Shoulder strengthening with older students

[Jim Pickles]

I teach a group of mainly older students (a few 40s - 50s, but mainly late 60s to late 70s). Some are very flexible, having been doing yoga for years, but all need strengthening. Because my classes are the only exercise classes they take, I feel some responsibility for their all-round fitness, as well as for their flexibility, even though it is just called a stretch class. Therefore we include some strengthening exercises (mainly core strength and core "reflexivity"). The legs get some strengthening from our standing routines. However, doing other peoples' yoga classes over the Chrismas break has shown me that I myself am poor in shoulder strength, and since my own routines are similar to what I do with my students (though more intense) this means that my students are also likely not getting enough shoulder strengthening either. Therefore I need to include some shoulder strengthening in my classes.

There are of course many exercises available, usually needing weights, therabands, or walls. However we dont have any walls available (only windows), and I dont want to buy and hand out equipment if I can avoid it. It would be nice to include strengthening exercises seamlessly as part of the stretching routines, maybe using the floor and body weight. One of the constraints is that in this older group, many have shoulder "issues", either from arthritis, past effects of cancer surgery, old injuries, you name it. So any exercises have to be very safe and also graded (so the intensity can be adjusted right from the start).

I will go through all the established exercises and look for ways to use or adapt them to these constraints. And I think I'll check them with a physio before introducing them to the class, in view of the vulnerability of some of the students. However I wonder if any of the members of this group have any suggestions and any further advice, either from their own teaching experience or training.

Many thanks if anyone has any advice.

Thanks

Jim.

And I'll add in another issue which is indirectly related. I guess we all think that the most effective strengthening uses a movement over the full intended range of movement of the muscle. But I wonder how a held stretch at one position compares in strengthening ability. Obviously we dont expect it to give as good results over the other parts of the range, but I wonder how the actual strengthening in that one position compares. I ask because a lot of our strengthening is a held position against gravity, not moving exercises. I expect the answer is known by exercise physiologists - does anyone here know?

 

 

[Kit_L]

@Jim Pickles: You do not need a physio's or an exercise physiologist's advice for this! The exercises I will link to below have been a core part of the system for a very long time.

The plank variations are all you need to develop shoulder strength, and more important, stability. As well, all planks are core strengthening exercises as well, of done as recommended. You do not need any equipment. The planks (forward, sides, and the most important one, the reverse plank) develop outstanding shoulder strength and stability, and are the mainstay of male gymnasts' strength and conditioning routines. They are also completely scaleable, so perfectly suitable for you and your students. See here (will download a PDF):

https://stretchtherapy.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/wrist-mobility_bodyline-exercises_handstands.pdf

You asked:

15 hours ago, Jim Pickles said:

But I wonder how a held stretch at one position compares in strengthening ability.

It doesn't, unless you are holding significant resistance to maintain the final position (like side splits, before you can do them). The contractions that we use, though, are very strengthening, as I have mentioned often. And the strengthening occurs mainly at the end of the range of movement of the joint(s) we are discussing, so strengthens in that part of the ROM that few conventional resistance techniques do. There are exceptions (like heel raises) but these are few. 

[Jim Pickles]

That's great! Thank you. We do some of the exercises already, and I will increase the range to include the others, and also do them more often. For instance, we do the first of the wrist exercises (panels 1 series) but not 2 and onwards. We do the forwards plank (gymnastics plank) every week held for 60 seconds - they do it on elbows though they have the option of using straight arms if they prefer (they dont) and I wonder if I should encourage that (by the way they are doing it with very good form - body in an exact straight line - I go round correcting them - and the shoulders not rounded). The side plank is held for a few seconds and I will encourage them to go longer. The fish (reverse plank) we never do because people seem to hate it but that is probably a good reason to do it (and to hold the side plank longer). The hollow arch holds we do but only once every several weeks, so we should do that more often. The L-sit never, so that is one to start.

As for the comment about strengthening, I was supposing that the hold was against resistance (body weight), e.g. as in some holds which we do to help tire the leg muscles before stretching. The question was the strengthening effect of a static hold vs a moving one (bearing in mind that a static one might not be as effective as strengthening over the full range of movement). In other words, it would be an isometric contraction rather than a concentric one.

Many thanks for your help,

Jim.