Shoulder pain and rotator cuff injuries can be very painful, debilitating and can take a long time to heal if you do not initiate a good program early. This can have a negative on your daily life, in particular if your dominant arm is the affected arm. A very common injury in sports like Tennis, Baseball and various sports requiring a throwing action. Focus for this type of injury is typically about the shoulder, but I have found from over 15 years as a trainer specializing in rehabilitation and sports is that there is a lot more to the problem than meets the eye. I have found that poor posture, lack of movement skill and leg strength, mainly the lunge movement, coupled with poor rotation and twisting, is where the real problems lie. In this article, I am going to show you our 6 step process for identifying the cause and then how you go about using stretches, mobilizations and exercises to get rid of pain and restore function to the shoulder. But most importantly, you will learn how you can prevent it from coming back.

When the cold months start to draw near the dedicated skiers and snowboarders are rubbing their hands together with glee as they start planning their trips to the snow. And each year I also get anxious about seeing clients turn up at my door after they had blown out their ACL, or suffered some horrific back injury from a skiing or snowboard accident. Sometimes it is not even from an accident but from wear and tear over the snow season that has now left them in a world of pain. Other cases I also see people that need that did not enjoy the trip so much as they fatigued so quickly they had to rest after the first day for they could hardly move! A strength training program should not be considered a luxury for people undertaking this sport. It is a necessity! Unfortunately some think that doing some leg presses, leg extensions and a handful of bridges is enough to get you there. Some think their twice a week Yoga or Pilates will do the job, which may help in a small way but not even close for what you really need. Unfortunately it is not a sport you can go out to the local park and practice either. You can only practice when you are there. This is why you MUST use the gym to prepare for the dangers of not doing this are very high.

Most of us spend nearly a third of our life sleeping. Yet for many people they do not get enough quality sleep and their health pays a big price for it. As a Personal Trainer for over 15 years now, the number one goal most people want is nine times out of ten to lose some weight and get fit. More recently it has been to overcome some chronic pain or injury, and only then can their fitness goals be tackled. And for many Personal Trainers, physical therapists the most obvious solutions to these goals is to start exercising more and eat better. And why I agree with this too and highly recommend it I have found this is only addressing a part of the puzzle. And I also believe that people must be very careful with how hard an exercise program is if they are not getting enough sleep. The areas that are often neglected when starting a health and fitness program, is reducing a person's Stress, which I have talked about many times before, (see our article on why people have trouble losing weight even when they exercise) and also improving the amount and quality of sleep.