Suspension Training Exercises for a Shoulder Injury

by Rick Kaselj on 11-04-2013

Suspension Training Exercises for a Shoulder Injury (Suspension Star Routine)

Why do the Suspension Star Routine?

I am going to go through a number of shoulder exercises that I do with the suspension trainer in order to work on shoulder health.
It is vital to activate those smaller muscles around the shoulder joint and around the shoulder blade. The groups of muscles that are included are the scapular and rotator cuff muscles.
When doing shoulder health exercises you want to challenge those stabilizing muscles, improve their activation, work on the endurance of those muscles and work on the strength of those muscles at different ranges of motion.

The Movements that I will do for the Suspension Star Routine

I find the suspension trainer is a great exercise tool to use in order to really work on your shoulder health and shoulder injury prevention.
This Suspension Star Routine is something that I give to my clients or do on myself. You just end up utilizing some sort of suspension trainer. For me I have this Ztrainer which is a suspension training device from Britain. I have it hooked up to my bathroom door and I set it to the height that works for me and then I go through the suspension star routine.
And what I am doing is I am taking the shoulder through various ranges of motion. Some people might know about the I’s, T’s, and Y’s, and this is a kind of variation on them. I am utilizing my body weight. I am utilizing the suspension trainer when it comes to doing the I’s, T’s, and Y’s.
But I end up doing a little bit more. I will end up doing I’s so straight over head, Y’s and I will end up moving to T’s and then I will end up doing an N and then I will do the end position of the I.

So I end up going through all those different ranges of motion. With those different ranges of motion I challenge those scapular muscles and the rotator cuff muscles at those different ranges of motion. I am working on activation, endurance, and strength of those muscles.
I am sorry, this isn’t exactly a perfect set-up when it comes to the camera but this is the only angle that works in order to go through the exercises. What I will end up doing is I will do one repetition on each of those positions and I will go through the circuit 5 to 10 times.
There’s nothing more to add when it comes to the trainer. One thing I want to comment on was the slope that I end up having my body at. The more upright I am the less challenging it is. The steeper the slope the more body weight that is being put into the suspension trainer and the more challenging the exercise is. So what I am going to do I will end up going at a small slope in order to go through the exercises.

How to do the Suspension Star Routine?

I grab the Ztrainer and I will do through the exercises and I will talk as I go through them.
I end up slowly and control going into that “I” and then I slowly coming back to straight and then I am going to that “Y” position bringing myself all the way to the upright and back down doing my best to have those scapular muscles doing the work as oppose to my upper traps and my deltoid.
Coming out the side working on that “T” and coming back down I find the return ends up being important. So I am coming out to the side and then I am returning back to the start so that ends up being the T, the N, and then I end up going to that reverse “I”. So let’s go through it one more time.

So there you go, that ends up being the Suspension Star Routine that I go through in order to work on that shoulder health and shoulder injury prevention. The suspension trainer works really good when it comes to doing that exercise. Give it a go. If you have suspension trainer give it a try and go through that I, Y, T, N and that inverted I.
Take care and bye bye.
Rick Kaselj, MS
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