Rebuilding my shoulder

I signed up to the following courses six months ago.

• Fundamentals
• Foundation
• Handstand
• Stretch

I was making good progress, working out every day and building the kind of discipline that would ensure I succeed. 

Six weeks ago I was in hospital undergoing an emergency appendectomy - the surgeons report described it as putrid and gangrenous. It hadn't ruptured but it was bad. I made a quick recovery. There was however a secondary issue. When I arrived in hospital, I had all the normal signs of a very sick appendix. In addition I felt unbelievably cold. I was shivering uncontrollably. I also had sever pain in all my major joints - hips, shoulders, back and neck and a headache. I went through a serious of tests and scans and put on some pretty powerful painkillers. The pain in my joints dulled along with my appendix. After it was removed and they eased back on the pain meds, I was aware that my right shoulder was still very painful. I reported this to the doctors who told me it was probably due to being in bed for three days and during the operation, I was out cold, so may have lain awkwardly. I wasn't buying it. The pain started before I was admitted. Two days after discharge I was awake at 2am, on four kinds of pain killers. My shoulder was in so much pain, I headed for a 24hr clinic. They gave me more meds, insisted it was the result of being knocked out during the op. They also talked about frozen shoulder / tennis elbow . . . I don't think he really knew much and just gave me more pain meds. I found the only way to sleep was my office chair.

Since then, I have been to see a very good physio - I've given up on the doctors. She has worked on my mobility, performed plenty of deep massage and I gave me a set of gentle exercises. After a week the pain was almost gone and for the last two weeks there's no pain at all. I go back once a week, get another assessment and more exercise. My mobility has improved but my strength is almost non existent. Currently I can raise my arm to about 80º out front and 75º to the side. I can happily lift a 12kg kettle-bell out to perpendicular a dozen times with my left arm, but struggle with a 2kg on my right. I'm also overcompensation using big muscle groups. My physio has isolated the issue and it's the smaller stabilizing core muscles that are weak. I'm desperate to get back into GST, which is why I'm posting. I repeatedly read about success stories here, normally posted on Facebook. There's a video showing someone demonstrating phenomenal shoulder mobility as a result of the handstand course or similar. Often the back story mentions the chronic situation they were in a few years back with shoulder injuries or overworked tightness, shot joints etc. I very carefully tried to repeat the first set of shoulder exercises from handstand 1 and it was comical. I can't do scapular shrugs, dips, pushups, german arm swings, incline rows etc.

How do I get started? How do I use GST to rebuild my shoulder and just back to my normal?

How did other people with shoulder issues get started - if you're one of them please share - did you keep an online journal, blog and can look at? 

Thanks,

Edward

Hey Edward,

I'm really happy to hear you found a good physio to help you! The answer to your question is simple-keep working with your physio and, so long as they approve the exercises, rebuild your strength with the course progressions. Starting back from PE1, step 1, in with every movement may seem like a major setback at first but you really can't get enough of the basics. Be patient and take this time to allow your weaker shoulder to catch back up, perfect your form, and ensure adequate mobility. My training partner injured his back a little over a year ago and, once cleared from his physio, began retraining from the very beginning. He is now stronger than before AND more mobile, thanks to only the most basic progressions. Just be sure to work closely with your physio and remain patient! 

Thanks Everett - very sound advice and seeing it written down makes me wonder why I didn't think of that approach! 

I'll wait til after the update and start planning a program. 

Is it ok if I show my physio some of the the GST routines online? 

Edward, one approach you might like to try, with your physio or a trusted training parter, is to have the other person holdy your body and guide the relevant limb into position. It's common for people to not be able to sense the position of their body (the banana handstand is one example) so some external cueing is needed.

For example, scap shrugs. Get down on hands and knees. Have your partner place a hand between your shoulder blades. Let your breastbone sink towards the floor; there should now be a ridge (middle edges of your shoulder blades) that your partner can feel. Now press your back - and your partner's hand - towards the ceiling, and "fill in" the gap between the shoulder blades. Once the body's "positional sense" figures out what the movement should be, the movement will become easier.

German arm swings: get your partner to guide (not push, but guide, within your range of motion limits) the arm. As your arm moves OUT of the position, get your partner to offer a little resistance - this gives the arm more of an idea as to where it should go.

At a really high level, look at this manna facilitation from the Sydney seminar: at around 19 seconds, the student is helped into the manna position. Same idea!

I had (what turned out to be) significant muscle imbalances in my right shoulder that caused me a lot of pain. I eventually found a great physio who has assessed me, massaged my muscles, run me through corrective exercises, and assigned homework between sessions. I'm now starting back with all the upper body elements I couldn't perform for most of this year  

Before I start any new element, I perform the exercise for my physio and get her feedback. She didn't allow full ROM incline push ups at first, for example (I wasn't allowed to have my elbows come past my body line), but now I'm cleared for full ROM so long as I maintain protraction throughout. 

She saw that I was unnecessary straining my neck and squeezing my chest during a mobility exercise, so she scaled it down in a way I wouldn't have thought to, until I got that under control, then I was approved to return to the full exercise. 

All that to say--I highly reccomend merging GST and your physio so you're safely challenging your shoulder to be the best it can be.

best of luck!

Thank you Nicholas and Julia. I'm now feeling optimistic, your advice is very encouraging. I'm seeing my physio on Thursday so in the mean time I will run through all the exercises in my GST and take some notes. She's very good at hands on during exercise and has already helped me isolate my lower lats so I can engage them them for some basic manoeuvres. 

Hey Edward, 

Long thoracic nerve impingement presents with these symptoms, the night time pain in particular. 

If you have been doing a bit of Trap and shoulder work it is a possibility. 

A sport specialist was the only one to be able to diagnose my injury. 4 physios and 3 Doctors later. Since then 3 of the physios have told me of other diagnosis they have made since. So not uncommon. 

Dan