Training w/ a torn supraspinatus

[Blindead]

Hopefully someone knowledgeable can pipe in.

I have a partially torn supraspinatus and although I don't see an orthopedic surgeon until Tuesday, I suspect he'll at least have me refrain from lifting. But in the mean time, I talked to my friend who is a 3rd year exercise phys major.

As of now all I'd really been doing was rows, deadlifts and trying to train legs unsucessfully. He told me rows would he horrible, and that deadlifts would probably place way too much pressure on it.

Is there anything besides leg press/back squats that I can do?

I've been doing some really controlled bicep curls/tricep extensions on the ground/preacher bench to minimize any scapular movement.

[Blindead]

help a brahskie out.

[anonymous]

Get MRI or u-sound on it to see the extent of the damage, until you have that any advice is likely to be useless, dangerous or both.

I rehabbed mine in 8 weeks with a 6 day regime.

[yitmy]

Hold anything that increases shoulder pressure or when doing them increase shoulder pain. Squats, leg press, rows (great exercise if you pinch your shoulder blades together), lat pulldowns, preacher curls(gives arm more support), hammers... are OK. Military press, lateral and anterior raises...these would be bad and cause more discomfort.

[jiboom]

Hopefully someone knowledgeable can pipe in.

I have a partially torn supraspinatus and although I don't see an orthopedic surgeon until Tuesday, I suspect he'll at least have me refrain from lifting. But in the mean time, I talked to my friend who is a 3rd year exercise phys major.

As of now all I'd really been doing was rows, deadlifts and trying to train legs unsucessfully. He told me rows would he horrible, and that deadlifts would probably place way too much pressure on it.

Is there anything besides leg press/back squats that I can do?

I've been doing some really controlled bicep curls/tricep extensions on the ground/preacher bench to minimize any scapular movement.

my gp suspects a tear or tendonitus of the supra of my right shoulder, but got 8 weeks wait for scan
what symptoms did you have with yours? i ahve followimg:

lifting my straight arm out to the side hurts sometimes but not too bad i cant get arm all way up, though if weighted it becomes more painful (maybe 500 ml bottle of coke )

arm straight up is fine

arm straight out to the back fine

the worse movement for me is acroos the body. Imagine a cable cross-over type action.
from out diagonally above head on right side moving arm down and acroos to left side of body.

its been about 8 weeks now and only real improvement is it doesn't hurt when i push myself up if on floor or getting out of bed or chair. I can also shoulder press the bar with no plates with a slight pain if my grip is too wide which is down from 80kg DBs even more depressing with 8kgs. I am not working out just trying to see what weight i can do without pain in the 2 exercises that do hurt. i am mainly ok with other stuff but have refrained from doing anything for last 8 weeks or so.

[yitmy]

When you perform your military presses in front of a mirror do you notice any differences between your shoulders? Is one higher then the other one?

[jiboom]

When you perform your military presses in front of a mirror do you notice any differences between your shoulders? Is one higher then the other one?

i see no difference in the shoulders.

what i do have is a line (vein or tendon) from upper arm to front of shoulder. it starts near the vein in the bicep and roughly goes to where shoulder and chest meets.

another weird thing i notice is when i deep heat my elbows there is a point on the middle of the forearm (palm side) that when i rub ion the ointment something starts movig in my shouder. maybe a vein or tendon but i certainly dont have either of these on my left arm.

[yitmy]

How about any difference when you do anterior raises 20 times past 90 degrees or "reach for the sky". Any asymmetry?

[paul0616]

you might see a physical therapist to check the ROM of your bad shoulder, both inner rotation and external rotation. Subtle changes can result in rotator cuff pinching, and degrade, esp. on push type exercises.

I'm not sure that pain means tear. Could be inflammation, bursitis, etc.

Even if it is a minor tear, if you could somehow figure out how to get the inflammation to decline, and not irritate it further, then it might become a good shoulder again. However, with the supra RC, even sleeping on the shoulder can inflame it.

[jiboom]

How about any difference when you do anterior raises 20 times past 90 degrees or "reach for the sky". Any asymmetry?

no asymmetry.

my rom is ok, which is why my gp initially didnt want to refer me on. when i have massage i have 2 place with pain. along the collar bone from neck to shoulder and front of shoulder. He says it's kind of inbetween RC/bicep tendon area.

[yitmy]

Try these and let us know how it goes.............................................. .....................

-lie on you back in bench press fashion. Lift the bar and instead of going down with the weight you want to raise the weight so your shoulder blades come off the bench. 20-30 reps, 1-2 sets.

-you need to stretch your chest out. this can be done in a doorway with the shoulders at 90 degrees and the elbows also at 90. Lean into the door frame with arms positioned as such hold for 30 seconds 3 times. Next raise shoulder to about 120 degrees and repeat.

[jiboom]

get a nice stretch going with the door way. funnily eniough get a small pain in elbow region. no pain with shoulder although it feels as if it wants to hurt if that makes sense.

as i say worse movement is arm straight above head diagonally behind me.for example i tried a doorway stretch with straight arm and walked through the frame to stretch arm behind me. This was ok with arm shoulder high but the higher i went the more pain i got.

[Blindead]

already had MRI's done, 2-3mm partial tear in supraspinatus. i wouldn't just say torn based on pain lulz. but i went to an orthopedic surgeon and he said because the tear hadn't hit the top or bottom of the muscle it wasn't bad and wasn't technically a tear, so he just gave me a cortisone shot and i'm doing PT for 4-8 weeks.

i was just wondering if there was anything I could do outside of PT that wouldn't aggravate it besides curls, tricep extensions and squats.

[paul0616]

any time you feel lingering pain there, its probably inflamming the RC / bursa, and its a negative feedback loop. The more inflammed, the easy it is to inflame, etc. And since its a small space in there, inflammation leads to pinching.

[jiboom]

already had MRI's done, 2-3mm partial tear in supraspinatus. i wouldn't just say torn based on pain lulz. but i went to an orthopedic surgeon and he said because the tear hadn't hit the top or bottom of the muscle it wasn't bad and wasn't technically a tear, so he just gave me a cortisone shot and i'm doing PT for 4-8 weeks.

i was just wondering if there was anything I could do outside of PT that wouldn't aggravate it besides curls, tricep extensions and squats.

i understand it might not be a tear because of pain but if my symptoms are completely dissimilar to yours maybe i can lean towards tendonitis/bursitis and get a cotisone shot. My gp will do this for me but for a scan i could be waiting upto 16 weeks to get scanned and be told the results. Free treatment in Uk is great but the waiting is a bitch.

[Blindead]

i understand it might not be a tear because of pain but if my symptoms are completely dissimilar to yours maybe i can lean towards tendonitis/bursitis and get a cotisone shot. My gp will do this for me but for a scan i could be waiting upto 16 weeks to get scanned and be told the results. Free treatment in Uk is great but the waiting is a bitch.

try to get in an get examined by someone who knows what they're doing. a good doctor can make a good guess just by testing your motion and strength in a variety of movements. my dr. guessed i had a messed up supraspinatus before he saw the MRI's or X-ray's just by examining me.

[yitmy]

Yo seamless-try looking at my previous posts and see what your results are with the tests. If you want to be more specific take a photo of your anterior raises from the back with your shirt off. This will help figure out what is going on with your shoulder.

[Blindead]

Yo seamless-try looking at my previous posts and see what your results are with the tests. If you want to be more specific take a photo of your anterior raises from the back with your shirt off. This will help figure out what is going on with your shoulder.

my ortho said something about intratendon degenerative something or other. i don't really have any noticable differences in shoulder size, but i do have impaired motion in certain places. i did a lateral raise thumbs down with an 8 lb weight to test it and it hurt like hell.

frankly i didn't notice a ton with the pictures, my right shoulder blade does look out of sync with the left in one pic though. can't really tell much, i've gotten fat on a 10 month bulk and with not being able to lift lately, it hasn't helped. i'll pm you the pics, i can't really see much though.

[yitmy]

I examined your shots and I did not notice anything significant. When you tear your RTC you usually will tear the supraspinatous first because it sits in an area prone to injury. I was looking for a hiking of your shoulder when you perform anterior shoulder flexion and I did not see any such hiking so it does not appear if it is fully torn. So you may have a partial tear in your supraspinatous. This may be caused by a calcium deposit on the top of the scapula near the acromion process. Thus when you lift your arm up in a fashion and rotate outwards or away from your body you may feel more pain as the head of the humerous hits the calcium spike. This would be similar to a nail hanging down from your shoulder blade and everytime you lift your arm in a fashion of discomfort causing the pain of this nail sticking in will bring tears to your eyes. The physician may be thinking if it does not improve performing a procedure called an acromioplasty. This is when he shaves off the calcium deposit and he may elect to repair the tendon of the supraspinatous at that time as well. There are exercises for you to perform to reduce the impingement that the spike into the muscle belly is causing. If it continues to cause discomfort it can turn into a bursitis and/or tendinosus. Where the shoulder area will swell and you will have pain whenever you lift your arm up(even without rotation).

Without further testing of your shoulder manually that is all I can determine on the web. If you would like to pursue the exercises I alluded to. let me know. think I posted them up in the shoulder pain thread.

Keep us posted!

[acrable]

Do some supraspinatus tears not require surgery if they are small? I see my orthopedist on Monday to check mine out. It mainly hurts when I stretch my arm across my body.

[yitmy]

Right if you have an incomplete tear you may opt not to have it repaired. If it is a full thickness tear most people do get them repaired.

[Blindead]

mine is an incomplete tear based on the mri and my acromiom is type 1. it was just from wear and tear and letting the weight hang during heavy rows mostly.