Weightlifter labral tear & training next steps
Hi Rip,
I’m a 33 year old female. Did SS for a year and LOVED all the results of the program ... life changing. Thank you for all that you do. I am seriously questioning why I didn’t just stay with SS. I ended up transitioning into weightlifting and have been doing that for the past two years with an outstanding coach. I fell in love with the snatch and clean & jerk. I was learning solid technique, totals were improving. I was training at an elite gym, lots of top nationally-ranked lifters. I am not, and will never be anything close to an elite lifter, but have been attempting to train like one. One year in my body started breaking down.
After one year of training & competing in weightlifting I developed a 2 cm longitudinal peroneal brevis tear in my left ankle. The surgeon wasn’t terribly optimistic about surgery so we tried dry needling, of all things, to bring the pain and swelling under control. He seemed to think it was pretty stable. I’ve been lifting in an ankle brace which provides arch support that seems helpful when bouncing out of the bottom of cleans and high bar back squats. I feel like this injury stable, but am open to advice.
In January, 2014, my right shoulder didn’t feel right when jerking, and I started noticing pain, weakness and decreased mobility doing everyday stuff … like sleeping and opening doors. The pain was hard to pinpoint and was deep in the back of my shoulder. Saw a shoulder orthopedic surgeon who told me to stop doing all overhead lifting. I did, but continued to deadlift, squat, pull and clean. He sent me to PT, which did nothing. In May, I got an MRI that showed a partial labrum tear and bicep tendinitis. My doc sent me to a different PT to try an “intensive shoulder rehab” as a last option before surgery. I’ve been doing the new PT program, a variety of light dumbbell stuff, for the past two months. I feel like we’ve gotten my shoulder to the point where it’s mostly pain-free doing normal everyday stuff. He allows me to try incorporating more exercises “using pain as the guide.” I can do chins and 20 lb ball slams with no pain. Multiple times I’ve done several worksets of presses, jerks, push presses and snatches and it all still hurts. Now it doesn’t hurt terribly bad, I’d be totally up for training through it … I’m just nervous about making things worse.
I want to avoid surgery at all costs, with the immediate goals of getting back to regular weightlifting programming and be able to throw a softball. My long-term goals are to just be healthy, strong and mobile for as long as possible. I’ve been training through one injury or another for the past year and have been too injured to compete in weightlifting or participate in my hobbies of skiing and softball. I should also add that I've been very pro-active about recovery and self-care with neuromuscular massages, not overtraining, taking proper rest, chiro, solid nutrition, Epsom salt soaks ... I feel like I'm trying everything to properly take care of myself.
Given my long-term goal and current injuries, should I just quit weightlifting and go back to SS? How would you rehab the shoulder at this point? And what are your thoughts about the ankle as well?
As always your advice is greatly appreciated and followed.
Thanks for the help.