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Thread: articular cartilage repair on shoulder

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2015
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    Default articular cartilage repair on shoulder

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    My girlfriend has started strength training and is encountering some pain and lack of flexibility in her right shoulder. She had surgery on her shoulder for articular cartilage repair in 2015. The surgery was successful, although she still has some range of motion issues, stiffness, frequent low level pain, occasional severe pain, and a weak shoulder. She also has hyper-mobility.

    She completed her first three sets of squats yesterday with a broomstick. She wasn't flexible enough to have her hands in a narrow position on her right shoulder, so her right hand had a pretty wide grip. She had some manageable pain in her shoulder during the lift, but it did not progress and today it feels fine.

    For the squat, should she just continue to do regular squats and hope she gains flexibility and the pain diminishes over time or does an accommodation need to be made?

    For strengthening her shoulder in general, is rowing a good idea or just stick to the press?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Long Island, NY
    Posts
    1,208

    Default

    First, I don't think it is a good idea to train your girlfriend, and it would probably be best for your relationship if you find her a coach (rare exceptions apply here).

    I would try the regular squat making the grip accommodation that you did. The amount of discomfort will probably diminish over time. Still, I would not expect much improvement in ROM, and she may just have to squat with an asymmetric grip (I have had plenty of people with shoulder issues use this strategy). If the grip issue is causing significant discomfort to the point where you think she may stop wanting to train switch to high bar or a safety squat bar. Rows or a form of pulldowns (if the overhead ROM is not pissing things off) will be a great exercise to introduce when the time comes to decrease deadlift frequency.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2019
    Posts
    273

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    Quote Originally Posted by GAINS! View Post
    My girlfriend has started strength training and is encountering some pain and lack of flexibility in her right shoulder. She had surgery on her shoulder for articular cartilage repair in 2015. The surgery was successful, although she still has some range of motion issues, stiffness, frequent low level pain, occasional severe pain, and a weak shoulder. She also has hyper-mobility
    How was "successful" surgery defined?
    I am a shoulder surgery survivor and while I realize the shoulder is a complex joint and all surgeries are not the same I finally decided to just work thru the pain and things have improved greatly with occasional bad days which seem more weather related than training related.
    This helped me:
    YouTube


    For the sake of your relationship I would listen to Nick. Don't train your girlfriend but do encourage her at every opportunity.

    The following might be better coming from a coach than her boyfriend:
    Would you rather...? | Phil Meggers

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