- Hey, what's up guys,
today we're talking about shoulder rehab,
using one of these, a Theraband.
Now, Therabands are not my first choice
when it comes to rehabilitating anything.
But if you're stuck at home,
or if you don't have access to a gym,
you don't have access to dumbbells and machines or cables,
then this will be absolutely fine.
But as long as you know how to use it,
then that's gonna give you the best chance of making
this work best for you.
Now we're gonna go through four exercises today.
The most common ones for shoulder rehabilitation,
external rotation, internal rotation,
straight arm pull downs, and face pulls.
So the reason I don't like Therabands or bands in general,
is for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, they're quite weak.
I know you can get different strengths,
but they have a tendency to snap quite easily.
But also, because they are elastic, it means that they're,
they get more resistant, the further you stretch them,
and obviously less resistant,
the less stretch there is on them.
But that's not how your muscles work.
So, your muscles have, range
from the most contracted to the lengthened part.
So for example, if you're looking at my bicep,
you've got the longest part of the muscle,
so we're looking to the bicep here.
So that's the muscle in its most stretched position.
And that's the muscle its most contracted position.
So throughout that range of the muscle contraction,
there is a difference in strength.
When it's out here, it's fairly weak.
Once it comes to the middle portion of that range,
it's at its strongest,
and then as it gets more contracted, it gets weak again,
so it looks a little bit like a bell shaped graph.
But when people are using bands,
they often are using those bands
so that the muscles are in the weakest position,
and yet the band is at its most stretched,
so it has the most resistance.
So the bands don't quite match the strength of the muscles.
But don't worry, coz I'm gonna show you
how you can tweak that,
so you can make your shoulder rehab
more effective using the bands than you were doing before.
So there's a couple of things that we need to consider
when we're doing any movement with resistance.
First, is the direction of the pole.
So in this case, it's just a straight line.
So wherever my hand is, and wherever it's attached,
that's the line of force. That's a line of resistance.
Then we need to consider where our arm is
in relation to that band.
The most resistance is going to be,
when your forearm
and the band are at 90 degrees to each other.
As you come further out,
and that angle becomes a lot more acute,
or when you are in this sort of position,
and the angle is more obtuse,
the resistance is not at its peak.
So whatever part of that muscle you're trying to work,
you wanna finish that movement.
So if I'm tryna work here,
if I'm tryna put the most amount of work
into that muscle here,
then I wanna make sure,
that the band and my forearm are 90 degrees to each other.
So in this instance here, so I'm out as far as it will go,
I want to get this band 90 degrees,
so I'm gonna turn my body to about there. Okay.
So that now is more effective at strengthening
that contracted part of the muscle.
So we're in this position.
At the moment, there's hardly any resistance on my arm here.
But as I come further out, it gets more and more,
until I get into this position
where I can't go out any further.
And that's where you stop, pause,
and then slowly bring it back in.
Come out, pause.
And then slowly back in.
10 reps is usually enough, have a rest for about a minute.
And then the next part we wanna work
is the middle part of that muscle range,
that muscle strength curve.
So, what we wanna do,
is we want to figure out where that middle range is.
So the middle range is probably around there,
somewhere around here.
So I'm gonna put my arm in that position,
take myself away from the anchor point,
and then turn my body
until I can see my forearm and the band,
90 degrees to each other.
So about there.
So what we're gonna do then, is all the way back in
pull it out, pause
and slowly back in
Pull it out, pause,
and slowly back in.
Note that I could go further if I wanted to,
but we're not working that end range.
So we wanna stop about there, and then back in.
Now, of course, the easier it gets,
the further away you need to go,
so there's more resistance through that band.
And then if you wanted to work that sort of initial phase,
then you could just turn your arm so it's here.
So the band and my forearm at 90 degrees,
and I can step out just to add a bit more resistance.
And I start working here.
So this is now a third angle
am working for the same movement.
So we've got this kind of end range, this mid range,
and this kind of what we could call a start range,
but although it's not really a start
because you can go all the way back here, but it will do.
So that's your external rotation.
The next one is the internal rotation.
So you're bringing your hand from the outside to the inside.
A lot of time, I don't think many people need to do this,
coz they're probably already stronger.
They're definitely stronger, coz the PEC,
the PEC major is also helping with this movement.
But, you know, if you wanna do it, then that's fine.
So, again, what's the range of this movement?
So that's my most lengthened portion,
coz we're coming this way.
So if you just imagine sort of
the line of force at the front,
although it goes to the front side of your shoulder blade.
We just imagine that it's at the front here.
So that's the most stretched,
and then that's the most contracted.
So if we start with the most contracted
range of that muscle, which is around here.
So we wanna turn our body, so that line of force
is 90 degrees, to wherever our arm ends up at the end.
So that's here.
Now because it's a stronger movement
than the external rotation,
you would want to step back a lot further,
or start with a hand further towards
the anchor point on the band.
So I've turned my body same with the band
and my arm are at 90 degrees,
and I can just come in, pause,
and slowly back out.
Once you've done 10 of them, then you can turn your body,
so that now we work this kind of mid range of the movement.
So,
I was here, I turned my body,
so now it's more of the mid range, that's 90 degrees.
And, again, continue.
So always make sure your elbow
is firmly pressed into your hip.
That way, you make sure,
you're not using any of your back muscles,
you're making sure your shoulder is nice and stable.
And the only thing that is working
is the rotators of the shoulder.
So I'm here, pull it in,
it doesn't need to go all the way back in this way,
because two reasons,
one, you're not gonna feel that much resistance
through the rotators.
But also, you've already worked that range anyway.
So we're working that middle range.
Elbow in, pause, and back out with control.
In, pause, and back out.
Then when you've done that, you can work the fully
stretched part of that muscle.
So I could turn, say, somewhere around here,
and then pull it in, pause
and back out with control.
Pause and back out,
I might just wanna change the angle of my body
just to work that muscle a bit better.
So make sure you pause and then slowly back out.
The reason I will get you to pause
is because it shows that you're in control.
If you're just going through the range, like this,
and you're not pausing,
you're not necessarily in control,
you're not aware of what you're doing,
you could be using that resist,
that elasticity just to pull you back.
But when you pause,
you know that you're in the right position,
and then you can control it.
So you know, you're working that muscle
in that fully engaged state.
So that's your internal and external rotation.
Now quite often people are prescribed
this kind of pullback type movement.
It's a good movement, but with a band like this,
you're not really gonna get much resistance,
you're not really gonna feel it doing much.
So, start closer to the anchor point of the of the band.
Arm straight, chest up, pull,
back, pause.
So, again thinking about the start-end point,
start and end point of this exercise.
For most people with shoulder problems,
the last thing you wanna do, is bring
your arm up into this position up here.
So anywhere from here to here is usually an okay movement
or okay range to do.
So, if we take our arm all the way back,
that's the most contracted point.
And then that's not the most lengthen,
but that's the most lengthen we gonna go into.
So to work those ranges, we need to adjust the angle.
Where I've got the band right now,
the angle is just kind of working that
sort of middle part.
So if you look at the band,
and 90 degrees to my arm, it's about there.
So that's where, I'm feeling the most tension.
As I go further back, that tension kind of eases off.
So what I would do,
is take the band a lot lower down.
And that's where I start to feel it there.
So, get the resistance about right,
so I'm gonna just make it a little bit shorter.
Chest up, pull, pause, really important to pause.
That should be about 90 degrees to my arm.
And then slowly bring it forward,
just to the point where you feel that tension easing up,
then pull it back, pause
and forwards.
So again, 10 of these,
then I would take the band higher.
To about to where it was a minute ago.
And I'll start working that to mid range.
So from here to about here,
remember before I was going a bit further back,
but now we're just going to here, and then forwards.
And then once I've done about 10 of them.
Then I take it higher, and start working this angle here.
And again, 10 of them as well.
Now another one that people often get prescribed
are face pulls.
Face pulls are a great exercise.
So that would be from here pulling something back here.
If you have any kind of shoulder impingement,
or bursitis, or arthritis in the shoulder,
degeneration of the AC joint,
this might not be the most comfortable exercise for you.
So again, make sure your practitioner has advised you
what exercises you can or you can't do.
I'm just showing you this, because
I want you to get an idea of how to set it up properly,
so that when you're at home doing this,
you can do it in the most effective way possible.
Set the band approximately sternum height,
or just below chin, anywhere from sort of chin
to top of sternum here, is fine.
So grab the ends of your band,
step back so you get a little bit of resistance.
Now we want to start working that kind of end range.
So this range here.
Now, you want that band to be 90 degrees,
approximately to that angle there.
So as we take this back,
that's where we're gonna finish,
that hopefully is around 90 degrees.
So we'll do 10 of these.
So you pull it back, elbows back,
and pull your hands back as well.
As you bring your hands forwards,
keep your hands and elbows up.
So it goes from here, to here,
rather than here to here.
So, what you don't wanna be doing is this,
because you lose the tension going through your shoulders.
So, elbows back, arms back, and set your hands forward.
Remember, pause
and then control it forwards.
Once you've done 10 of them,
then you can start thinking about working slightly more,
this initial phase here, which would mean,
we need to take the band a bit lower,
and then same thing,
pull it back and forth.
Again, pause there and control it forwards
10 in that range.
Hopefully that's given you a few more ideas
of what you can do with the bands.
The takeaway from this, is,
most rehabilitation prescribed Theraband exercises
are pretty rubbish.
But we can change that to make it more effective.
Depending on where your angle,
depending on where the angle of your arms
are in relation to the band will make it better or worse.
Remember, we want a 90 degree angle
from your arm to the band.
Where that 90 degree angle is,
is where the most effort
or the most muscle force is gonna be applied.
So if you're trying to strengthen
your arm in this external rotation,
and you wanna strengthen that part there,
then you need to make sure the band is 90 degrees.
If you're trying to strengthen this part of the range here,
then you need to turn,
so there's a more or 90 degrees there.
Keep it slow, keep it controlled.
Make sure you pause at the end of every contraction,
and bring it back in slowly,
because that shows you,
and it tells your body, that you're in control.
And you're not just going through the motions.
The key to your rehab is to be consistent,
but also do it properly and do it mindfully.
If you just go through the motions,
you're not giving your body the best chance
of getting better.
So I hope that helps.
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And of course, let me know if there's anything else
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So have a lovely day and I'll see you in the next video.
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