I had posted earlier about getting an MRI done for my shoulder. The result came back as rotator cuff tendonitis, and I just started PT. I was put on a program that involved several excercises on strengthenig my rotator cuff and also my scapula (sp?) muscle. I was also told to avoid any form of pressing for 6 weeks. I asked what can I do for chest and my PT said I can only do machine flyes. I was thinking maybe I could atleast do, machiens for chest on light weight atleast....any thoughts or similar experiences on what I should do for chest now??

Listen to the PT - I didn't and it ended up being 3 months :)... Even then, only having done machine fly's for 3 months my bench is only down 30 lbs, and it's going up about 10lbs a week again, so I wouldn't worry too much about it! Take care of the shoulder now, and reap the benefits later.

It's not as important to work your chest for the next few weeks as it is to have healthy shoulders long term. Stay away from pressing. I've had to go longer than 6 weeks myself, and am just now getting back to doing DB presses.

Whatever strength you might lose will come back.

Listen to your therapist and rehabilitate that rotator cuff first.

I went through six months of agony over a rotator cuff impingement (that still haunts me to some degree today). Listen to your therapist 100% and do not stress your shoulders more than they require for therapy (especially avoid bench press or any overhead shoulder movements).

Your chest will not deflate in a few months' time. Let the shoulder heal and when you come back, so will the strength. Post-therapy, I strongly suggest you work a few of the more effective PT exercises into your everyday workout as a warmup. Before I do any upper body training whatsoever, I perform a series of three sets of three different PT exercises to warm up and strengthen my rotators - I want to guarantee that until they have to scope that shoulder (which is unfortunately coming) that I can keep it as healthy as possible until surgery is inevitable.

In short, don't play with this injury. It's extremely easy to aggravate it to become much worse than it would have been if you'd just listened to the doctor/therapist.

-R

Ok, with all that being said....should I still train my other body parts? And if so, I was going to change my split to the following because I used to train chest/bi's on the same day and since now I'm not doing chest, I'm just giong to move bi's to another day.

Tuesday (was formerly chest/bis/foreamrs/abs)
HIIT Cardio

Thursday
Back/Tri's

Saturday
Legs/Shoulders/Bi's/forearms/abs

Would that work as a 2 day split, since I shouldn't train chest? I would also do some more ab work on my off days I presume.

List the exercises you plan on doing - even some non-pressing movements are still pretty rough on the shoulders (i.e. deadlifts, wide grip pullups, lateral DB raises, upright row...even bicep curls can aggravate things when the tendonitis is bad!)

I would go with either full body or an upper/lower split.

Of course, in normal times I'd still do the same thing, but it makes even more sense here.

I'm also not a big "ab work" guy. I've been doing some stuff myself lately to work on posture, but generally I'm not a big guy on doing that because a lot of other stuff I do hits my core (squats, deads, etc). However, I know lots of people like doing a lot of those types of exercises, so do whatever you think is best.

After I hurt my shoulder, I started doing about 3 or 4 shoulder (rotator, scapular, and serratus) exercises at the beginning or end of the workout. I'd maybe do a pull move as my shoulder would allow, then a variant of squats or deads in every workout. This really helped on my legs and back. It actually was pretty good to focus on those areas a lot. My legs grew and I think I'm better off in the end for having put so much focus on my lower body.

List the exercises you plan on doing - even some non-pressing movements are still pretty rough on the shoulders (i.e. deadlifts, wide grip pullups, lateral DB raises, upright row...even bicep curls can aggravate things when the tendonitis is bad!)

Agreed! I was in the gym a month and a half after RC surgery doing heavy deadlifts (400+). The doctor and PT about freaked when I told them. No deads were allowed. Your RC is all that is holding your shoulder in its place. The only exercise that I could really do were legs and preacher DB curls...and I had to concentrate on the DB curls to make sure that there was no stress on the shoulder.

List the exercises you plan on doing - even some non-pressing movements are still pretty rough on the shoulders (i.e. deadlifts, wide grip pullups, lateral DB raises, upright row...even bicep curls can aggravate things when the tendonitis is bad!)

Very good point. I think it depends on the shoulder problem, though, which goes back to the PT. Deads never bothered my shoulder at all, I was pulling up to 300 lbs (which for me is heavy). However, I did have some pain at times on curls and pullups. I ended up shortening my ROM on pullups to avoid the very bottom until the shoulder felt better doing them.

Upright rows are risky for shoulders at any time, especially with a preexisting injury.

Well this is what I do

Back and Tri Day
3 sets of Deadlifts (stiff leg)
3 sets of dumbell row
3 sets of machine row
3 sets of assisted pull ups machine
3 sets of skull crushers
3 sets of dips

Legs/Shoulders/Biceps/Forearms
3 sets of Leg Press (no squats due to no ACL in left knee)
3 sets of Leg Extensions
2 sets of Machine Hamstring Curl
2 sets of Standing Barbell Calf Raises
2 sets of front raises
2 sets of side raises
3 sets of barbell shrugs
3 sets of barbell curls
2 sets of DB hammer curls
Forearm/Ab work


Now, on my off days I will be doign my rehab program at home. Before each upper body workout tho, I will warm up my RC's by doing internal and external rotations. How does this look guys? I don't really do heavy DL's, well heavy for me right now i'm at 185lbs....working my way up....thanks for all help