Bulking up on shoulder muscle?

I took advice from a user on here and went to see an osteopath today regarding a dislocated shoulder that occurred while sparing 18 months ago. He has advised me not to box (at least not yet) and to do some heavy weights down the gym to build muscle and tighten my shoulder. Can anybody help me sort out a weight training program that will benefit me, I assume it will be best to work every muscle through out a week and not just work my shoulders 3 or 4 times a week? Any advice welcomed. Thanks. Sharpy.

Just google it. There's a punch of exercises if you're working with weights. Lateral raises which's bringomg the dumbells up to your sides parallel to the floor. Raising them in front of you, or shoulder shrugs. Sounds like a good plan.

If he was worth his salt, he would have given you a program. What was the underlying problems.

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Originally Posted by Scrap

If he was worth his salt, he would have given you a program. What was the underlying problems.

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He basically said the nerves by my neck were stretched and damaged when the dislocation happend, after a painful massage he went on to do acupuncture. He checked my shoulder and said it was looser than my good shoulder but neither are very tight (genes). Also my tricep on my bad side is noticeably weaker. He advised lifting heavy weights to strengthen my shoulders as he said the main worry is it dislocating again. As for what exercises he didn't say what to do, just advised against free weights for the time been.

Well if your trying to build bulk,Id say heavy weights overhead presses,and pull downs lower reps
But I dont think Id recomend trying to build bulk,but rather overall strength,and tightening things up
Same excercises,but lighter weight,and more reps

Id recommend isometric resistance work with bands to start, nothing over shoulder height the fiest 2 weeks.

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Originally Posted by Scrap

Id recommend isometric resistance work with bands to start, nothing over shoulder height the fiest 2 weeks.

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If its a bad seperation Id agree with that,depends on how much its re-nitted
The downside of giving advice over the internet is theres alot of variable you cant assume unless you have some first hand knowledge of the person
One thing Ill give Sharla,when she asks for advice,she does a good job of cutting down the variables in advance

Or the problem, Its a very good discriptive anology of the problems he has.

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Originally Posted by Scrap

Or the problem, Its a very good discriptive anology of the problems he has.

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Having just gone back and re-read
If your lifting 3 or 4 times a week,dont just isolate one muscle group and pound the snot out of it over and over again.Your allready coming off an injury,your just going to re-hurt it
Try to isolate,say 2 different muscle groups every time your in the gym lifiting
Like legs back one day,tricep chest another,bicep shoulder another
But dont just wail away every day on one muscle grouping every time your in there,your allready injured,the muscles just wont have the bounce back and will end up re-hurt

Sharpy, concentrate on working streching the shortened tricep isometricaly with the shoulders supported on a bench by dumbell or rubber, it sounds like your pectorials could be tight of that Im certain with the information you give. The nerve problem and shock when it happened will go back to the spine and support muscles, plus the memory of shock will change the biomechanics of movement. You need a good stretch program.

Could be pecs, I had a week on holiday where I had no access to anything I could use to train my lats... could still do press ups (I had a floor... :P) but after doing them almost every day I started to feel an imbalance... even when i was relaxed my shoulders where getting pulled out of aligment...

had to stretch my chest off for days to sort it ;)

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Originally Posted by AdamGB

Could be pecs, I had a week on holiday where I had no access to anything I could use to train my lats... could still do press ups (I had a floor... :P) but after doing them almost every day I started to feel an imbalance... even when i was relaxed my shoulders where getting pulled out of aligment...

had to stretch my chest off for days to sort it ;)

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Everyone duck,Adam and I are about to agree ;D
You cant just hit one thing and expect good results,you screw up your body,and in the long run you seriously screw it up
Gotta mix it up,if your only mixing it with crunches,but you gotta give yourself recovery time,and support the muscles that are carrying what your trying to develop

I agree with Scrap. Lots of isometric training for the deltoids and biceps to begin with then adding some greater abduction and rotator cuff once you feel it's more stable. A simple and safe way to do these exercises is by pressing a wall or into the floor.

I'm going to have to do a search of my hard drive and back ups because I downloaded a VERY good article a few years back about bodybuilding and building muscle around wrecked shoulders.
It was a very detailed article explaining how your shoulder works and all that sort of stuff.
It described a lot of the ways your shoulders can be injured.

Most importantly though, it had a long list of exercises that you should AVOID AT ALL COSTS if you have bad shoulders. I really wish I could remember some now because although training is the best way to help your bad shoulder, if done incorrectly it could be worse than doing nothing at all.

Anyway, it also had a list of a few very good weight training exercises that did not put your shoulders in jeopordy at all and were very good at building up the shoulder muscles and the smaller connecting tissue muscles.

I'm going to have a look for it this evening so if you bare with me and check back in a day or 2 I should have it posted, or I can e-mail it to you or something.

I today still follow some of the advice I read in that article to protect my shoulders. Their were some exercises listed that you shouldn't put your shoulders through PERIOD if you want them to still be working perfectly in 10 years time. So i'll hunt it out for you.

Oh, I remember I got the article from www.hardgainer.com
I think they've taken down most of their articles, but if you want to go the extra step, you could probably e-mail them and they might be able to dig it up for you. Hopefully I can come through though and save you time.

thanks mate, would really appreciate it if you can find it :D

Darn well I couldn't find that article, sorry bud. I searched everywhere it could have been hiding. I may have a hard copy I printed out somewhere but that'll take some more digging. Fortunatly i'm on leave from work for another 2 weeks and have been cleaning up a bit so I may come across it.

Anyway, one of the machines to stay away from is the peck deck where you put your arms out to the sides in an L shape, and then pull your arms around to the front where your forearms meet. This machine is NASTY for bad shoulders and not much better for GOOD shoulders. Stay clear of it! Any benifit gained on this machine can be gained doing other exercises that DON'T put strain on your shoulder joint the way that machine does. It should be taken out of EVERY gym for good. It is useless and a true posers machine.

Anyway, doing the bench press with really good for would be a great exercise. Keep your hands about shoulder width apart or close to that, where is comfy. Forgot wide or close grip, they will put extra stress on your shoulders that is not needed. Press from your lower chest, just below your nipple, and as you rise up, move up in a curving motion so the bar ends up directly above your chin, then curve back down to below your nipples. This is the best form for your shoulders.
Benching with dumbels might be a good alternative as they allow for a bit more movement in your shoulders so you can vary your wrist rotation and things like that. I do'nt have the best shoulders and I like to have my dumbels length ways (head to toe) when they rest on my chest, and then sideways at the top, with the rotating motion on the way up and down. This feels the best on my shoulders, so therefor I can lift more weight that way and get more gain, with less pain.
Even a relatively new person to training knows the difference between unwanted joint pain, and muscle pain caused by heavy weights, so while your body is in a fragile state, you MUST listen to it. Some pains are absolutely NOT worth pushing through. Go easy and be patient and everything will start to come together. Also avoid pressing in the upright position unless using very light weights. And you will still want to press from your chest and not your shoulders...
Start of light, don't worry about anyone in the gym seeing you with light weights, just hold/rub your shoulder and shrug it around a bit before and after lifts. People will click that you have an injury and will appreciate that you're working through it in a smart manner.
Also, some supplements might help your shoulder repair. L-Glutamine may be one to look into while your in your healing stage. It is very helpful for rebuilding damaged tissue... It is often given to burns victims to accelerate their healing.
If you're still having problems a while down the track, you may also want to talk to your doctor seriously about steroid injections into your arm or shoulder muscles. As long as you aren't planning on competing, steroids under medical supervision can help a HUGEEEE amount in getting your joint back in working/better order than it was. It's unfortunate in a way that footballers and other sports stars don't have this option to help repair their injuries, but the rules are their for a reason...

Anyway, again, good luck! Their is nothing worse than having a bad joint that doesn't seem to heal, and shoulders if not looked after correctly, can bother you for the rest of your days, so realllllly look after it over the next few months. If any trainers give you exercises that you are unsure of or are uncomfortable, drop them, or at LEAST get a few more opinions before you battle on with it... Some people just have no f'n clue at all and really don't care if their miss information f'cks your joint up for life..
Thanks for listening through my long boring and probably bad grammered post.

thanks for the info, much appreciated, i did contact the site to see if they can dig me the article out, but not had a reply as yet.

Sharpy, don't tighten your pecs anymore than they are. In most people the front of the shoulders and the pecs are too strong and tight compared to the muscles at the rear. Work your rotator cuff muscles - the ones round the shoulderblade to create stability and balance in the shoulder first. Another way of putting this info is don't bench press. There is loads of free info on the web regarding rotator cuff training. :)

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Originally Posted by md

Sharpy, don't tighten your pecs anymore than they are. In most people the front of the shoulders and the pecs are too strong and tight compared to the muscles at the rear. Work your rotator cuff muscles - the ones round the shoulderblade to create stability and balance in the shoulder first. Another way of putting this info is don't bench press. There is loads of free info on the web regarding rotator cuff training. :)

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Good advice ;)

Very good advice cc

Actually, I agree with that too. =) You could look at some upper back exercises as well that don't put to much stress on your shoulders. The'll help balance out the pecs/upper chest muscles.

What ever you do just make sure you go easy with light weight for the first couple of weeks...and make sure you do full motion when working out to make sure the muscles get an even workout