External Shoulder Rotation Question

Hopefully this can be quickly answered. 

I am highly active, 23 years old. I started to feel some muscle imbalances in my workouts (bodyweight training) and decided to take a step back and focus from the ground up again with emphasis on posture. You know animal crawls, rolling/moving, basic joint care and mobility exercises and stretching. I feel very good, no great pains of any kind. 

Within my shoulder mobility/strengthening exercises i focus on 3 days a week now. I started this refocus with a good week long rest followed by doing these only 2 days a week.

[Exercises are not all performed in one session, but throughout my week. 

1) Range of Motion (hangs, animal crawls, and wall slides)

2) external rotations (2.5 lbs), light rows, arm raises to 45 degrees, and Ido Stabilization exercises. (No popping during these)

3) Ring pulls with feet on the ground, slow pushups, slow pull ups, bar holds, back bends and hand stands

4) Emphasis on Posture. Body over hips, Relaxed shoulders, Head and neck not leaning forward and stretching/strengthening (including Slizz Shoulder Stretch recommendations)

After a couple weeks of these when i rest my right arm, then go to extend it out (externally rotate it) i feel like i'm getting caught somewhere in the lower back of my shoulder (Near right on the . And to get passed this imbalance it causes an audible pop, but not painful actually at all. After the pop i can perform the motion easily, but after i rest or relax my arm and try again i see the same problem. I am curious as to what i'm missing because this was never an issue before i restarted these light routines.

For this to occur i feel i am either doing something wrong or not including something, thus creating an imbalance in itself. 

Thank you for your time.

B Nelson,

I really don't know what you are doing and what you mean by working range of motion with hangs, animal crawls and wall slides.

Working full range of motion throughout your shoulder joint, means exactly that, working through your entire range of motion, slowly, deliberately and methodically. Over time the shoulders should become free from pops and clicks and feel smooth and strong.

In GST, we use a variety of drills to increase strength, control and overall range of motion in the shoulders and shoulder girdle. External rotation is but one available movement, internal rotation being another, flexion extension and combinations not to mention the scapular movements of protraction, retraction, elevation and depression and all combinations. All of these need to be balanced,not just in range but in strength and control also.

Internal rotation is often overlooked, subscapularis is the biggest of the 4 rotator cuff muscles and responsible for over 50% of the muscle mass I believe, which says a lot as to the importance of its function.

I would say you have built up an imbalance somewhere. The pop could be what is known as a cavitation as occurs in a synovial joint when the two facets are separated under tension and this can also occur in some of the bursae that lie between tendons and bone, close to joints.

I would say it's best practice to follow one protocol and not mix and match too many sources of information, you won't know what is doing what and you may even be diluting some good quality info with crap! If you follow F1 and HS1 your shoulders will improve guaranteed, someone else has already done the hard work of figuring it all out, programming, sourcing the best drills and it's all right here.

Wes

Amen.

Wow thank you for the reply! I will look into your advice.

I also found some older forums that discussed the teres minor/infraspinatus region swelling on posture rehabilitation and when I feel about these muscles there is a significant swelling in my right teres minor region (where the movement is inhibited) vs my left. You can even see it catch in a mirror when I push my right arm out to extend my arm to the side. It is most likely from adding too much to my routine as you said. 

Sincerely,

Brandan Nelson

Interior Stretching of the rotator cuff muscles i've recently added to my work out stops the tightness, but it is persistent. Since posture has become a big importance to me, I tend to hold my posture instead of relaxing into it. I believe i activate the infraspinatus/Teres Minor while holding myself (not on purpose of course), but from researching around anatomically i can see why the posture hold would activate those. Anybody else have advice on relaxing this region even further, as i said it's only one side and i can feel the obvious muscle swelling. 

First goal is to notice when my body is tensing and stop positioning myself by muscle contraction but actually incorporate good posture (Strengthening posture muscles and relaxing antagonists). 

I found that stretching my Latissimus Dorsi Region really helped this situation. I believe the cause was too much bouldering, not enough stretchings/down time, and too much sitting. Since i have been going with deeper stretching days twice a week i have been able to find cues that this is an area where i have low mobility and flexibility work and higher strength work (pull-ups, etc).  

Please correct me if i'm wrong but i have found stretching of the Deltoid Region, Latissimus Region, and Bicep region causes significantly decrease in the tension on the shoulders. 

Another note: This may be contributing to my poor posture twist towards the side of the tight latissimus Dorsi.