Shoulder rehab

Hi all,

I injured my shoulder by trying to do a muscle up several months ago. At the transition point my shoulder went into a range of extension that it had never felt before and I felt the pain immediately. After a few months it settled a bit but then I irritated it by benching heavy and it got a lot worse than before.

I am a doctor and am pretty sure it was a rotator cuff injury. It has gradually been improving. I first abstained from all upper body work, then gradually itroduced band internal and external rotation, shrugs, prone lateral raises. Then I moved on to isometric holds and weighted holds in the various shoulder position. Now I am at internal and external rotation in the 90-90 position, which is possibly the best thus far, as I feel it is taxing the joint and I get that almost pleasurable dull ache.

The improvement has been gradual. At first I had pain on minimal activity eg turning the car steering wheel, putting on clothes. Then I started active rehab. That pain went. Then I only had pain when taxing the shoulder eg pushups, bench, shoulder press. I am now improved again and can do pushups without pain. However, if I try an archer push up or archer pull up the pain shoots up again.

My rehab has gone well. I hope you enjoyed this account and welcome any Qs. Additionally, does anyone know any further good rehab exercises for the shoulder that may help me to progress further?

Regards,

J

Hi Joseph,

Have you had an MRI on the shoulder to rule out a tear?

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

On 9/2/2016 at 11:51 PM, Coach Sommer said:

Hi Joseph,

Have you had an MRI on the shoulder to rule out a tear?

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Hi Coach,

No I haven't. I thought about it for a long time but in the end didn't go for it.

I figured that I didn't have a complete rotator cuff tear as I had pretty good range of motion and only had pain with specific end-of-movement patterns. I also had good strength it was just the pain. That leaves me with a partial tear which responds only to rehab. Even if I had a complete tear I wouldn't have opted for surgery so figure the MRI wouldn't help.

There is a small possibility I had a SLAP tear but I believe clinically it didn't look or feel like that and the response to physio also suggests it's not. Having said all that if somebody offered me a free MRI in the morning I would probably get one out of curiosity. Having said that, in the hands of a skilled operator, ultrasound is a more sensitive means of diagnosing rotator cuff tendinopathy. 

Joseph

Hi Joseph, 

I definitely recommend taking Coach Sommer's advice on a MRI to really understand what is going on. Let us know what the results are. 

Best of luck. 

Hi Joseph,

Whether an MRI or an ultrasound is used is inconsequential.  What is important is to get a clear idea of the situation at hand, rather than assuming or hoping for the best and perhaps treating an injury inappropriately.  Most of the time, you are correct, it will be the lesser injury.  However other times ...

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach and Tanya,

I appreciate the sentiment. Thanks for your views!

J