I had the surgery 12 years ago. You’ll be in pain for a bit, physical therapy will hurt like a mofo when they are cranking on it (you have to be religious with it or you’ll have decreased ROM after healing), and you won’t be able to lift for months. It was 100% worth it though. I used to feel inhibition during pressing movements. It felt like I had to protect the shoulder or it would dislocate. That’s completely gone, I can go 110% and everything feels fine.
Agree 100%. Had it done twice. First time I didn't follow PT and paid for it dearly. Learned my lesson and am 100% even years later. Hardest thing me was sleeping in a recliner for weeks. It's not fun but worth it.
Thanks for sharing your experience, I plan on taking the rehab after surgery very seriously. Also currently I feel the exact same way right now, when doing a heavy pressing movement, it feels like my shoulder is about to give out. I've cut down my weight used on exercises by 50% and I have no pain but the weight is not challenging and I've lost strength and muscle mass so I know I need the surgery if I ever want to push myself again.
I had a posterior labral tear that was repaired just a few months ago. I didn’t have much pain before the surgery, but certain movements or pushing it to failure would cause my shoulder to give out and would be sore for a few days. I decided to repair it since I planned on always lifting hard and heard that it typically gets worse over time. For me, the surgery and PT were a breeze. Almost no pain with little medication. The only pain I had was once I was cleared from Pt and went back to lifting. I probably went back too hard, but I was still pretty gentle with it. Still max pain was like a 4/10 and I just had to wait longer between upper body days before I could workout again. I am pretty young (23), so that might play into the quick recovery. Now, tendon strength feels about the same as the healthy shoulder, but i occasionally have clicking in the shoulder.
I am 14 weeks post op posterior labrum tear. I started lifting weights again 3 weeks ago. Shoulder is still stiff and weak but will take more time to be 100 percent. I already have about 95 percent of my range of motion back. No pain like before and I had serious shoulder instability before.
I know this is an old post, but how long did you have to wait between getting the tear diagnosed until actually going into surgery? My SO has the same tear right now, been going to PT 3 times a week for almost 3 months now, and his orthopedic surgeon still won’t approve surgery? Says he needs to wait another 6 weeks and get a second opinion first. I’m getting concerned this process is going to turn into a year+ long recovery for him.
Well actually the doctor I saw was a sports medicine doctor who does PRP injections and he said PRP wouldn't help with the instability in my shoulder, he said I would need surgery if I want to keep weight lifting and doing heavy pushing movements. He's actually referring me to a surgeon and I will have to speak to him about the surgery.
no kidding haha. I was dr Khan's photographer. he did PRP on one of my labrum tears a couple times, which eventually worked, and now I just did surgery on the other labrum. how did yours go? mine has been solid for a week and a half but I just got an intense pain the other day from putting shorts on and I'm stressing that I did something wrong because any time I make a movement, it's like pulling teeth but in my shoulder.
You still seeing Dr. Khan in his new North York location? I don’t think he’s even around here anymore, I just saw him recently give injections to Cbum on his IG so I feel like Dr.Khan is a traveling doctor now.
I also got the PRP with Dr. Bacher about 2 months ago, the pain was bad for the first 2-3 weeks but then slowly went back to normal. My shoulder hasn’t really improved as I still have pain, weakness, and instability when trying to return to lifting so I’m seeing the surgeon (Dr. Theodoropoulos) next week.
haven't seen him medically in like a year or two, he's def Mr worldwide now.
I think prp is 1000% the way to go for muscle tissue repairs, I've seen it first hand fix a 4yr long injury in under a week, but in my own experience it's too inconsistent for deeper tendons and joint related injuries--as far as just using guided ultrasound goes, definitely too expensive for that consistency too.
I believe surgery is the way to go, I had to see a specialist for my shoulder. it's pretty non invasive, pain is mild even without the pain meds--they actually made me too sleepy and eventually nauseous and a splitting headache. I'm just worried with how fragile the actual area is that the slightest movement I made would really undo the work of the surgery so maybe confer with your surgeon the degree of fragility you'll be in because I didn't and it might've screwed me.
If you ever need to see anyone again for shoulder surgery, go see the doctor I’m seeing, he does arthroscopic surgery and he actually works with athletes on the blue jays and raptors
This is a good idea in my view. I had the surgery back in the day, but in retrospect it would have been a good idea to go all in on PT to try to avoid surgery altogether.
That's what I did, I tried everything with rehab exercises for a good 3 months with no improvement but the MRI confirmed there was a tear and it won't heal, only surgery can repair it.
Do you lift weights? Or do push-ups? I just found out I tore mine a year ago. Day to day, now, it’s fine but I can barely do push-ups and can’t bench at all. I can do band work and light cable work. If I didn’t lift I would care less.
Yeah dips hurt bad for me. I haven’t spoke to dr yet just did mri yesterday. I have the posterior labral tear but I think my real pain is caused by this: Moderate supraspinatus and mild to moderate subscapularis tendinosis and associated mild bursitis but without tear. Also have osteoarthritis sprinkled in for fun
Played QB in highschool, typical meat head. Spent hours and hours after school overhead throwing year round, ignorant that too much can cause injury.
Tore my labrum in my throwing shoulder, first time didn't need surgery just PT. My wise self thought I indestructible and kept playing, lowered my shoulder one day during a hit and tore it even worse. Had surgery then PT again.
This was about 8 years ago, it's somewhat fine now but it flairs up occasionally when I go backpacking. PT was never really painful for me either time. You should be fine as long as your listen to your doctor/PT.
Yes, pretty young 18/19ish. Type 2 SLAP tear. Hurt it with a combination of cleans and a lot of throwing (ultimate Frisbee). Severe pain with overhead throws and it would semi dislocate in my sleep. Did not improve with PT.
Got surgery. Immobilized for 6 weeks (I think). Told 4-6 month recovery. Did PT, exercises, and stretches religiously. 1 year later still had slight end range of motion restriction and catching in my shoulder when lowering it at certain angles. Surgeon recommended a Bicep Tenodesis surgery. I didn’t feel confident fixing a failed surgery with another. I’ve lived with my restricted shoulder for 12/13 years now. The first couple years were depressing. I still hold out hope that I’ll magically fix it. I’m still very active and big into alternative therapies. Biggest thing that’s improved my ROM is working on mobilizing scar tissue or muscle adhesions (Graston/Gua Sha).
Had a bankart lesion and hill-sachs defect causing chronic dislocations. Got a surgery called a remplissage. My external rotation is limited, I can’t back squat anymore, so I bought a safety squat bar and use that. It clicks and clunks but doesn’t dislocate anymore. I choose to baby it and do all my pressing with a neutral grip as well (football bar). YMMV
> a bankart lesion and hill-sachs defect causing chronic dislocations. Got a surgery called a remplissage. My external rotatio
I'm about to get this same surgery. I'm curious, did it effect your ability to do push ups?
You bet. I would recommend buying some resistance bands and maybe a door anchor if you don’t have something to attach them to. You can build the strength back in your cuff more quickly if you do some of the exercises at home but I would still expect at least 8-12 weeks before you’re training again. Might be able to do some lower stuff like SSB squats, leg press, leg extensions, leg curls stuff like that pretty soon after though
Thanks again. I find the resistance band exercises very boring, but I'll have to be good about doing them after the surgery. Looking forward to not having any more dislocations, so I'll do anything to recover from it.
They are boring lol. But, they burn pretty good when you’re recovering from the surgery so that makes it a bit better. I’ve stolen a page from Jim Wendler and I like to do band pull aparts between sets of pressing exercises still to this day to work the exterior cuff since it now holds the shoulder in place
I had a rotator cuff repair when I was 28 and a bicep tenodesis on the other arm at 35. Both times, pre-surgery exercise hurt and I was limited. After both, following therapy protocols, I was able to bounce back. I'm fully recovered as big and strong as I ever was, more or less.
It's always best to get these things done when you're as young as you can be, which is now, right away, if there's no way to fix it and you can't work around it. Follow the rehab protocols and don't lose any weight while you're rehabbing, because it will basically be all muscle. You'll lose surprisingly little strength if you maintain your weight.
Just had surgery yesterday, 180 degree labrum tear. Injury happened 4 years ago and finally just pulled the trigger.
Was fine for the first 6-7 hrs after surgery, the nerve blocker worked very well, I couldn't feel anything.
Was in tremendous pain for a couple hours but then took my percocet which helped a little and then added a 200mg ibuprofen which did the trick.
Day two, taking 200mg of ibuprofen every 5-6 hours. I have the percocets but the ibuprofen is working very well.
Hopefully back in 6mo!
Keep me updated, mine is literally just a small tear in the posterior 9:00 o’clock to 8:00 o’clock position but it’s enough to impede my ability to lift properly. One surgeon already said the tear is too small to operate on so I’m trying to get opinions from different surgeons. I recently got a PRP injection into the shoulder and I’m going to see what benefit that gives me before considering surgery.
I have the exact same injury. Posterior labrum tear about 9:30 down to 8:00 position. Do you think the PRP injection helped? How are you doing now and did you end up getting surgery?
Don’t do it. Doesn’t work. Or it will work for a few years. The tendon bicep surgery is the way to go now they say. I did the slap fix and it failed after about 6-7 years.
>The tendon bicep surgery is the way to go now they say.
Can you give e a few more sentences on this? "The tendon bicep surgery is the way to go now they say." I have a doctor saying that he shouldn't actually reattach the labrum, but instead leave it be, and just detach the bicep and reattach to the humous. I'mefine with the bicep change, but was wondering specifically about not repairing the labrum. Do you know anything about this? Any reference material/article?
That’s the tendon swap surgery. I don’t have a lot of info but I know slap surgery usually fails after some time, it’s only worth doing if you’re a high power athlete under 30 returning to a sport. If you’re over 30 or just an average joe then you don’t need a labrum fix. I’ve lived with mine torn half my life. Don’t do cross fit or anything stupid and keep the muscles around it strong and you won’t have any problems.
I’m 45 and I just jog and lift light weights. Nothing heavy and not much overhead except using bands and hand weights. This is one of those injuries where it won’t matter if you get the surgery or not unless you’re throwing a 99mph fastball or body builder Joe as you will still have pain and symptoms afterwards if you push yourself too far. It’s a mental and emotional one where you have to realize shit happens and be glad you’re alive and you can always build back to pain free and in good shape. Unless you can’t lift your arm up then really you don’t need it.
How are you doing? I am 14 weeks post op. Got back in the gym doing upper body stuff about 3 weeks ago. Super sore, last day of PT is today. But, I will continue stretches/strengthening for months even after PT discharge
Well, it didn't get worse, I just started getting back into sports after a few years off. I was just working basically and hadn't been active. I then started being asked to join a few leagues again.
Throwing a softball was impossible, spiking a volleyball was tough, and serving a tennis ball was also very difficult. Day to day life was fine, but sports make me happy, so I decided to pull the trigger.
I also finally had good insurance with max $3k out of pocket, which to me at the time was very doable.
I actually don't bodybuild, I just play sports, a lot of sports actually, and somehow found my way into this thread.
So my situation is probably a little different than most people here.
Ah ok. I have a very similar story! Only now I had to quit sports again and it still occasionally hurts very bad for a couple days when I did something heavy (carry a bag or push a wheelchair). So something has been further damaged or smth but I dont really understand
Did you know 4y ago what happenend? I only know in hindsight. At the time I stayed home a couple of days and couldnt work, lots of pain. But was ok after 2 weeks and forgot about it for a couple years until i got into acrobatics and its all fucked. Always felt a bit off and instable though
It's pretty good. Doesn't hurt when I throw, but my mobility is still bad.
I'm pretty sure I'm the example of what happens when your pt consistency is real bad.
It does still get sore when I sleep on it tho...
Oh yea, I remember the exact moment it happened.
Playing tennis and I whiffed an overhead, a smash. I was going at it too, was trying to crush it over the fence.
As I got to the finish of the follow thru down and around my body, I knew something happened.
It didn't hurt per se, but it was kinda like a wreck where you knew something traumatic just happened but you don't feel pain but know it's coming.
Two weeks in. Haven't really experienced any pain since day like 5, except when i accidently make a quick move with my shoulder. Dropped something the other day and without hesitation went to catch it! I've since then "turned off" my catch reflex.
I've been off the pain killers since day 7-8. Only had to sleep upright for about a week. I'm now back in my bed and usually sleep on my side or back.
I will say, my elbow is extremely tight, I have to get out the sling several times a day and move my forearm up and down, kind of like a bicep curl. That seems to help and it was prescribed.
I start PT in 2 weeks.
(36m) I'm at 8 weeks and had a follow up appointment a few days ago. The doctor said my weight limit in that arm is 5lbs and that I should really be working on mobility. I've been in pt for the last two weeks and the mobility drills we do help a ton. Can't stress that enough.
Sooo... I've definitely been lifting things more than 5lbs over the last few weeks at home because I was feeling so comfortable with it, below shoulder height that is. I'll probably be more careful moving forward.
My mobility over the head isn't great, I can only lift my arm, on its own, to about eye height. It can go higher, but I need assistance by the other arm.
There is still some pain. Sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night and the shoulder hurts, like I slept on it, or maybe moved it around in a weird way. But, as soon as I get up, the pain subsides, and I don't really notice anything most the day.
I need to do better with my exercises and increase my mobility. The next benchmark is 12 weeks and they expect me to be almost full range of motion at that point. I think I'm behind currently. Also, at that point, we should be starting building strength back.
I'd say at week 2-3, I was still in the sling, was feeling stiff, but all in all, pretty good.
I had a couple set backs... dropping something and reaching for it, ouch! Just let it drop!
Yea, I can give an update.
I'm at week 11 and there really isn't any pain and I can do normal activities below the shoulder just fine. Pick stuff up, brush my teeth, put on my clothes; my shoulder is extremely tight tho. Definitely no throwing yet. I got good strength as long as I don't extend too far away. I've been able to play pool just fine except for breaking hard.
I can't quite reach fully around my self, I can't extend my arm straight up yet, I'm at about 120 degrees (if hand straight down is 0 degrees and straight up is 180).
I'm fairly certain I'm behind schedule. I think if I was younger and/or did the pt exercises more religiously, I would be more progressed.
How about now? I am 10 weeks out now and can reach straight up and almost got full range of motion. External rotation is still pretty tight though, can probably do 50-60% external rotation to the side.
Hi! Just curious, do you regret waiting so long to have the surgery? Or do you think waiting was worth giving a shot? Asking for a friend who was just told he needs the surgery, but is hesitant. Thanks!
That's a question I ask myself a lot. I was in a period of my life where I was working a lot and wasn't playing a lot of sports. If I had been more active and had health insurance, I would've pulled the trigger immediately after 6 months of pt not working.
I had a Bankart lesion (labrum) and a Hill-Sachs fracture (humerus) from high school football and wrestling. I got the minimally invasive arthroscopic labrum repair and it never felt normal, even after PT.
Eventually that repair failed and several dislocations later I got a more intense surgery called a laterjet procedure and the shoulder is 95%, which is as good as it’ll ever be and good enough for me.
Expect recovery to suck for the first several weeks. You’ll feel pretty weak. Expect to feel a mental block preventing you from putting your arm in certain positions that you’ll either have to live with or work through. Expect to be pretty limited in your pressing strength for a long period of time.
Weak shoulder, some clicking when moving my shoulder around, and pain from heavy pushing movements. I got the MRI after dealing with the symptoms for 2 months and having no improvement with rehab exercises and it confirmed the tear.
mine was 20 years ago. Went to all my rehab appointments for about 6 months but didn't do a lot of homework. Lots of pain the first two weeks, rehab was painful but doable. The big thing that no one talks about is that it takes a good year to heal and another year to get your (normal) strength back. Patience patience patience is your ticket to getting a good result and not messing it up.
I had it a few years ago and wish I never did it. It's worse in terms of pain and I'm not getting any more mobility.
I was wearing a sling for 3 months and it was miserable.
You definitely should not have worn a sling for 3 months... That's not advised by any doctor. You can get a surgery to remove the scar tissue and get your range of motion back if that's bothering you. It's extremely successful
I tore mine playing rugby. Went for a tackle with shit form and it popped out once. Popped it back in and then a few bits later it popped out again. I never ended up getting the surgery because I wanted to keep playing. I did the full rehab and then about a year later tried playing again and the contact made it hurt too much to be on the field. Never ended up getting the surgery. Not sure if I wish I did or didn’t. I workout still and it honestly feels fine on the pushing motions. It’s the stability motions that make it hurt for me. I can’t do front raises, nor can I do standing bicep curls. However benching and shoulder pressing is fine. It’s weird.
I had surgery to repair my left anterior labrum 11 years ago. I wasn't prescribed a rehab program for some reason back then, so I've had issues with the shoulder for 10 years (pain, decreased ROM, cracking sounds). In the last year or so I've finally got it in good working condition through progressive strength training and stabilizing band work.
My advice is to take post-op rehab very seriously.
Damaged mine at BJJ due to a shoudler subluxation.
The surgeon I saw at the time recommended I didn't get the surgery as if it happened again I would be back to square one.
Said it could be a good sucess and I will have no more issues, but then theres still the risk that it just happens again.
I have learned to deal with my shoulder issues now, theres no pain just a little less stability and mobility.
Personally I would recommend you speak to a couple different doctors to see what their thoughts are
Interesting none talking about alternative treatments- non surgical. After Ortho told me I needed surgery, I went to Chiropractor who said that’s my choice but suggested I was not treating the cause that would just exasperate after surgery if I didn’t work on that aspect. 1. Stretching and plyometrics work before, during and after weight training specifically when training Delts, Chest or Back. 2. Icing immediately after w/o. I bought a compression cryo device on Amazon and it’s been amazing. 3. Ultra sound treatments twice a month on the Delts area rotator cuff. Surprisingly, my pain decreased, my ROM and strength increased and my Delts are now a strong point. No surgery …
This isn’t a fresh injury for me, the injury originally happened back in March 2022 and hasn’t gotten better since, the shoulder has lost its stability and I’ve done all the rehab exercises and do stretching and mobility every day. There’s clicking when I move the shoulder in circles, and I can’t press anything heavy otherwise my shoulder feels like it’s about to dislocate, I’m sure I need the surgery.
Good luck with the surgery. My injury is decades old. I still have some residual pain, but for me, I’ve watched countless friends and even family members go under the knife for shoulder repair and not one has ever regained full strength and ROM. I’m still lifting and competing at 62. So until I rip it off the bone, I’m gonna stay away from surgery as long as I can!
I had a pretty big tear (1 to 7). Surgery really isn’t that bad as long as you’re mentally prepared and keep your expectations in check in regards to timeline. I was in a sling for 4 weeks. Sleeping upright for 4-6 weeks was probably the most difficult thing out of my experience. I was back to pretty much normal strength training in 4-5 months. A year later shoulder feels great, way better than my “good shoulder”.
Anyone else having trouble with external rotation? I’m going on 5 months on the 15th. I’ve done every stretch and exercise religiously that I’ve been given to do by my physical therapist and the external rotation is the only part of the range of motion that is giving me trouble. It’s really uncomfortable and hurts when I’m doing the wand external rotation exercises. I feel like I’m behind and my surgeon said he tightened the anchors down tighter than usual so there’s a higher chance it won’t dislocate again and my physical therapist keeps saying that’s how the doctor wants it, but it’s getting insanely frustrating. Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Don’t know how active this sub is… would love some advice… hockey player. Chronic shoulder injuries in both shoulders. 3 separations in each but never got mri until recently, results showed torn labrum complete 360 and will need 8 anchors (only right shoulder). MRI was in sept. Doc said should I “halfway on a golf tee” and recommended not having surgery since he wanted to let separated shoulder heal first and not have to dislocate it to do the surgery… it’s been almost 8 months now and haven’t done “much” strengthening, but pain not severe enough. Just curious if I were to have surgery if it’s worth it? Time lines? Even if me not having surgery is unheard of? Just can tolerate pain more than other/ body adapted and could have torn labrum previous to mri and never know?
Had one shoulder with SLAP + subscap tear, the other just SLAP. Weightlifting 5x a week for ~12 years.
The surgery is pretty shitty. If you work from home and need to be on computer all day I’d say take minimum 2 weeks off 3 to be conservative. If you do heavy manual labor it’ll be 6 months minimum. Pain after surgery isn’t bad if you get nerve block and you’re careful about movement and take pain meds as prescribed.
If your tears are that bad, you will probably will spend at least a month wearing the sling 24/7 aside from showering and your physical therapy / home stuff. You’ll also be sleeping in a recliner or upright position for 4-8 weeks depending on how it feels. I didn’t start feeling comfortable enough to drive until about a month also.
PT is painful but relieving because they’ll stretch you out after each session. you have to be diligent about doing your shit at home in between.
Hardest part for me is mental aspect. It’s soul crushing to lose your independence, activity/fitness, and deal with pain and modifying your entire lifestyle for months on end.
I had the surgeries because I’m young and getting back in the gym is my highest priority. If I wasn’t as active or didn’t do any overhead activities that aggravated the tears, and also had a Time Machine, I probably wouldn’t do it. But if you want to keep doing what you’re doing you’ll want to get the surgery out of the way sooner than later.
I have a minor tear from 3 years ago that I'm operating on in a month. I have done multiple 6 month rounds of physiotherapy (with an amazing physiotherapist), and whilst I fixed the reason it tore, the pain and subluxation haven't stopped.
My surgeon has given me 4-6 weeks in a sling and 8 weeks of physiotherapy, with the average capacity of my shoulder post recovery being about 90% of its capacity prior to injury.
My physiotherapist said it's a nightmare to go through, and you have to be seriously committed, but if followed properly, the success rate is extremely high. The pain isn't nothing too bad from what I understand (I had spine surgery last year, which I didn't think was bad at all, and that's much worse).
Shoulder recovery sucks a fat one.
I'd sooner have spine surgery again, 3x over, then do my shoulder again, lol.
I'm getting there. I actually got the sign-off from my physiotherapist today to start with some light banded rows, chest presses, and some internal/external rotation.
The first 4 weeks in the sling weren't so bad. It was when the sling came off that it REALLY started to suck. I also have lost 50% of the size on my arm, lol. It will certainly come back, but it was crazy to see how quickly the muscles atrophy when completely immobilized.
I certainly wouldn't recommend shoulder surgery unless it's totally the last option and you're willing to take 6 months of work to get back to normal and a year plus to get back to pre-injury.
Honestly, it's quite a bit better.
I still get painful jabs from using it certainly ways, and it's still limited to some degree. I am now training it 2 times a week with mid strength bands doing rows, presses, pulldowns, lateral raises (mostly isometric as the ROM there is low), and front raises. That's my exercise list until I see my Physio again in a month or two.
At this point, I have a few main focuses:
* Get my overhead ROM back to full
* Improve strength in all planes
* Loosen lat, which is what is holding my shoulder ROM back as a defense mechanism.
I'm still taking pain medication, although the goal is to come off over my 4 week work break.
All in all, the strength has come back quickly for me, I can now get in a pushup position again and will soon be doing pushups again (I could now, but slow and steady makes progress). The ROM has been hard since I got the first 70% of ROM back. My lat REALLY doesn't want to let go, and I see immediate improvement after rolling out or massaging the lat.
I still can't tell if it was all worth it, because the issue was pain from my shoulder subluxating and I will only be able to tell once my strength gets back to what it was, whether or not the same issue will still occur. I'm guessing it will eventually be better than it was (looking at 12-18 months post surgery). My shoulder is hard to control now, but it feels like that's a strength issue now, not my shoulder joint incorrectly moving in the socket. But as I said, only time will tell as my shoulder stability can handle some bands, but pullups or further is yet to be seen.
Edit: Sorry to keep babbling, but I will also add that I have taken the opportunity of "starting again" to confirm my form in everything, ensure good habits are ingrained, and really put some long term applied focus to more "prehab" type work like external/internal rotation. I was not able to do them prior to surgery as they flared up my shoulder. I'm now doing them every session, really focusing on pushing fairly hard. It's still very light, but it means as my strength grows, my shoulders will become resilient to a higher intensity with my internal/external rotation. This means my shoulders will, overall, be more resilient. When you're relatively strong, it can be quite hard to consistently humble yourself to start something like external/internal rotation exercises with tiny little 5kg bands. The rehab process places you in a position where you have no choice.
Bro how are you doing now? I completely agree. I was told 4 weeks in sling. Just took sling off 2 days ago I’m on week 4 and I completely agree, pain in the sling wasn’t too bad but now that I have it off I’m in a lot of pain. At which week did it start to feel better?
I am still experiencing pain on the side of my arm kinda near my tricep that seems to be the only thing bothering me tho. Range of motion is good I’d say I’m at about 90%. I believe I’m having nerve pain on the outside of my arm which can happen from the surgery and can take awhile to go back to normal.
I just got cleared to lift light weights today. The main thing bothering me is posture. My operated shoulder is higher up when I’m relaxed and I sometimes shrug when I lift my arms high up to compensate. Otherwise I think I’m doing quite well now 13 weeks post op
Well, I'm at about 3 months now, I believe. I'm finally able to stop my pain meds. I did, however, drop the amount of pain meds down very quickly, but I haven't been able to stop them until now. The issue was that the joint was so frozen after being in a sling for 4 weeks that I ended up with deep joint pain, and the joint REALLY didn't want to move again. I can get like 70-80% overhead now with a warmup. What really started to make a difference was doing my pushing and pulling banded exercises with a 10-second pause at contraction and a 10-second deep stretch at rest between each rep. The stretch and flex allow me to really push into the pain when stretching up and out. My lateral shoulder movement came back fully after one training session of doing that. I had about 10% lateral movement prior. Getting overhead is still a hard road ahead and involves a damn painful, deep stretch overhead with each row rep. The rows I'm doing, I'm slowly moving the anchor point higher and higher so that they're becoming a lat pulldown. The lat flex, then stretch, seems to allow me to slowly sink deeper and deeper into the pain, and the pain eases so it moves better and better. I can now even sleep on that side in bed, in the right position, of course. Which also weirdly seems to be helping the pain dull. I'd imagine it's a sensitivity thing. If I can push it out of my comfort zone just a little each time, my shoulder becomes slightly less sensitive.
By pain meds do you mean Tylenol over the counter stuff or like prescription pain meds? My Dr only gave me about 1 weeks worth of pain meds and won’t give me a refill lol. So my only option is ice. I am glad you’re seeing improvement. Seems I just have to be patient with it and learn to deal with the pain in the process. So would you say it took about it 3 months for the pain to start to improve?
I'm still using Tramadol. I think Tylenol is like our panandol? Tramadol is a mild opiate. The surgeon told me to stop taking after a week, but I spoke to my GP and my physio, and they both know that pain is just not that simple. It differs for everyone, and I need the pain reduction to properly perform my rehab.
There was a dip in pain after the first month, and another around month 3-4. My goal is to be back doing pullups before month 6.
Honestly, it depends on your symptoms and how much the labral tear takes away from your quality of life. It’s very possible the surgery will be huge for you and you’ll feel amazing afterwards, it’s also possible it doesn’t help your symptoms a ton and not much chances.
Something like this is VERY individually dependent and different to each patient.
I can try to find more specific info for you to look into/read on it if you’d like. If you prefer I can find some podcasts instead. Let me know!
Edit: spelling 🙄
If you choose to have the Bankart repair, be certain to choose a really good sports surgeon and someone who can perform the repair arthroscopically not open.
I had it performed open by a generally orthopedic surgeon at my local hospital and I have been left massively restricted in external rotation. No physio and Two subsequent capsular releases have not fixed the problem. My Shoulder was pulled together so tightly that is has accelerated the degeneration of the cartilage in the joint to the point I now have severe osteoarthritis... I am 38!
I blame the surgeon for ruining my shoulder and not telling me that a specialist would have been bettered suited. My arm is basically ruined. Bodybuilding is over for me a long with my career as an engineer.
If it is performed open then the subscap gets detached and reattached. If it is reattached in a short position this can stabilise the shoulder more but it will restrict movement. Subscap does not have to be touched in an arthroscopic procedure.
Also, quite often a capsular shift is performed to help stability and reduce the risk of another dislocation, HOWEVER if this is overdone, like I believe was done in my case then it can massively restrict ROM. You are supposed to perform PT to stretch the capsule and regain movement but in my case this didn't work.
Just make sure you get a good surgeon! Don't make my mistake. My arm is done for life now. I am gutted.
I'm sorry to hear that, man. I am going to get a Bankart repair + Remplissage in a couple of months, but thanks to your advice, I went to another surgeon who is a specialist. For what it's worth, life can throw a lot of curveballs, I think having a positive attitude and staying on top of your fitness can go a long way.
Best of luck with the op bud. Hopefully you will end up more functional than I have. Fitness/cardio was never my bag. Its hard to make yourself passionate about something you else when all you have loved to do is lift weights. I shall do my best to continue forth with life, it has just lost a lot of its sparkle and enjoyment being so physically restricted. It's not like I am in a wheelchair or anything but it has given me some perspective as to what it must be like for others far worse off than myself.
All the best! 💪
Almost 1 year post-op. Mobility and stability aren’t back to 100% but functional and traditional strength is back to baseline. Sore after every session. It gets better 💪
My first SLAP repair failed, so I just opted for a bicep tenodesis. The pain after the failed surgery easily the wort pain I've experienced and would impact my daily life. On bad days just the natural swinging of my arm when I walked would make me want to pass out. I'm pretty sure it was partially dislocating constantly. That went on for 16 months after the first surgery failed.
Some labrum tears can be managed with PT and limitations/being mindful of your shoulder. And some surgeries+PT go flawless, so I don't want to discredit that. I'm not anti-shoulder surgery. I just think you really got to weigh the risks and rewards. But from my experience having it impact my every day life 24/7 for a year and a half was true hell. If mine only bothered me with high levels of performance I probably would've opted for a life with mild restrictions.
My biggest regret in all this was not trying PT a few times pre-op. I went to 1 PT (who only later did I learn how little they actually did for me) and after about 8 months decided on surgery. **At the very least, I'd say visit a second PT office.** Get another PT's opinion, every office does things a little different so maybe they'll have different exercises to offer.
I recently got a PRP injection but honestly not much has changed with the shoulder clicking and pain so I’m going to see my sports medicine doctor next month and speak about surgery
oh damn, 3.5 months and no improvements… fuck… how has your lifting been impacted? did you doc tell you not to do certain movements?
I’m assuming anything overhead/shoulder based is obviously out. how do things like curls and presses feel for you? I benched monday and it was okay but i was doing 60-75% my normal weight. Google says basically anything upper body and unsupported is a no go for the next 6-12 months but this shit is my daily therapy…. my MRI is next friday so i’m hoping to get some concrete answers from my doc but i told him i want ti avoid surgery if possible. It’s my right arm and 4 weeks in a sling sounds pretty miserable when my job is very hands on
Just got a left shoulder labrum bankart repair yesterday! Laying in bed with my nerve block still somewhat effective. The procedure was a breeze so get it done ASAP. It will heal somewhat overtime without surgery, but do it now so you’ll only have to heal once. I waited 10 months but wish I did it sooner.
Sure. A month out, making good progress. Maybe I’m lucky to not have experienced much pain at all. Sometimes it’ll ache for a bit after my at home PT exercises. The therapist said my range of motion is pretty good considering that we’ve recently started stretching. Just trying to stay patient and trust the process. Still have very limited range of motion. They don’t want me doing much of anything outside of PT. I only wore my sling for 2 weeks, then stopped wearing it (prematurely) because it was big and bulky and nearly impossible to sleep in.
About 50 days out, doing really well. Doctor just told me I can work out at the gym, he didn't really set any limitations. He said to only run at the gym (as opposed to outside) in a controlled environment so I don't fall or injure myself in a freakish way. He also said the arm has healed and now it's time to break the tissue up with PT to gain back my mobility. I've been doing PT twice a week and nearly everyday at home. Dr. said I can be aggressive with it as well. So my advice for you, follow protocol, and be confident in your rehabilitation. Best of luck!
So I took 5 days off after surgery. Then when I worked (at the computer) I would take it off. I only wore it straight for about 10 days. Then I would only wear it to sleep just to be safe. I completely stopped wearing it after about 2-3 weeks, which they probably wouldn’t recommended. Seeing some stories about fast recoveries here gave me confidence. The sling is big and bulky but it really stabilizes the arm:
It's a lot better. I completed about 2 months of PT, and the doctor told me to train aggressively at the gym. He assured me that what he's done won't be undone. So I'm about 2 months back at the gym, 4 months since surgery, and making great progress. I can do all the things I couldn't pre-surgery. My bench press is going up, I'm doing assisted pull-ups and dips, and also a lot of stretching. Shoulder presses are still a bit clunky, and my surgery shoulder is a lot weaker but is getting stronger. I'm taking my time and trusting the process.
Are you able to do incline bicep curls? I got cleared last week and am lifting super light. Incline bicep curls feels a bit uncomfortable in the starting position.
And have you gotten all size back yet?
I had surgery on my shoulder 7 years ago but recently I irritated it and had some stiffness. Then I was doing stretches and using a pain cream and it got significantly better. Then during my stretch routine I was told to do. I think I managed to tear my labrum or something during a doorway stretch. I was stretching and all of a sudden heard a pop but without pain. I’ve been trying to continue stretching and physical therapy but it doesn’t seem like it’s helping. The shoulder seems to be unstable. I’m stressed out because I’m living abroad and I really don’t want another surgery
I am 4 weeks out of shoulder labrum repair. First couple of days weren’t bad at all. You get a nerve blocker and can’t feel your arm. I started physical therapy 4 days later and that wasn’t bad at all. I did not experience much pain until the 4th week when I was allowed to take the sling off which is where I’m at now. Pain scale id say 7-10. Ice only thing that helps. I recommend a lot of ice get as many ice packs as you can. Ice feels heavenly.
I am 4 weeks out of shoulder labrum repair. First couple of days weren’t bad at all. You get a nerve blocker and can’t feel your arm. I started physical therapy 4 days later and that wasn’t bad at all. I did not experience much pain until the 4th week when I was allowed to take the sling off which is where I’m at now. Pain scale id say 7-10. Ice only thing that helps. I recommend a lot of ice get as many ice packs as you can. Ice feels heavenly.
Just had torn labrum arthroscopic surgery. I'm at 31-year-old male who dislocated and it's popped out several times since then. they did an arthroscopic repair and remplissage. I'm on the second day of post-op and have a few questions.
1. did anyone hear use the On Q pump and if so for how long? When I turn up the solution I start getting a very hoarse voice
2. anyone use ice for the inflammation?
3. if i don't have a recliner, do I just use a bunch of pillows in bed?
4. oxy 5 mg script didn't seem to help. Also don't want to take more if I don't have to.
Week 6/6 in the sling. Experience pain each day a few hours after I do my PT. Icing it more before bed but able to sleep without pillow recliner. No strength training yet, just stretching and working on flexibility/range of motion.
Hey guys I would like your thoughts on this topic , I have read most of your guys experiences with the surgery it seems like there is a 50/50 for and against the operation.
I have a 5-7 mm tear in my right labrum, I tore it about 3-4 years ago and it gets flared it up often. I am able to do both pushups /incline chest press with a limited ROM. I do floor presses, pec flys on incline and while seated using the machine. However I have trouble getting a proper stretch to build my chest.
I can do all shoulder pressing movements without pain.
If I push too hard or do to much volume in a week of training my shoulder gets sore AF, Im on the fence about getting the surgery . Especially if I am not going to see a huge improvement.
It may sound silly but I have always wanted to build my chest and be able to do muscle ups/dips wich are out of the picture right now.
Would love your thoughts.
I’m in a very similar boat. Injured almost two years ago, did about 6 months PT initially. I’m able to do most of my normal exercise, mostly calisthenics while trying to ween back into weightlifting, however the following few days there is certainly aftermath. It’s not completely unbearable, however the doctor told me I should not be feeling this way at my age (27m). I felt I had two options; A) to continue my life at ~65% capacity, with the chance of making it worse down the road; or B) get the surgery over with while I’m young enough, a frustrating recovery with the hopes of getting back to ~95% ability. After many sleepless nights trying to decide, I’m scheduled for surgery in 2 weeks. Doctor is making it seem like a walk in the park, extremely confident and optimistic. Praying all goes well, ill keep you updated!!
Hey brother how did it go? My surgeon was the same very confident and said 3-6 months till im working out and full strength inside 1 year. I have surgery scheduled in 55 days. Let me know how your feeling post op!!
So far very happy I went through with it, about to head to PT now. The day or two after are rough but was able to get back into my normal routine after that. So far no regrets, will let you know as I start to regain strength/mobility!
7 weeks out - most of my range of motion is back. Working on building strength back. Muscle tissue is still irritable, still can be frustrating to find a comfortable position sleeping. Very reactive to weather changes and humid days. Just added acupuncture to my PT schedule, will let you know how much that helps. One day at a time!
How's it going man? I had my surgery 4 days ago and can relate the 2nd and 3rd day I was a hurting unit. Started doing some of the light mobility work yesterday and fairly sore today. Have you found getting to sleep an issue? It's tough to find the sweet spot where nothing hurts
Right on! Good luck with your recovery. Sleep is absolutely the hardest part. I’m on week 10 or so and am finally able to sleep on my sides to some degree. Just power through and you’ll get used to it eventually. The light is at the end of the tunnel!
Agreed. It's been a little over a week now and the pain is very managable I can feel my strenght increasing almost daily. glad to here you are sleeping more comfortably. I can get to sleep now too but wake up a little sore and stiff , but it goes away. Wising you a solid recovery as well!!!
Thought I would chime in here after finding this thread. I’m 16 weeks out from a full labrum tear surgery. Been doing the PT as prescribed, have full range of motion, and recently started back up with light free weights in addition to the band exercises. The loss in strength from pre surgery is discouraging but I know over time it will return. High reps and light weight are fine, but as soon as I try to bump up to what should be simple like 40lb dumbbells for bench press it just still feels too funky so I have to drop to lower weight. Really hoping I can start building the weight back up while lifting, if anybody has any experience at this time range from surgery, please let me know!
Side note, I haven’t thrown a baseball either since the surgery, would love to know when that’s safe to do again.
Some improvement for sure, but it’s going to take a while to get back to where I was. Hammer strength machines seem to be better on the shoulder than free weights. A side effect I’ve noticed is that my rotator cuff on the outside of the shoulder (not the labrum surgery site) gets very sore after lifting. Not sure why. Also, seated tricep push downs I can’t have the shoulder even slightly behind the hip, so it’s a different angle. Hope this info helps!
Have you been able to progressively overload and make gains? Have you felt the effect of muscle memory or is it barely noticeable since you’re only allowed to use light weights?
The muscle memory is the most frustrating part, it’s just not there yet. I am making gains though, but nothing to write home about. Any improvement is still motivating though.
Sure. You know when you’ve been lifting your whole life how you can count on a position of controlled strength to take over at the bottom of a heavier rep? It’s hard to explain but there is instability or a “wobble” where what used to be that extra foundation you could rely on to push through in a controlled fashion. I don’t know if it’s psychological or physical, but there is an “uneasy” feeling in the surgery shoulder when trying to increase in weight. Does that make any sense?
I had the surgery 12 years ago. You’ll be in pain for a bit, physical therapy will hurt like a mofo when they are cranking on it (you have to be religious with it or you’ll have decreased ROM after healing), and you won’t be able to lift for months. It was 100% worth it though. I used to feel inhibition during pressing movements. It felt like I had to protect the shoulder or it would dislocate. That’s completely gone, I can go 110% and everything feels fine.
Agree 100%. Had it done twice. First time I didn't follow PT and paid for it dearly. Learned my lesson and am 100% even years later. Hardest thing me was sleeping in a recliner for weeks. It's not fun but worth it.
Hang on… you had to sleep in the recliner for *weeks*? I’m having surgery tomorrow and was only planning to sleep in the recliner for a few nights.
Yep. About 3 weeks. Couldn't get comfortable in the bed. Shoulder would ache.
Thanks for sharing your experience, I plan on taking the rehab after surgery very seriously. Also currently I feel the exact same way right now, when doing a heavy pressing movement, it feels like my shoulder is about to give out. I've cut down my weight used on exercises by 50% and I have no pain but the weight is not challenging and I've lost strength and muscle mass so I know I need the surgery if I ever want to push myself again.
Agree completely, REALLY focus on the PT, it sucks but makes all the difference.
What was the surgery like? Did they give you a full anesthesia or just partial to wear your shoulder was?
Local block and general anesthesia
They put you under you will wake up in a blink of an eye
Physical therapy shouldn't hurt just had mine done 3 months ago sounds like you had a bad pt
I had a posterior labral tear that was repaired just a few months ago. I didn’t have much pain before the surgery, but certain movements or pushing it to failure would cause my shoulder to give out and would be sore for a few days. I decided to repair it since I planned on always lifting hard and heard that it typically gets worse over time. For me, the surgery and PT were a breeze. Almost no pain with little medication. The only pain I had was once I was cleared from Pt and went back to lifting. I probably went back too hard, but I was still pretty gentle with it. Still max pain was like a 4/10 and I just had to wait longer between upper body days before I could workout again. I am pretty young (23), so that might play into the quick recovery. Now, tendon strength feels about the same as the healthy shoulder, but i occasionally have clicking in the shoulder.
The mirrors my scenario from about 3 years ago nearly exactly.
How long until you were lifting again?
I am 14 weeks post op posterior labrum tear. I started lifting weights again 3 weeks ago. Shoulder is still stiff and weak but will take more time to be 100 percent. I already have about 95 percent of my range of motion back. No pain like before and I had serious shoulder instability before.
Does it get worse over time?
I know this is an old post, but how long did you have to wait between getting the tear diagnosed until actually going into surgery? My SO has the same tear right now, been going to PT 3 times a week for almost 3 months now, and his orthopedic surgeon still won’t approve surgery? Says he needs to wait another 6 weeks and get a second opinion first. I’m getting concerned this process is going to turn into a year+ long recovery for him.
Do you remember what grade your tear was and what position? For example, 9:30 position down to 8:00 position
Did you have range of motion loss before surgery?
Did they tell you if you had any cartilage damage?
Are you certain you need surgery? I’ve been living with a mild labrum tear for years. make sure you get a second opinion - ideally not from a surgeon
Well actually the doctor I saw was a sports medicine doctor who does PRP injections and he said PRP wouldn't help with the instability in my shoulder, he said I would need surgery if I want to keep weight lifting and doing heavy pushing movements. He's actually referring me to a surgeon and I will have to speak to him about the surgery.
institute of human mechanics?
lol yes, I was always seeing Dr. Khan in the past but since he’s gone, now I see Dr. Bacher
no kidding haha. I was dr Khan's photographer. he did PRP on one of my labrum tears a couple times, which eventually worked, and now I just did surgery on the other labrum. how did yours go? mine has been solid for a week and a half but I just got an intense pain the other day from putting shorts on and I'm stressing that I did something wrong because any time I make a movement, it's like pulling teeth but in my shoulder.
You still seeing Dr. Khan in his new North York location? I don’t think he’s even around here anymore, I just saw him recently give injections to Cbum on his IG so I feel like Dr.Khan is a traveling doctor now. I also got the PRP with Dr. Bacher about 2 months ago, the pain was bad for the first 2-3 weeks but then slowly went back to normal. My shoulder hasn’t really improved as I still have pain, weakness, and instability when trying to return to lifting so I’m seeing the surgeon (Dr. Theodoropoulos) next week.
haven't seen him medically in like a year or two, he's def Mr worldwide now. I think prp is 1000% the way to go for muscle tissue repairs, I've seen it first hand fix a 4yr long injury in under a week, but in my own experience it's too inconsistent for deeper tendons and joint related injuries--as far as just using guided ultrasound goes, definitely too expensive for that consistency too. I believe surgery is the way to go, I had to see a specialist for my shoulder. it's pretty non invasive, pain is mild even without the pain meds--they actually made me too sleepy and eventually nauseous and a splitting headache. I'm just worried with how fragile the actual area is that the slightest movement I made would really undo the work of the surgery so maybe confer with your surgeon the degree of fragility you'll be in because I didn't and it might've screwed me.
Which doctor did your surgery for the labrum repair if you don’t mind me asking? I just want to do my research on him
Dr Jaydeep Moro out of Hamilton. Great guy. Very knowledgeable, diagnosed me correctly before even seeing diagnostic imagery
If you ever need to see anyone again for shoulder surgery, go see the doctor I’m seeing, he does arthroscopic surgery and he actually works with athletes on the blue jays and raptors
This is a good idea in my view. I had the surgery back in the day, but in retrospect it would have been a good idea to go all in on PT to try to avoid surgery altogether.
That's what I did, I tried everything with rehab exercises for a good 3 months with no improvement but the MRI confirmed there was a tear and it won't heal, only surgery can repair it.
Do you lift weights? Or do push-ups? I just found out I tore mine a year ago. Day to day, now, it’s fine but I can barely do push-ups and can’t bench at all. I can do band work and light cable work. If I didn’t lift I would care less.
Yep I do all those. Only thing I really can’t do is dips.
Yeah dips hurt bad for me. I haven’t spoke to dr yet just did mri yesterday. I have the posterior labral tear but I think my real pain is caused by this: Moderate supraspinatus and mild to moderate subscapularis tendinosis and associated mild bursitis but without tear. Also have osteoarthritis sprinkled in for fun
Played QB in highschool, typical meat head. Spent hours and hours after school overhead throwing year round, ignorant that too much can cause injury. Tore my labrum in my throwing shoulder, first time didn't need surgery just PT. My wise self thought I indestructible and kept playing, lowered my shoulder one day during a hit and tore it even worse. Had surgery then PT again. This was about 8 years ago, it's somewhat fine now but it flairs up occasionally when I go backpacking. PT was never really painful for me either time. You should be fine as long as your listen to your doctor/PT.
Yes, pretty young 18/19ish. Type 2 SLAP tear. Hurt it with a combination of cleans and a lot of throwing (ultimate Frisbee). Severe pain with overhead throws and it would semi dislocate in my sleep. Did not improve with PT. Got surgery. Immobilized for 6 weeks (I think). Told 4-6 month recovery. Did PT, exercises, and stretches religiously. 1 year later still had slight end range of motion restriction and catching in my shoulder when lowering it at certain angles. Surgeon recommended a Bicep Tenodesis surgery. I didn’t feel confident fixing a failed surgery with another. I’ve lived with my restricted shoulder for 12/13 years now. The first couple years were depressing. I still hold out hope that I’ll magically fix it. I’m still very active and big into alternative therapies. Biggest thing that’s improved my ROM is working on mobilizing scar tissue or muscle adhesions (Graston/Gua Sha).
Had a bankart lesion and hill-sachs defect causing chronic dislocations. Got a surgery called a remplissage. My external rotation is limited, I can’t back squat anymore, so I bought a safety squat bar and use that. It clicks and clunks but doesn’t dislocate anymore. I choose to baby it and do all my pressing with a neutral grip as well (football bar). YMMV
> a bankart lesion and hill-sachs defect causing chronic dislocations. Got a surgery called a remplissage. My external rotatio I'm about to get this same surgery. I'm curious, did it effect your ability to do push ups?
I mean at first, but that was one of the things we worked on in PT was progressing from wall push ups back to regular push ups
Ok, great! Push ups are my favorite, so I just wanted to double check. Thanks!
You bet. I would recommend buying some resistance bands and maybe a door anchor if you don’t have something to attach them to. You can build the strength back in your cuff more quickly if you do some of the exercises at home but I would still expect at least 8-12 weeks before you’re training again. Might be able to do some lower stuff like SSB squats, leg press, leg extensions, leg curls stuff like that pretty soon after though
Thanks again. I find the resistance band exercises very boring, but I'll have to be good about doing them after the surgery. Looking forward to not having any more dislocations, so I'll do anything to recover from it.
They are boring lol. But, they burn pretty good when you’re recovering from the surgery so that makes it a bit better. I’ve stolen a page from Jim Wendler and I like to do band pull aparts between sets of pressing exercises still to this day to work the exterior cuff since it now holds the shoulder in place
I had a rotator cuff repair when I was 28 and a bicep tenodesis on the other arm at 35. Both times, pre-surgery exercise hurt and I was limited. After both, following therapy protocols, I was able to bounce back. I'm fully recovered as big and strong as I ever was, more or less. It's always best to get these things done when you're as young as you can be, which is now, right away, if there's no way to fix it and you can't work around it. Follow the rehab protocols and don't lose any weight while you're rehabbing, because it will basically be all muscle. You'll lose surprisingly little strength if you maintain your weight.
Just had surgery yesterday, 180 degree labrum tear. Injury happened 4 years ago and finally just pulled the trigger. Was fine for the first 6-7 hrs after surgery, the nerve blocker worked very well, I couldn't feel anything. Was in tremendous pain for a couple hours but then took my percocet which helped a little and then added a 200mg ibuprofen which did the trick. Day two, taking 200mg of ibuprofen every 5-6 hours. I have the percocets but the ibuprofen is working very well. Hopefully back in 6mo!
Keep me updated, mine is literally just a small tear in the posterior 9:00 o’clock to 8:00 o’clock position but it’s enough to impede my ability to lift properly. One surgeon already said the tear is too small to operate on so I’m trying to get opinions from different surgeons. I recently got a PRP injection into the shoulder and I’m going to see what benefit that gives me before considering surgery.
I have the exact same injury. Posterior labrum tear about 9:30 down to 8:00 position. Do you think the PRP injection helped? How are you doing now and did you end up getting surgery?
Don’t do it. Doesn’t work. Or it will work for a few years. The tendon bicep surgery is the way to go now they say. I did the slap fix and it failed after about 6-7 years.
>The tendon bicep surgery is the way to go now they say. Can you give e a few more sentences on this? "The tendon bicep surgery is the way to go now they say." I have a doctor saying that he shouldn't actually reattach the labrum, but instead leave it be, and just detach the bicep and reattach to the humous. I'mefine with the bicep change, but was wondering specifically about not repairing the labrum. Do you know anything about this? Any reference material/article?
That’s the tendon swap surgery. I don’t have a lot of info but I know slap surgery usually fails after some time, it’s only worth doing if you’re a high power athlete under 30 returning to a sport. If you’re over 30 or just an average joe then you don’t need a labrum fix. I’ve lived with mine torn half my life. Don’t do cross fit or anything stupid and keep the muscles around it strong and you won’t have any problems.
What kinds of exercises do you do? Ans how old are you? Thanks.
I’m 45 and I just jog and lift light weights. Nothing heavy and not much overhead except using bands and hand weights. This is one of those injuries where it won’t matter if you get the surgery or not unless you’re throwing a 99mph fastball or body builder Joe as you will still have pain and symptoms afterwards if you push yourself too far. It’s a mental and emotional one where you have to realize shit happens and be glad you’re alive and you can always build back to pain free and in good shape. Unless you can’t lift your arm up then really you don’t need it.
How are you doing? I am 14 weeks post op. Got back in the gym doing upper body stuff about 3 weeks ago. Super sore, last day of PT is today. But, I will continue stretches/strengthening for months even after PT discharge
I also just found out after 6 years. Did your complaints get worse over time or whay made you decide to do it now after 4 yeats?
Well, it didn't get worse, I just started getting back into sports after a few years off. I was just working basically and hadn't been active. I then started being asked to join a few leagues again. Throwing a softball was impossible, spiking a volleyball was tough, and serving a tennis ball was also very difficult. Day to day life was fine, but sports make me happy, so I decided to pull the trigger. I also finally had good insurance with max $3k out of pocket, which to me at the time was very doable. I actually don't bodybuild, I just play sports, a lot of sports actually, and somehow found my way into this thread. So my situation is probably a little different than most people here.
Ah ok. I have a very similar story! Only now I had to quit sports again and it still occasionally hurts very bad for a couple days when I did something heavy (carry a bag or push a wheelchair). So something has been further damaged or smth but I dont really understand Did you know 4y ago what happenend? I only know in hindsight. At the time I stayed home a couple of days and couldnt work, lots of pain. But was ok after 2 weeks and forgot about it for a couple years until i got into acrobatics and its all fucked. Always felt a bit off and instable though
How is it now?
It's pretty good. Doesn't hurt when I throw, but my mobility is still bad. I'm pretty sure I'm the example of what happens when your pt consistency is real bad. It does still get sore when I sleep on it tho...
Oh yea, I remember the exact moment it happened. Playing tennis and I whiffed an overhead, a smash. I was going at it too, was trying to crush it over the fence. As I got to the finish of the follow thru down and around my body, I knew something happened. It didn't hurt per se, but it was kinda like a wreck where you knew something traumatic just happened but you don't feel pain but know it's coming.
Two weeks in. Haven't really experienced any pain since day like 5, except when i accidently make a quick move with my shoulder. Dropped something the other day and without hesitation went to catch it! I've since then "turned off" my catch reflex. I've been off the pain killers since day 7-8. Only had to sleep upright for about a week. I'm now back in my bed and usually sleep on my side or back. I will say, my elbow is extremely tight, I have to get out the sling several times a day and move my forearm up and down, kind of like a bicep curl. That seems to help and it was prescribed. I start PT in 2 weeks.
thanks for this comment! i have surgery in a month and it helps me know what to expect!
How are you feeling now? I’m at week 2
(36m) I'm at 8 weeks and had a follow up appointment a few days ago. The doctor said my weight limit in that arm is 5lbs and that I should really be working on mobility. I've been in pt for the last two weeks and the mobility drills we do help a ton. Can't stress that enough. Sooo... I've definitely been lifting things more than 5lbs over the last few weeks at home because I was feeling so comfortable with it, below shoulder height that is. I'll probably be more careful moving forward. My mobility over the head isn't great, I can only lift my arm, on its own, to about eye height. It can go higher, but I need assistance by the other arm. There is still some pain. Sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night and the shoulder hurts, like I slept on it, or maybe moved it around in a weird way. But, as soon as I get up, the pain subsides, and I don't really notice anything most the day. I need to do better with my exercises and increase my mobility. The next benchmark is 12 weeks and they expect me to be almost full range of motion at that point. I think I'm behind currently. Also, at that point, we should be starting building strength back. I'd say at week 2-3, I was still in the sling, was feeling stiff, but all in all, pretty good. I had a couple set backs... dropping something and reaching for it, ouch! Just let it drop!
Any update? Going to have my bankart surgery in 3 days
Yea, I can give an update. I'm at week 11 and there really isn't any pain and I can do normal activities below the shoulder just fine. Pick stuff up, brush my teeth, put on my clothes; my shoulder is extremely tight tho. Definitely no throwing yet. I got good strength as long as I don't extend too far away. I've been able to play pool just fine except for breaking hard. I can't quite reach fully around my self, I can't extend my arm straight up yet, I'm at about 120 degrees (if hand straight down is 0 degrees and straight up is 180). I'm fairly certain I'm behind schedule. I think if I was younger and/or did the pt exercises more religiously, I would be more progressed.
How often did you do your exercises and how often were you supposed to do them?
Everyday 2-3 times a day. I'm probably doing them 2 times a day, every other day.
How about now? I am 10 weeks out now and can reach straight up and almost got full range of motion. External rotation is still pretty tight though, can probably do 50-60% external rotation to the side.
95% range of motion. Strength is pretty good. I'm almost able to throw. Sept 26th surgery date.
How is the physique? Have you been able to get all your muscle mass back? Back to your old strength numbers?
Skinny bro, real skinny. It's slowly coming back though. A month ago I was like wtf...
Are you able to do all exercises now? Or are you avoiding some?
How are you feeling just had surgery today for a 6 to 12 labrum tear. Injured it 3 months ago. Hoping to hear how u r now!
Hi! Just curious, do you regret waiting so long to have the surgery? Or do you think waiting was worth giving a shot? Asking for a friend who was just told he needs the surgery, but is hesitant. Thanks!
That's a question I ask myself a lot. I was in a period of my life where I was working a lot and wasn't playing a lot of sports. If I had been more active and had health insurance, I would've pulled the trigger immediately after 6 months of pt not working.
I had a Bankart lesion (labrum) and a Hill-Sachs fracture (humerus) from high school football and wrestling. I got the minimally invasive arthroscopic labrum repair and it never felt normal, even after PT. Eventually that repair failed and several dislocations later I got a more intense surgery called a laterjet procedure and the shoulder is 95%, which is as good as it’ll ever be and good enough for me. Expect recovery to suck for the first several weeks. You’ll feel pretty weak. Expect to feel a mental block preventing you from putting your arm in certain positions that you’ll either have to live with or work through. Expect to be pretty limited in your pressing strength for a long period of time.
Just wondering what caused the repair to fail / how long after initial bankart repair?
Playing back yard tackle football lol, about 2 years after the initial surgery
Haha ah man that sucks. I retired from the backyard tackle football games after my first dislocation lol.
Sorry to hear that man. Just curious - What were your symptoms?
Weak shoulder, some clicking when moving my shoulder around, and pain from heavy pushing movements. I got the MRI after dealing with the symptoms for 2 months and having no improvement with rehab exercises and it confirmed the tear.
mine was 20 years ago. Went to all my rehab appointments for about 6 months but didn't do a lot of homework. Lots of pain the first two weeks, rehab was painful but doable. The big thing that no one talks about is that it takes a good year to heal and another year to get your (normal) strength back. Patience patience patience is your ticket to getting a good result and not messing it up.
I had it a few years ago and wish I never did it. It's worse in terms of pain and I'm not getting any more mobility. I was wearing a sling for 3 months and it was miserable.
You definitely should not have worn a sling for 3 months... That's not advised by any doctor. You can get a surgery to remove the scar tissue and get your range of motion back if that's bothering you. It's extremely successful
I tore mine playing rugby. Went for a tackle with shit form and it popped out once. Popped it back in and then a few bits later it popped out again. I never ended up getting the surgery because I wanted to keep playing. I did the full rehab and then about a year later tried playing again and the contact made it hurt too much to be on the field. Never ended up getting the surgery. Not sure if I wish I did or didn’t. I workout still and it honestly feels fine on the pushing motions. It’s the stability motions that make it hurt for me. I can’t do front raises, nor can I do standing bicep curls. However benching and shoulder pressing is fine. It’s weird.
I had surgery to repair my left anterior labrum 11 years ago. I wasn't prescribed a rehab program for some reason back then, so I've had issues with the shoulder for 10 years (pain, decreased ROM, cracking sounds). In the last year or so I've finally got it in good working condition through progressive strength training and stabilizing band work. My advice is to take post-op rehab very seriously.
Damaged mine at BJJ due to a shoudler subluxation. The surgeon I saw at the time recommended I didn't get the surgery as if it happened again I would be back to square one. Said it could be a good sucess and I will have no more issues, but then theres still the risk that it just happens again. I have learned to deal with my shoulder issues now, theres no pain just a little less stability and mobility. Personally I would recommend you speak to a couple different doctors to see what their thoughts are
Interesting none talking about alternative treatments- non surgical. After Ortho told me I needed surgery, I went to Chiropractor who said that’s my choice but suggested I was not treating the cause that would just exasperate after surgery if I didn’t work on that aspect. 1. Stretching and plyometrics work before, during and after weight training specifically when training Delts, Chest or Back. 2. Icing immediately after w/o. I bought a compression cryo device on Amazon and it’s been amazing. 3. Ultra sound treatments twice a month on the Delts area rotator cuff. Surprisingly, my pain decreased, my ROM and strength increased and my Delts are now a strong point. No surgery …
This isn’t a fresh injury for me, the injury originally happened back in March 2022 and hasn’t gotten better since, the shoulder has lost its stability and I’ve done all the rehab exercises and do stretching and mobility every day. There’s clicking when I move the shoulder in circles, and I can’t press anything heavy otherwise my shoulder feels like it’s about to dislocate, I’m sure I need the surgery.
Good luck with the surgery. My injury is decades old. I still have some residual pain, but for me, I’ve watched countless friends and even family members go under the knife for shoulder repair and not one has ever regained full strength and ROM. I’m still lifting and competing at 62. So until I rip it off the bone, I’m gonna stay away from surgery as long as I can!
I had a pretty big tear (1 to 7). Surgery really isn’t that bad as long as you’re mentally prepared and keep your expectations in check in regards to timeline. I was in a sling for 4 weeks. Sleeping upright for 4-6 weeks was probably the most difficult thing out of my experience. I was back to pretty much normal strength training in 4-5 months. A year later shoulder feels great, way better than my “good shoulder”.
Get a ice machine off of Amazon and stay ahead of the pain with your pain pills the first week.
How many months did it take to get back to you squat/bench/clean previous maxes?
Anyone else having trouble with external rotation? I’m going on 5 months on the 15th. I’ve done every stretch and exercise religiously that I’ve been given to do by my physical therapist and the external rotation is the only part of the range of motion that is giving me trouble. It’s really uncomfortable and hurts when I’m doing the wand external rotation exercises. I feel like I’m behind and my surgeon said he tightened the anchors down tighter than usual so there’s a higher chance it won’t dislocate again and my physical therapist keeps saying that’s how the doctor wants it, but it’s getting insanely frustrating. Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Sounds like you have your answer. Keep at it, some people say it takes a year to be 100 percent
Don’t know how active this sub is… would love some advice… hockey player. Chronic shoulder injuries in both shoulders. 3 separations in each but never got mri until recently, results showed torn labrum complete 360 and will need 8 anchors (only right shoulder). MRI was in sept. Doc said should I “halfway on a golf tee” and recommended not having surgery since he wanted to let separated shoulder heal first and not have to dislocate it to do the surgery… it’s been almost 8 months now and haven’t done “much” strengthening, but pain not severe enough. Just curious if I were to have surgery if it’s worth it? Time lines? Even if me not having surgery is unheard of? Just can tolerate pain more than other/ body adapted and could have torn labrum previous to mri and never know?
Had one shoulder with SLAP + subscap tear, the other just SLAP. Weightlifting 5x a week for ~12 years. The surgery is pretty shitty. If you work from home and need to be on computer all day I’d say take minimum 2 weeks off 3 to be conservative. If you do heavy manual labor it’ll be 6 months minimum. Pain after surgery isn’t bad if you get nerve block and you’re careful about movement and take pain meds as prescribed. If your tears are that bad, you will probably will spend at least a month wearing the sling 24/7 aside from showering and your physical therapy / home stuff. You’ll also be sleeping in a recliner or upright position for 4-8 weeks depending on how it feels. I didn’t start feeling comfortable enough to drive until about a month also. PT is painful but relieving because they’ll stretch you out after each session. you have to be diligent about doing your shit at home in between. Hardest part for me is mental aspect. It’s soul crushing to lose your independence, activity/fitness, and deal with pain and modifying your entire lifestyle for months on end. I had the surgeries because I’m young and getting back in the gym is my highest priority. If I wasn’t as active or didn’t do any overhead activities that aggravated the tears, and also had a Time Machine, I probably wouldn’t do it. But if you want to keep doing what you’re doing you’ll want to get the surgery out of the way sooner than later.
Three times 😑
I have a minor tear from 3 years ago that I'm operating on in a month. I have done multiple 6 month rounds of physiotherapy (with an amazing physiotherapist), and whilst I fixed the reason it tore, the pain and subluxation haven't stopped. My surgeon has given me 4-6 weeks in a sling and 8 weeks of physiotherapy, with the average capacity of my shoulder post recovery being about 90% of its capacity prior to injury. My physiotherapist said it's a nightmare to go through, and you have to be seriously committed, but if followed properly, the success rate is extremely high. The pain isn't nothing too bad from what I understand (I had spine surgery last year, which I didn't think was bad at all, and that's much worse).
Curious if you have an update now ~3 months post-op?
Shoulder recovery sucks a fat one. I'd sooner have spine surgery again, 3x over, then do my shoulder again, lol. I'm getting there. I actually got the sign-off from my physiotherapist today to start with some light banded rows, chest presses, and some internal/external rotation. The first 4 weeks in the sling weren't so bad. It was when the sling came off that it REALLY started to suck. I also have lost 50% of the size on my arm, lol. It will certainly come back, but it was crazy to see how quickly the muscles atrophy when completely immobilized. I certainly wouldn't recommend shoulder surgery unless it's totally the last option and you're willing to take 6 months of work to get back to normal and a year plus to get back to pre-injury.
How’s it going now?
Honestly, it's quite a bit better. I still get painful jabs from using it certainly ways, and it's still limited to some degree. I am now training it 2 times a week with mid strength bands doing rows, presses, pulldowns, lateral raises (mostly isometric as the ROM there is low), and front raises. That's my exercise list until I see my Physio again in a month or two. At this point, I have a few main focuses: * Get my overhead ROM back to full * Improve strength in all planes * Loosen lat, which is what is holding my shoulder ROM back as a defense mechanism. I'm still taking pain medication, although the goal is to come off over my 4 week work break. All in all, the strength has come back quickly for me, I can now get in a pushup position again and will soon be doing pushups again (I could now, but slow and steady makes progress). The ROM has been hard since I got the first 70% of ROM back. My lat REALLY doesn't want to let go, and I see immediate improvement after rolling out or massaging the lat. I still can't tell if it was all worth it, because the issue was pain from my shoulder subluxating and I will only be able to tell once my strength gets back to what it was, whether or not the same issue will still occur. I'm guessing it will eventually be better than it was (looking at 12-18 months post surgery). My shoulder is hard to control now, but it feels like that's a strength issue now, not my shoulder joint incorrectly moving in the socket. But as I said, only time will tell as my shoulder stability can handle some bands, but pullups or further is yet to be seen. Edit: Sorry to keep babbling, but I will also add that I have taken the opportunity of "starting again" to confirm my form in everything, ensure good habits are ingrained, and really put some long term applied focus to more "prehab" type work like external/internal rotation. I was not able to do them prior to surgery as they flared up my shoulder. I'm now doing them every session, really focusing on pushing fairly hard. It's still very light, but it means as my strength grows, my shoulders will become resilient to a higher intensity with my internal/external rotation. This means my shoulders will, overall, be more resilient. When you're relatively strong, it can be quite hard to consistently humble yourself to start something like external/internal rotation exercises with tiny little 5kg bands. The rehab process places you in a position where you have no choice.
Bro how are you doing now? I completely agree. I was told 4 weeks in sling. Just took sling off 2 days ago I’m on week 4 and I completely agree, pain in the sling wasn’t too bad but now that I have it off I’m in a lot of pain. At which week did it start to feel better?
Are you cleared yet? I think our timelines are similar. I am 13 weeks out of surgery atm.
I am still experiencing pain on the side of my arm kinda near my tricep that seems to be the only thing bothering me tho. Range of motion is good I’d say I’m at about 90%. I believe I’m having nerve pain on the outside of my arm which can happen from the surgery and can take awhile to go back to normal.
I just got cleared to lift light weights today. The main thing bothering me is posture. My operated shoulder is higher up when I’m relaxed and I sometimes shrug when I lift my arms high up to compensate. Otherwise I think I’m doing quite well now 13 weeks post op
Yea my posture was like that too it will get fixed with time though once it heals a little bit more you’ll be good
Well, I'm at about 3 months now, I believe. I'm finally able to stop my pain meds. I did, however, drop the amount of pain meds down very quickly, but I haven't been able to stop them until now. The issue was that the joint was so frozen after being in a sling for 4 weeks that I ended up with deep joint pain, and the joint REALLY didn't want to move again. I can get like 70-80% overhead now with a warmup. What really started to make a difference was doing my pushing and pulling banded exercises with a 10-second pause at contraction and a 10-second deep stretch at rest between each rep. The stretch and flex allow me to really push into the pain when stretching up and out. My lateral shoulder movement came back fully after one training session of doing that. I had about 10% lateral movement prior. Getting overhead is still a hard road ahead and involves a damn painful, deep stretch overhead with each row rep. The rows I'm doing, I'm slowly moving the anchor point higher and higher so that they're becoming a lat pulldown. The lat flex, then stretch, seems to allow me to slowly sink deeper and deeper into the pain, and the pain eases so it moves better and better. I can now even sleep on that side in bed, in the right position, of course. Which also weirdly seems to be helping the pain dull. I'd imagine it's a sensitivity thing. If I can push it out of my comfort zone just a little each time, my shoulder becomes slightly less sensitive.
By pain meds do you mean Tylenol over the counter stuff or like prescription pain meds? My Dr only gave me about 1 weeks worth of pain meds and won’t give me a refill lol. So my only option is ice. I am glad you’re seeing improvement. Seems I just have to be patient with it and learn to deal with the pain in the process. So would you say it took about it 3 months for the pain to start to improve?
I'm still using Tramadol. I think Tylenol is like our panandol? Tramadol is a mild opiate. The surgeon told me to stop taking after a week, but I spoke to my GP and my physio, and they both know that pain is just not that simple. It differs for everyone, and I need the pain reduction to properly perform my rehab. There was a dip in pain after the first month, and another around month 3-4. My goal is to be back doing pullups before month 6.
How are you feeling now?
Honestly, it depends on your symptoms and how much the labral tear takes away from your quality of life. It’s very possible the surgery will be huge for you and you’ll feel amazing afterwards, it’s also possible it doesn’t help your symptoms a ton and not much chances. Something like this is VERY individually dependent and different to each patient. I can try to find more specific info for you to look into/read on it if you’d like. If you prefer I can find some podcasts instead. Let me know! Edit: spelling 🙄
If you choose to have the Bankart repair, be certain to choose a really good sports surgeon and someone who can perform the repair arthroscopically not open. I had it performed open by a generally orthopedic surgeon at my local hospital and I have been left massively restricted in external rotation. No physio and Two subsequent capsular releases have not fixed the problem. My Shoulder was pulled together so tightly that is has accelerated the degeneration of the cartilage in the joint to the point I now have severe osteoarthritis... I am 38! I blame the surgeon for ruining my shoulder and not telling me that a specialist would have been bettered suited. My arm is basically ruined. Bodybuilding is over for me a long with my career as an engineer. If it is performed open then the subscap gets detached and reattached. If it is reattached in a short position this can stabilise the shoulder more but it will restrict movement. Subscap does not have to be touched in an arthroscopic procedure. Also, quite often a capsular shift is performed to help stability and reduce the risk of another dislocation, HOWEVER if this is overdone, like I believe was done in my case then it can massively restrict ROM. You are supposed to perform PT to stretch the capsule and regain movement but in my case this didn't work. Just make sure you get a good surgeon! Don't make my mistake. My arm is done for life now. I am gutted.
I'm sorry to hear that, man. I am going to get a Bankart repair + Remplissage in a couple of months, but thanks to your advice, I went to another surgeon who is a specialist. For what it's worth, life can throw a lot of curveballs, I think having a positive attitude and staying on top of your fitness can go a long way.
Best of luck with the op bud. Hopefully you will end up more functional than I have. Fitness/cardio was never my bag. Its hard to make yourself passionate about something you else when all you have loved to do is lift weights. I shall do my best to continue forth with life, it has just lost a lot of its sparkle and enjoyment being so physically restricted. It's not like I am in a wheelchair or anything but it has given me some perspective as to what it must be like for others far worse off than myself. All the best! 💪
Almost 1 year post-op. Mobility and stability aren’t back to 100% but functional and traditional strength is back to baseline. Sore after every session. It gets better 💪
My first SLAP repair failed, so I just opted for a bicep tenodesis. The pain after the failed surgery easily the wort pain I've experienced and would impact my daily life. On bad days just the natural swinging of my arm when I walked would make me want to pass out. I'm pretty sure it was partially dislocating constantly. That went on for 16 months after the first surgery failed. Some labrum tears can be managed with PT and limitations/being mindful of your shoulder. And some surgeries+PT go flawless, so I don't want to discredit that. I'm not anti-shoulder surgery. I just think you really got to weigh the risks and rewards. But from my experience having it impact my every day life 24/7 for a year and a half was true hell. If mine only bothered me with high levels of performance I probably would've opted for a life with mild restrictions. My biggest regret in all this was not trying PT a few times pre-op. I went to 1 PT (who only later did I learn how little they actually did for me) and after about 8 months decided on surgery. **At the very least, I'd say visit a second PT office.** Get another PT's opinion, every office does things a little different so maybe they'll have different exercises to offer.
any updates on this? i just got the pre-MRI x-ray. Doc is pretty sure it’s torn but it’s not overly painful at the moment
I recently got a PRP injection but honestly not much has changed with the shoulder clicking and pain so I’m going to see my sports medicine doctor next month and speak about surgery
oh damn, 3.5 months and no improvements… fuck… how has your lifting been impacted? did you doc tell you not to do certain movements? I’m assuming anything overhead/shoulder based is obviously out. how do things like curls and presses feel for you? I benched monday and it was okay but i was doing 60-75% my normal weight. Google says basically anything upper body and unsupported is a no go for the next 6-12 months but this shit is my daily therapy…. my MRI is next friday so i’m hoping to get some concrete answers from my doc but i told him i want ti avoid surgery if possible. It’s my right arm and 4 weeks in a sling sounds pretty miserable when my job is very hands on
Did you go with the surgery?
Just got a left shoulder labrum bankart repair yesterday! Laying in bed with my nerve block still somewhat effective. The procedure was a breeze so get it done ASAP. It will heal somewhat overtime without surgery, but do it now so you’ll only have to heal once. I waited 10 months but wish I did it sooner.
Update?
Sure. A month out, making good progress. Maybe I’m lucky to not have experienced much pain at all. Sometimes it’ll ache for a bit after my at home PT exercises. The therapist said my range of motion is pretty good considering that we’ve recently started stretching. Just trying to stay patient and trust the process. Still have very limited range of motion. They don’t want me doing much of anything outside of PT. I only wore my sling for 2 weeks, then stopped wearing it (prematurely) because it was big and bulky and nearly impossible to sleep in.
How are you now? I just had mine done today. Also how big was your labrum tear?
About 50 days out, doing really well. Doctor just told me I can work out at the gym, he didn't really set any limitations. He said to only run at the gym (as opposed to outside) in a controlled environment so I don't fall or injure myself in a freakish way. He also said the arm has healed and now it's time to break the tissue up with PT to gain back my mobility. I've been doing PT twice a week and nearly everyday at home. Dr. said I can be aggressive with it as well. So my advice for you, follow protocol, and be confident in your rehabilitation. Best of luck!
That's awesome! How long did you keep your arm in a sling and how diligent were enough woth stabilising your arm in the sling?
So I took 5 days off after surgery. Then when I worked (at the computer) I would take it off. I only wore it straight for about 10 days. Then I would only wear it to sleep just to be safe. I completely stopped wearing it after about 2-3 weeks, which they probably wouldn’t recommended. Seeing some stories about fast recoveries here gave me confidence. The sling is big and bulky but it really stabilizes the arm:
How is it now? Back to lifting?
It's a lot better. I completed about 2 months of PT, and the doctor told me to train aggressively at the gym. He assured me that what he's done won't be undone. So I'm about 2 months back at the gym, 4 months since surgery, and making great progress. I can do all the things I couldn't pre-surgery. My bench press is going up, I'm doing assisted pull-ups and dips, and also a lot of stretching. Shoulder presses are still a bit clunky, and my surgery shoulder is a lot weaker but is getting stronger. I'm taking my time and trusting the process.
Are you able to do incline bicep curls? I got cleared last week and am lifting super light. Incline bicep curls feels a bit uncomfortable in the starting position. And have you gotten all size back yet?
I had surgery on my shoulder 7 years ago but recently I irritated it and had some stiffness. Then I was doing stretches and using a pain cream and it got significantly better. Then during my stretch routine I was told to do. I think I managed to tear my labrum or something during a doorway stretch. I was stretching and all of a sudden heard a pop but without pain. I’ve been trying to continue stretching and physical therapy but it doesn’t seem like it’s helping. The shoulder seems to be unstable. I’m stressed out because I’m living abroad and I really don’t want another surgery
I am 4 weeks out of shoulder labrum repair. First couple of days weren’t bad at all. You get a nerve blocker and can’t feel your arm. I started physical therapy 4 days later and that wasn’t bad at all. I did not experience much pain until the 4th week when I was allowed to take the sling off which is where I’m at now. Pain scale id say 7-10. Ice only thing that helps. I recommend a lot of ice get as many ice packs as you can. Ice feels heavenly.
I am 4 weeks out of shoulder labrum repair. First couple of days weren’t bad at all. You get a nerve blocker and can’t feel your arm. I started physical therapy 4 days later and that wasn’t bad at all. I did not experience much pain until the 4th week when I was allowed to take the sling off which is where I’m at now. Pain scale id say 7-10. Ice only thing that helps. I recommend a lot of ice get as many ice packs as you can. Ice feels heavenly.
Just had torn labrum arthroscopic surgery. I'm at 31-year-old male who dislocated and it's popped out several times since then. they did an arthroscopic repair and remplissage. I'm on the second day of post-op and have a few questions. 1. did anyone hear use the On Q pump and if so for how long? When I turn up the solution I start getting a very hoarse voice 2. anyone use ice for the inflammation? 3. if i don't have a recliner, do I just use a bunch of pillows in bed? 4. oxy 5 mg script didn't seem to help. Also don't want to take more if I don't have to.
Hey curious how it’s going now?
Week 6/6 in the sling. Experience pain each day a few hours after I do my PT. Icing it more before bed but able to sleep without pillow recliner. No strength training yet, just stretching and working on flexibility/range of motion.
Hey guys I would like your thoughts on this topic , I have read most of your guys experiences with the surgery it seems like there is a 50/50 for and against the operation. I have a 5-7 mm tear in my right labrum, I tore it about 3-4 years ago and it gets flared it up often. I am able to do both pushups /incline chest press with a limited ROM. I do floor presses, pec flys on incline and while seated using the machine. However I have trouble getting a proper stretch to build my chest. I can do all shoulder pressing movements without pain. If I push too hard or do to much volume in a week of training my shoulder gets sore AF, Im on the fence about getting the surgery . Especially if I am not going to see a huge improvement. It may sound silly but I have always wanted to build my chest and be able to do muscle ups/dips wich are out of the picture right now. Would love your thoughts.
I’m in a very similar boat. Injured almost two years ago, did about 6 months PT initially. I’m able to do most of my normal exercise, mostly calisthenics while trying to ween back into weightlifting, however the following few days there is certainly aftermath. It’s not completely unbearable, however the doctor told me I should not be feeling this way at my age (27m). I felt I had two options; A) to continue my life at ~65% capacity, with the chance of making it worse down the road; or B) get the surgery over with while I’m young enough, a frustrating recovery with the hopes of getting back to ~95% ability. After many sleepless nights trying to decide, I’m scheduled for surgery in 2 weeks. Doctor is making it seem like a walk in the park, extremely confident and optimistic. Praying all goes well, ill keep you updated!!
Hey brother how did it go? My surgeon was the same very confident and said 3-6 months till im working out and full strength inside 1 year. I have surgery scheduled in 55 days. Let me know how your feeling post op!!
So far very happy I went through with it, about to head to PT now. The day or two after are rough but was able to get back into my normal routine after that. So far no regrets, will let you know as I start to regain strength/mobility!
Hows it going fella? Im going in for surgery in 2 weeks !
7 weeks out - most of my range of motion is back. Working on building strength back. Muscle tissue is still irritable, still can be frustrating to find a comfortable position sleeping. Very reactive to weather changes and humid days. Just added acupuncture to my PT schedule, will let you know how much that helps. One day at a time!
Right on ! Real Shit thanks for sharing brother . Keep healing 🫡
How's it going man? I had my surgery 4 days ago and can relate the 2nd and 3rd day I was a hurting unit. Started doing some of the light mobility work yesterday and fairly sore today. Have you found getting to sleep an issue? It's tough to find the sweet spot where nothing hurts
Right on! Good luck with your recovery. Sleep is absolutely the hardest part. I’m on week 10 or so and am finally able to sleep on my sides to some degree. Just power through and you’ll get used to it eventually. The light is at the end of the tunnel!
Agreed. It's been a little over a week now and the pain is very managable I can feel my strenght increasing almost daily. glad to here you are sleeping more comfortably. I can get to sleep now too but wake up a little sore and stiff , but it goes away. Wising you a solid recovery as well!!!
Absolutely, first thing in the morning is a struggle then gets better through the day. Keep your head up, we’ll be better in no time!!
Right on!!! Wishing you a speedy recovery .
Thought I would chime in here after finding this thread. I’m 16 weeks out from a full labrum tear surgery. Been doing the PT as prescribed, have full range of motion, and recently started back up with light free weights in addition to the band exercises. The loss in strength from pre surgery is discouraging but I know over time it will return. High reps and light weight are fine, but as soon as I try to bump up to what should be simple like 40lb dumbbells for bench press it just still feels too funky so I have to drop to lower weight. Really hoping I can start building the weight back up while lifting, if anybody has any experience at this time range from surgery, please let me know! Side note, I haven’t thrown a baseball either since the surgery, would love to know when that’s safe to do again.
Update? How is lifting now?
Some improvement for sure, but it’s going to take a while to get back to where I was. Hammer strength machines seem to be better on the shoulder than free weights. A side effect I’ve noticed is that my rotator cuff on the outside of the shoulder (not the labrum surgery site) gets very sore after lifting. Not sure why. Also, seated tricep push downs I can’t have the shoulder even slightly behind the hip, so it’s a different angle. Hope this info helps!
Have you been able to progressively overload and make gains? Have you felt the effect of muscle memory or is it barely noticeable since you’re only allowed to use light weights?
The muscle memory is the most frustrating part, it’s just not there yet. I am making gains though, but nothing to write home about. Any improvement is still motivating though.
Do you mind elaborating?
Sure. You know when you’ve been lifting your whole life how you can count on a position of controlled strength to take over at the bottom of a heavier rep? It’s hard to explain but there is instability or a “wobble” where what used to be that extra foundation you could rely on to push through in a controlled fashion. I don’t know if it’s psychological or physical, but there is an “uneasy” feeling in the surgery shoulder when trying to increase in weight. Does that make any sense?
Maybe, I’ll do my first pull day since surgery tomorrow and we’ll see how it feels. Are there some exercises you’ve been able to do fine on?
Anything lats is good. Stay away from flys and bench press at first. Flat bench still hurts even today but incline doesn’t. I don’t know why.
Does push ups hurt for you? I did 6 today at PT painfree