Hi BBM team, I dislocated my shoulder almost 3 weeks ago and I’m looking for guidance in my rehab cause my doctor basically told me to rest and I’ll recover over time, only advice i got was to avoid shoulder adduction+external rotation at the same time.
Some medical history, this is the 2nd time I have dislocated my shoulder. First time was back in 2011 where my rehab was to rest for a long time, I recall I was told that I was young (age 17 at the time) and didn’t need physiotherapy. I was wearing a sling for close to a month, and then was gradually moving back to normal in a 3 to 4 month period without doing any flexibility/stability exercises.
Also, I feel the need to mention that I didn’t dislocate my shoulder the 2nd time due to instability issues, I failed to rack one side of the barbell during bench press and I realized it too late. Fortunately it was not a heavy set, about rpe 7, and I managed to grab and rack the bar at the lower pin. But I had lost upper-back tightness cause I thought I had racked the bar and this probably put a lot of stress to my shoulder and as a result my shoulder dislocated.
This time compared to the last one, the pain the next few days was a lot more tolerable. I only wore the sling the first week, mainly when I was running errands outside the house. I started some exercises I found from various sources on the internet since I had no other sources to fall back into. As far as strengthening exercises, I use isometrics exercises in which I face a wall and gently push with elbows tucked in at 90 degrees(for shoulder flexion,adduction,external+internal rotation). I’m basically trying to gain confidence back to return my shoulder function back to normal. I also do some mobility stuff but not to much success. I can raise my hand at shoulder flexion about 110 degrees, shoulder adduction almost 90 degrees. I don’t dare to try shoulder extension yet, I instantly feel the instability on my shoulder.
I would like to get back to the gym, but I know I have to strengthen my shoulder back up again before I am able to. What would you suggest my course of action should be for the next few weeks?
Thanks for reading.