Daily Mobility Exercises by Dr. Kelly Starrett Forums General shoulder pain on ring dips & push-ups but no problem with presses, HSPU, or anything OH??? Re: shoulder pain on ring dips & push-ups but no problem with presses, HSPU, or anything OH???

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AvatarHarry Palmer
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I deal with a very similar issue in my right shoulder so I will layout what I have done to help it.  It will never be the same as my left shoulder, a broken collar bone in the right, but I have gotten back to where I can bench full range, pushup and dip without pain most of the time.

1.  Identify where the pain is.  Is this a deep shoulder pain or is it located in the front of the shoulder.  If it is only the front you could be looking at some inflammation in the biceps tendon.  Have your husband dig his thumb into the origin of the biceps and you will know right away.  If so, you need to modify movement to keep this area from getting worse.  If the pain feels like its deep in your shoulder you might be looking at labrum issues and need to see a Dr.

2.  Check your sleep position.  10 years of sleeping on my right side definitely made the shoulder situation worse.

3.  Modify range of motion and train pain free.  I had to modify the bench press by pressing off boards or a 1/2 foam roller for 6 months before going through full range again.  By avoiding the last 3″ of the movement I could still train the movement without the pain.  Pushups were done elevated with rings.

4. Hammer on your technique.

As for Mobs I do them in this order:

1. T-Spine Double Baseball
2. Shoulder Capsule Mob (pg 210): doing this before training helps me a lot
3. Sink Mob (pg 271)
4. Anterior Compartment Smash (pg 264)
5. Barbell Shoulder Smash (pg 266)

I also attack the upper traps and scapular ridge with these guys

1. Overhead Rib Mob (pg 242) bridging onto the ball makes this even better
2. T-Spine IR Smash (pg 244)
3. 1st Rib Mob (pg 246) With this I use a Lax ball and doorway/power rack upright like Jill teaches in this episode (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i463R5HGdVg)

This will get everything back into place usually. 

Now I am adding in banded ER work with my wife holding the scap in place so there is no anterior translation.
1. Arm Adducted to 90 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqkErY_Z2Dg)
2. Arm Abducted to Ribs with towel between elbow and ribs.
– Doing these once the shoulder is positioned well feels great, 3 quick sets of 12-15 and the nice pump in the shoulder feels super stable.  Eric Cressey is a wealth of knowledge on the shoulder.  He works with pro baseball players and has a great site filled with info.

I know how annoying this is and it will take some time for it to heal up stronger, but in the meantime do everything you can that is pain free. It will help to flush out the inflammation.  Hang in there, it took me 1yr to clear up my anterior hip problems and 6 months for the shoulder. 

Good luck.