Preventive maintenance for shoulder?

[toddinjax]

Do you long time shooters do any sort of stretching or exercises on a regular basis to keep your shoulder healthy? Please share what has been most beneficial for you.

[Korp]

Great question, wondering this as well. For now I'm doing some basic prehab exercises and stretching I picked up from martial arts practice back in the days. I wonder if stretching always is beneficial or if it's good to be stiff in the right parts, for stability :)

[Gwhite]

Great question, wondering this as well. For now I'm doing some basic prehab exercises and stretching I picked up from martial arts practice back in the days. I wonder if stretching always is beneficial or if it's good to be stiff in the right parts, for stability :)

Your muscles & tendons will stretch a bit when you shoot. For consistency, it's better to get them stretched beforehand. If you don't stretch, your natural point of aim will change during a long match.

[Th.]

Maybe you can find the complete article on the internet

[Azmodan]

that article looks like it's behing a paywall: https://www.nsca.com/education/articles ... rformance/

Maybe you can find the complete article on the internet

[B Lafferty]

Shoulder replacement might be an option for some of us at some point.

My shooting shoulder was injured in a sports accident when I was in 7th grade. If I reach up and backwards as in rebounding in basketball, it will often pop out of joint and then back in ---all rather painfully. When shooting it will occasionally pop just enough that the shot goes wild if it was then being released. I'm not complaining as this injury kept me from being drafted out of college in 1971. (Arlo's Alice's Restaurant was quite accurate in that regard) I'd like to hear form any shooters who have had a shoulder replacement done.

[-TT-]

There isn't really such a thing as shoulder replacement, at least not routine replacement like hip or knee. Are you talking about rotator cuff repair surgery?

[B Lafferty]

There isn't really such a thing as shoulder replacement, at least not routine replacement like hip or knee. Are you talking about rotator cuff repair surgery?

Shoulder arthroplasty

[Grippy]

What kind of shoulder damage would one expect from pistol shooting? Repeatedly holding a 1kg weight with an outstretched arm shouldn't by itself cause damage to a fit person, right? And olympic air and .22 guns aren't very problematic from a recoil perspective either. I so far just assumed that maintaining reasonable strength to allow proper posture etc. would be sufficient. I'm more worried about my back if anything. And for that I do regular core strength exercises (squats, planks, leg raises etc.).

For a short while I did overhead presses with a barbell as part of my fitness training and quickly stopped again since that seemed to cause me more problems and discomfort than just doing hold training with the gun or a comparable weight.

[SteveT]

What kind of shoulder damage would one expect from pistol shooting? Repeatedly holding a 1kg weight with an outstretched arm shouldn't by itself cause damage to a fit person, right?

You are probably right. I aggravated an old injury, probably a relatively minor tear of the rotator cuff, by shooting a lot and doing a lot of holding exercises with 2-3 lbs.

[wabbitswayer]

Don't follow my lead..., broke the shoulder skiing in December. Working on getting the strength back, I did shoot my first target of the year today, only able to hold for 3 shots before wobble became silly. Perhaps by May I'll be able to shoot a 40 or 60 shot match. 3 months of only being able to pull the trigger may actually be a good thing, I'll let you know in a few months.

Pre accident:

For warmup I found:

https://www.olympicpistol.com/pistol-sh ... ederation/

For strengthening alternating days:
Pistol in hand arm curls: in three orientations slowly adding reps weekly based on wristup curl difficulty.

2-3lb, 45 degree to 90 degree holding 15 seconds each position, adding a few reps each week.

[tovaert]

I bought a BodyBlade on Amazon. It's an amazing exercise tool for rehabbing the shoulder. You'll likely never fix the damaged tissue in the humorous/scapula contact, however, the BodyBlade can strengthen the muscles that surround it, which allows you to reduce contact pressures when "exercising" (aka, holding up a pistol). The theory of why it works is sound, IMHO. Muscles carry very little weight but fire hundreds of times per minute. It can really make you sweat. Worked much better for me than weights or impingement exercises.

[-TT-]

I agree. The shoulder is less of a joint and more of a muscle-operated crane or derrick. Strengthening the five rotator cuff muscles is key, and working on the surrounding support muscles is helpful too. It's much more important to strengthen them all in balance, than to work on any one.

I was told that a major tear needs to be repaired quickly, because if unattached, the healing tendon forms a sort of soft spongy tissue which will never heal as rigidly as the original. A smaller tear is usually best left to heal, and then cleaned up surgically. Either requires lengthy PT. And then there's the bursa, labrum and other tissue deep in the joint.

My injury was over 2 years ago, and I'm still working on a stable hold. I've had to compensate by moving to a lighter pistol, and I'm forced to release the shot much earlier than ever, to get it off before the wobble rises. Honestly, it's improved my technique, though sadly, not my scores. Yet!

Good luck with your decision. Be very sure of your surgeon, and his or her plan.

[toddinjax]

Grippy,

In general doing anything repeatedly can cause inflammation, pain and damage. Typing on a computer keyboard is completely non weight bearing but can be the source of considerable pain and long term injury.