Injured shoulder

[bzbnmom]

About a week ago I injured my shoulder water skiing. (I'm 45) Tendonitis, my husband says. It was so bad I couldn't move my arm and it was tender to the touch. For about 3 weeks prior to this, the shoulder had been sore off and on whenever I did push-ups and other shoulder exercises. I didn't know what to think of that so when I felt better I worked the upper body and it got sore again, then better - workout, then sore (cycle). I love upper body workouts!

Ok, so now (after ice and Aleve) I can move my arm pretty well but it's not totally healed. After 4 days of no exercise I started riding my bike, did Butts and Guts, and LIC cardio.

I need a game plan before I'm tempted to re-injure myself by trying some back, chest, tricep, bicep exercises. I am itching to do these! What kind of rotation should I do? How long should I avoid shoulder exercises? I'd like to heal completely first. What do you think?

Thanks,
Mary

 

[hula_girl]

I'd make an appointment with you doctor to make sure if it is actually tendonitis. It could also be many other things, or maybe it just needs more rest. It could be a pulled/torn ligament. It could even be a calcium deposit in your shoulder joint (my mother has this from years working as a hairdresser). Just to be safe if it is affecting your ability to workout you should probably seek a professional opinion.

Shelby

 

[cataddict]

I agree completely with Shelby--see a dr to make sure---unless your husband is a doctor? I injured my shoulder and the dr gave me three possibilities--arthritis, tendonitis and a rotator cuff injury. Mine was tendonitis. It took several (not one, but closer to 4) weeks for it to heal enough for me to start using weights and still several months later I am still lightening the load on my shoulder to avoid reinjuring it. It just about drove me crazy not to go back to my usual weight routine, but I didn't want to risk permanent damage.

 

[jcm]

Well.... I'm almost 3 months post shoulder surgery so I urge extreme caution! My problems started last September after Bootcamp. A couple hours later my arm was so bad I couldn't put my 1 yr old to bed. The next day I ended up in a walk-in clinic w/ a vicodin Rx and diagnosis of bursitis. Didn't improve. Went to a sports doc. They did x-rays, same diagnosis. Didn't get better. Then 3 months of physical therapy. Then a cortisone injection. Then an MRI. Then on to see a shoulder specialist who finally conceded to surgery the end of March. I just started lifting weights last week! And I love love love upper body/shoulders/push ups! I've been in physical therapy for two months and it's coming along. The surgery was worth it. But we had to exhaust every other option first. Basically they had to get in there and see what was going on. Nothing really showed on the xray or MRI. The final procedure: he took 1 cm. off the end of my clavicle to reduce the swelling in my AC joint, cleaned out the arthritis that had developed because of the problem, cleaned out the bone chips floating around because it had been bone on bone, then put in sutures and anchors to stabalize my slipping shoulder.

Sorry - it's been a LONG year! Basically as I was going through the process I was advised to stay clear of push ups because they are very hard on the shoulder, and don't do anything over head (presses and such). Now that my problem had been addressed and it's being rehabbed I've got the okay to start back to that stuff slowly - depending on how it makes my AC joint feel.

Well, probably more answer than the simple rotation you were looking for! Just be careful!

Jen

 

[Bobbi-B]

First of all, ugh, sorry you hurt your shoulder. Second, I agree w/ previous posters that I think you should get it checked out by a doctor to make certain of what you're dealing with.

Third, here's my shoulder story, HTH. I'm 90% recovered from a minor shoulder injury (strained deltoid) and it took a LOT of patience to let it get better; I kept re-straining it by working my shoulders too soon. I know it's different with every person, but here's how my recovery progressed, over the course of several months, with setbacks due to re-straining.

I started out doing NO upper body workouts, and not even moving my arms during step aerobics. I even did LoMax once with a sling on! I don't recommend this, it's sweaty and uncomfortable! Then, I started moved my arms during cardio routines, and used weights for biceps/triceps exercises and some back/chest exercises that don't recruit shoulder muscles, but I did NO push-ups, chest flies, tricep dips, or anything else that I felt in my shoulder. I did shoulder exercises with NO weights, just to get the range of motion going again. Once I could sustain this for a week or so without any flare-up of shoulder pain, I added 2 lb. weights for shoulder work, and box push-ups. This was hard because I felt so wimpy! But most recently, I have been able to progress to 5 lb. weights for many shoulder exercises, knee push-ups, triceps dips, and no shoulder pain. Yay! In a couple of weeks, if my shoulder still feels OK, I'll get back to toe push-ups and keep building up the weight I'm lifting.

Funnily enough, the test I used to figure out if I was re-straining my shoulder had nothing to do with working out. When my shoulder was hurt, it was painful to close my car's glove box with my right arm - something about pushing it up at that angle just twinged the muscle in a certain way. And I access random stuff from my glove box every day, so I had lots of chances to test out my shoulder. When I could close it for a few days with no pain, I knew I was ready to progress to the next level with my shoulder exercises. If my shoulder got twingy with the glove box, I knew I had to lay off whatever I had been doing in my shoulder workouts (and reach over with my left arm for a while to close the glove box). Strange, but it worked!

 

[DebbieH]

You've gotten great advice here. I just wanted to wish you luck and hope that it isn't anything serious and that you heal fast! Thinking of you!

 

[toffeedog]

Have had Tendonitis in my right arm. Be careful. I did not lift weights for 6 months and then did only basic Firm weights at their weights for the next few weeks. Right elbow ain't in love with pressups or to much tricep work but I can lift at previous weights and only every second day. In my part of thw world the health service view Tendonitis as self inflicted so you heal yourself via rest. No quick fix with this I am afraid.