Shoulder Rehab - Sorry for the Confusion!

Here's the 60-year old guy hitting some power cleans and jerks here at Dino Headquarters. It's hard to believe that 11 years ago I had a frozen shoulder that made it impossible to lift my arm over my head to comb my hair. But I fixed it with some common sense rehab work.


Hail to the Dinosaurs!

One quick note, and then we'll talk training.

1. The Dinosaur Files

The Oct and Nov issues of the Dinosaur
Files are available right here in a quick
and easy PDF format with immediate
electronic delivery:

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_files.html

The PDF is printable, so if you prefer a
hard-copy, order the PDF and print it --
and you'll have an instant hard-copy to
save in your collection.

If you don't have a printer, send me
an email and we'll see what we can do
for you.

Also, if you prefer a one year, 12-issue
subscription, shoot me an email and
we'll make it happen.

I hope you enjoy the October and
November issues -- shoot me an email
and let me know how you like them!

Of course, I'm hard at work on the
December issue - and it should be
ready very soon. I'll send an email
as soon as the little monster is
available.

2. Sorry for the Confusion!

I got an email from an older Dino who,
like many (or most) (or perhaps ALL)
older Dinos, has some shoulder aches
and pains and dings and dents.

It's part of growing older - just part of
the territory - although many of us
didn't help our shoulders with bad
exercise choices when we were
younger - or with bad exercise
performance when we didn't know
any better.

Anyhow, in Gray Hair and Black Iron
I talk about the time I woke up one
morning somewhere around age 49
with a frozen shoulder.

The joint was so stiff and tight that I
couldn't raise my arm above parallel
to the floor.

I couldn't even comb my hair.

I had an orthopedic surgeon look at it.

He couldn't find anything wrong, but
suggested surgery anyway.

"Once we get inside and look around,
I'm sure we'll find something we can
do," he said (or words to that effect).

Well, thanks, but no thanks.

So I rehabbed it with a special program
of very light shoulder exercises, performed
for hundreds of reps, just to get my arm
moving, restore some mobility, and get
some blood flowing into the shoulder
joint and related muscle groups.

I did the program every day.

100's of reps.

Every kind of shoulder exercise you
ever saw, and many more that I
invented right then and there.

With very light weights.

I think I started with soup cans for
weights, progressed to 2 1/2 pound
plates, and then moved up to five
pound dumbbells.

Over the course of a few months, I
worked up to 40 or 50 pound dumb-
bells on some of the exercises.

And after a couple of months, my
shoulder was pretty much okay.

At that point, I started doing barbell
work again.

Anyhow, one of our older Dinos is
having some shoulder problems,
and he tried a similar program -
and it was working well for him.

But then he read some other parts
of Gray Hair and Black Iron where I
recommended doing low reps in your
workouts.

So he stopped doing his high rep
shoulder exercises.

That was the wrong thing to do - but
it's my fault, not his.

I guess I wasn't clear enough - and I
ended up confusing him.

And maybe I've confused other Dinos,
as well.

So here's what I was trying to say:

1.For rehab work - or to help smooth
out some dings and dents - high reps
with light weights can be very helpful.

2. For general strength and muscle
building, low to medium reps are
best.

I hope that clears things up for our
Dino - and for anyone else who was
confused about my suggestions on
sets and reps.

As always, thanks for reading and
have a great day. If you train today,
make it a good one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. Go here to grab Gray Hair and
Black Iron. It's the best book ever
written for older trainees:



http://www.brookskubik.com/grayhair_blackiron.html

P.S. 2. My other books and courses -
and links to all of my e-books on Kindle
- are right here at Dino Headquarters:

Hard-copy and PDF

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

Kindle

http://www.brookskubik.com/kindle.html

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day:

"Dings and dents are part of life, but
they don't have to derail your training
permanently."


-- Brooks Kubik


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