Labral tear

[Foobar40]

Coach,
Sorry if this has been answered definitively in previous posts -- I've seen a lot of posts that say to do presses for rehab if you don't have a torn labrum, but that's what I have, along with impingement of the supraspinatus. Ortho said that in roughly 70% of his cases, surgery is required to get back to normal shoulder function. I have been leaning toward trying to avoid the surgery, but I thought I'd check here first. Is this something you'd lean toward repairing surgically? Thanks.

[Mark Rippetoe]

How long have you had the injury? How was it sustained? What have you done for it so far? What hurts and what doesn't?

[Foobar40]

Using Sully's template:

- 41, M, Novice

- Shoulder pain during press motion and to a lesser extent shoulder abduction

- I did press on Tue 7/3. During the second set, I lost some tension in my abs and got stuck with too much layback. I did some sort of shrugging motion to get started and then finished the press using abs to accelerate the bar enough to get under it and lock it out. After that set, my shoulder felt sore. Nothing sharp, just felt like muscle fatigue. I did the next set with no real issues. Got 5/4/4.

On Thu 7/5, my shoulder felt tight when I warmed up, so I did some additional rotations to loosen up. It felt tight during squats, but gradually got better. During bench, it start to get sore, and eventually I had to quit after my third set of chins. That evening, I maybe had 6 inches of mobility in my arm (from hanging at my side) without pain.

Since then, I've recovered almost all the range of motion. As that motion came back, I felt a fair amount of resistance to movement in the shoulder. I'd feel the resistance before I get to somewhere that caused pain. Even now, if I try to do a press motion, even without weight, I can move maybe 3 inches before I get a sharp pain.

- Pain (on a scale of 1-10) Peaked at a 7. Now, it's normally with no pain, but specific motions cause 3 level pain, but I suspect it would be worse if I tried to move through the point it starts instead of going around.

- Describe the pain (burning, shooting, aching, deep, sharp) Very sharp pain, primarily on the front of the shoulder under the deltoid. Sometimes, I get pain that includes the lateral part of the shoulder. When it was really bad, I'd feel it all the way back to my shoulder blade.

- What makes it better? The usual: rest, ice, ibuprofen, and not moving it where it hurts. Pendulum exercises and slowly moving through pain-free ROM seemed to help get movement back.

- What makes it worse? Press movements, abduction. External rotation with the arm bent 90 deg and wrist just above shoulder seems to hit the spot that hurts very consistently.

- How do your symptoms behave throughout the day? No variation.

- Signs and Symptoms (describe what the area looks like....swelling, bruising, etc.) Covered above, I think, except that there is no bruising and no obvious deformation, so I don't think it's anything like a deltoid tear.

[Mark Rippetoe]

The MRI showed a labrum tear?

[Tiburon]

Foobar see my posts for my experience with this. You might be able to "hide" the SLAP tear by strengthening the press

[Foobar40]

Yes. MRI showed labral tear, hooked acromion with supraspinatus impingement, and minor inflammation of the subscapular bursa.

Tiburon, I'll review your posts. Thanks. The problem right now is that I can barely move through a press motion with no weight at all. About a third of the way up, I still get sharp pain, and it's worse on the way down. Maybe that's all from the impingement and will die down enough with time that I can press.

[Mark Rippetoe]

If all that shit is wrong, get it fixed. ASAP, so you can get back to training. And guys, please start providing better information in your posts. Don't make me drag information out of you.

[Foobar40]

Sorry. I was trying to focus on the part that I hadn't found by searching. Now I know.