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Shoulder injury, recovery?

post #1 of 10
3/28/08 at 6:24pm
Thread Starter 
About a year ago I messed up my right shoulder, either lifting weights or throwing elbow strikes while sparring. Symptoms are weakness, pain, and crunching/popping sounds when I rotate it above my head. I've taken several periods of time off from the gym (weeks at a time) and seriously curtailed the weights I do lift. I also visited the doc and got a cortisone shot about 6 months ago. It seems to have gotten somewhat better but recently it's back to bothering me. The doc says it's not a rotator cuff injury, but looks more like impingement syndrome.

Has anything like this happened to anyone else here? I may be looking at surgery for the impingement if I want to get back to heavier lifting, but I'm worried it could be worse after the knife. I'm wondering if I need to take like a year off to let it get 100% better, or if that is just wishful thinking.
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post #2 of 10
3/28/08 at 7:01pm
Impingement is a rotator cuff injury. Your doctor is a retard.

It's a classic impingement...if cortisone and rest don't help the inflammation you'll need to do surgery and/or fix your posture. Shoulders that pull forward is usually due to too many pressing movements in front of the body (bench press and such) and is pretty common on idiot who don't train their backs. It's also a common cause of impingements.

Train your back and find a new orthopedist.
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post #3 of 10
3/28/08 at 7:23pm
I dislocated my shoulder 7 times in a span of 1 and a half years causing a slight tear in my rotator cuff and stretched ligaments. I had the same thing as you when moving my arm up around my face area my shoulder would make a crackling noise. My shoulder was also very weak and often woke up in the morning with pain just from sleeping the wrong way. Needless to say I had surgery and my shoulder seems to actually doing much better but still is pretty weak. My shoulder may have been worse off then yours but some problems your having seem to be the same as mine. Surgery may bethe best cause scenario for shoulder injuries since they seem to only get worse over time in my experience since the joint has such a vast range of motion.
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post #4 of 10
3/28/08 at 7:25pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by why View Post
Impingement is a rotator cuff injury. Your doctor is a retard. It's a classic impingement...if cortisone and rest don't help the inflammation you'll need to do surgery and/or fix your posture. Shoulders that pull forward is usually due to too many pressing movements in front of the body (bench press and such) and is pretty common on idiot who don't train their backs. It's also a common cause of impingements. Train your back and find a new orthopedist.
I should have been more precise: Doc said it was not a rotator cuff tear as I had feared, but impingement on the tendon. As for training my back, thanks for the hot tip but I'm well aware of that & train everything. Including my back.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jessetk313 View Post
I dislocated my shoulder 7 times in a span of 1 and a half years causing a slight tear in my rotator cuff and stretched ligaments. I had the same thing as you when moving my arm up around my face area my shoulder would make a crackling noise. My shoulder was also very weak and often woke up in the morning with pain just from sleeping the wrong way. Needless to say I had surgery and my shoulder seems to actually doing much better but still is pretty weak. My shoulder may have been worse off then yours but some problems your having seem to be the same as mine. Surgery may bethe best cause scenario for shoulder injuries since they seem to only get worse over time in my experience since the joint has such a vast range of motion.
Thanks for the response! Would you mind sharing how long ago you had the surgery and what exactly was done?
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post #5 of 10
3/28/08 at 8:05pm
I'm not a fan of everything T-Nation puts out, but this seems to be a pretty decent article. Worth a read. Shoulder Article
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post #6 of 10
3/28/08 at 8:51pm
Damn shoulder injuries!!

Take 1-2 months off, depending on how serious it is and just focus on cardio, stretching, working legs (but avoid squats which will stretch the shoulder back too far), and rotator cuff exercises. Cardio will not only provide much needed blood flow but also allow you to concentrate on other aspects of your physique that you may have been neglecting, and not get you depressed about forgetting about your body alltogether--great opportunity to see how cut you can get and build your lower body.

Get back into the gym starting out with the 5 pounders for everything. Keep doing 2-3 days a week focussing on rotator cuff strengthening exercises. Ice after each workout for 15 minutes and then follow with heat for another 15. Stretch 3 times a day.

Get this book:

http://www.amazon.com/7-Minute-Rotat.../dp/0944831257

Of course, I'm not an expert and none of this is written in stone. Unfortunately for every article advocating one method, you'll find another article advocating a different method. Same thing goes with docs.

But most experts would agree that you should lay off for more than a few weeks, follow each workout with ice, eventually start with rotator cuff exercises, and stretch 3 times a day. These seem to be constants.

Big controversies are:
--cortisone shots and anti-inflammatory meds.

If scar tissue is an issue you could try Active Release Therapy.
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post #7 of 10
3/28/08 at 8:57pm
I was diagnosed with submacrobial impingment and it has greatly improved with anti-inflamatories and physical therapy (wear and tear from tennis). I did not get a cortizone shot though the doctor gave me a test shot to see if cortisone would work (the test failed). Weightlighting is awful for a bad shoulder if you do the wrong things. The therapist told me NEVER EVER lift anything above shoulder level.... that means no military press, no incline bench press, nothing that causes your elbows to go above your shoulder. Plan on a lot of high rep, light weights, like 5 or 10 lb barbells. Did your doctor suggest physical therapy?
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post #8 of 10
3/28/08 at 10:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Philosoph View Post
I'm not a fan of everything T-Nation puts out, but this seems to be a pretty decent article. Worth a read. Shoulder Article
It's kinda wrong, though. Especially in regards to rows. It tries to equate an optimal bench press position with a row at maximum contraction. That's rather silly considering the 'optimal bench press position' is when it's at the maximum eccentric contraction. Then it prescribes push-ups as a method to train the serratus anterior (which are also trained with bench press) and totally glances over the fact that rows train the lower and upper trapezius -- the more powerful upper scapular rotators. And, of course, it completely ignores overly protracted scapulae as a cause of impingement.
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post #9 of 10
3/29/08 at 1:24am
I also noticed the bit about rows. I can only assume that the author was referring to a situation where you retract and depress your scapulae before you start the row, similar to the way you set up for a powerlifting-style bench. That kind of row might be common, hence the mention in the article, but it's not the recommended method. I don't think the pushups are a bad idea though. When I do elevated close-grip pushups, I feel it more in the upper scapular rotators (other than the traps) than I do in the chest.
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post #10 of 10
3/29/08 at 2:43am
I had arthroscopic shoulder surgery in June of 07. its about a 6 month to full recovery, but seems to have been worth it since I haven't had any problems as of yet.
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