Shpulder surgery for torn supra (rotator cuff)

[Chuck Tringo]

Another doctor told me later that I was lucky I went to an HMO surgeon. He said a regular fee for service surgeon would have operated right away and, if I was lucky, the results would have been as good as the Motrin and wait results. The surgeon then would have claimed a "successful surgery" based on these results.

I agree 100%. Where I am stationed we don't have neurosurgery or ortho-spine so all of our spine patents get sent to civilian providers. To this date I have not met one soldier who has had spinal surgery and does not have residual problems...most are no better than before surgery, many are worse.

[Les Hahn]

I had a 50-70% tear in my right supraspinatus (seen in MRI), which also caused shoulder pain in the rear delt of my shoulder. I honestly thought something was torn in the back, but it wasn't. I saw a sports doc, actually the guy that works on players from some of the local professional teams. He didn't recommend surgery, unless I couldn't rehab it. We did a cortisone shot, and my friend who is a PT gave me two stretches to do (the sleeper stretch and one where you pull your arm across upper chest/face). I couldn't OHP at all, and benching was out too. I noticed that I could bench with a really flared grip, which you really can't do on the bench. You can floor press like that though, so I ended up doing those for rehab until my shoulder was ok for benching. I didn't try OHPing for over 2 years.

Recently I feel the same pain in my left shoulder. I didn't get an MRI, but I am guessing it is the same sort of thing. Again I can floor press lightly with no pain, but I can also OHP lightly this time. My shoulder hurts to move around, but those two movements done with good form seem to be ok. Maybe give floor pressing with flared elbows a shot to see how it feels. Go light, and basically the bar will be right below your neckline. Since you don't go that deep, I never felt impingement like you would if you touched your chest like that.

Best of luck!