I had a posterior labral repair in early January. I was on lock down in a crazy sling for over 6 weeks. I suffered pretty bad atrophy. Well I was released to begin lifting at the end of March. I have been gradually progressing in the gym. Increasing weight by 10-15% each week. My left arm is signs of amazing improvement while the arm that had the shoulder operation is lagging behind. It’s still a little weaker than the left arm, of course. I see some muscle growth. I feel my PT kinda pushed the strengthen part of therapy aside. We are just now working on it. I have actually strengthened it more on my own. I’m wondering when or if it will ever catch up to the good arm. How long does it take with consistent training and diet? I know i just started and I need to be patient. It’s just driving me crazy being uneven lol!!
I’m going on for a biceps tendon repair in June and I’ve been told it’ll be three months til I’m released to be normal and four months to full recovery. I may need rotator cuff and/or labral repairs but nothing jumped out on the MRI.
I had shoulder surgery to tighten ligaments in October 2004. I was released to train normally in January and back to normal by March or April.
Why did you not train your good arm after surgery? Research has shown a crossover effect - training the good side can improve the bad side by 10-15%.
My philosophy is that just because one limb or joint is broke doesn’t mean I have to let the rest of me fall apart too. I’ll be training 3/4 of my body just as hard as I do now.