I feel like my climbing training has been going well at this stage of my recovery. I do yoga daily, core exercises and other stretching. I do pullups in the gym after climbing. I have a regular aerobic exercise regimen.

But lately my right shoulder has been bothering me. I'm wondering if I'm developing some kind of strength imbalance. I've read that there are specific exercises to combat this kind of thing. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions. Thanks !

climbers chronically have imbalances in the shoulder/back. Talk to a PT. It could also be a rotator cuff issue since most people have really weak rotator cuffs and it is partially responsible for stability of the shoulder muscle. A PT will usually assess the stability of the joint and the strength in various planes.

Now this may be blasphemy, but maybe its the yoga. I've been told specifically not to do a) yoga or atleast specific yoga poses (for me thats no biggie since I'm not a fan of it anyways) by both PT's (2 different ones) and by a doctor. The reasoning is is that my active flexibility is more then sufficient in my knees and hips, and the joint stability is sufficient but any further opening of those joints would destablize them. I've had a couple of co-workers with chronic injuries and when they were tested by someone in a physiology/kineseology lab (our local hospital does sports evaluations for free on 1 thursday a month) they pinpointed the cause was due to instability in the joint most likely caused by their yoga poses, and once the poses were eliminated from the routine, the injuries did also.

Rob, this is probably the most common problem among rock climbers. The tops and backs of your shoulders get too strong and slowly start to pull the front of your shoulders apart putting a constant strain on your rotator cuff which is then liable to tear. You also run an increased risk or a labrum tear because nothing is holding the front of your shoulder together.

All that said, it is simple to prevent all of this by regularly doing pushups. I do pushups at least once a week. I will lay on a pilates ball and roll out until just my feet are on the ball and then do pushups. I will do 5 or 6 sets of between 15 and 30 pushups and never have any pain in my shoulders in spite of the fact that I have 3 tears in my right shoulder.

Thanks guys !!

CClaude wrote:climbers chronically have imbalances in the shoulder/back. Talk to a PT. It could also be a rotator cuff issue since most people have really weak rotator cuffs and it is partially responsible for stability of the shoulder muscle. A PT will usually assess the stability of the joint and the strength in various planes.

Now this may be blasphemy, but maybe its the yoga. I've been told specifically not to do a) yoga or atleast specific yoga poses (for me thats no biggie since I'm not a fan of it anyways) by both PT's (2 different ones) and by a doctor. The reasoning is is that my active flexibility is more then sufficient in my knees and hips, and the joint stability is sufficient but any further opening of those joints would destablize them. I've had a couple of co-workers with chronic injuries and when they were tested by someone in a physiology/kineseology lab (our local hospital does sports evaluations for free on 1 thursday a month) they pinpointed the cause was due to instability in the joint most likely caused by their yoga poses, and once the poses were eliminated from the routine, the injuries did also.

My experience with Yoga is similar, the teachers I worked with emphasized excessive shoulder mobility and it cost me. For functional injury free strength and flexibility I think Pilates makes more sense. Anatomically the shoulder, compared to the hip, trades off stability in favor of range of movement. It's a tricky joint, but I'll take strength over hyper mobility any day.

Still best to see a real PT rather than take advice off the internet. I developed impingement syndrome from climbing and the PT prescribed exercises to strengthen the back of my shoulder and push-ups were about the most painful thing I could do. You need to get the real problem assessed and get the right exercises for it.

Rob, it's easy to find a whole assortment of exercises that should help your shoulders. Just do them a little bit and with as little weight as possible and if they don't make you worse keep doing them and increasing the weight. If one hurts don't do it. Everyone wants some expert to approve what they do but it isn't very bloody hard to figure out if something is helping or hurting over the course of a couple weeks.

Thanks for the advice guys.

I've been doing pushups the last couple of days, and decided to eliminate trikonasana from my yoga routine for the time being .. with my cervical fusion it's always hard to know if I am in good alignment anyway.

At the gym last night I decided not to push myself as much as usual. I think the muscle that is sore is when I raise my right arm laterally, kind of along my collarbone. It doesn't bother me as much today. I wonder if I strained something and just need to lay off it for a while ..

I started perusing the PT listings in my health plan too.

just another internet thought here. your strength imbalances may be different from what is usually seen, but one of the most common things is a tight pectoralis minor muscle. this pulls the scapula forward acting from the sternum. this muscle probably needs stretched out in everyone (I know i need to). we use it all the time when performing any pushing movements (not climbing really).

not in anyway assessing your issue, but I just thought some interesting stuff. the damn pec minor!

edit: shiatty spelling

Hmm, thanks for the note .. I didn't end up seeing a PT after all. Just kept up the pushups, and reworking my climbing gym sessions.

Instead of pushing myself on face climbs so hard and then going for the pullup bar, I'm just warming up on a couple of face climbs, then spending most of the time crack climbing, which doesn't seem to bother my shoulder as much. Then I finish up with a few harder face climbs, cool down on some easier ones, and then call it a night.

There are some offwidth problems I'm working on .. those seem like good winter projects