Recovering rotator cuff injury and handstands

Ive had lots of injuries due to overtraining which put me out for just over a year. Most of these resolved themselves when I discovered bodyweight isometrics for physio from this forum, a hot-water bottle on the joints and chucking anti-inflamatories out of the window. The last injury to finally get up to speed is my rotator cuff and I wanted to start doing hand-stands to help my planche work but I've totally avoided any overhead work so as not to set myself back months of physio again. My question is this:

Are handstands likely to help my rotator cuff or make it worse? Ive been doing a lot of headstands which have helped a lot but don't handstands put a lot of stress of the supraspinitus by the acromion? I realise isometrics are brilliant for tendon strength which is why thats all I'll realy train with now. Any help from anyone who's had rotator cuff injuries of the supraspinitus and returned to handstands would be a massive help? :roll:

With proper scapular mobility and development of active flexibility they will help your shoulders.

If you don't have proper scapular mobility and active flexibility you may aggravate impingement or whatever you have.

Exactly how actively flexible do you need to be for it to be safe? I do rotator stretches like figure 4 and chicken wing lock holds from BJJ twice a day for a few mins at a time. Or do you think dislocations on a regular basis would be good aswell? I regularly do hanging L's as part of my training and that does't seem to cause in problems. I do pull my shoulder into the socket though cos I always thought that was the safest technique though. Any opinions on that? I heard something about pushing your shoulders up to your ears in handstands. Is it the same with hanging L's aswell :?:

How much? To feel comfortable in a handstand with proper position (yes, shoulder in the ears)

These will help improve flexibility

Foam roll your thoracic spine

Bridges

wall slides

stretch chest/lats

band dislocates

Thanks for the feedback. Ive been doing a few of these for a while now with the exeption of wall slides and dislocates. Will give them a go and just have a crack at the handstand and see how it goes. Whats a conservative time to start at with wall handstands? 30secs? A Minute?

Longshanks said:

Thanks for the feedback. Ive been doing a few of these for a while now with the exeption of wall slides and dislocates. Will give them a go and just have a crack at the handstand and see how it goes. Whats a conservative time to start at with wall handstands? 30secs? A Minute?

Aim for a minute or two. Break it up into enough sets where you can maintain proper form all the time. If your form deteriorates, stop your set. Our goal is to get perfect handstand form over holding it longer.

Well had a crack at 'em today after tonnes of shoulder mobility stuff and was chuffed to find it didn't agrivate my injury a bit! heyhey. Only managed a couple of sets of 30s with my hands about 2feet away from the wall but it's a start! Wot a bloody good excercise, I was knackered! lol. How long do trainers usually have gymnasts doing feestanding handstands before they attempt HSPU's? Im in no rush and I realise shoulder conditioning is very important, I'm just curious realy. Thanks for all the help braindx, ur a star!

Proper handstand and straight arm handstand press work will help you develop HSPUs. I wouldn't worry about that for now although you can integrate some if you want.