomorrow since it's already tender just after the DVD. I skipped a lot of the planking and tried to do a version standing, or just do a little on the shoulder, but I am pretty sure it's going to smart tomorrow. (my whole body is already tightening up- DAMN YOU JILLIAN!)

Thanks for the link- I'll check it out.

Also, a tip I picked up when my mom was rehabbing a shoulder injury- a can of vegetables is almost exactly 1lb, so it's great to use as a dumbell if you don't have a 1lb.