Shoulder injury

I will put some resources together for you. Some things that will help are specifics about the injury, your present mobility: what you can and can't do.

there is a specialist that deals with elite atheletes in Colorado. His whole team is conservative and will recommend rehab- operation. This process takes time to find out what will work for you specifically.

How and what you injured will specify perhaps what weaknesses your shoulder has.

I will get back to you.

Grant Walker

Thanks Grant,

My rotator cuff is intact and healthy. I have a detached labram, anterior and inferior detachment. My mobility is fine but the shoulder is unstable when I hang.

Luca

Last year I stretched the long-arm tendon of the bicep doing a lock-off from a gaston. Here are some of the rehab exerices I did to stretch and regain mobility in my shoulder.
(http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/booklet/view_exercise.cfm?Thread_ID=19&topcate...)

Shortly after, I started doing rotation exercises to strenghten the rotator cup. You can use Dumbells(http://familydoctor.org/265.xml), or the pulley machine or resistance band (http://www.binghamton.edu/athletics/strength/rota.pdf). Here are some videos of several of the the exercices...
* External Rotation (http://www.orthoassociates.com/video/Shoulder%20ER.mov)
* Internal Rotation (http://www.orthoassociates.com/video/Shoulder%20IR.mov)
* Pulldown (http://www.orthoassociates.com/video/Pulldown.mov)
* Row (http://www.orthoassociates.com/video/Row.mov)

Also, here is a video on UrbanClimber showing the 6 Sssential Shoulder Exercises...
http://www.urbanclimbermag.tv/videos/videoInfo.php?video=591

Needless to say, I haven't had any shoulder problems since the injury. After about half a year, I'm now doing 60lbs internal rotation and 50lbs external rotation. If I go any heavier, the weight will pull me over. :-)

Anyway, hope this helps and good luck to you.
--CrazyGil

Wow, sounds like Crazygil sent you some great information. I am going to save this information as well.

In the book "One Move Too Many... How to Understand The Injuries And Overuse Syndroms Of Rock Climbing" it talks about the increase of shoulder joint instability found in more and more climbers. In general it states that causes of instability are from general looseness and frequent passive hanging on the shoulder. these straight arm hangs put pressure on the connective tissues of the joint capsule. These connective tissues are not meant to bear weight without muscle ingagement. Therapy for instability lists three options: One, muscle training for the rotator cuff. Two, Muscle training for the scapula-stabilizing muscles, and the third resort, which is rare, is surgical proceedures. The information I found for shoulders is limited in this book.

The medical office out of Aspen Colorado specializes in sports therapy and surgery when needed. Dr. Steadman works out of Aspen but has specialists around the country. He deals with elite athletes from arouond the world. Steadman is a knee specialist but within his group he has shoulder specialists. What is cool about his practice is that they are usually savy on injuries associated with certain sports.

Grant

O.k. check out a site from Duke University on Superior Glenoid Labram Lesions. it is listed in the Wheeless' textbook of Orthopedics. This has everything you want to know and more about your injury. It sites over twenty other sites to explore.

I googled "Labram shoulder" to get options.

Very cool information

Grant Walker

Thanks for the info,

All these posts have been a tremendous help. I was doing some reading on the sites that Crazygil recommended and came across a recomendation against passive hanging. I had been doing that a fair amount leading up to the injury. An exercise that I have been doing that has helped is shuffling back and forth on my hands and feet in the push up position. Making small advances forward and backward. I forces the stabilzing muscles to be active. Each time I work out I am trying new exercises that I read about through these posts. Thanks folks

Luca

Luca,

try a google on rings ( maybe ringwork.com). We have been incorporating ring work in our core class up here ( Anchorage ). We have been doing an "Archer Pushup" with the rings along with other exercises that work on stabilizers of the shoulder complex and hip complex muscle groups. These I have found very beneficial.

Grant

a set of rings will set you back $70 and a video for training another $30. But I found it worth while.

When I blew mine out (skateboarding) I was lucky enough to be working at a Gym (the standard kind, not a climbing gym) and got great rates on massages. So onece a week I would get a massage, with an emphasis on my shoulder. On top of that I jumped in with the old ladies in the pool and worked on shoulder rotations... after two weeks I upgraded to water weights. I went from not being able to use my right arm at all to climbing in about 3 months. About 4-5 months after that I sent my first 5.11. I credit not only the massage therapy but the even resistance and low impact of "Aqua Aerobics". Yeah sure you may feel stupid hanging out with 70+ yar old ladies in a pool, but a: they tell good stories and have a great time and b: you'll have your mobility back without surgery!

Did you dislocate the shoulder anteriorly, inferiorly? How, It has been about 3 months now and I am starting to get comfortable with it. Do you do anything in particular before climbing now that your shoulder is better?

I believe it was anteriorly. The ball of my humerus ended up lodged behind my scapula. I have always been diligent about stretching before climbing, but now I also do this "wind mill" swinging motion with both of my arms, both clock-wise and counter clock-wise. It helps me get my shoulders warmed up and I can asses how my muscles, tendons, and ligaments are feeling. Ie: "Did I sleep on it in a funky way last night and move the joint around in a weird way?" You haven't lived till you wake up in the morning to find that your right shoulder is slightly out of place : )! The good news on shoulder injuries and climbing is that over developing your shoulders (which by nature of our sport just happens) your helping keep the joint in place. Along with cartilage, muscle, ligament, and tendon tearing, some bone chipping happens when you dislocate your shoulder. This "loosens" the socket and of course makes it easier for you to re-dislocate your shoulder... which adds to more bone chipping and tissue tearing... which makes your socket even looser...which makes it easier for you to dislocate your shoulder again....... It's a bad cycle... but keeping your shoulders in shape helps stops the possiblity of re-injuring the joint.

I am backing climbing. I have been climbing for (2) weeks with little to no shoulder pain. Several things that I did in my recovery that where very helpful:

glucosamine w/chondroitin
MSM (supplies sulfur to the joint)

over head stretch cord exercises reguarly

placing swiss ball against wall at shoulder height, place hand on ball and create alphabet with movements, really helpful.

keeping shoulders pinched together during exercises to keep scapula involved.

So far so good. The Glucosamine w/ chondroitin has been really helpful. I stopped taking it for a while and the pain increased. Placebo or not, it has really helped. Thanks everyone for the posts.

Luca