Shoulder and Wrist Exercises
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2017 10:29 am
I've seen a lot of people on this forum complain about pain or discomfort in holding their trombone, especially bass trombones. Some are having wrist problems, some shoulder problems and some both. The solution to this is not buying a lighter trombone, but exercising those areas to build strength and endurance and to get them moving trough a full range of motion. That latter is important, because a lot our troubles stem from holding a weight in a fix position for several minutes at a time, and repeatedly doing that for hours.
Here are some dumbbell exercise for building your deltiods, trapezius and supraspinatus: https://dumbbell-exercises.com/exercises/shoulders/
I would recommend the following from that link:
Palms-In Shoulder Press
Shoulder Press
Lateral Raise
Straight-Arm Front Deltoid Raise
Upright Row
Shoulder Shrug
And, if you have a bench you can use I'd add the Rear Deltoid Raise
Here are some dumbbell exercises for your forearm (wrist) muscles: https://dumbbell-exercises.com/exercises/forearms/. I find the variants using two dumbbells are sufficient.
I recommend getting dumbbells with bars and plates like these THESE. They are easy to configure and cheaper to own and add to. Avoid the cheap concrete filled plastic junk.
You don't have to get crazy with the amount of weight, or the number of repetitions either. The amount of weight will depend on the particular exercise. For example, you will be able to do a lot more weight with a shrug than a lateral raise. If you have reasonable strength in those areas now start out with enough weight so that you can do about 24-30 repetitions of each exercise in two or 3 sets and feel a bit of burn when you finish up. From that point try to increase the number of repetitions, and once you get top 45, increase the weight so that you are back down to 24-30 reps again. Rest for 30 seconds between each set and each exercise. Each repetition should be about 2-3 seconds such that each set takes about 20-seconds to do. Do each exercise at least 3 times a week. You can break them up so you do half Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the other half Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
If you have very little strength and mobility you might just want to start with just 10 or so reps of very little weight for a couple of weeks before getting into building strength and endurance.
Here are some dumbbell exercise for building your deltiods, trapezius and supraspinatus: https://dumbbell-exercises.com/exercises/shoulders/
I would recommend the following from that link:
Palms-In Shoulder Press
Shoulder Press
Lateral Raise
Straight-Arm Front Deltoid Raise
Upright Row
Shoulder Shrug
And, if you have a bench you can use I'd add the Rear Deltoid Raise
Here are some dumbbell exercises for your forearm (wrist) muscles: https://dumbbell-exercises.com/exercises/forearms/. I find the variants using two dumbbells are sufficient.
I recommend getting dumbbells with bars and plates like these THESE. They are easy to configure and cheaper to own and add to. Avoid the cheap concrete filled plastic junk.
You don't have to get crazy with the amount of weight, or the number of repetitions either. The amount of weight will depend on the particular exercise. For example, you will be able to do a lot more weight with a shrug than a lateral raise. If you have reasonable strength in those areas now start out with enough weight so that you can do about 24-30 repetitions of each exercise in two or 3 sets and feel a bit of burn when you finish up. From that point try to increase the number of repetitions, and once you get top 45, increase the weight so that you are back down to 24-30 reps again. Rest for 30 seconds between each set and each exercise. Each repetition should be about 2-3 seconds such that each set takes about 20-seconds to do. Do each exercise at least 3 times a week. You can break them up so you do half Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the other half Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
If you have very little strength and mobility you might just want to start with just 10 or so reps of very little weight for a couple of weeks before getting into building strength and endurance.