Squatting Post Rotator Cuff Surger

[mikiekimi]

Rip - did you personally (or have you come across others through coaching) that have issues getting into the low bar squat position after shoulder/rotator cuff surgery?

I had surgery about 5 months ago and have been pressing/chinning with great success and no pain for about the last 4 weeks or so. I'm hesitant to load the squat because I can't quite get the affected shoulder/arm to get into position. I am able to bring my hands in a bit closer each week, but there seems to be a weird "hitch" in the shoulder that prevents me from getting my elbows back and up.

Just wondering if the limited mobility goes away on it's own or if it's something one can specifically work on. Andy in his forum said his experience is that some guys never do regain the ability to LBBS and end up high-bar squatting.

Right now I'm squatting with an empty bar and do not plan on loading until I can get the bar to rest properly across the upper back. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[Mark Rippetoe]

I didn't have much trouble with this, and neither have any of the guys here who have had the surgery.

[dpinsen]

Rip - did you personally (or have you come across others through coaching) that have issues getting into the low bar squat position after shoulder/rotator cuff surgery?

I had surgery about 5 months ago and have been pressing/chinning with great success and no pain for about the last 4 weeks or so. I'm hesitant to load the squat because I can't quite get the affected shoulder/arm to get into position. I am able to bring my hands in a bit closer each week, but there seems to be a weird "hitch" in the shoulder that prevents me from getting my elbows back and up.

Just wondering if the limited mobility goes away on it's own or if it's something one can specifically work on. Andy in his forum said his experience is that some guys never do regain the ability to LBBS and end up high-bar squatting.

Right now I'm squatting with an empty bar and do not plan on loading until I can get the bar to rest properly across the upper back. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

You can get the bar in a high bar position now, resting on your traps? If so, how soon after surgery were you able to do that?

[mikiekimi]

I had surgery in late August...looking at my log, I started squatting (empty bar) in late December, but my hand positioning was extremely wide.

In mid-January I was finally able to bring my hands in close enough (into the knurled part of the bar) where I felt the bar was resting across my traps. I started loading it a week or so ago - I'm slowly loading it by 5 lbs a workout (I started with an empty bar) and my positioning seems to get better each week. I'm up to a whopping 60 lbs now (my previous PR was 335 x 5, low bar). I'm in no hurry to load the bar drastically at this point...I'd rather work the kinks out of my form while I return to squatting. The flexibility is returning slowly - I'm nowhere near low-bar yet, but I think it gets better each session.

Here's kind of what I did post surgery:

Aug - nothing
Sep - leg presses/bike/sh stretches
Oct - leg presses/light pulldowns/dec hammer presses/curls/pushdowns
Nov - leg presses/light pulldowns/dec hammer presses/curls/pushdowns
Dec - SS Novice with no weight on the bar, pulldowns, pulldown "dead hangs" working up to :20 x 175 lbs over/under grip (I weight 190)
Jan - SS Novice (loading bench, loading press) bodyweight chins, deadlift (loading starting at 135), dbl shoulder presses (light)

My goal now is to work up to where I'm around the "Novice" range on the age-adjusted strength chart by mid-March. At 44, I'm in no hurry to rush the weights back up and would rather take some time to make sure my form is spot-on and that I really work on increasing mobility through good form, full range of motion exercises with some additional stretching.