Shoulder prehab exercises

[Jonson]

With shoulder prehab exercises is it best to gradually increase the weight over time? or is it best to keep the weight light?

[EricT]

It depends on what you are doing but there should be some sort of increase over time. But the emphasis should usually be on higher reps and quality over weight. Moving up in weight is not as important as activating the muscles you are trying to target.

But there are certain movements that lend themselves more to increasing weight than others. It wouldn't be a good idea to have a loading mentality on external rotations for instance. Whereas something like overhead shrugs can be progressed more aggresively due to the relatively larger muscles involved (but still very conservatively compared to primary strength movements).

With prehab stuff you really need to know what you are trying to accomplish. The whys and wherefores of each movement you choose to do and a sense of whether it is necessary. This will help you decide just what type of progression should be involved.

Prehab supposes no existing injuries, though, so you don't have to have the same mentality as rehab which tends to start out focusing more on very light isolation and moving to more complex things. Or in the case of shoulders going from less complex to more complex since the shoulder girdle is too complicated to really "isolate" (you never truly can anyway). Prehab actually needs to have more combination movements and therefore it is relatively easier to manage.

[Jonson]

Thanks Eric.