“Just layin’ around on your ass  after surgery is not a good recipe for producing the growth factors that heal things up.”
Mark Rippetoe

Elsewhere on this site, I’ve recommended Mark Rippetoe’s book Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, 3rd edition as a very detailed and no-nonsense approach to building muscle in the most efficient fashion.

As a somewhat lazy person who doesn’t like to be sore and hungry all the time, I moderated Rip’s recommendations a lot (for instance, I only work out with weights twice a week, tops) but I think his books and videos are an excellent place to get the science and very precise descriptions of the techniques for doing the multi-joint basic exercises like the Deadlift, the Press, the Squat, and the Bench Press.

shoulder rehabilitation wing chun Below is a video on how he went about rehabilitating his shoulder after shoulder surgery.  I think its instructive not just for the particulars but for noting his general approach.  He knows a lot about the physiology and how to strengthen muscles and then he goes about progressively and carefully testing his hypotheses and gradually developing his methodology, and then he patiently implements the program.

This is a good way to approach Wing Chun training!  We are all individual experiments and we need to eventually intelligently tailor the training to ourselves, to our strengths and weaknesses, to suit our degree of interest and commitment to training.  After learning all we can from our teachers and from outside sources for the first three or four years, we should start to evaluate our approach to training.  We need to think about it carefully.

My other reason for presenting this shoulder rehab video is that I suspect many of us, especially the older guys, are headed for surgery due to age factors and our often less than perfect training practices.

I sidelined myself from serious training back in May of 2015 with a rotator cuff injury and I’ve been creeping back since the end of last Summer.  I wish I had seen this video months ago but I’ll now start using a modified version of his advice to further strengthen my shoulders.  I’m about 90% recovered now so I’m finishing my healing and working on developing a prevention program which consists of strengthening my shoulders in various ways.

I am doing the Press, but just the bar right now for high reps.  I finally reached the point where I’m able to do the full range of motion with the Bench Press (after weeks of working with just the bar) and I’m also doing some of the sort of isolation work Rippetoe doesn’t recommend.

I have been doing the band work he describes and I’m reconsidering it.  As he says, these movements are extremely unnatural.  I’ve been doing these movements for many months, perhaps its time to drop them.

The various isolation movements (bent over flyes, front raise with a plate, dips) are more for aesthetics really.   I figure it can’t hurt to hit the shoulders from various angles for high reps (8-12) and low weight plus I find it develops the more rounded deltoid look that I prefer.  Yes, I’m a bit narcissistic!  I’m not hardcore enough to get the complete Chris Evans Captain America body but I can come as close as I can within my own parameters.

Which is not that close but whatever (I don’t even have the Chris Evan’s Fantasic Four body)!  I do my best within my time constraints and tolerance for the physical impact.  I like to feel better when I work out, not worse.  And I’m patient.  So I’m willing to take twice as long to reach my goal and feel good while I’m doing it.  And avoid injury by being very careful.

I actually don’t understand the people who want to gain ten pounds of muscle in ten weeks, or whatever.  You ever see those stretch marks on the bodybuilders who had massive weight gains in a short amount of time?