Third shoulder dislocation & stuff

[joseb]

Hello Coach Rip.

My name is Jose, 23yo, peruvian. Found SS by miracle, and have been training for almost three years now. I managed to get some friends to train with me, and taught them stuff as fine as I could after watching hours of your vids. We've been doing so fine the word is spreading, there will soon be 10 of us now! You have changed my life and by doing so, the lives of more and more of my friends and my friend's friends. I could never ever repay you for that.

Some of them squat in the 350-450lbs now. But despite being the elder here, I'm weak, because I've training 3 years with a yearly interruption due to my shoulder popping out of its goddamn place. Almost like a (5 months training + dislocation + 7 months recovery cycle) x 2, then these final 5 months of training again and now this last dislocation (today).

First time was a harsh accident when playing soccer, second time was a pretty light accident and then this time it was a fucking joke. I slept on the couch for around 5 hours with my hands behind my head, felt my shoulder all lose when I woke up, did a strange movement and it just popped out. This time I'll be going under the knife for sure. I trust my traumatologist fine enough, he actually likes that I powerlift despite telling me that no amount of muscle mass can protect a recurrently dislocating shoulder, which sadly seems to be true. We both had hope my shoulder would stop messing around, but it didn't quite go that way. So surgery it'll be.

Anyway, I'm not giving up on this. I'll be back again and again. But I have 2 questions.

1) I don't trust PTs. They make me do all kind of weird stuff for 6 MONTHS before they think I'm ready to train again. I think they have no idea of what they're doing, since there are no sport-specialized PTs here in Peru. They treat me like a dying old man. What is the expected recovery time for a dislocated shoulder? Can I start doing some excercises sooner than others? Are there any replacements for things I cannot do?

2) I would like to know what I can do these maybe 2 or 3 months that could help with my future training. I'm aware I have some flexibility issues on my hips/legs/lower back, but I have no clue on how to improve that.

Maybe the answers are in the book, and I know you often answer "read the book" but despite the fact that I'd love to buy it, they don't sell it here in Peru. So I really need your advise, even the smallest one!

I actually realize my questions might be a little silly but maybe I just needed to lash out all this bullshit, maybe get some support, hope you don't mind. These injuries are really hard on me, I can't live without training, quite literally. I get all moody and stuff, I actually dropped my shrink for powerlifting a couple of years ago with awesome results. So I wanna try to keep myself busy the next few months. Anyway, thanks in advance.

[Mark Rippetoe]

1. It depends on the repair. I was rehabbing my cuff repair within the week, very carefully. But It was being moved long before the medical types wanted it moved.

2. See #1 above.

The book is not available in stores in the US. If you have the web, I'm assuming you have Amazon.

[Dave Longley]

Long story short:

I dislocated my shoulder, popped out a few times, physio kind of helped, but not really, always had a lingering pain in my shoulder.

I started pressing properly, my shoulder never felt better. It hurt to pick up my son, but once I was pressing properly my pain went pretty quickly. Recently, my pain returned, did a reset, wondered what the fuck had happened and got a bit upset. I went back to the book, got a friend to check my form, turns out my form had gone to shit on Bench and Press. For the last 5 weeks, no pain.

Buy the book. It answers many queries.

[Spiller]

There are many protocols for exercise/rehab after a surgically repaired shoulder dislocation floating around the intrewebs, even in Peru. It would then be very easy to design a SS type workout template with appropriate modifications. I would post an example, but you would not trust it.

[psyick]

^good to know, I am hoping for the same. Mine has gone twice now, once backwards, once forwards. No pain, but I was hoping extra muscle would help stop it coming out again although it doesn't seem to have helped the OP.

Also, buy the book, you don't even need to get it shipped to Peru, you can buy the ebook from Amazon. Just download the free kindle app & read it on your computer if you don't have an ebook reader or tablet.

[hatmanii]

Long story short:

I dislocated my shoulder, popped out a few times, physio kind of helped, but not really, always had a lingering pain in my shoulder.

I started pressing properly, my shoulder never felt better. It hurt to pick up my son, but once I was pressing properly my pain went pretty quickly. Recently, my pain returned, did a reset, wondered what the fuck had happened and got a bit upset. I went back to the book, got a friend to check my form, turns out my form had gone to shit on Bench and Press. For the last 5 weeks, no pain.

Buy the book. It answers many queries.

Very similar experience here. Except I've had 3 surgeries on my right shoulder and 1 grade 3 A/C separation on my left. Chins and correct pressing form saved my shoulders.