Labrum tear. Any advice?

sleepwalk

sleepwalk

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Been lifting since high school but, after a lay off, got back into it and the shoulder just wasn't right. I would feel this back in my heavy days where it would just sit differently than the other but never hurt, never felt unsteady or weak. MRI confirmed a "large tear to superior and posterior labrum." I can crank out a few pull ups (25lbs overweight) and they don't exactly hurt but they feel like a bad idea while doing them.

Physical therapy will start soon but PT said, "You're going to want this scoped," and I'm inclined to agree. My hobbies include weightlifting and BJJ and part of job involves physically controlling resisting subjects.

I'm 37 years old so I know that 2-3 months off the road will suck but I'm concerned about the recovery afterwards. A friend who had it done in his twenties said it was another three months before he felt strong. He's in the gym more than ever now. Another guy is basically forbidden from doing anything and has a stainless steel carpet tack holding his shit together.

A third guy told me to ask about stem cell therapy and I'm all like "I'm not freaking Aaron Rodgers over here."

Any advice/support/whatever?
 
I had a SLAP repair in December, I was 33 at the time. I went to therapy 3 times a week and did a pretty decent job of doing the home stuff and protecting it during the recover. I was able to start working in lighter DB bench press, deadlifts and eventually bench press during the month of April. I am no back to full powerlifting training. I am not cleared for weightlifting or any combat sports stuff at the moment. That should all begin by the end of November. In general the shoulder is much better than it was prior to surgery.
 
I had a labrum tear. No idea how big it was initially as I only got an useful MRT like 6 months after the injury but then it wasn't a big one. I only did physical therapy and I thought about surgery but I got PT first and even while in PT I wasn't sure and it felt bad sometimes. Now more than a year after almost 2 years after it isn't 100% like on some days I feel it but on some days it feels 100%. it has imrpoved steadily.

With surgery I think it nwould have taken much less time but I'm also not sure how exactly surgery impacts your mobility and everything. At least now aI don't regret it (not doing surgery) as I was ok with it taking a bit more time but it's still getting better.

If you can't wait a year to get back and/or have a more severe injury then surgery is probably the thing to do but I guess what I'm trying to sa yis that patience, lots of rehab but also knwoign when to rest and not doing anything that worsens it because you want to rush the rehab. Sometimes it hurts slightly even doing rehab but at least i felt how much was ok and when it would worsen the injury and if you do have small fuckups and it hruts more then give it a few days or even a week rest
 
do PT like crazy and don't rush back into lifting. I spent the following 3 months mostly using resistance bands, and then eventually moved on to barbell rows and curls. Once the surface pain from surgery subsided, I could start squatting with the safety squat bar. It took another 2 months before I could hold a regular barbell on my back. I could do bench and pullups regularly by this point, but dips and overhead press are still too painful to risk doing.
 
sleepwalk said:
Been lifting since high school but, after a lay off, got back into it and the shoulder just wasn't right. I would feel this back in my heavy days where it would just sit differently than the other but never hurt, never felt unsteady or weak. MRI confirmed a "large tear to superior and posterior labrum." I can crank out a few pull ups (25lbs overweight) and they don't exactly hurt but they feel like a bad idea while doing them.

Physical therapy will start soon but PT said, "You're going to want this scoped," and I'm inclined to agree. My hobbies include weightlifting and BJJ and part of job involves physically controlling resisting subjects.

I'm 37 years old so I know that 2-3 months off the road will suck but I'm concerned about the recovery afterwards. A friend who had it done in his twenties said it was another three months before he felt strong. He's in the gym more than ever now. Another guy is basically forbidden from doing anything and has a stainless steel carpet tack holding his shit together.

A third guy told me to ask about stem cell therapy and I'm all like "I'm not freaking Aaron Rodgers over here."

Any advice/support/whatever?
Click to expand...
If you live in Jersey, take a trip to the trainers at Revolution in Motion in NYC. Learn their routines. You'll learn how to train your body differently to be more athletic, help posture, and probably gain shoulder function.
 
Joan arnold is charging 135$ for basic joint distraction.
250$ for DNS lol .... NKT practitioners don't even charge half of that.
 
"Alexander technique", "Muscle Memory class", Rolfing, Feldenkrais. DNS at $250 per session. Yoga and pilates go without saying.

That place must be the mecca of fitness woo woo and pseudoscience.
 
its totes legit homie. lemme just fix ma man-bun...
 
Tore my labrum and rotator cuff back in college. Couldn't lift my arm over my head and couldn't move it much without pain; I often dislocated my shoulder while sleeping. Took me ~1 month to realize it wasn't going to heal on it's own and started doing physical therapy. Did physical therapy for 2 months and it wasn't until another ... year maybe that I started feeling comfortable lifting again (shoulder still doesn't feel right. Grinds a lot and feels loose/like it is going to pop out).

Physical therapy helped a ton. I did the following except for "Isometric shoulder adduction" 3 times a day. Doing 10 holds each for 5s each.
xshsubl1_3.jpg


At this point the pain went away but still felt incredibly weak. Wasn't until I started doing presses and push presses that my shoulder started feeling like it was getting better.

I still try to do a bunch of rear delt and scapular work to hopefully one day have it feel normal.
 
jrams said:
Tore my labrum and rotator cuff back in college. Couldn't lift my arm over my head and couldn't move it much without pain; I often dislocated my shoulder while sleeping. Took me ~1 month to realize it wasn't going to heal on it's own and started doing physical therapy. Did physical therapy for 2 months and it wasn't until another ... year maybe that I started feeling comfortable lifting again (shoulder still doesn't feel right. Grinds a lot and feels loose/like it is going to pop out).

Physical therapy helped a ton. I did the following except for "Isometric shoulder adduction" 3 times a day. Doing 10 holds each for 5s each.
xshsubl1_3.jpg


At this point the pain went away but still felt incredibly weak. Wasn't until I started doing presses and push presses that my shoulder started feeling like it was getting better.

I still try to do a bunch of rear delt and scapular work to hopefully one day have it feel normal.
Click to expand...

I never did the shoulder adduction one, I will have to yell at my PT. The rest of the iso stuff was great.
 
Minor slap year that did not require surgery. After about 6 months I still couldn't even do a push-up so I went to PT. pT helps, do it. You'll realize how little bench press and military press mean to your strength. I still can't bench 40% of my previous max but through training my core I'm just as strong if not stronger in the clinch.
 
Update: Had surgery yesterday. Really not much pain but I'm sure actual movement will change that. Don't even need the percocet to get through the day but hitting it up at night before bed to make sure I can sleep through the night.
 
Take the time off to heal and get fixed. Even in your late 30s you have plenty of time to get back into shape. And, when you're healed and start lifting again you will be back before you know it. I kind of buy into "muscle memory" because it's easier to get back to where you were than it was to get there in the first place.
 
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