Rehab for Labral Tears

Hey GB community,

 

I have recently found out that I have torn both of my labrums in my shoulders. I'm opting out of surgery as I use to work in orthopedic surgery and I know the rehab is miserable and the success of the surgery isn't very high. I am going to let them scar back down and continue to work on my mobility at that point.

 

My question is, has anyone else ever dealt with this and found some sort of rehab that just blew your mind? I have been working on my sub scapular strength and contraction. My upper traps are extremely dominant and I have been working on rotator cuff strength as well as capsular stretches. I have heard that people have had success with thera-blades, but I don't want to invest in one if it is useless. I am the head coach at a gym so I don't mind purchasing things because then my girls can utilize it if need be.

 

Any thoughts or ideas?

 

Thanks in advance,

Sean

 

I had great success with labrum surgery. Tore the labrum and the rotator cuff in the same shoulder. Had (2) separate surgeries, labrum repair, 5 months of rehab, rotator repair, 5 months of rehab. Then I started completely over, with everything. Worked very basic support positions (dip support, plank, reverse plank, bar hangs, etc.). I even spent about 2 months working up the plate rack on the dip/pullup assistance machine for dips, pullups, and even hangs. I took my time, stretched multiple times a day every day, increased resistance on the stuff my PT guy had me doing in rehab and kept doing it. My band routine is still my shoulder warm up today. Slowly worked into advancing my basic calisthenics back into GST, then Foundations and H1 was launched and good golly Miss Molly!

 

It sounds like your mind is made up and in short I have no advice to letting this heal on its own. The things noted above may still be affective for you even if you don't do surgery. Just know that if you find a good surgeon, and an even better PT, make a decision that in 2 yrs you will be stronger than ever instead of 2 months, you can bounce back. Especially with the material out there now with H1 & F1-4. Good luck to you!

Try searching the forum. Both Daniel Burnham and I have posted about our respective post-op rehab.

In brief, going without surgery was not an option for me, as the shoulder would spontaneously dislocate when subjected to very little force, after a fall accident. Very glad I got the surgery.

Interesting. Well it sounds like I have some things to reconsider. My biggest negative to having the surgery is that I am still coaching a LOT. I am the head coach of a private club and I am constantly spotting. I don't have any other male coaches that work with me that can do the brunt of the spotting either. I just don't know when would be a good time of year for me to be out of commission. When I go down, so does my team. 

 

Were there any exercises that stuck out in your mind during rehab that worked extremely well? I will read up on the posts here and continue to do some research on keeping them as healthy as I can. Hopefully one day there will be some other muscle in the gym that can spot for me. 

 

Thank you both very much for the information. I appreciate it. 

You will not be able to spot for a while.  That much is certain.  Coincidentally do you work at KIPS?  I have been there several times.

No I don't work there. It is actually under new ownership and has gone downhill. I coach at a gym that opened up about 8 years ago called Olympic Warrior, now it is Jump'In Gymnastics. I'm assuming you went to KIPS when Victor and Vlad were coaching there? A good friend of mine was a gymnast there before it became Planet Gymnastics. His name is Tony Schwingle, he is our boys head coach right now. Vlad Novikov bought KIPS and is leasing it out now. It was too hard for him to run the gym in Hattiesburg and his gym in Mobile.