AktiFlex® ShoulderTrainer

The AktiFlex® ShoulderTrainer is not a result of assembly line production in the Far East, but – on the contrary – entirely manual work. Each of its components is manufactured and assembled bit by bit exclusively by employees of our company and in accordance with strict quality requirements. Prior to being packed, each training device has undergone eight production steps. Each ShoulderTrainer that leaves our company is a unique specimen. All materials used are of top quality and have been tested for absolute harmlessness by an independent institute for material testing. The manufacturing does not only demand skill, but also particular machines and tools and finally results in a German quality product.

The AktiFlex® ShoulderTrainer is an exercise arch which has been exactly adapted to the natural shape of the arm-shoulder area.

The ShoulderTrainer serves as safe and protective support of the arms and simultaneously stabilizes them in a joint-optimal position. This training device is coated with a comfortably soft and medically approved special sponge rubber in a thickness of approx. 12 mm. Most users already realize an alleviation of their shoulder pain right upon positioning the ShoulderTrainer at the body and supporting the arms as the shoulder joints are immediately relieved. In this basic position the so-called “deltoid muscle” is particularly relieved in such a considerable way that the head of the humerus hardly presses against the acromion any longer. When you lift your arms, the humerus head usually incarcerates the bursas and tendons at high pressure and thus causes great pain. You can immediately check out the beneficial effects of such relief by – for example - resting your arm on a padded support in the height of your axilla. As an alternative your partner may slightly and carefully hold up your arm so that you can „drop“ it onto this support. In many cases the shoulder pain will substantially abate!

The AktiFlex® ShoulderTrainer simultaneously serves as „shoulder-muscle-isolator“, which is one of the most essential factors for the therapeutic successes with this device. If the arms firmly rest in the ShoulderTrainer, it is impossible for you to do any other, but the intended exercise movement – the external rotation. Your external rotators will thus be strengthened, while any other horizontal or vertical movements of the arms are prevented. In other words: the muscle responsible for the horizontal movement of the humerus – the pectoral muscle – can no longer actively assist the work-out movement. As the vertical movement of the humerus is completely prevented at the same time, the deltoid muscle cannot participate in the work-out movement either. Ideal pre-conditions have thus been created for remedying the muscular imbalance.

It is understandable that the following statement will sound rather dubious to numerous concerned persons who have already undergone various treatments and therapies with frustrating results. But it is a true fact: you only have to do one single exercise, which is possible even at home! You do not require any additional exercises as the shoulder problem is caused by only one single muscle area which could so far not successfully stimulated. The extraordinarily successful treatment of the shoulder is enabled by the ShoulderTrainer on the one hand and by the associated work-out program on the other hand.

Due to the concentrated training and its high efficiency, the work-out units only take 15 minutes. If you do the work-outs 2 – 3 times a week, your shoulder problems may significantly ease already within the first 2-3 weeks of training. After the short period of 2-3 months it will be sufficient to do a preservation training which consists of 2-3 work-outs per month. In that way your improved health condition – free of pain – can be maintained. As the shoulder is and will always remain “in need of care”, you should, however, never stop doing the work-outs.

How does an exercise resp. application look like?

Please refer to our demonstration- and application video on our application site.

During the work-out against the resistance of the expander the target muscles have to efficiently overcome this resistance. This kind of training is very similar to the principle of the isokinetic muscle training. Apart from the quick strengthening of the muscles, the damaged shoulder joint also benefits from being exhausted within short time. Due to this early exhaustion the number of exercise movements is reduced and overstraining is consequently prevented.

How does it work in detail?
During the work-out the physical properties of the rubber are entirely contrary to the muscle’s behaviour. In the initial phase of doing exercises with the resistance expander -  when we start tightening the rubber by pulling the resistance expander upwards -  the tension of the rubber is still very low. The muscle which does not need to be strong at this time can easily manage these first movements. The more we lift our hands to further pull the resistance expander upwards, the more the muscle will contradict and gain more and more strength. The resistance expander is increasingly tightened so that the muscle has to overcome more resistance. In other words: The muscular strength increases in parallel to the increasing resistance!

As the muscular strength will have adapted to the resistance someday, the resistance of the expander needs to be increased by shortening the expander. You only easily do this either by knotting the expander or wrapping it around your wrists or ankles once or several times!

As two differently strong expanders are attached to the ShoulderTrainer a continuously increased  the muscle strain is ensured until the „saturation point“ has been reached, i.e. the point when no further increase is possible.

Time factor
The work-outs can be executed at home, whenever you can spare some minutes and as often as you want. You can additionally take the ShoulderTrainer to your work and use the break for some work-outs.

Cost factor
The health insurance companies bear the costs respectively subsidize only a limited number of therapy hours. Even if your therapist used the ShoulderTrainer, the very few therapy hours would at the best lead to an improved mobility or the first minor signs of analgesia.

In order to arrive at an efficient and long-lasting improvement of your shoulder problem by considerably widening the acromial space as required, it is necessary to do intensive stamina training 2-3 times a week during a period of three to six months. After this period the previously damaged shoulder requires further regular work-outs. A preservation training carried out every two weeks as a minimum will then be sufficient. You can meet these preconditions by the one-time acquirement of a ShoulderTrainer.

If the stamina training was done in a therapist’s practice, the amount of accumulating extra payments would correspond to the purchase price of 10 or even more AktiFlex® ShoulderTrainers.

In case of shoulder problem it is, however, strictly forbidden to be lazy as this will usually be punished with the operation becoming necessary.