Rotator cuff surgery

I just had surgery on Tuesday, my rotator cuff was 90% torn. Talk about hanging on by a thread... Anyway my arm is in a sling and the info on rehab sounds like a long slow road with not much in the way of lifting or throwing. Anyone have any experience/advice going through rehab after rotator cuff surgery and getting back to training? Perhaps Shawn Baker? It has not even been a week and I am going crazy.

Thanks

Thanks for your reply. Everything on this topic seems constant: slow.

The gym I go to is a "Crossfit" type of place, even though I do not participate in the group classes they have lots of open space, medicine balls up to 40 lbs, bumper plates etc...but no leg press or other type machines. The best I can hope for is to specialize in the squat for a couple of months, I just don't even know when to reasonably expect to place a BB across my shoulder/back...?

Dave, sorry to hear about your shoulder, my advice would be to listen to your doc and therapists until they cut you loose (let your therapist and doc know what level of activity your planning once recovered- they probably won't know much about the highland games, but you can probably give them the general idea)

Assuming the high grade partial tear you described was generally a pain issue for you and not a dramatic strength problem, you likely had good cuff tissue to work with during the repair. It generally takes about 6 weeks for the tendon to adhere to the bone so the early focus is going to be a lot of passive motion and isometric periscapular stuff, then progressing to active and active assisted stuff followed finally by some fairly light strengthening (especially compared to what your used to). You'll probably be released from therapy somewhere around this point approximately at the 3 month point.

If you are planning on going back to throwing I would then spend a few months generally bringing up strength with basic relatively slow stuff (pressing, pulling) once finished adding some light speed work progressing to maybe some release stuff (eg med ball) then perhaps some plyo pushups and then finally back to throwing

I fix at least a couple of cuff tears a week but thus far not on any HG guys yet, you might also chat with Don Stewart who was/is coming back to throwing after a shoulder replacement

Total tear of cuff and total labrum tear at one time my 5th year at age 39.  Get on your door pulley and get your range of motion back.  Find the one groove you can do up and down and then gradualy work out to the sides of that each way, spend an hour doing it at a time, just keep doing it until you get the range back.  Then do a ton of reps very light on bicep and tri to get the blood flowing through the joint and I don't mean 20 or 30 reps, I mean hundreds.  One arm cable push downs so light you can do them forever.  Cable or dumbell curls again forever.   You must wait the 6 weeks for some tissue remodeling before leaning at all on the shoulder.  I competed in a game at 17 weeks and had already practiced enough that I won.  While your habing the hurt delt, work the rest of the body as hard as possible.  Ditch the sling. 

Thanks to all for the input and advice on this isue.  It seems I don't have many happy times ahead of me on the rehab.  The mental will no doubt be equally as hard as the physical. 

Back squats put a pretty good strain on the shoulder joint, and at one month you're probably not going to have the strength to hold the bar in position, let alone enough ROM to get in position.  I would suggest holding off on the back squats.  It took me a good nine or so months before I could even get under a bar.

Thanks for sharing your experience.  There is no way I can make it 9 months before lifting.  I do worry about getting under the bar due to the stress on the shoulder in order to hold the bar in place.  But if this is a static hold position and not a dynamic movement I thought it would be safer...?

What about the Saftey Squat Bar?  I do not know, I am just curious about this.

I wouldn't want to do any fronts until I was sure my shoulder could take as, cause even with the genie-style hold the compensation is always going to be driving the elbows up.  And as mentioned, just holding the load there may suck in itself.   

If it was me, I'd just find a place nearby with a cambered bar or SSB, as I'm sure there is a place in the area you can use temporarily. 

It wouldn't be my preference in this situation, but I wouldn't dismiss it either as I think it could work. 

I would try to use long handled version though (to prevent unnecessary rotation of the shoulder). 

http://youtu.be/zRSER0Y0RH8

You are very creative!!!  Be sure to dump the bar if things start to go bad: don't want to wreck that repair by trying to save the unsaveable.  I hope your recovery is going well!

I had a total 2 years ago, listen to the Mule. his advise helped me then, I am sure it will help you now. I had a bunch of cleanup work in the joint along with the repair, so pain was an issue for almost year for anything over head. squats were hard to do just reaching up to grab the bar was painful for a long time. you just have to push though the pain, and keep focused.

Looks high.

That is an awesome picture.  Way to go!  Another thought would be buying a hip belt from Ironmind (http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Main/homesweathome4.html).

Hip belt is ok but never could get the right setup to get good depth