Hello all…had a subluxation of my left shoulder last saturday playing rugby. (A subluxation is basically a dislocation of the shoulder joint that pops itself back in…think “lethal weapon”). It has happened probably about 10 times in the past three years and is very painful. I am considering surgery and am wondering if anybody out there has had this type of surgery (shoulder-tightening), and what their results were. Thanks for your time. (go get that girl, natey!)
I am going through physical therapy right now for this problem. My shoulder “slips” all the time - whether lifting or not. It has been happening for the last 5 years or so and I finally decided to do something about it. My orthopedic surgeon suggested the physical therapy to see if that would heal it - he said that in most cases, it works. The therapy is nothing more than rotator cuff strengthening exercises - lots of light weights, bands, etc (which I will need to do for the rest of my life, it sounds like). After a week of therapy, it is feeling much better. If that doesn’t work I am off to have it tightened. The surgeon and doctor said that a lot of times we work on major muscles, like chest, back etc. and neglect the small stabilizer muscles, which leads to injury. I would see an orthopedic surgeon and see if he can help you. Don’t put it off like I have - it only gets worse. And - I have heard that recovery from a shoulder surgery is long and painful. Hope this helps. I would appreciate other peoples advice too…
hey, one of the women on my rugby team had that done. it took a few months of rehab, but she’s back on the pitch now…perhaps not ‘good as new’ but playing hard! my guess is she’s a bit older than you, so you’ll bounce back much faster than she did.
I had problems with subluxation the whole time I played football, it got so bad that when I’d roll over in bed, mine would pop out and pop back in, but they were able to do arthroscopic surgery on mine, laser surgery, basically I think they just took a laser to it and shrank everything, I had serious flexibility problems for a while, the first couple months I was able to workout, I wasn’t able to get the bar anywhere past where my upper arm was parallel to the rest of my body, but the rehab and flexibility work helped, and now it’s almost as good as new.
How long was your recovery? And now are you able to workout in a fairly normal way - overhead presses, incline bench, etc. (all the exercises I stay away from right now)?
I had the same problem playing football. For me is got progressively worse. By the end of my junior year it would pop in and out 15-20 times a practice. I couldn’t lift much because the pain. I tried strength training for months but that didn’t stop the action. I think playing in the trenches you have more opportunity for separation. I hated the numbness worse than the pain. The team doctor said that it was better to go under the knife than get orthoscopic surgery. I had the surgery in may and played that august…but realistically I wasn’t back to 100% for a year. What I found was I had a smaller ROM but I was able get strong quicker. The only lifting movement I cannot do now is Back Squats and behind the neck presses, but I like front squats better anyway.
“Sucky Subluxes” sounds like a really bad porn star name. Shoulder rehab can be a real pain in the ass, and I just wanted to wish you the best of luck. My advice is to take it slow and let yourself heal if you go for the surgery. Pushing yourself is only going to make matters worse.
I feel your pain. If i had continued to play football i would have had to have surgery on both shoulders. Not an option in my case.
I was in a sling for a month, and nothing heavy for about 4 months, but now, I’m training actively for strongman competitions, and it’s holding up to log presses, heavy deadlifts, everything, I was really happy with the results
Thanks for all the helpful comments…having gone through all the rehab stuff over the last few years, I know the drill as far as that stuff goes. It is a lifelong deal with all of the rotator cuff stuff, which we should probably all be doing as a preventative measure. If I stopped playing rugby now, I don’t believe I’d have another problem with that shoulder in my life, but I’m just breaking into the Premier League up here in Canada and am not willing to give up yet…so we’ll see how it goes (I played today and took all the hard tackles on my right shoulder, was a bit softer with the left). Thanks again for the advice.