Client profile:
– Male, 26 years old, fit and generally healthy, rest heart rate 48, sculls daily
– Spent most of late teens and early twenties in competitive canoeing and dragon boating
– Injured shoulder during weight training exercise
– Tight lower body, chest, shoulders and neck
– Weak lumbar but good rotation
Symptoms
– A persistent sensation of the shoulder feeling loose, slipping in and out of the joint, or just “hanging there”
– Repeated instances of the shoulder giving out
– Sometimes followed by pain
– Particularly when raising arms overhead
Objective of yoga therapy sequence
– Stretch, strengthen, stabilise! (but careful not to do TOO much stretching as ligaments possible already over stretched)
– General muladhara to crown chakra sequence but focusing on:
– Strengthening core, lumbar, hip flexor and quad muscles to share load of resistance during sculling
– To prevent dislocation of humeral head, STRENGTHEN:
– Rotator cuff/shoulder stabilisers (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, subscapularis): Focus on external, outward rotation of the shoulder followed by isometric contraction to strengthen rotator cuff muscles
– Shoulder girdle (Pectoralis minor, serratus anterior, subclavius, levator scapula, rhomboids, trapezius): Isometric contractions especially during abduction/adduction
– Deltoids
STRETCH: anterior deltoid, pectoralis major/minor, serrator anterior (chest opening)
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Warm up Kapalabhati Bhastrika with shoulder shrug Spinal balance with curl Lunge jumps Forearm Plank + Scaupla Protract/retract push up Plank on ball to work shoulder and core stabilisers more Chest Opening/Shoulder Strengthening Asana Surya Namaskara A & B* – bring awareness to external rotation of arms to strengthen rotator cuff in up dog *NO down dog, replace with plank, push ups, side plank Padangustasana (squeeze shoulder blades!) Trikonasana Parivritta Trikonasana Vinyasa Prasaritta padottanasa (lenthen spine) Warrior 2 Side Angle + bind (open shoulders) Parsvottanasana |
Vinyasa Janu Sirsasana puvottanasana x3 Bicycle crunches (Bent & straight leg variations) Toe Taps with Ankle weights Supine twist Cobra with interlocked hands to back Super man – swim arms back to locust Camel Wind releasing rock Kakasana Bridge with chair Halasana with chair Dolphin Headstand Nidra – Pranayama Nidra (focus on anahata chakra for shoulders, healing light) Anuloma Viloma |
– Hui Yan