Planks and shoulder question

Sucks your doctor didn't give you any more. Take a look at this push up plus article. You can just hold the top position as a push up position plank.

http://www.gustrength.com/mobility:scapular-push-up-plus

i'm going to take a flyer and suggest that if you were toting a dog your levator scapula might be tight and short on that side. that definitely helped to pull my shoulderblade up - i read ALL the time and always hold the book in my left hand so groke knows what a dog would have done.

and once it's up, it's pretty hard for any other muscles to get a fair chance to do what they're for, which is pull it back down.

I too have had a cranky shoulder blade. I thought it was a rhomboid, but during a massage, my masseuse (who is also my yoga teacher) indicated that I had a very tight erector spinae and trapezius on the side where I felt the pain. She worked out a lot of the tightness as best she could.

My best friend, who is a physical therapist, gave me several exercises to do as a warm-up to weight lifting that focused mainly on building the shoulder stabilizing muscles (lower and middle trapezius, mid lats, and rhomboids). The biggest thing to remember with physical therapy type exercises is that it's all about the ECCENTRIC contraction (i.e. a slow release of the muscle). Those are what really help you to build strength. I did these three times per weeks with very light weights for six weeks and have felt NO pain since. I'll do my best to explain them:

I, Y, and T lifts: With light weights (I used 3 lbs) lie prone with an exercise ball under your belly/chest and toes on the floor. Keep back of heart lifted. Starting position is with weights on the ground. Inhale lift weights to shoulder height (head of the weight pointing skyward), exhale SLOWLY lower back down to starting position. Complete 3 sets of 12 for each type of lift. I lifts are lifting the weights straight out in front of the crown of your head; Y lifts are lifting the weights out at ~45 degree angles; T lifts are lifting the weights directly out from the shoulder, ~90 degree angles.

Seated row on cable machine: 3 sets of 12. Exhale, pull handle into chest, focusing on drawing elbows back while avoiding pinching the shoulder blades together. Inhale, SLOWLY release back to starting position.

Standing row on cable machine: 3 sets of 12. Very similar to a seated row, except handle is above head and you pull down at a 45 degree angle.

Scapula pushups: 3 sets of 12. Connect knees to floor, place hands under shoulders. Important to not hyper-extend your elbows, so keep a micro-bend. As you inhale, let the scapula retract (i.e. draw towards the spine), keeping arms straight the whole time. With an exhale, slowly protract the scapula (i.e. wrap them forwards towards the chest, away from the spine). You keep the arms straight the whole time, the chest will move up and down maybe 2-3" or so, and that movement comes only from retraction/protraction of the scapula. These are one of my new favorite moves, and I use them when I teach yoga classes quite often to help students build strength for chaturangas.

Aside from that, remember that during planks, you can always drop to your knees (both, or just one) to give yourself more support. Over time, you will work you way up to being able to hold a high plank, and hopefully with no pain if you work on strengthening those stabilizers! You can also do a forearm plank, which is a plank on the elbows, which tends to reduce some of the stress on the shoulders. Same with a high plank - you can always lower to one or both knees. Whichever variation/s you choose, make sure the shoulders don't pinch the spine during your hold. Think about pressing the floor away, hollowing out the armpits, and inflating the space between your shoulder blades up like a balloon.

I see these issues all the time in my yoga students - all it takes is a little alignment tweaking and building strength to help keep that good alignment! Best of luck! Hope your shoulder feels better soon.