Seperated shoulder advice here

Hey everyone. I wanted to post this incase anyone has or ever gets a seperated shoulder, looks or searches for this.

A little about me and my story...

I seperated my right shoulder in November 06, playing football...in the rain...:) I went to the hospitol where they took xrays and told me to go home and call an orthopedic doctor. I didnt have the money so I had to do my own diagnostic and research. (Which was unfortunate :( I wish I had insurance..)

I had a stage 3 tear. A seperation involves the AC joint in the shoulder, and can vary in stages 1-5 I beileve, 1 being a slight tear in one of the ligaments holding the joint together, and a 5 being a complete tear and has moved location in your body.

My stage 3 meant that both of my ligaments in the joint were torn and you could actually see my collar bone sticking up next to my shoulder.

It was hell...The most important thing I ever did even while hurt so bad was to stretch it as much as I could, this was part of my rehab I stretched it every single day to give it some kind of movement since I was in a sling for a good 2 months.

I was sidelined completly from the gym for about 1 month. Going back to the gym, I couldnt do any kind of movement that involved my shoulder.

So I did lots of cardio in a sling, haha and lost a good amount of weight. I was losing muscle too, so I decided to atleast do abs/legs in the gym. The cardio had to be done on an eliptical, because my shoulder couldnt take running.

I was able to use the smith machine to squat holding the bar with only my left arm, and using other various machines that kept pressure off my shoulder. I was able to actually return to bench, overhead and incline presses in April of 08. I was incredibly weak and my shoulder was still fragile. To give you an idea of how much upper body strength I lost my bench went from 285 to having trouble with repping 135.

My rehab took a new direction when my shoulder progressivly got better. I would do rotator cuff exercises and latteral raises with very light weight.

And the fact I still looked very funny with my bone sticking out... :(

But I have spent about 10 months back consitently in the gym, My upper body is now stronger than ever, I have built my traps up enough so that you can barely even notice my bone, and best of all I have almost ZERO pain ever with my lifts.

I remember how hard it was to keep focus and stay strong, I remember thinking will I ever get back to where I was? Will I ever be able to comfortably bench, clean, press again?

and I did, with lots of rehab, time and patience...So incase anyone ever has this unfortunate injury happen to them, does a search or see's this thread. Im here to help with any questions you may have and I will help to the best of my ability!

Just got to thinking, maybe someone sometime might need someone about this type of injury!!

current 5rm On the texas method
Squat:325
Deadlift:365
Bench:255
My lifting journal

http://strengthmill.net/forum/showthread.php?s=38c084ec0455b629ed0f09e4af40aeaf&t=2407&page=8

I so needed this post NmOney34.I seperated my right shoulder almost 20 years ago in a high school football game.

Pure torture,after it happened i couldn't raise my arm more than 2 or 3 inches.By time they got me to the hospital they said it had jumped back into place.All i can remember is that for like 3 months i had to wear it in a sling and even then i couldn't raise it more than 2 or 3 inches.

It completely put a stop to my weight lifting,simply because I was like you without insurance there wasn't alot of people volunteering to help me with rehab and at 16 i just done what coach said and gave it time.

Which it did get feeling better and i was back running the ball and lifting weights again the next year but your post about the ligaments have got me wondering if i still have damage to mine.I have discomfort when trying to sleep,and sometimes it especially hurts when i wake in the morning.

Yesterday i tried doing inclined dumbbell flys,just for a change with light weight.Man i just about fell off the bench from the pain about my 4th rep.Needless to say i won't be doing those anymore.Im about 8 months into lifting again from about a 15 year get fat and be lazy period.

I guess my big question for you is if i go to a doctor what kind of test or MRI do i ask for to check the ligaments.I ask because ive already had the whole ink in the cuff and MRI done about 5 years ago.Doctors said i just had inflamation in my rotator cuff.Antibiotics fixed that.My luck if it is ligament damage its probably not reversible now.

Thank you for this post,if nothing else at least now i can use you to help motivate me thru some of my workouts where i have shoulder pain.

hey! glad to hear it was of some help.

From the research I have done, the ligament damage is irreversible right from the beginning of the injury.

What happens is your ligaments form scar tissue to reconnect the joint, whether you have surgery or not. Surgery for the most part is just to put it back into place, and get rid of the vanity issue of the bone sticking out. It also takes a little longer to recover if surgery was used.

My guess is that when it first happened you gave it time, rehab and you gradually worked your way back into the weight room. Have you been in the weight room ever since then? do you still stretch it?

Can you do any upper body lifts pain free? is your injury still visible?

Do you do rotator cuff exercises at all?

I would try doing a few sets of rotator stuff 2-3 times a week, as well as stretching it every day increasing the range of motion, and hopefully will allow you to gradually go up in weight.

I will do some research for the doctor question for you to see if I can find anything.

I had the same pain when i first started back in the gym and the stretching and light cuff lifts helped me so much.

current 5rm On the texas method
Squat:325
Deadlift:365
Bench:255
My lifting journal

http://strengthmill.net/forum/showthread.php?s=38c084ec0455b629ed0f09e4af40aeaf&t=2407&page=8

ORIGINAL: Nm0ney34

Have you been in the weight room ever since then?       Not since i graduated

do you still stretch it?      Yes

Can you do any upper body lifts pain free?          bench with bb is pretty painful with heavier weight so ive been using dumbells to get me by.Shrugs are completely painless (weird).Its just pretty much a slight dull pain on most excercises.But now Flys of any sort are impossible.

is your injury still visible?        No,the knot went away probably 6 to 8 months after the injury.

Do you do rotator cuff exercises at all?        Not anymore,after the pain from inflamation went away i stopped.


I had the same pain when i first started back in the gym and the stretching and light cuff lifts helped me so much.     I will do the same Thank you.

yeah its funny, when I was coming back exercises you think would hurt like shrugs were very easy. Like I can go shrug 405 with NO shoulder pain at all...it baffles me.

Everything I have read about this injury unfortunately says that as you get older you get more susceptible to pain and arthritis, thats why I try to stay so flexible and stay in the gym.

Try doing the shoulder exercises 2-3 times a week along with stretching it every day to increase that range of motion, try them for a few weeks and let me know how you feel, below are a few links to some of the exercises you can do.

Here are some links to hopefully help you. Good luck!

http://www.orthoassociates.com/shoulder1.htm

http://www.shapefit.com/shoulder-exercises-side-lateral-raises.html
- This is an example of the lateral raises, use 5lb plates and work your way up to 10lb, and try to make it slower than normal lateral raises, you can do these to the sides, front or angle it a bit. This was the most important shoulder exercise with weight that I ever did.

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00067
- This has a lot of different stretches you can perform and advices you when and how many times a day to do them.

current 5rm On the texas method
Squat:325
Deadlift:365
Bench:255
My lifting journal

http://strengthmill.net/forum/showthread.php?s=38c084ec0455b629ed0f09e4af40aeaf&t=2407&page=8

i just posted a thread on sepearation before i saw this, its been a month now since my fall, it was a n ac joint grade 2 i think. Its getting better now, i have hardly moved it for a month as was told to rest it, so u think i should be doing stretches everyday now???
 
how soon do u think i can start lifting weights again?????  many thanks

Hey, sorry to hear it happened.

However, yes there are things you can be doing since it has been a month.

Your first priority should be to get your shoulders range of motion back. Refer to my post above for links on stretch's. This should be your first and only priority, and dont even think about lifting any kind of light weights until you have your ROM back. I started stretching after about a week, so it may take you longer.

You should be doing these stretches everyday, I would say Atleast 3 times, more if you feel comfortable. If your arm has hardly been moved for a month, your going to have some pain stretching it.

This is a timeline for progression from myself and the reading I have done on the injury.

Yours is a grade 2, so it is not as severe.

I would say about 3-8 weeks you should be able to comfortable do shoulder rehab exercises with weights. Most of these exercises are the same as rotator cuff exercises, also including latteral raises front and side with very light weight.

after that it depends on your bodys progression and your degree of injury. Since yours was only a grade 2, you SHOULD be able to start doing all your lifts again with very light weight by 12 weeks.

Mine was a grade 3, took me a full 7 months before I was able to perform lifts like bench/shoulder press etc...However I have read of people with grade 3 injurys who cant even go to the gym without discomfort, or who take years to full recover. Again this is all in your rehab (stretch's and shoulder exercises) and your own body.

But short answer, you should defenitly be stretching and once your FULL, I cant stress that enough your FULL ROM is back then hit the gym and perform those rehab shoulder exercises, and let time do its thing.

Hope that helps, feel free to get a hold of me if you have any more questions.

ORIGINAL: ian

i just posted a thread on sepearation before i saw this, its been a month now since my fall, it was a n ac joint grade 2 i think. Its getting better now, i have hardly moved it for a month as was told to rest it, so u think i should be doing stretches everyday now???

how soon do u think i can start lifting weights again?????  many thanks

current 5rm On the texas method
Squat:325
Deadlift:365
Bench:255
My lifting journal

http://strengthmill.net/forum/showthread.php?s=38c084ec0455b629ed0f09e4af40aeaf&t=2407&page=8

ok cheers man great help!!!

i was told 2day by the hosp it was grade 3, but im healing fast cos i got a job as a gradener my movement is back quick and not going gym yet, but doc rekons 6 weeks then onto light weights doing mostly shoulder! so not too bad hopefully..