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Registered User Join Date: Jan 2011 Age: 62 Posts: 9,717 Rep Power: 92817
This is a review of the ShoulderHorn.
The ShoulderHorn is an odd looking piece of gear designed to hold your arms in the correct position for doing an external rotation exercise. This exercise is beneficial for working the rotator cuff muscles associated with external rotation, primarily the Infraspinatus and the Teres Minor. There are a variety of ways to perform an external rotation exercise - I show one of the non-ShoulderHorn techniques below. The ShoulderHorn site provides this reason for preferring the use of the ShoulderHorn over other methods of performing an external rotation exercise:
External rotation in an abducted position should only be done with proper support, however. If the weight of your upper arms isn't completely supported, other muscles of your shoulder and upper back (e.g. deltoid, trapezius) will activate and decrease the amount of benefit your infraspinatus and teres minor receive from this exercise. In addition, if the position of your upper arm is to high or too far back, there's a risk of impingement between your humerus and acromion (the hook-shaped bone structure at the top of your scapula).
The ShoulderHorn automatically locks your shoulders and arms in the safest and most effective position for abducted external rotation. The ShoulderHorn has also been clinically proven to be significantly more effective for increasing external rotator strength than dumbbells alone.
(There is a lot of additional information available from that site.)
Here is a photo of the shoulder horn:
External Rotation using Resistance Cables
A bit over a year ago, I received physical therapy for some chronic shoulder problems that I had been having. One of the exercises that that the physical therapist taught me is external rotation using a resistance band (or cable). It's pretty easy to do. The set up uses a resistance band anchored at waist height or perhaps slightly higher. You place a towel under your arm and grab the end of the resistance band. You then stand sideways to the anchoring structure and far enough away to give the band some resistance. The elbow is bent at a 90 degree angle and you rotate your arm inward so that you start with your forearm across your abs / lower chest. You then rotate your arm outward maintaining that 90 degree bend in the elbow. Once you get to your range of motion limit, you reverse direction, returning your hand to the starting point. Here's what it looks like:
I've been doing this exercise for a bit over a year and I think it's been pretty effective. I was excited because I was able to increase the resistance that I was using either by standing a bit further away from the wall in question or by using a stronger resistance band. However, one day it dawned on me that I was not always using good form while doing the exercise. In particular, my arm would extend near the end of the range of motion. I came to realize that I had turned it, at least partially, into a triceps exercise. Once I realized this, I went back to using less resistance with better form. Whenever I attempted to increase the resistance by any appreciable amount, my form would break down.
The ShoulderHorn
Somewhere along the way, I became aware of the ShoulderHorn. After spending a month or so researching it, I ordered mine from ShapeItUp.com. I had never ordered from this company before, but it all went very smoothly. I have no complaints whatsoever about the ordering process or order fulfillment. The ShoulderHorn I ordered arrived quickly and was well packaged. A small booklet is included with this piece of gear. It describes much of what can be found on the shoulderhorn.com site, but also explains how to use the ShoulderHorn and recommends some exercises and their programming.
I was in a bit of a quandary over which size to get. According to the sizing chart, size 2 (M/L) is for heights up to 6' and weights up to 200 lbs. Size 3 (XL/XXL) is for heights over 6' and weights over 200lbs. However, the sizing instructions also say: Choose the next size up if you are between sizes or have exceptionally broad shoulders. I felt that this instruction applied to me as I do have broad shoulders, weigh over 200 lbs, but am less than 6' in height. (I'm 5'10" tall.)
I ended up getting the XL/XXL shoulder horn. I think it fits me well width-wise, but perhaps not quite so well depth-wise. I've been wrapping a small towel around the V at the back to compensate for it being, perhaps, slightly too big depth-wise. If you look close, you can see that towel in some of the photos below.
And, speaking of photos, here are a few more photos showing the ShoulderHorn from various angles as well as what it looks like when it's being worn.
ShoulderHorn Usage with Dumbbells
To use the ShoulderHorn for doing an external rotation exercise, you grasp a dumbbell in each hand. You start by holding the dumbbells out in front of you horizontally with your palms facing the floor. You then raise your arms to a vertical position, maintaining the same bend in the elbows and wrist position. Once at vertical, you then lower the dumbbells back down to the starting position. Here's what it looks like, pictorially:
One of the challenges with using this equipment while working out alone is finding a way to pick the dumbbells up to start the exercise. (If you're not alone, just have someone hand you the dumbbells to get started and hand them back to that someone when you're finished.) I've been using the Ironmaster Dumbbell Spotting Stand for this purpose. Note that I am using it stand-alone, without the Super Bench. The Spotting Stand is not really supposed to be used without the Bench to help hold it in place, but it seems perfectly stable for this purpose.
Below is a photo showing the stand with the dumbbells. Note that I still have to lower myself a bit in order to pick up the dumbbells or resistance cable handles even with the stands at their maximum height. But this is still better than trying to pick the handles (of either the dumbbells or resistance cables) up off the floor. (I'll talk about the resistance cables in a moment.)
ShoulderHorn Usage with Resistance Cables
One of the things I noticed while doing the dumbbell exercise is that the movement gets easier the higher the dumbbell is raised. This is true of many other dumbbell exercises as well. In order to provide the rotator cuff muscles more work at the end of the range of motion, I decided to start using resistance cables for some of the sets. This will cause the muscle to work harder at the end of the range of motion due to the angle of the cable. If I were to stand directly over the anchor point, this would be much like using dumbbells. The further one moves away from the anchor point, the more advantageous the force vector becomes for working the end of the ROM. Unfortunately, I'm not strong enough to be able to stand all that far away from the anchors. Something else that has occurred to me while writing this is that I could move the cable up to a higher anchor. This will work the upper end of the ROM better, but will not work the lower end quite so well. But the dumbbells work well for that.
In any case, here's what the exercise looks like when using resistance cables:
I think the shoulder horn has been effective at strengthening my rotator cuff muscles. When I first used it, I found 7.5lb dumbbells to be challenging and I had to back off to using only 5lb dumbbells for my final set. Since starting with them perhaps two months ago, I'm now able to use 10lb dumbbells. I've also been able to increase the amount of weight used for dumbbell diagonal raises (which is kind of in between a front raise and a lateral raise). Prior to my ShoulderHorn work, I was not able to make much progress at increasing the weight used for those dumbbell raises.
I still occasionally do sets using resistance bands without the ShoulderHorn because I feel that they work the rotator cuff a bit differently, though I cannot say exactly what that difference is.
There are ways of doing roughly the same thing that the ShoulderHorn does which are basically free. You can, for example, sit on a bench with one foot on the floor and the other foot up on the bench with your knee in position to support your arm. You can then then do the external rotation exercise shown above, one arm at a time using dumbbells. There may be other ways to use equipment such as preacher curl benches where you basically just place your upper arm on top of the pad. Care must be taken when using each of these techniques to make sure that the upper arm is held at the correct height and angle to the rest of your body.
The ShoulderHorn costs about $60. For what it is, this is a fairly expensive piece of gear. It does work well, however, and I would not hesitate to buy it again. But, that said, I probably would not purchase it if I did not have shoulder issues. But I do, and my physical therapist told me that my shoulder problems will return if I do not continue to work on strengthening the rotator cuff area. So, for me, it's worth it.
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