Anyone with Posterior labrum tear experiences?

[anonymous]

It's not been the best 18 months I have to admit, I'm back to about 90% after my bicep tear back in March and now my left shoulders crapped out on me

The MRI shows about 60% of the posterior labrum is tearing off, I could learn to live with it if not for the dramatic drop off in pressing strength over the last few weeks - machines and cables are fine but even moderate dumbbells are very painful to lift due to the instability

My surgeon is great, my insurance has cleared me so I'll be getting it fixed next weekend - obviously I've done a lot of reading about what to expect but any additional input from 035ers would be very much appreciated.

I don't know if there was one specific event to this or its just one of those random things, I can't pinpoint any traumatic moments lifting in the last few years but I guess it's felt odd ever since my bicep surgery and possibly the altered arm mechanics made the existing issue worse.

Hopefully this will not be much worse than the bicep repair!

[JimmyJonny]

It shouldn't be as bad as your last surgery but unfortunately not that much difference.

Mine was in the front. I believe it was cut back, not stiched. It's the normal.... a few months using lighter weight, up to 9 months+ to be back to normal.

I did have other stuff done so I can't judge having the tear fixed only. For me, hips & shoulders heal about the same and we've both had similar surgeries...... you already know what your going to be dealing with.

Anyway, sorry to hear about your troubles. I haven't talked about it but my left shoulder is pretty much shot now too. I'm dealing with it but frustrating...... strength loss/pain, mobility & it's messing with my sleep

[drudixon]

One of my favorite stretches is for the labrum. It's amazing how tight it gets. Have never torn mine but I can see how easy it would be.

The way I stretch it is I sit with legs spread. Put my hands in my crotch and put inside of my elbows inside my knees. Then I press my legs together creating the stretch. It seems to help rotators too.

Doesn't answer your question, but maybe will help others.

Speedy recovery bud.

[anonymous]

Seems like a good plan Dru, you need to stay mobile to prevent excessive joint trauma

Unfortunately I've already had chunks cut out of both my hip labrums thanks to my impingement so I know how vulnerable they are!

JJ thanks for sharing, can I ask if you were able to leg press or do anything for the uninjured side post surgery or did you wait the whole 4-6 weeks before any kind of training,

My last few surgeries I barely missed a gym day and could train everything else but I'm concerned about the shoulders relative fragility when even my legs are being stresses!

Sorry to read about your other shoulder and I hope it's just tendon or bursa irritation issues and nothing worse!

My shoulder doesn't feel that bad but I can tell theres something wrong with it. Thinking back, maybe it was an idiot chiropractor I saw who used a drop table on my shoulder that tore it?

[JimmyJonny]

That surgery was 2/20/12. I didn't start lifting until after my rehab, never touched a weight before that so I don't know . My first log started on 6/20/2012. My hip surgery was around 2008ish.

Both shoulder surgeries felt similar but I had to be more careful with 2nd ( bicep anchors etc 2/26/2013 ). I do remember trying to do leg work after the 2nd surgery but that was a no , no. When I tightened up with any exercise I felt it in that shoulder. I did my rehab work but used bands a lot at home. I think that was at around 6 weeks.

You'll just have to see exactly what they find and fix. As I said though, it will be a little better than your last surgery........ hopefully.

[anonymous]

I'm hoping, thanks for sharing.

In an especially fcked up turn of events I managed to tweak my right bicep last night. Since it was doing a 20 rep set of pronated rows I'm hoping it's just a strain but goddammit you get paranoid after a couple of these things

Let me know how your shoulder holds up! I have my surgery confirmed now for next Saturday, debating on whether PT is worth it?

[JimmyJonny]

I'm hoping, thanks for sharing.

In an especially fcked up turn of events I managed to tweak my right bicep last night. Since it was doing a 20 rep set of pronated rows I'm hoping it's just a strain but goddammit you get paranoid after a couple of these things

Let me know how your shoulder holds up! I have my surgery confirmed now for next Saturday, debating on whether PT is worth it?

My 2 shoulder surgeries were only a year apart so I did it on my own the 2nd time. I think I went twice then asked them their thoughts on me doing it alone. They said I already knew what to do and they knew I worked hard so doing it alone would be fine. They even said if I had any questions or concerns they would help for free. At about 2 months post surgery I had that anchor come out. I just rehabed that on my own.

Well g'luck Saturday. Try to not hurt anything eles in the meantime, lol.

[JimmyJonny]

Good luck today HW !!!!

[anonymous]

Good luck today HW !!!!

TY, seems it went well - the doc said everything else in there looked good, he put in 2 anchors and trimmed a little damage but it was just the back where the problems were.

As he does MLB shoulders for a living I'm going to assume he did his usual outstanding job. Very little pain the first 2 days but there's some throbbing now. I can sleep on my back and my un-injured side so I'm able to get rest.

Boredom is going to be the main challenge with this one I think, for the bicep I was out of the sling and back in the gym days after the surgery.. with this I'm holding off. Hopefully I can go do leg press or something unilateral next week (with light weights obviously!)

[anonymous]

Update on this, it's been almost 6 weeks since the surgery and while it's been a lot slower than other rehabs, I now have about 90% mobility back and have started active movement (it's been very odd barely using my arm for over a month)

My arm looks pathetic, but that's to be expected from back to back surgeries on my left side (this and the bicep tear in feb) - however I'm going to hold off another 4 weeks before I begin any loading. At 10 weeks the bone and labrum should have mostly solidified to the point that very VERY light (5lb) loads for nowhere-near-failure can be applied to it. Then I'll build back up very VERY slowly for the next few weeks.

Been doing a lot of leg press and one arm cable work in the meantime, lol.

I had my right shoulder MRI'd to make sure there weren't issues on both sides and luckily the labrum seems 100% there, just some tendonitis.

[drudixon]

Good to hear bud. Stay strong (read patient).

[Most Muscular]

I had shoulder issues in 1996 and took three months off of doing any shoulder or chest work because the pain was so bad. I finally went to the doctor and he said I could have taken three years off and it would not have made any difference since the tear would not fix itself unless the shoulder was kept completely immobile for an extended period of time. I went in for surgery in January of 1997 and spent some time in a sling.. but I was still in the gym doing leg workouts. During my recovery, and prior to my surgery, I focused on my back and legs since I could not do any pushing movements. There has to be a silver lining in any bad moment and there was. I brought up those two bodyparts which were lagging behind my shoulder development. After about three months I went back to doing pressing movements and slowly increased the weight until I was full strength by fall.

The following July (1998) I won my first National Title at age 42. So don't think you're done. You're just starting.

[anonymous]

Three months went by pretty fast in retrospect and now my surgeon's cleared me to start training again. Obviously there has been some muscle loss from pretty much doing fck-all with my left side for 12 weeks, but hopefully that'll come back at least as fast as I lost it.


Last night I did my first 'real' workout in forever although understandably I took things ridiculously easy and did the reps as slowly as possible - BB rows with 185 for 20 reps, lots of cable pulls in various angles, some monstrous 135lb shrugs and embarrassingly light DB curls.

Getting the flexibility back to hold the squat bar on my shoulders and being brave enough to do any kind of chest work at all is the next challenge, lol.

[Plateauplower]

Three months went by pretty fast in retrospect and now my surgeon's cleared me to start training again. Obviously there has been some muscle loss from pretty much doing fck-all with my left side for 12 weeks, but hopefully that'll come back at least as fast as I lost it.


Last night I did my first 'real' workout in forever although understandably I took things ridiculously easy and did the reps as slowly as possible - BB rows with 185 for 20 reps, lots of cable pulls in various angles, some monstrous 135lb shrugs and embarrassingly light DB curls.

Getting the flexibility back to hold the squat bar on my shoulders and being brave enough to do any kind of chest work at all is the next challenge, lol.

That's great, try to make 2017 injury free. 2016 seemed like a rough year for you jeez. Surgeon is probably driving a new benz after all your surgeries this year .

[anonymous]

That's great, try to make 2017 injury free. 2016 seemed like a rough year for you jeez. Surgeon is probably driving a new benz after all your surgeries this year .

Quite possibly, the bill for the surgery center alone was 20k

Luckily my insurance is amazing and this hasnt cost me a cent out of pocket otherwise I'd have been less keen on getting it done l. I also share your sentiments on 2017 needing to be injury free! My puppy rolled on my bad arm this morning and it hurts like hell now, ahh constant paranoia post surgery

[fbcpastormk]

Three months went by pretty fast in retrospect and now my surgeon's cleared me to start training again. Obviously there has been some muscle loss from pretty much doing fck-all with my left side for 12 weeks, but hopefully that'll come back at least as fast as I lost it.


Last night I did my first 'real' workout in forever although understandably I took things ridiculously easy and did the reps as slowly as possible - BB rows with 185 for 20 reps, lots of cable pulls in various angles, some monstrous 135lb shrugs and embarrassingly light DB curls.

Getting the flexibility back to hold the squat bar on my shoulders and being brave enough to do any kind of chest work at all is the next challenge, lol.

I just caught your thread. It's great to see you back at it. I torn my lower distill bicep tendon and then my labrum and rotator cuff. These surgeries occurred in the same year. It didn't take me to long to get my strength back and full range of motion. It has now been 1 and a half years and I am the strongest I have ever been at 44 years old. I did more stretching and lighter, high rep movements, especially for the shoulders. Keep plugging away and don't get discouraged.

[anonymous]

I just caught your thread. It's great to see you back at it. I torn my lower distill bicep tendon and then my labrum and rotator cuff. These surgeries occurred in the same year. It didn't take me to long to get my strength back and full range of motion. It has now been 1 and a half years and I am the strongest I have ever been at 44 years old. I did more stretching and lighter, high rep movements, especially for the shoulders. Keep plugging away and don't get discouraged.

LOL, are you me? Although thankfully my RC only had a tiny tear in the middle and the ortho said it will heal fine while the labrum healed.

The irony is I already do 30 mins of mobility before touching a weight and usually train in the 15-20 rep range, but I guess this damage was from doing super heavy stuff in my 20's and 30's!

Glad to hear you recovered, today I have DOMS in my chest and arm for the first time in 3 months and it feels great, now I'm off to try to see if I can hold a squat bar on my back

[anonymous]

It seems my car wreck a few weeks ago managed to tear another section of my labrum, in the same shoulder. Perhaps it was already weakened, my surgeon said when he looked at it 5 months ago it all seemed fine and he has no answer as to how it could tear other than car crash trauma but this is some exceptionally chitty luck!

A posterior tear from 3 to 5o'clock, I tried pressing again for the first time since the accident and couldn't press a 55lb DB without pain - exactly the same symptoms as I had before the first surgery, just in a subtly different place.

My doc wants to wait a month but fck it, I just want this cut and DONE - a month wait now just means a month longer until I'm rehabbed.

[beachguy498]

My right labrum is close to 100% torn. I did it in 1981 and it was formally diagnosed in 2010. The surgeon who looked at me suggested not to repair that damage. I had other issues with the shoulder, received some cortisone shots and did a lengthy rehab. While greatly improved, I still could need a few things fixed on it. The arm no longer wants to come out of the socket and I have no pain when I lift. I do primarily more pull exercises than push exercises.

[anonymous]

2nd surgery booked for this saturday, hopefully second time's the charm with this chit

My shoulder bicep tendon's been a hot mess since the car wreck too, so it might need a reattachment too. Yay me lol

[ajdahlheimer]

2nd surgery booked for this saturday, hopefully second time's the charm with this chit

My shoulder bicep tendon's been a hot mess since the car wreck too, so it might need a reattachment too. Yay me lol

Good luck, hope it all goes well. You have had some terrible breaks, brah.

[anonymous]

I had the second surgery roughly 3 weeks ago, thankfully this time around it hasn't been as painful but I've been hit with some major post surgical depression and haven't even walked my dogs since the operation.

The surgeon said the MRI was completely wrong and it was the original repair that re-tore, about 75% of it was popped off by the car crash.

I'm hoping that after 6 weeks I'll be brave enough to start gentle workouts again but I'm just so gun shy of messing this up and having to do this again. It's not the end of the world but 3 surgeries in a row on the same side is rough.

[polishedball]

I had the second surgery roughly 3 weeks ago, thankfully this time around it hasn't been as painful but I've been hit with some major post surgical depression and haven't even walked my dogs since the operation.

The surgeon said the MRI was completely wrong and it was the original repair that re-tore, about 75% of it was popped off by the car crash.

I'm hoping that after 6 weeks I'll be brave enough to start gentle workouts again but I'm just so gun shy of messing this up and having to do this again. It's not the end of the world but 3 surgeries in a row on the same side is rough.

Well glad you are patched up again, I hope rehab goes well for ya. You will be in my thoughts and prayers for recovery both physical and mental.

[anonymous]

Well glad you are patched up again, I hope rehab goes well for ya. You will be in my thoughts and prayers for recovery both physical and mental.

Thanks man.

5 weeks in, going to start going back to the gym maybe this weekend - obviously only gentle light stuff. My lower back is so thrashed from the car wreck that I'm not sure I can even handle legs yet

[jdforsy]

Damn bro that's some lousy luck. Had a complete tear back in 2010. Hit the PT religiously for about a year after with light weight training starting back up about 3 months post op. Hopefully this time around will get you healed up 100%! No more car crashes.