Anyone had rotator cuff/"SLAP" tear surgery?

[Kung]

Let me preface this by saying that I have had surgery on each shoulder before (subacromial decompression/acromioplasty), as well as having had surgery on my back (L5/S1 microdiscectomy), hands/wrists (carpal tunnel release) and ankle (to repair a broken bone), so I'm not unfamiliar with the post-surgery pain or recovery process.

Anyways...started CrossFit about 2.5 months ago, and I absolutely LOVE it. I've seen gains in strength, stamina, endurance, etc., steadily and across the board; and my waist size has gone down while my shoulder/arm/chest size has gone up.

BUT...I discovered about 2 months ago that certain things (e.g., handstand pushups, any overhead movements, etc.) really bugged my left shoulder, and it didn't get better. Went to the sports med doc and he said "biceps tendinitis." Both shoulders hurt less than this left shoulder does now before I had surgery...so I didn't buy it.

Went to an actual orthopedic surgeon out of St. Louis (the guy's been doing shoulders for going on 30 years now) and here's what he said.

Definite:
- orthoscopy to remove scar tissue

Possible:
- revisement of previous acromioplasty (previous guy might have missed something)
- small rotator cuff or SLAP tear (I had an MRI and neither showed, so if it IS there, it's small)

Anyways...I know that even athletes/active people who have had COMPLETE rotator cuff tears have rehabbed them and gone on to work out just fine, so I'm not worried about whether or not I'll be able to work out in a few months. I'm curious about how the pain/recovery period compares to other surgeries such as an acromioplasty.

 

[Johnny Utah]

hey Kung-

well, i haven't had a rotator cuff repair but i did tear my labrum to shreds from working out. When I dislocated my shoulder, I felt my entire left side of my body pop out of place as my shoulder popped out. It was weird. Anyway, I had a Bankart Repair surgery 12-1-2010. Recover is about 18 months. I literally just hit 18 months a few weeks ago. It's been a rough road, i'm not 100% yet but, working on it everyday. I'm in shape, been working out for years and years, love to workout and enjoy it. I'm 30 now btw.

Surgery went fine, took about 5 hours, they drilled holes in my scapula, inserted 4 anchors and sewed the labrum back to the scapula. They cleaned up some other stuff while there. The Dr said it was worse than the MRI showed. The first few weeks were rough because you can't shower, or wash yourself. You can't put on clothes and shirts by yourself. Sleeping sucked because you have to sleep upright for the first like week, plus pain pills, and then you have to use the ice machine as well. I'm glad i'm past all that stuff. Your surgery may be different though, so who knows what the recovery period would be like.


I was out of work for a month, which was awesome. Physical therapy wasn't too bad, but, that is because i like to work out. The worst part was when we had to "stretch" the ligaments. The pain was awful. Like worst pain possible. After surgery the range of motion in my left shoulder was not much, we had to literally stretch the shoulder to regain that range of motion and that is what kills. I've heard that the rotator cuff is even more painful, which is what my PT lady told me.

All in all, my shoulder feels pretty good. I have to be careful about it, i tend to overdue it at the gym and sometimes my shoulder hurts. It affects my neck sometimes from doing shrugs or chin ups,etc. Like i said early pain was pretty bad, but, i managed. The worst part was i couldn't workout for 5 months after surgery. I was able to finally start walking on the treadmill after about 4 months, and very very light weight lifting after about 6 months or so. I started picking it up a lot heavier this year. I really started to notice improved strength this past October. So that was still almost a year after surgery. I've had 2 knee surgeries as well, and the shoulder surgery was much worse.


Good Luck man

 

[Bigrupp]

Sure sounds familiar Johnny, except I ripped my shoulder apart in a flag football game. :cry2: Had to have the bankart repair and all the physical therapy. I however did not get full range of motion back. Despite all of the cranking that the physical therapist did, and he did a lot, I can only lift my left arm to about 90 degrees out to the side and up to almost 115 degrees to the front. That was in '99, and I've still got issues with pain and stuff. Take pills all the time, but it's the only way I can use my left arm. Sucks! Went to my fifth Ortho Surgeon just this last week only to get the same response- "Sorry, there's nothing I can do." There is a possibility that I may be able to go see a guy at the Mayo clinic who might be able to do something, but I look back at how long the recovery from the first surgery was and I'm not sure I want to just try something to see if it will help. With everything going on right now I can't deal with that. I'm only 33.

OP- If you just have a small tear, you may be able to just do physical therapy to get things right. A guy at work did that, however, he is an older guy who wasn't gonna do any more than he was told to by the physical therapist. Another buddy at work, younger, likes to work out, and couldn't handle the slow pace and pushed it and ended up tearing it worse. After he had ortho surgery he was back to working out way sooner than had he just went the physical therapy route and wished he had just done the surgery to begin with. I can't really speak on the pain or recovery time of the other surgeries though.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Sure sounds familiar Johnny, except I ripped my shoulder apart in a flag football game. :cry2: Had to have the bankart repair and all the physical therapy. I however did not get full range of motion back. Despite all of the cranking that the physical therapist did, and he did a lot, I can only lift my left arm to about 90 degrees out to the side and up to almost 115 degrees to the front. That was in '99, and I've still got issues with pain and stuff. Take pills all the time, but it's the only way I can use my left arm. Sucks! Went to my fifth Ortho Surgeon just this last week only to get the same response- "Sorry, there's nothing I can do." There is a possibility that I may be able to go see a guy at the Mayo clinic who might be able to do something, but I look back at how long the recovery from the first surgery was and I'm not sure I want to just try something to see if it will help. With everything going on right now I can't deal with that. I'm only 33.

Oh man, i'm sorry to hear about the range of motion being limited. That sucks. I've definitely noticed a lot more popping and cracking coming from my back and shoulder in the last year. So i'm sure it's all directly related to my injury and surgery. I actually didn't have surgery till almost a year after i first hurt it. Once i tore it, i knew something was wrong, but, i kept working out on it. I saw my general physician who gave me x-rays and pain pills..which was a waste of time and money. I should have just directly to my orthopedic surgeon. Anyway, i noticed a few months after the injury that my left hip started to hurt all the time, going upstairs especially, and i think it was because i was walking a little different from the injury. Once i had surgery, that hip pain went away--pretty weird huh.

Also, ironically my roommate's boyfriend had the same surgery a few years earlier and said he had the same problem with his hips hurting. Once he had surgery it went away too. I guess our bodies are all connected.

Good luck bro

 

[Bigrupp]

. I guess our bodies are all connected.

Good luck bro

That's the truth. It's crazy how you try to compensate for things without realizing it until you start to hurt somewhere. I was in the Army when I tore my shoulder up, and they didn't have a clue, so instead of getting it fixed right away, despite the fact that it was hanging there and I couldn't move or feel my arm, I ended up having surgery a month later. The specialist at the U. of Alabama said that it shouldn't have been more than a week after it happened. Don't know if that has anything to do with the limited range of motion or not. On a positive note the VA has taken good care of me for it though.

 

[Kung]

Bigrupp - I've actually tried dialing back. In fact all overhead movements (even the light ones) were eliminated...and it still hurts. The thing is that there is definitely scar tissue there that needs to be removed; and this shoulder, while its not killing me, is hurting more than it did prior to my acromioplasty.

Not looking forward to being limited, but I'm the type to do whatever is needed
to regain functionality, be it rest, excruciating PT, stretching, and so on. I have no plans to stop lifting long term, and even if I do nothing, the pain remains...so something is in there needing fixed. I just hope it's not too extensive. If it is, I'll deal; just would like to be back at it sooner. Thanks for the advice and information all. I'll respond more at length later.

 

[Kung]

Two other advantages I have that are prompting me to get it taken care of:

- I've got an IT job, so I can be back very soon, like a week.
- I heal INSANELY fast for some reason.

 

[ironhippy]

i just saw this thread title and thought 'crossfit'

I was not dissapointed

 

[SJC]

How does cross fit work?

 

[Johnny Utah]

i just saw this thread title and thought 'crossfit'

I was not dissapointed

How does cross fit work?

LMAO I remember reading this definition a few months back and laughing really hard.

Gyms in the wash. dc area charge $250 a month and up! My old roommate does cross fit. One day she was doing box jumps and hyper extended her knee, luckily it was just a strain--no surgery needed.

Urban Dictionary: crossfit

Kung, i hope this doesn't offend you. Good luck on your shoulder, i hope you find some relief.

 

[SJC]

LMAO I remember reading this definition a few months back and laughing really hard.

Gyms in the wash. dc area charge $250 a month and up! My old roommate does cross fit. One day she was doing box jumps and hyper extended her knee, luckily it was just a strain--no surgery needed.

Urban Dictionary: crossfit

Kung, i hope this doesn't offend you. Good luck on your shoulder, i hope you find some relief.

Haha danger!

 

[JohnsD90]

Well this thread makes me not want to ever get surgery. And it made me think back to all the stupid things I have done and hurt myself in the process, I certainly hope that doesn't come back to bite me.

 

[Kung]

i just saw this thread title and thought 'crossfit'

I was not dissapointed

While your assumption that I CrossFit is correct, your assumption that CrossFit caused it is not. A little background:

The pain has been there for 8 to 10 months. However, prior to starting CrossFit, it was maybe a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10. I figured the pain was just me getting old or something.

Now that I'm actually exercising, certain movements, such as overhead squats, have highlighted the fact that it's not just me getting old. I've actually specifically chosen to stay away from anything that exacerbates the problem (such as heavyweight overhead squats, handstand pushups, etc.), and will continue to stay away from them after I heal up and continue CrossFitting.

Had I started just regular weightlifting, it would still hurt just the same if I tried to do overhead movements (e.g., military presses, pullups).

Additionally - as mentioned above, I've already had surgery on both shoulders, my lower back, my left wrist, both hands, and my ankle. Yet none of those hurt - in fact, aside from my shoulder, the other areas are all stronger now, and do NOT hurt any longer.

 

[Kung]

How does cross fit work?

Hoo boy...that's like asking to explain the universe and give three examples. LOL

It is, essentially, consistently and constantly varied plyometrics, olympic lifting, weightlifting, and other exercises, set up in such a way that you will pretty much NEVER repeat workouts. Since this is the case, your muscles remain confused, and you'll pretty much never plateau.

And it definitely works. When I started, I made it halfway through the following exercise set before I had to stop and rest:

3 sets of 15 air squats, 12 pushups, and 9 band-assisted pullups.

This morning, I did the following workout:

Warmup:
- 50 ft squat walks
- 50 ft of broad jumps
- 6 box jumps
- 200m run

Strength:
- 5 sets of 3 hang power cleans @ about 80% of maximum
- 5 sets of 3 hang squat cleans @ about 80% of maximum
- 5 sets of 3 front squats

Followed by:
- 30 V-ups
- 12 one-legged squats

Followed by 3 rounds (fast as possible) of:
- 3 power cleans @ 80%
- 6 30" box jumps
- 12 situps
- 3 squat cleans @ 80%, fast as possible.

I've been doing it for 2 months and I've lost 8 lbs, about 3 inches off my waist, and my arms/chest/shoulders/back have all gotten bigger. 1RM (one rep max) of bench press went from 185 to 255; 1RM of squat went from 185 to 265; and 1RM of deadlift went from 225 to 365.

NOW...to address what others have said, YES, if there's a CrossFit box that doesn't place proper emphasis on form, on stretching, on strengthening your joints, etc., you can hurt yourself. As long as they DO place that emphasis, however, one will be fine. There are sites out there that teach you how to strengthen joints/muscles properly, which exercises help, what stretches to do, etc. The MobilityWOD site is a good example.

 

[Kung]

LMAO I remember reading this definition a few months back and laughing really hard.

Gyms in the wash. dc area charge $250 a month and up! My old roommate does cross fit. One day she was doing box jumps and hyper extended her knee, luckily it was just a strain--no surgery needed.

Urban Dictionary: crossfit

Kung, i hope this doesn't offend you. Good luck on your shoulder, i hope you find some relief.

Nope - not offended at all. The only thing that bothered me was that people think CrossFit caused the pain; it would have hurt just as much if I'd started lifting regular weights. (In fact, probably more, as I wouldn't have had a trainer to say "Stay away from overhead movements - do these instead, give your shoulders time to rest" or "Go see a doc for that - NOW.)

And for the record....I would *NOT* pay $250 a month. That's insane. I pay $70 a month for 5 workouts a week - all guided/advised by at least 2 certified trainers - all with a fitness background, one with a medical/EMT background, etc.

 

[ironhippy]

Like I said, when I saw SLAP tear, I thought of crossfit immediately. To be fair, if you said "I got rhabdo" I would have thought the same thing.

I was involved with crossfit from 2006 - 2009. I was moving away from it because I felt all it did was get me better at doing crossfit and wasn't providing additional fitness for what I really wanted to do which was mountain bike, hike and snowshoe. Right after I outfitted my home gym and quit crossfit, I fell mountain biking which has left me unable to do much of anything physically for any sustained amount of time. Also the affiliate I was at had everyone follow a structured strength training program and after we finished our strength training we would do a conditioning (crossfit) workout, so really we just did training that was typical for a lot of athletes.

I do think some of the workouts are good tools for conditioning, but after the beginner stage, the need for structured strength training is undeniable. You'll find that every one of the top crossfit games competitor is currently, or has in the past, spent a significant amount of time following a structured strength training program.

Anyway it's growing incredibly fast and now that rebook owns it, it's going to be interesting to see what happens. I do believe that they have ruined the name crossfit because every single affiliate does a different type of training, yet it's all called crossfit. If everything is crossfit, then crossfit is nothing.

There are lots of other interesting and shady things surrounding crossfit, it's a very unique phenomenon.

 

[Kung]

Like I said, when I saw SLAP tear, I thought of crossfit immediately. To be fair, if you said "I got rhabdo" I would have thought the same thing.

Ah - that makes sense; I just wanted to ensure you (and others) were aware that CF didn't cause this.

I was involved with crossfit from 2006 - 2009. I was moving away from it because I felt all it did was get me better at doing crossfit and wasn't providing additional fitness for what I really wanted to do which was mountain bike, hike and snowshoe. Right after I outfitted my home gym and quit crossfit, I fell mountain biking which has left me unable to do much of anything physically for any sustained amount of time. Also the affiliate I was at had everyone follow a structured strength training program and after we finished our strength training we would do a conditioning (crossfit) workout, so really we just did training that was typical for a lot of athletes.

I do think some of the workouts are good tools for conditioning, but after the beginner stage, the need for structured strength training is undeniable. You'll find that every one of the top crossfit games competitor is currently, or has in the past, spent a significant amount of time following a structured strength training program.

Well, that's why I enjoy CrossFit - or more particularly, why I, personally, enjoy CrossFitting at our local affiliate. I personally am interested more in overall fitness; and in fact, most of the clientele are (being as most of the local population attending the CrossFit box are active/reservist Soldiers and their families, or government employees). So a more general, varied workout schedule like CF provides makes sense. Were I was still involved in heavy weightlifting, as I was 12+ years ago (which was, I believe, the origin of these problems I've had), I don't know that CrossFit would be 'the thing.'

Regarding structured strength training, our box does, in fact, spend a sizeable amount of time on it. At the least, every hour-long workout consists of about a 10 minute warmup, a skill component (working on a certain movement), a strength component, and then the actual WOD itself. In addition, I would say that probably 2 out of every 5 days are almost entirely strength/oly-focused. Maybe not as strength/oly focused as some other boxes might be, but more so than the other ones locally, and in any event, again, considering the local clientele, it makes sense.

NOW....all of this being said, would I like to see it more regulated/structured? ABSOLUTELY. While I'm all for varied programming (to meet the needs of the clientele), I'd agree that if 'everything is Crossfit, then CrossFit is nothing.' CrossFit can only benefit from a bit more regulation, structure, and so on.

 

[Kung]

Had my surgery.....and the doc found (gloat gloat) it had squat to do with CrossFit.

The entirety of my pain was caused by a ton of scar tissue that had built up over time because the previous surgery was done wrong....so he revised the old surgery. He also removed a bone spur or two.

He also told me "Not sure what you're doing to work out, but if you've only been working out 2 months, keep doing what you're doing because it's obviously working." He did, of course, ensure I knew that I will need to practice proper form, do stretches, etc.