Sure can - and I'll start by saying I love rotator cuff drills so much I'd 1000x recommend them to everyone even if you don't have an injury because they're a) good prehab (injury prevention) and b) they help warm up our stabilizers so our shoulders are happier to open into deeper (more "dangerous" ranges of motion). But for me specifically, at some point I overtrained my shoulders and noticed it as some minor pain when reaching my left arm overhead. I could still reach the arm up to 180 degrees no problem, but as soon as I reached farther than that it'd pinch/hurt - as a contortionist, I need more than 180 degrees of ROM in my shoulder so I saw a PT. They did a couple of evaluations/tests and it was pretty obvious my left rotator cuff was WAY weaker than my right (hard to say if it's always been that way and that's what led to the injury, or if the injury is what caused the imbalance - probably a bit of both). My PT/rehab exercises were all banded (and some weighted) rotator cuff strengtheners for that left arm. So now I keep them up because they actually work great for warming up my shoulders in general. My left shoulder is still pretty shitty at them compared to my right, so I usually do more reps on the weak side, less reps on my stronger side, hopefully one day I'll catch up the lagging side and be nice and even!
It’s nice to know even you have days where 2-3 dropbacks is a challenge. That’s me for sure as my strength and energy levels fluctuate throughout the month. I like your idea of using it as a gauge to see where your body’s at. Thanks!
Thank you so much! I’m just starting out with contortion gigs and this was super helpful
This was so fun! I would say my areas of tightness are quite similar to yours and I definitely include nerve glides before doing any stretches!
Yeah hip nerve glides are almost always a must for me - ulnar & median nerve glides (for my shoulders) I only need to do some of the time, thankfully!
High speed warmup video is very funny. 😂😂
I wish I could warm up that fast in real life...
Dani, can elaborate further in your approach to warm up your shoulders in the setting of your past Rotator cuff injury?
Sure can - and I'll start by saying I love rotator cuff drills so much I'd 1000x recommend them to everyone even if you don't have an injury because they're a) good prehab (injury prevention) and b) they help warm up our stabilizers so our shoulders are happier to open into deeper (more "dangerous" ranges of motion).
But for me specifically, at some point I overtrained my shoulders and noticed it as some minor pain when reaching my left arm overhead. I could still reach the arm up to 180 degrees no problem, but as soon as I reached farther than that it'd pinch/hurt - as a contortionist, I need more than 180 degrees of ROM in my shoulder so I saw a PT. They did a couple of evaluations/tests and it was pretty obvious my left rotator cuff was WAY weaker than my right (hard to say if it's always been that way and that's what led to the injury, or if the injury is what caused the imbalance - probably a bit of both). My PT/rehab exercises were all banded (and some weighted) rotator cuff strengtheners for that left arm. So now I keep them up because they actually work great for warming up my shoulders in general. My left shoulder is still pretty shitty at them compared to my right, so I usually do more reps on the weak side, less reps on my stronger side, hopefully one day I'll catch up the lagging side and be nice and even!
It’s nice to know even you have days where 2-3 dropbacks is a challenge. That’s me for sure as my strength and energy levels fluctuate throughout the month. I like your idea of using it as a gauge to see where your body’s at. Thanks!