Hi everyone-
I partially dislocated my shoulder two days ago, and am now looking for ways to continue working out while it heals.
It wasn’t a serious dislocation (I’ve had one before, much worse, and I think that the improvement is due to continuing to lift heavy things), so I’ve got full mobility, but still don’t want to stretch it out too much or strain it for another week or so. After that I’ll add resistance bands and then work from there.
What are some exercises that people have done in similar situations?
How old were you when you had your first dislocation? How was it dislocated and what direction did it dislocate? Labral issues? How long was it dislocated before it was reduced? How was it reduced?
Shoulders aren’t really my area of expertise, but these questions could help in figuring out your answer.
I was 20 when I dislocated my shoulder, and am 21 now. Both were anterior dislocations which I reduced myself within a couple minutes of the dislocation. The first time, I was doing a turkish getup with a Kettlebell and lost control of the bell as I was transitioning to the standing portion. The second time I decided to do some overhead squats in my backyard- with no rack, no spotters, like a retard- and let the barbell get too far behind my head. It pulled the shoulder back, and when I tried to dump it by throwing it off to one side, torqued the shoulder in a crazy and generally unfortunate kind of way.
I’ve always been double-jointed in my shoulders, which is a contributing factor to the ease of dislocation, but like I said, this time the recovery feels much faster, and I attribute this to continuing to do some decent upper body work in all my routines. I’ve got a book of rehab exercises from a physical therapist, which I’ll whip out again and start following.
I’m not really looking for rehab exercises, as much as I’m looking for stuff to stay in shape and keep active while I’m waiting for this to heal. I figure other people can’t get enough of lifting and have been in the same situation before…sitting on the couch ‘recovering’ drives me crazy.
oh- and I reduced it by pulling the shoulder up, holding my forearm at a 90 degree angle, and twisting back and forth until it sort of ‘popped’ back in. Not fun, but not impossible. There didn’t seem to be any tissue caught in the socket, no nerve damage. Just sore tenons, a lot of pain, a feeling of ‘looseness’ in the joint, and a really really really weak right arm for a long time.
First, get an MRI arthrogram to check out for a labral tear. A common cause of anterior dislocation is from a tight posterior capsule which can cause the humeral head to move farther forward in the glenoid fossa than it should which allows it to dislocate easier (especially when you are in an overhead position while externally rotated).
If you have Sahrmann’s book she explains it in great detail. Plus you should get checked for any nerve damage (specifically the axillary) which does happen occasionally which could explain the weakness you felt.
the chance of dislocation again is about 100%
Well THAT’S encouraging. So, barring surgery that takes 6 months of recovery, you guys are saying that I’m pretty much screwed, even if I do rehab exercises?
I feel like people dislocate their shoulders and move on without surgery to fix labral tears…sometimes…maybe.
The fact that you have dislocated the shoulder twice and not during a high force mechanism would lead me to worry about a labral tear or some significant capsular laxity. The main thing that stands out to me is that you dislocated while performing two movements (turkish getup and OH squat) where you are aware of shoulder position and your shoulder should be actively controlled, unlike most dislocations you see during sports (falling on an outstretched arm or making a tackle in football) when there is a very dynamic, uncontrolled movement occurring.
If you haven’t done so already, see a physician to get an arthrogram MRI. And don’t try to do the rehab on your own…work with a proper professional.
ive sublexed my shoulder twice and im only 19, now im back at a 280+ bench, if its anything like mine which the problem is that the joint is to loose and the pressure of pressing or such exercises can just pop it out,
rehab exercises:
lying on a bench hold a dumbell straight in the air for time usually from 1-2 minutes, you can also do this lying on your side and holding it straight up will be much harder.
Start with a cable or band above your head and bring it across the body and down, should feel this isn the internal rotator.
Like I said earlier- I’m mostly looking for stuff I can do to keep active while my shoulder is healing. Waiting for an injury to rehab drives me crazy, and I start thinking up random stuff to do to fill the time. I considered taking up knitting and started learning Farsi. Just in case.
That crazy.
But my shoulder’s stable enough now that I can go for runs without jogging it out of its socket, and soon I hope to be able to do back squats again…instead of these goddamn tabatta things. A gal can only count to twenty so many times.
While cruising around the internet though, I found these links for shoulder rehab and prehab, and since you guys seem pretty damn preoccupied with rehab movements, here they are. Maybe they’ll answer someone else’s questions, even if they didn’t answer mine:
The Thrower’s 10: A Prehab Routine for Baseball Players to Ensure Shoulder Stability In-Season
http://www.asmi.org/SportsMed/throwing/thrower10.PDF
And All Three Shoulder Saver Articles by Eric Cressey- I’m going to Incorporate some of this stuff as soon as I’m back up to speed. Wish I’d read it earlier.
[quote]SuperCrepuS wrote:
I’ve always been double-jointed in my shoulders, which is a contributing factor to the ease of dislocation [/quote]
Thats probably due to a laberal hole. A laberal hole is basically a genetic mistake where part of the labrum isnt connected to the socket, which would have lead to your first dislocation. i have a large one and it took a large tackle in rugby to dislocate it, the second time was rolling over in bed. get it checked out by an orthopedic surgeon, get an MRI and see if you need a reconstruction
Bumping from the graveyard to add to the original question of the thread. I similarly partially dislocated my shoulder while trying to DB snatch heavy w/o a warmup. Havent been able to squat these past three weeks due to not being able to get my hands on the bar (i have been able to deadlift though).
This is probably already a known thing but today i threw some straps on the bar and squatted holding the straps, not the bar. Like a safety squat bar (without the safety, lol). I feel like it could end up bad (only went to 275x5) but as long as you stay tight and hold the bar high it should be fine. Zero shoulder pain with this. I think this could work for other shoulder-related injuries/pain. just something to consider
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