Weight Lifting with Arthritic Shoulder

[Peterk71]

I have an arthritic shoulder. Xrays and MRI's show there is no cartilage left and that someday I'll be getting a shoulder replacement. My question is will weight lifting be beneficial or detrimental to my shoulder? Currently I do light weights with high repetitions.

[Heidi]

I would recommend that you do perform strengthening exercises for your shoulder. This will help keep the muscles strong to support the shoulder. You also need to make sure that you maintain a full range of motion at the shoulder, by performing circular and rotation exercises.

All exercises you do should be pain-free and make sure you have warmed the shoulder up first. I would recommend doing range of motion stuff first, starting with small circular movements and gradually increasing this. Then do your weight exercises.

If you havent already, make sure that you have a professional look at your exercises (a fitness instructor would be fine) to just check you are performing them with the correct technique, as poor technique can cause injury.

I think you're also right to stick to low weight and high reps exercise, as this will provide endurance to the shoulder muscles and again is best in preventing injury.

Something else you may like to consider is using resistance bands for shoulder exercises. I find them really good for shoulder exercises, especially when there is an injury present. You can find some examples here:

http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/strengthening/resistancebands.php

Good luck!