Shoulder pain

[Questioner]

I have been working with a student who is a professional golfer. He has a slightly frayed labrum in his shoulder. He does not complain about pain, as much as doing things on occasion that “tweak” his shoulder. He also battles with what he says feels like fatigue in the shoulder. I have been doing several poses with him to strengthen the shoulders like plank pose and chatturanga resting on bent elbows with hands clasped. He is uncomfortable with arms raised and so I’ve stayed away from down dog altogether and he keeps his hip in standing postures. He also found bridge pose to bother the shoulder. What postures would work to strengthen his shoulders? And how can I help him to experience back bends and inversions without risking further injury.

Thank you and namaste, L

[Mukunda]

L - you might have him do my joint freeing series and evaluate him for range of motion in the shoulder. When you can determine what specific motions show up his limitations then we can calculate what he needs to do. All motions that are less than normal would then be for strength. In my book Structural Yoga Therapy is a chart that will point out specific asanas to do for strength and stretch of all the major muscles. Without knowing this I would not want to give advice over this format.