My dip rehab protocol
Laying things out:
Main issues: A lot of front delt pain and inability to keep scaps in one position. This stems from a Anterior labrum tear in the right shoulder. At first this is in every range. As the tissues become more capable of handling the load, pain only comes in at the deeper ranges of the dip (once past parallel)
Primary patterns to work toward: Stronger should extension, scap retraction/depression/elevation
Primary tissues to focus on strengthen and doing soft tissue work on: Short head of bicep, bicep tendon, front delt, lower traps, upper traps, pec major/minor, subscapularis, supraspinatus
Getting back to dips (first couple weeks)
- Soft issue work on front delt, lower traps, short head of bicep, pecs, and lower traps becomes essential. I do this at night or anytime I have 5 minutes to kill. Just a lot of mobilizing with a lacrosse ball, some dead hanging (passive and active), and sitting like this
- Gym wise: Just holding the top of a dip with scaps in the correct position for as long as the pain isn’t too bad, scap minor dips
- Internal Rotation Work is needs to happen. I follow something like this
- External Rotation Work needs to happen. I usually spam these.
- Something like the rotation KOT guy pushes covers both external and internal rotation but I can never get it to work right
- This for shoulder extension and internal rotation works amazing: Link Here
After 3-4 weeks of that “prep” work:
- This is when I start to do banded dips/dip machine/dips with feet on ground. Basically I lighten my BW somehow to ensure I can pause and stretch in the correct positions. Usually at the top of these reps I do a scap minor dip to help “unstick” my scapulas (Slightshot dips work well here too)
- I will start to add in extra range of motion pushups, benches, etc for more shoulder extension work (this is my super weak area)
- I still keep up the shoulder extension and internal rotation thing
After 2 weeks of that:
- I’m usually good to do dips but I employ a controlled tempo and only go to the range that I can have great form in
- Over time, I work myself into these deeper ranges. This usually goes fast once I’m able to do dips without pain
- I’m never worried about how many reps I can do. I just do them until form breaks. Honestly clusters and lower reps are great here because you can learn the correct pattern and feel any compensations. This would also allow you to get tons of quality reps
Warmups I do for every upper body session:
- This Joe Defranco warmup: Link here
- Then some broomstick shoulder dislocates. I find these work so much better than the band version. I can’t “cheat” as much so my shoulders get a way better warm up
- Usually on lower body days, I superset some more rehab stuff with my leg work: Bottoms up KB press, spider crawls, Rotator cuff stuff like this
- I also make sure to just hang a lot. Specifically with a chin up grip, it really loosens my biceps and upper back which allows me to dip better
Other current experiments:
- I’m benching with a Titan Fitness Yukon Bar. This has been allowing me to get into some deep shoulder extension and it feels really good
- Pullover and press, I haven’t done them in a while, really loosen up random stuff in my shoulders and biceps. I’m not sure what it specifically was but they really help (same with normal pullovers)
- Bayesian curls are letting my train my biceps IN shoulder extension. I can only see this being super helpful to my shoulder with a torn labrum
Random Videos I found and what to save:
Disclaimer:
I’ll probably add more to this as I have more time to think. I am not speaking from a position of authority like @Koestrizer or @j4gga2 would be. My only education is from having to follow something like this often. I might be able to bounce back just with this because I am capable of doing dips, I just need to regain what I lost
I won’t prescribe any rep ranges or stuff like that. I honestly do all this by feel