With my shoulder not in the best shape recently, today I was expecting to have a pretty lousy workout – especially since my scheduled workout involved a lot of shoulder work.
Therefore, it came as a bit of a surprise when things didn’t go badly at all. I didn’t experience any real shoulder pain, and once again I continued to make progress on my lifts.
I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading up recently, on shoulder injuries in particular, and I got thinking about how injuries are treated. Naturally, if you’ve got a stiff and weak shoulder like I have, the only remedy for it is to perform stretching exercises to improve the flexibility, range of motion, and strength – which is what I’ve been doing for the last couple of days, and intend on continuing to do.
Some of my stretches actually lead to slight pain when my shoulder is in a position it finds uncomfortable, but I think like anybody who has done any kind of rehabilitation on an injury will attest to, the only way to get better is to push through the pain, a little further each time – responsibly, of course. And so far, although it’s still very early days – and touch wood – it seems to be working for me.
Before each workout, I’ve also made my mind up to stretch, and particularly on the shoulders, as they take one hell of a hammering during weightlifting. I also think it’s wise to stretch after lifting, which was my intention today – although I confess, I forgot!