Using old bicycle inner tubes

Went to the bike store yesterday. Picked up free used bicycle inner tubes. One is being chopped up for ranger bands.

At my age, I have had both shoulders worked on. Doing my daily hour work out did not prevent some left shoulder discomfort this week. (Back story, the woman was larger than I and pulled on my arm in west coast swing when she should have advanced. She ripped and destroyed my shoulder, requiring bone removal. ). I am rightfully afraid of medical stretch bands. Not only do they break, they spontaneously decompose just sitting there. A butyl rubber inner tube isn't going to break.

I worked out with inner tubes yesterday. Over the next week, I will lurk on youtube to learn how the inner tubes can be used to exercise other parts of the body.

 

Went to Kaiser physical therapy at beginning of January. Given 4 more exercises to do with bike inner tube. $40 visit and worth every penny. Problems resolved in less than a week. Sometimes a specific exercise is needed. Just added them to my daily routine. Only adds 4 minutes!

 

Still another update. I was at Kaiser again this last week. Of course, I am on the downhill slope. Given still more exercises (I try to get to the pool for an hour a day and then about 1 1/2 hours of exercises at home). Both shoulders have partial rotator cuff tears. Given more exercises using a bike inner tube. If you use the red/black/green commercial bands, they rot when not used and can break at the wrong time when exercising. The literature indicates it will take 2-3 months to correct the partial tears.

 

Update - left shoulder is now perfect. If not a total tear, the literature says it take 4-6 months to recover. The right shoulder is at least 85% better. You can tear your rotator cuff very easily - like a friend completely tore one by simply lifting a suitcase.

I think that I should be all healed in another month.