Help shoulder slap lesion?

Hey guys I've been doing gymnastics since winter of 2009 (I'm 21) and this past year in late october, I hurt my shoulder.

I went to a chiro (airrosti real good) and he told me I had impingement so he had me doing bands and icing it.

It was almost 100% two months later then...last week I did an inlocate ( how I hurt myself to start with) and then I reinjured. I went back to him and he told me it was new injury. He said it could be a slight SLAP lesion tear.

he told me to take it easy this week which i have done and that I should see him in a week so that means this Friday or next Monday.

My question/concern is what do you guys know about that?

I don't want surgery and he doesn't either. Since it is only a slight tear from what he thinks (no MRI) what do you guys recommend/ suggest?

He agreed with me that it probably won't be like 3 months till I can do stuff like inlocate/dislocate on rings.

I pretty much have 100% range of motion. It just hurts a teeny bit and I have some instability and it was hurting whilst runing but that has pretty much gone away so my hope is that it is getting better.

thanks so much

If you had an impingement problem caused by inlocates, 2 months probably wasn't enough time. Shoulder problems like that are really slow to heal. Do be conservative this time, i know 3-6 months is a long time, but that's how long it takes. After that it doesn't mean its ok to just start up again, you will have to build up. In this case third time is not a charm.

The band work etc will help as well. Honestly, i wouldn't pick a chiro for this type of problem, if there's a sports medicine option you can get to it would be better, my opinion.

You can also start looking into Eric Cressey, He is a well know sports rehab guy, who has helped lots of major league pitchers get through slap tears. He has some good info.

my chiro is a sports specialist he was a college baseball player and is a sports rehab specialist.

He was referred to me by a doc who's specialty is sports medicine.

You're right man. I'm going to wait. I only have 1 shoulder, love gymnastics, and I'm young.

The only reason was that I thought I wasn't going to get to train gymnastics after July cause I'm changing schools but there's a gymnastics club at the university I'm going to and I'm going to be training with another gymnsatics gym down there too.

So all is well and there is in all reality no need to endanger my shoulder.

Yeah the band stuff did help.

thanks for your response.

Don't do more inlocates and dislocates before you prepare your shoulders very well! You should have high ring swings so that the inlocate happens at ring height and thus does not stress the shoulders. Prepare the shoulders anyways though in the likely case that the inlocate happens well below ring height.

ok but before my injury I couldn't do the shoulder level inlocates.

But I'll keep it in mind.

I just want to reinforce what Razz is saying. I was hoping he would chime in as he has experience with Ring Dislocates that i don't.

However, even doing them with a stick on flat ground can be hard on the shoulders done improperly. Razz is 100% right that you can't do them while loaded, as i hope you are learning, sadly the hard way.

Razz can you give some detail about how to progress to the inlocate on rings? Is it just a matter of getting really high swings down or is there something else involved?

If you have injured at the inlocates, then all three: swings inlocates and strength are not good, specialy first two.

If done properly you can't never injur yourself! Swings must be high (heel wise and not chest wise) and must not be executed to inverted hang but over to front swing part. Higher they are, less stress on the shoulders, if perfect, then it's called giant swing (B value).

If I understood you got the first time ligamentum inflamation... Then you must rest and do alot of band work and other strength exercises to reinforce your rotator cuff. In first week or two you can use Voltaren gel, Naklofen or Ketonal gel (basicly everything to reduce inflamation, just like ice is doing it with vazoconstriction with vessels-vein).

Band work might not been executed/practiced correctly (even I needed carefull eye of skilled doctor and I have some knowledge about this). When for the first time done few exercises of scapula work (protraction work) at diffrent angles I had DOMS on seratus wich happend to me for the first time in 17 years history of training. So some exercises seems easy fullish not worth and maybe to easy, but at the end you can eliminate all your doubts.

And as others said: ligament inflamation can less from 3 month time to 6 month, muscle tears are easier to heal and last one month time.

Usualy I don't prefer talking about technique, because it's to difficult to explain via internet or forum.

I personally had a SLAP lesion last year. In my case it took about 9 months to resolve without surgery, however for a long period I wasn't aware it was a SLAP until I got an MRI, and once I knew it took about a further 3 months to heal.

Some things that helped me a lot.

Obviously strengthen Rotator cuff and upper trap and pretty much everything that gives shoulder stability.

Stretching of the rear shoulder capsule made a huge difference for me I cannot recommend this enough!! (For ideas on this you can check the mobility WOD he has some good rear capsule mobilising and stretching).

Bite the bullet and don't do anything that gives you pain, once I finally got this through my thick skull it healed well.

Good luck, hope this helps

UPDATE UPDATE

NO SLAP TEAR!!!! It is a miracle!!!

I passed all the shoulder tests. It was just a bad case of impingment. The inflammation is down!!!!!

I just have to take it easy

That is great to hear!

Just start to take your shoulder pre-hab, mobility and stretching seriously. Impingement, though not a SLAP tear, still is a slow heal.

Do everything you can to find out about how to take care of it, and slow down on the ring inlocates etc. Wait until the shoulder is healed, and then seek advice on how to learn the inlocates

Good luck!

Mr Brady said:

That is great to hear!

Just start to take your shoulder pre-hab, mobility and stretching seriously. Impingement, though not a SLAP tear, still is a slow heal.

Do everything you can to find out about how to take care of it, and slow down on the ring inlocates etc. Wait until the shoulder is healed, and then seek advice on how to learn the inlocates

Good luck!

thank you I can do the inlocates but they are low. I'm not going to do them till I can do everything else with no pain.

I can lift weights with very little pain now and can do handstands and burpees again.

I'm going to take it real easy thanks