Dislocated Shoulder - Rehab

Hi Doctors,

Two weeks ago I dislocated my left shoulder. I felt and heard my arm pop out of shoulder joint and then pop back in after a few seconds. I had a doctor take a look at it, and after performing various exercises he said I was good to go but should take it easy for a few days.

In the last two weeks I have been slowing exposing myself to more and more exercise. I went from not being able to press a barbell overhead to pressing with a slow tempo with weight. It seems like I can perform most of the movements without any pain if I reduce the weight or add tempo to the movement. Except for pull ups. Yesterday, I tried to do a pull up and after the second rep I felt my shoulder “pop” again when I lowering myself to the starting position. The pop was follow by sharp pain that dissipated fairly quickly and I was able to finish my workout. I do not think I dislocated it there but there was a weird popping sensation. I should mention that I can do a lat pull down with low weight and tempo just fine, and I can even do chin ups as long as I lower myself slowly.

Do you have any recommendations on how the best way to rehab my shoulder so that I can do pull ups again? My plan is to continue doing chin ups and slowly introduce more weight to the lat pull down over a few weeks.

I would take a slow progressive approach with the lat pull down as you described. Start with a rep scheme around 10-12 and progress every other week to a lower rep range, aiming for heavier loads in the 4-5 rep range. You can also used banded assistance for the pull ups as this will unload the bottom/starting portion of the range of motion that seems to be more bothersome for you. You can start with heavier band assistance and progress it lighter week to week, similarly to the lat pull downs. I’d give yourself a good 2-3 months of these progressions, the pressing as well.