HSPU Program Session 25

For this session, I was inspired GMB's home bodyweight workout video. The exercises looked like they might allow easy scaling of the load to an appropriate one for my shoulders.

Prepare
The two band exercises from the FitnessFAQs video on using Reverse Plank to fix rounded shoulders.
The "Mulligan" technique from this video:

Practice
Two rounds of above 5-min. bodyweight workout circuit

Main circuit 
A-Frame Inverted Press w/ 4-sec. negatives - 3 reps/side - Quality: Smooth, Ease: Solid
Ring Reverse Row - 6-7 reps - Quality: Smooth, Ease: Solid
3 rounds with 1-2 minutes of rest in between rounds

Push
1 Turkish Get Up per side

Circuit
Knee Pushup - 4-6 reps
16kg KB bicep curl in goblet squat position - 8-12 reps
Band rotator external rotation

Play
Shoulder traction with band attached to stairs.

Brachial Hang for about 1min.

Ponder
Quickly felt sore in the chest because of all the extra rotator cuff internal rotation exercise I did with the band over the weekend, which drove home the point I've seen some physical therapists make that internal rotation exercises for the rotator cuff may not be needed if you're already exercise your pecs via an exercise like the pushup and variations.

The shoulder proved more finicky than I'd hoped for the bodyweight circuit - hard to tell exactly when acute pain would come whether doing Spiderman, Sumo Frogger or Baby Frogger Stall.

The shoulder remained pain-free when I switched to A-Frame Inverted Press - probably less variety of angles than what would be introduced by locomotion.

The shoulder felt best during Reverse Row when just maintaining neutral grip - didn't feel so good when I moved to pronated grip (chinup grip) at the top of the movement.

The shoulder was surprisingly less tolerant of the Turkish Getup than last week.

Going forward, for my upper-body training days, inverted press without locomotion and reverse row with neutral grip only seem to work best for the shoulder.   The bicep curl was one of the exercises prescribed when I was in physical therapy for my shoulder, because the doctor thought my injury could be impingement or subluxation, and strengthening the biceps tendon is part of recovery for subluxation.   I don't really care about building big guns but if curls will help my shoulder recover and bulletproof it, then I'll do curls.   External rotation exercises for my rotator cuff will also be part of my finishing circuit, for the reason as the curls.

I also remember wall pushups being part of my physical therapy routine, so I will also continue practicing some regressed version of the pushup.  GMB teaches a pushup progression from knee pushups all the way to full pushup.  However, other trainers prefer having their trainees regress by doing pushups against a kitchen counter, table, etc. and gradually working down towards the floor - the argument being that the trainee would start working on integrating the core into the movement earlier in the progression.   At this point, all I care about is what my shoulders can tolerate and knee pushups are enough for my rehab needs.   I've done full pushups before, so I'm not worried about not being able to learn how to integrate the core.