Hello,
A little background. In June of 2020 I suffered a partial slap tear and partial tear of the infraspinatus. Due to the pandemic I could not receive immediate care, and underwent A few months of PT instead of surgery. December 2021 I took a bad fall training Judo on the same shoulder. September 2022 I had my infraspinatus with glenoid retraction and supraspinatus repaired in addition to an ac joint decompression, bicep tenodesis to repair the SLAP tear, and all the fun that comes with that.
I concluded PT in March and was cleared by my surgeon in April. I’m no longer under the care of a physician.
Currently I’m able to DB Bench 55lb DBs with full ROM, do 5 pull-ups, and barbell floor press with 165 lbs all pain free.
Am I being too conservative going with the shoulder rehab template to further strengthen my shoulders and to reacclimate to lifting? Should I just work through the beginner template with appropriate exercise choices for my limited range of motion?
Hey Rob,
Thanks for the post. Sounds like you’ve went through the ringer the last few years…
I’m curious though about your current ROM. You mentioned that it is limited. What do you mean?
Let me know and I can make some more specific recommendations.
-Jordan
Thank you for the response, and I definitely have. Years of heavy lifting in my 20s and 15 years of grappling has done a number on me.
My shoulders have always had poor mobility. Current ROM limitations really focus on the repaired shoulder, and specifically internal rotation or any movement placing my arm behind the back. Think in the realm of the towel stretch, pvc shoulder dislocations, holding an overhead squat, or even a loaded barbell in the low bar squat position. The last one I can manage, but with discomfort, especially as weight goes past 205.
Sounds like more of a loading and exposure thing for the range of motion. I see no reason why you can’t do other upper body exercises and/or slowly work back to squatting low bar if you prefer. I suspect after you build some confidence, even overhead squats would be viable.
Regarding whether or not you’re being too conservative, that’s not clear to me. I think the shoulder rehab template is a fine place to work from with respect to gradually introducing exercises you haven’t done in awhile. You can move on to the Beginner template after if you like. I don’t think I’d favor the floor press over the regular bench press if you can tolerate that. Similarly, I’d definitely do some vertical pressing, e.g. barbell press, dumbbell press, high incline work, or similar as well.
Thank you! All noted and taken to heart.
The floor press has been being used a safety blanket and confidence booster while increasing activity and load.
I’ll continue with the original plan of the rehab template followed by beginner.