I injured both shoulders in different ski crashes around 20 years ago. Never got them checked, but I assume that my left shoulder has a rotator cuff tear. I can't lie on my left side for very long before it gets sore, and there's a pinched feeling right in the joint when I'm doing any pressing lifts or pushups. My bench press is pretty weak because I just can't do very many reps before it hurts too bad. For a few days after lifting, it hurts when I raise my arm. My right shoulder was also weaker for a few years after the injury; it hurt to throw overhand and would sometimes feel sore but it's felt pretty normal for years.

I've done some stretching and band resistance exercises on my shoulders over the years but they didn't seem to help with my left shoulder. Last week I came across this video, which talks about the effectiveness of doing these exercises to focus on the infraspinatus muscle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZEYZXcn-C4&feature=youtu.be

* 3:50 Exercise 1 (Pants Pulls)
* 5:30 Exercise 2 (Delt Backs)
* 7:11 Exercise 3 (Torches)

In the video and comments there's quite a few positive testimonials about the effectiveness of treating shoulder injuries with this approach, including several that sounded a lot like my own condition and failed attempts. So I started doing these exercises last week. I'm going to do each exercise 3/week. I'm starting at 7 lbs. for the pants pulls, and 4 lbs. for the other two exercises. Each session, I'll be doing three sets of each exercise with 10 reps/set. I'll slowly increase the weights (probably 1/2 lb/week or something) as I feel it's needed. I've also been lifting 3x per week (and I'll try to keep the lifting days separate from these shoulder exercises). Each lifting session, I alternate between bench press and vertical press.

So, does anybody think this will help me? If you've tried a program like this, I'd like to hear about it!