Either learn to live with your shoulder coming out, or get surgery. If your young lucky you you’ll recover and may regain full flexibility and strength. If your older then you have to decide what it’s worth. You will lose a year at least of being full strength you, but your shoulder won’t come out for the next 20 years given it’s not an arm tearing situation.
other than that You can strengthen your shoulders rotators stabilizers and whatever else you want. Your shoulder will always pop out at an akward moment. You can get it so strong that it won’t come out if you sleep wrong but you just can’t plan for accidents. You can be the most nimble guy in the world but someone somewhere will always be able to get ONE punch on you.
I’ve had shoulder surgery. Bankhart repair, Rotator interval closure, and anterior capsular shift. Best thing I ever did. 6 months of PT beforehand did nothing, 7 weeks in a sling, then about 18 months to get close to 100% again. Only hurts when I bench, but now the other shoulder has all the same symptoms.
Honestly, I spent a long time dealing with shoulder issues. The whole jr high/high school “lets bench every day so that i get a hyooge bench press number”. After about 2 years of that, the shoulder starts ripping out from competitive skiing (slopestyle, think jumps and rails and halfpipe, crashing from 20 feet up and ripping your shoulder out), a few football dislocations, and 4 years of wrestling.
I took time after my senior year of wrestling (got it ripped out for good at the state tourney n had to forfeit), and focused on bringing up my back strength, leg strength, and running (cos I joined the military). After doing literally 4-8x as much pulling volume as pushing, my shoulders finally feel good. I actually find i can bench press again, stronger than I ever was (after a 3 year haitus) and it feels fine boxing. I did tons of horizontal rowing volume. Add to that your rehab exercises (focused on strengthening the scapula) and even stuff like face pulls and mobility exercises, and the shoulder was good. I feel that most people underestimate how much horizontal pulling will help. By the time I was repping 225 for bent over rows, my back was not only much bigger, but much stronger, and my entire body was significantly stronger. I deffinately feel that even though your rotator cuff is the issue, adding much more horizontal rowing to your routine (after your PT helps to restore basic strength, ROM, and eliminates the pain) will help keep that bitch in place!
EDIT I found the most helpful movement was the chest-supported row. Focus on squeezing the shoulder blades together in the back of the movement… this really allowed me to focus on the contraction (i hate to sound like a bodybuilder… I guess its more like making sure the right muscles in your back are working) of the middle back. By “driving my elbows back” instead of pulling the handles towards me, i found i could make the best connection. You probably know all of this, but I am just trying to give you some advice that deffinately helped me not only come back, but basically transform and take off with all of my physical attributes
I can’t even count the number of time I have dislocated both my shoulders. I thought it was a pinched nerve in both(self diagnosis by a 15-17 year old). My right one would pop out putting on a shirt, playing volleyball, playing table hockey, sleeping, etc. It always popped back in, which is why I didn’t think it was dislocating.
I have incredibly loose joints and have also had problems with my elbows and wrists, so my experience may not apply. I had reconstructive surgery on my right one. Do not wait that long to get it taken care of. Getting it scoped, if it comes down to that, is a much easier process.
I have all but given up on overhead movements, lateral raises, and upright rows. I use DBs instead of BBs for all but bench press. I do pull-ups with a nuetral grip or from blast straps. Other exercises I like:
Crazybell bench
Blaststrap push-ups
push ups with feet on a stability ball
DB bench and incline bench
face pulls
seated DB clean - strict with light weight - almost always finish with these.
halos - good warm-up
dislocations - good warm-up
KB Military press - the only overhead exercise I do but it is a good one for the entire shoulder girdle. just grip the KBs with bells pointing up. great for grip as well.
Lots of good info I agree. The book is very helpful, please read it. Both of my shoulders have been injured twice doing MA. I do my internal/external rotation as finishing exercises after my push/pull, upper body/lower body superset circut. Like everyone I have been compensating w/stronger bodypart. Eventually this doesn’t work. I’m trying to rebuild my base fitness by working on my weakest areas.
This time the injury seems to be primarily the medial deltoid. I use that machine as part of my circut. My progress is very slow. I have to work twice as hard to get half the results.
Due to my age “55” I have to be patient about rehab. I have a thread asking some shoulder questions myself.
See if you can find a good sports doctor (ie the guys who work on the Nets, Jets, or other local pro teams).
My chiropractor works on the Chargers, and also does ART - the guy is a miracle worker. He took a leave of absence for a few months due to back issues, and his replacement wasn’t even in the same league, even though he had the same certs (ART, etc).