Paddle Articles

CP Fitness - Shoulder Impingement

CP Fitness - Shoulder Impingement

[ CP Fitness welcomes again Shanimal Fitness to help us find solutions for shoulder pain caused by impingement. Enjoy! -CP ]

Paddlers and athletes who have shoulder impingement a lot of times will have surgery to unhinge or release the shoulder. Shoulder impingement is when a paddler lifts the arm and the humerus bone impinges or pinches the rotator cuff muscles under the coracoarcromial arch. This can cause tears in the rotator cuff. Usually if you go to a surgeon they want to do surgery, that is their job. Basically, the surgeon destabilizes the shoulder by removing very important structures at the top of the shoulder. So you have a shoulder that no longer impinges, but is now unstable as this ligament holds the top of the shoulder bones together. This then sets up a new problem that also beats up the rotator cuff.

Read more →

CP Fitness - Exercises for a More Powerful and Pain Free Paddling Stroke

Paddle Exercise Tips

Cali Paddler is thrilled to share some great exercise tips from a paddling friend we have shared the water with. Sporting a great background in fitness training, and a resume  every paddler will be stoked to get tips from, we welcome Shannon Harnett of Shanimal Fitness on board in this new series of tips to help enhance your paddle fitness training.

In the short amount of time I have been paddling, I have noticed many paddlers especially OC1 paddlers having pain in their lower back, knees and hips. This can be attributed to doing a sport that tends to be dominate on one side. Paddlers many times will pull different on the Ama side with more twist, more hip involvement and explosion. When your spine is subjected to asymmetrical forces or torsion (twisting) applied by torque, such as paddling on one side of the boat, the discs of your lumbar spine get loaded and lock up. This increases the rigidity along the spine and cause muscles to go into spasm and even turn off.

Read more →

Paddle Pledge Non-Profits