Everyone raves about these products for the lowback, neck and lower ribcage. But what about the effect on the shoulders? My thoughts are that by getting the chest and shoulders up higher that it changes the amount of overhead reach which is where I have big problems. I know that kneepaddling gives me none of the reach problems I have when lying on the board. I have done some of the rotator cuff specific exercises and they do help so I don"t think that I have a serious physical problem, just wear and tear from repetitive motion, always the same over and over. I will get orthopedic input eventually, just wanted to try something that would get me back on the water at age 63. Any feedback? thanks
What are chest wedges?
Back in my mid 20’s, I had impingement issues, mostly caused by muscle imbalance, but also sleeping on too hard a surface, on my side. Quite stressful at that age to have overuse injury.
Docs wanted to remove some collarbone to reduce the impingement. $ounded drastic.
Cortizone shots and stretching properly along with rotator cuff exercises eventually got me back in the water, but the issue remained for years, the clicking would return after a certain amount of paddling, the pain shortly after that, and aching for weeks once it bugun, but rarely crops up now.
Now it’s my knee and lower back and neck, and big toe, and ear canals and wrist and… grrrrr.
I’ve been dropping some weight and getting the paddle muscles back in higher tune. The rotator cuff exercises I employ, do not help paddling. Almost seems to hurt the paddling muscle’s endurance, but they do not click, they do not hurt when I lay down the torque, or when I sleep on my side. the shoulders now feel pretty good, or perhaps all the other pains make the shoulder issues fade to background.
So it goes
Never tried a chest wedge. I’m trying to reduce belly, which might have the same effect at reducing the angle a chest wedge might provide.
I use 6 Lbs in circular motions with arms straight out or in front or anyplace inbetween. Slow reps changing the angles of my hands, and neck. Thumbs down to thumbs up, the full range. No less than 50 reps and no less than 3 sets a day if no surf. If I do surf, no reps/sets until afterwards.
Can’t help on the wedges, but know a bit about keeping a damaged body in the water…
Elbow above wrist on the recovery stroke. Keep your wrists inboard, like a swimmer’s stroke.
It’s wierd, but it relieves stress on rotator cuff muscles.
Helps if you paddle, glide front hand, paddle, glide front hand, paddle. i.e. better technique.
Me too. I work the full range doing little circles from down in front to over my head as far back as I can reach. I move my arms out a few degrees and come back. I repeat all the way to arms straight out at sides. Each cycle is like 50 reps. I do Thumb up, in and out.
Played baseball growing up through HS but no one ever taught me how to throw a ball correctly and played 3rd base a lot and some outfield. That in addition to surfing and doing some drunkie things damaged my right shoulder pretty badly over time. I have a laundry list of shoulder ailments including partially torn rotator cuff, multiple impingements, etc… I exclusively kneeboarded for 15 years because of the damage. Halfman I am.
So I go to an orthopedic guy a decade ago and he does the MRI (I fell asleep in the MRI) and tells me (1) he can do surgery + PT and I’ll be good to go after a year or (2) cortisone shot + PT and I might be good enough. I chose the non-surgical path to see if I could make it whole without cutting.
Got the cortisone shot and did PT for 10 weeks. I thought I was going to puke during the first week; it hurt that much. Gotta trust your PT trainer because there are some pains you’ll think are just bad, really bad.
So I get through my 10 week cycle and continue with the stretching and strengthening at home for another month. Then I paddle a board for the first time in many years and it felt good.
Today I mostly just surf and only kneeboard when NJ is cracking in the winter. Had PT when I was in my early 40’s. I suspect it would work wonders for those folks in their early 60’s too.
YMMV
High school football (linebacker/middle linebacker), adult rugby (prop then hooker), street boarding, sail boarding, surfing and age (63) have taken their toll on my shoulders. When I rotate my arms it sounds and feels like a marble is popping in each shoulder.
My sister is a physical therapist. I guess you could say high power PT. She gave me a series of rotator cuff excercises to be done with a elastic bands of different tensions. They strengthened my shoulders. But the next day after those and other workout excercises my shoulders would really ache.
Lately I started doing every Shotokan karate block I know with a 5-lb weight in each hand. Ten reps/arm for each block, alternating arms for a total of 20 continuous reps each block, minimal break between each 20 rep set for each of 8 blocks. My shoulders actually “feel good” after doing all eight sets of different blocks, rather than ache. To say the least, I was/am pleasantly surprised.