Trouble After Shoulder Surgery

Hey all, I had shoulder surgery for a torn labrum on March 28 2012. I have recently started to train aggressively in the gym for a few weeks now and I am having a couple setbacks. My Physical Therapist had said I had recovered fully however when I move my shoulder I feel an awkward soreness almost as if my scapula is compensating for a lack of mobility in my glenohumeral joint. Any incite to what exercises could possibly be helpful in getting my normal range of motion would be greatly appreciated.

Also another weird issue I have been having is with muscular atrophy on the right side of my body. When lifting it seems like my muscle cannot respond to an exercise… no DOMS, no fatigue or pump, or increase in size again. It is not only past my shoulder, its also my lats, chest, trap, etc. Could this be a CNS issue from the surgery?

What exercises did your PT recommend? He/She also should have examined you and watched which muscles where firing off and which ones weren’t when seeing how your range of motion is.

An information packet I received with my shoulder surgery (Rotator cuff repair) has Pendulum swings, Wall climbs, and internal and external cuff band resistance movements as prime example range of motion exercises. If you have questionable pain, I wouldn’t start heavy lifting just yet, also consider the fact that surgery helps, but a lot of patients don’t fully make it back to 100% pre-injury days.

Here’s a quick link that might help you:

My PT recommended rear delt flys with a band, internal and external rotation, “wall walks”, and other similar movement patterns to get the muscles under control in the shoulder joint and to reteach my body to fire muscle groups smoothly. Toward the end I was doing 20 pullups without a problem however doing other movements there are still problems.

For example, during lateral raises my scapula will still be the primary mover in the exercise and move my shoulder by depressing and retracting toward my spine instead of stressing any head of my deltoid. I dont get any sensation of a pump or muscle soreness in the shoulder no matter how the technique is manipulated and it is getting frustrating seeing the increasing muscular imbalances.

6 months after your surgery how were you feeling? I was told my shoulder capsule was made very tight and there might not be much more I can do but I find it hard to believe my body will never be able to have some type of mind-muscle connection with almost my whole right upper body.

I had rotator cuff surgery in May 2010. I found it to be a long rehab and a two-steps-forward-one-step-back recovery. I have also had challenges with the mind/muscle connection and don’t believe that I have ever fully regained the use of the reattached tendon (supraspinatus). As a result, certain movements (cleans and OHPing, for example) are extremely difficult for me and are accomplished by compensating with other muscles .

That being said, I really believe I made gains for two years after the surgery, which was way longer than I was led to believe. I also am totally pain-free now and am able to bench (geared) a wee bit more than I could before the injury. So all in all, it was a very positive outcome.

I do remember experiencing quite a bit of frustration during the first six months.

I don’t contribute much to the boards these days but I do have experience in this.

I had labrum repairs in both my shoulders (a two-third tear repair on my right in May 2009, and a half-tear repair on my left in April 2010.) I don’t know the extent of the tear in your labrum, and suffice it to say, I believe the size of the tear that was repaired has a larger effect on how much ROM you’ll get back. For instance, my right shoulder has less mobility than the left, despite having about an extra year of recovery time from surgery to present day.

I should say that I have never been VERY extremely aggressive with trying to regain pre-surgery mobility in either shoulder, however I have done a bit of work to get a decent amount. About a year after my latest surgery, I had enough mobility to comfortably get under a bar for some back squats. What I mean is, before that, not only was it tough to be able to reach my shoulders that far back, but there was also pain associated with it - kind of like a pinch in the rotator cuff.

Like kpsnap said, the 6 month mark is frustrating. You can lift - and finally feel strong again - but there is still the mobility problems, mind-muscle connection problems, stability problems, etc. However, it’s important to keep working on mobility work without being too aggressive, take your time with it and let yourself see the gains over a long-period of time… you have your WHOLE life ahead of you, and you do NOT want to sacrifice stability by working on too much mobility too quick. On top of that, I would continue to work shoulder stability for the rest of your lifting career. Now that your 6 months out, it’s not as important to be so aggressive with it but you never want to neglect it or put your shoulder back at risk for another injury. It’s no secret that it’s a notoriously injury-prone joint.

I think it’s important to note that any lift that feels painful, unstable or is notoriously risky for the joint should be avoided.

Which brings me to the bad news. Some years out from surgery nowadays, I still can’t seem to “feel” my lateral delts working on lateral shoulder raises, as I’m experiencing the same problems with that exercise as you seem to be describing. However, I still use that exercise all the time and I still have growth in the areas that it should target, albeit probably not to the same effect as someone who can “feel” it. No big deal though, there’s plenty of muscle building exercises for the shoulder that are just as effective. More bad news: I can’t barbell shoulder press comfortably and dumbell shoulder presses can feel unstable sometimes as well. It sucks, but there are ways around this, such as using high incline bench variations, which can produce similar effects to overhead exercises. Which brings me back to the point of avoiding painful, unstable-feeling or notoriously risky shoulder exercises. It sucks, but there are always ways to build the same muscles whilst avoiding said exercises.

It’s gonna take some time for you to realize and figure out which exercises you might need to avoid at this point, whether you avoid them for the next few weeks, months years or forever. Surgery sucks, but this is our situation and it’s simply something that training needs to adapt to.

Now for the good news! A lot of exercises I couldn’t do 6 months out, I could some months later. As you get further and further away from surgery, you’ll feel the joint become stronger, more stable and more mobile and you’ll be able to do more exercises than you can at this point. More good news; I had the same problems with growing the surgery-side muscles as you have now at your point. In time, you’ll gain symmetry like I have regained myself. You gotta remember man, you went through some serious atrophy on that side while you were recovering. Plus, your mind, muscles and nervous system has to sort of re-learn how to activate said muscles on your surgery-side since surgery and recovery kind of fucks up the connections you had established before hand.

In conclusion, 6 months really is not that much time for labrum repair - in the grand scheme of things. But it sounds like you are making some great progress at this point in time. Just be pateint, optimistic, learn how to adapt your training style to your current situation and continue to evaluate yourself and adapt again as time goes on and you get your problems sorted out.

I know I was kind of all over in this post, so if you want to ask any questions or ask me to clarify on anything, I’ll be sure to check this page again. Good luck brotha and train hard!!!

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Hi!
I’m also 6 months out from arthroscopic labrum bankart repair, ganglion cyst decompression and anterior plication.
I am still having some concerns that the surgeon has missed something - my external rotation feels terrible, it’s like the tendon that attaches to the deltoid from the corner of the acromion has moved or has become extremely weak, did you guys experience this?
I’m also having issues feeling the contraction in my high triceps/lats when doing pull-downs and rows at the gym. I can’t even get close to the ROM of externally rotation/abduction that my good shoulder has - did you guys experience anything like this? How has recovery gone for you guys now?