Welcome back to Musician’s Maintenance, where I make taking care of your body as easy as possible.
This week’s edition is sponsored by The Ultimate Music Business Summit.
Music school is amazing for teaching you how to be a musician, but it’s not great at teaching you how to succeed as a musician. The Ultimate Music Business Summit will help you take control of your music business and offer a variety of valuable strategies for increasing your income and growing your impact. The 3-day summit runs from Jan 6-8, 2022 and tickets start at just $17. Get your tickets here!
I’m Dr. Cody Weisbach, and I appreciate spending the next few minutes in your inbox. This week is all about taking care of your shoulders. I have a talk I did on an important group of shoulder muscles, as well as some exercises to get you started taking care of them.
Let’s go!
What is a Rotator Cuff? (and why musicians should care)
I did a few live streams this past week and one of them was on a very important group of muscles in your shoulder, that I think act as a keystone for health and performance in musicians.
The replay is available and is only about 15 minutes (you can skip the first 3 min, which is just waiting and me setting up).
Take a few minutes to get a better understanding of this group of muscles, then check out the exercise routine below for some ideas on how to maintain them.
What is a Rotator Cuff (and why musicians should care) | Musician’s Maintenance via Twitch
3 Recovery Exercises for the Rotator Cuff
Now that you have a better understanding of the importance of the rotator cuff, here’s a few exercises from doctor of physical therapy Benjamin Torres to get you started. Watch the videos, then try the routine below.
All of these use a band. If you don’t have a set of bands I’d highly recommend getting some. They are a simple, portable, and effective tool for taking care of a variety of body areas. These exercises use a band that is a loop. Here’s a good loop set. You can also get lengths of band, which I think are a little more versatile since you can tie or clip them into any size loop. Here’s a where you can find those.
- No Money: 10 slow repetitions. Keep both elbows in as you move the hands out.
- External Rotation Presses: 10 repetitions. The movement is like a row (reach hands forward, pull hands back). As you move, you’ll pulse the hands in and out.
- Bow and Arrow: 10 per side with a full pause. Make sure you squeeze the shoulder blade.
- If you have a little extra time and energy, run through the program one or two more times.
As always, make sure you understand the newsletter exercise ground rules before you start. Also, if this program doesn’t work for you, check out the Musician’s Workout Library to find something that does.
Recovery Exercises for Rotator Cuff Injuries | Benjamin Torres, PT, DPT via Instagram
Help Turn the Tide of Injury in Musicians
The rate of injury in musicians is insanely high and injury ends more careers than it needs to.
If you want to be a part the solution, one of the easiest things you can do is connect fellow musicians with good resources.
If you find information like this helpful, please consider forwarding this email to a friend, colleague, teacher or classmate. They can also sign up here. Thanks!