Shoulder Injury

[abrunlin]

Hi Guys.

i'm hoping i can get some helpful tips from the experience bodybuilders here.
i've been lifting for a year and a half, am 41 years old and until 3 months ago was seriously hitting the gym.
i guess i over did it a bit and ended with a bad shoulder injury. MRI scan doctor told me i had badly torn 2 shoulder ligaments and that i should stop all activity, for at least 2 months. which i did. in that time i lost about 5 kilos and i've noticed that my right pec, the same side that the injury happened on, has lost allot of muscle mass. more than the right side. i've recently started lifting, slowly with lighter weights, but find that i've gotten really weak, especially bench pressing on my right side.
what is happening and what can i do to rehab injury.
you may ask why i dont go ask a doctor.. unfortunately i live in an area where there are no specialized doctors for this kind of injury.
thanks,

[BergMuscle]

Very light weights and lots of dumbell work, especially when you train chest or shoulders. With the DBs you can make small adjustments that will allow you to work your pecs with less stress on the delts.

I'd stay away from barbell benching or pressing. I've had a few shoulder problems (although maybe not as bad as what you're dealing with) and switched to DB work and build muscle on the rest of my body while my shoulder muscles healed.

Remember that the delts are relatively small muscles surrounding that ball-and-socket joint. You can rehab and retrain them with very light weights to begin with.

And don't do mis-matched DBs even if your pecs are uneven. Use what your weak side can handle and build your way back slowly. You have many years of muscle building ahead of you if are patient now.

[BLaaR]

I would recommend using dumbells too. When I had my shoulder op 3 years back, the dumbells worked better for me than the barbell. I think the dumbells is less restricted and works the stabilizing muscles a bit better than the barbell.

I also opted to use the Strongman 5x5 workout and started out with blank dumbell bars and worked my way up from there.

[mslman71]

i guess i over did it a bit and ended with a bad shoulder injury. MRI scan doctor told me i had badly torn 2 shoulder ligaments and that i should stop all activity, for at least 2 months. which i did. ... what is happening and what can i do to rehab injury.

I don't mean to be rude, but how in the world can a bunch of random people on the internet make any sort of reasonable assessment of your condition and your rehabilitation prospects and procedures, especially with the only information being "badly torn two shoulder ligaments?" Which ligaments? Are you sure you don't mean tendons or muscles? What are your symptoms? Did the doctor give you any follow up advice beyond "stop?" Do you have your MRI readings and findings handy to post?

There are a few honest to goodness MDs around here, but I suspect most of them know better than to give out advice over the internet, especially with so little information. Off the top of my head I don't think any of them are shoulder guys.

Anyway, if you can give an *exact* description of your injury, preferably in terms of the radiologist's findings and whatever notes your doctor wrote, it might be possible to help you find the right source of information to get you moving in the right direction. I certainly am not qualified to tell you what you need to do to rehab it, but there is a lot of good information out there if you know the right questions to ask.

[alex2363]

I don't mean to be rude, but how in the world can a bunch of random people on the internet make any sort of reasonable assessment of your condition and your rehabilitation prospects and procedures, especially with the only information being "badly torn two shoulder ligaments?" Which ligaments? Are you sure you don't mean tendons or muscles? What are your symptoms? Did the doctor give you any follow up advice beyond "stop?" Do you have your MRI readings and findings handy to post?

There are a few honest to goodness MDs around here, but I suspect most of them know better than to give out advice over the internet, especially with so little information. Off the top of my head I don't think any of them are shoulder guys.

Anyway, if you can give an *exact* description of your injury, preferably in terms of the radiologist's findings and whatever notes your doctor wrote, it might be possible to help you find the right source of information to get you moving in the right direction. I certainly am not qualified to tell you what you need to do to rehab it, but there is a lot of good information out there if you know the right questions to ask.

Wat he said^^^^^^^^^^^^^^i had 2 major shoulder surgeries and i didnt ask anyone here, i asked a trained doctor and a trained MRI/xray tech for my answers. to which they said i needed surgery or it can get worse.

[abrunlin]

thanks for all the replies so far.
as already mentioned. i dont have the option of seeing a specialist. i live on a small island in the middle of the indian ocean and there are only general mds available, apart from the radiologist.
here was the diagnosis from the MRI scan. I will only list where problems were indicated.

The gelnoid labrum show anterior glenoid larbum tear with minimal intraarticular effusion.
Noted incomplete tear of the middle glenohumeral ligament with loculated fluid in the tendon sheat.
High singnal intensity noted in the T2WI from the m supraspinatus tendon and loculated fluid in the tendon sheat.

----
symtoms: i had severe pain in an area i cannot really pinpoint. it was between the right side of my neck, inside my right chest, my back at the right shoulder blade and my upper right shoulder. i also had some pain going down to my little finger on my right arm. pain was unbearable but subsided when i lay down in bed. sever pain lasted about 2 days, then just normal pain and after 2 months of slight pain i now feel nothing. even after hitting the gym and trying to force my right pec to bench press.

[mslman71]

Jesus, the capsular ligaments are tough as hell, I cannot imagine how you managed to tear one and not rip some other muscle or tendon loose in the process. Combined with the damage to the labrum this probably means you have or had a pretty unstable shoulder. Good call by the doctor re not lifting!

Okay, so I am NOT a MD, and I am not certified or even qualified to give medical direction to people, but what I would do if I were you is

- Research the condition(s) extensively - I really like http://www.shoulderdoc.co.uk/ it will take some work to navigate the site but there's a lot of good information in there.

- I would want to begin to work on stabilizing the joint and working on my ROM. I would say thera-band level internal and external rotations, very gentle stretching, etc. Get the right exercises from the shoulderdoc.co.uk site or some other source. Be careful with the stretching and the rotation exercises, especially in the beginning. Remember, with RC therapy it's not about slinging a lot of weight, it's about light weight with slow and controlled movements. There will be four or so exercises you'll want to be doing to hit all the RC. Don't skimp on any of them. You want balanced development of the muscles that help maintain proper joint stability and position.

- I would NOT do any pressing movements until I had worked through some PT, was pain free, the shoulder felt stable, etc.

- If you do start doing pressing movements, make sure you do a lot of pulling movements. The purpose being to have the back counter-act the chest. If your chest is stronger and tighter it causes the shoulder girdle to translate and rotate forward. If you have anterior labrum damage (not to mention capsular ligament damage, though they should be healed by now) you are already pre-disposed to having the humerus not set correctly in the socket so make sure the pullers (back) get as much if not more attention than the pushers (chest).

Finally: I would generate a plan, with references, for the above points and run them all by the doctor. A GP should know his stuff well enough to recognize whether your plan is sound.

[Skoorbmax]

I'm not a doctor, but a staple of many physicians' advice is if something hurts stop doing it (at least for a while). In your case you have had a major shoulder injury and you're still trying to bench press. This is just a terrible thing to do. A LOT of people have injured themselves benching. I used to bench quite a bit and thankfully I stopped before I hurt myself. As I'd get heavier I just felt something was potentially not right about the movement. Now, there are powerlifters with good shoulders, but this is because their form is good. Impeccable form may make this movement ok, but a lot of us don't have impeccable form (or know we don't). The injury potential is too high.

Particularly for a dicey shoulder you need to get it strong. Physical therapy may help--hopefully no surgery needed, but you should stop any antagonizing activities.

[bbsitum]

You train 1,5 years and get shoulder injury. Yours main mistake is that you didn't join a Body building forum before you started. In my case, because I first join this forum then start lift, I understand number one is to listen to body. I find barbell press behind neck very painful for my shoulders and front of neck do nothing for it. I switched to standing dumbbell and heard my shoulders click and fill my lower back didn't like it. With sitting dumbbell press I'm spot on. My upper body is at slight angle with line of lifting and rest at bench not at my spine. I lift, for me, very serious weight without any bad filling in shoulder joints.

[Skoorbmax]

You train 1,5 years and get shoulder injury. Yours main mistake is that you didn't join a Body building forum before you started. In my case, because I first join this forum then start lift, I understand number one is to listen to body. I find barbell press behind neck very painful for my shoulders and front of neck do nothing for it. I switched to standing dumbbell and heard my shoulders click and fill my lower back didn't like it. With sitting dumbbell press I'm spot on. My upper body is at slight angle with line of lifting and rest at bench not at my spine. I lift, for me, very serious weight without any bad filling in shoulder joints.

Exactly. Even as a teenager I found for some reason that straight bar barbell curls just killed my wrists, so i stopped doing them. Also last time I ever tried incline bench press it destroyed my shoulders, so never those ever again. There are plenty of things a person can do without their body screaming at them.

[abrunlin]

thanks you for all the info. especially mslman 71. i'm now a bit wiser .
yeah i over did it.. because i wanted to get big. when i was young nothing i did could injur me, but i need to realize that i'm now 41 years old. my body reminded me of that with this injury.
i'll check out that site mslman and make a plan, then show it to my doctor. he might be surprised how i got so much info

thanks again everyone.