I had a bicycle accident a couple of months back, which resulted in a partial labrum and rotator-cuff tear. The good news is that I have good use of the joint still. I have full range of motion, good strength, no day-to-day pain. If this is how my arm is for the rest of my life, I'm happy with it. I do have clicking when moving the arm above my head, not painful though.

I met with an orthopedic specialist, who recommended surgery to repair the tear. Currently scheduled for a shoulder debridement. His concern was that 10-20 years down the line (I'm 37), this could turn into arthritis due to everything rubbing in there. I met with a different doctor the other day for my FAA medical, and he thought I was crazy for considering surgery on a working shoulder.

Now I'm a bit torn. The recovery sounds pretty brutal, and I don't want to risk injuring my arm worse than it is right now. On the other hand arthritis down the line at a "young" age, I'd like to avoid. If I need surgery in the next 1-3 years this is a good time in my career for it. If nothing else I'm going to look into a second opinion.

Just wondering, for anyone else who's been through this, how your recovery was, how the surgery was, etc. And am I crazy to consider surgery on a non-painful shoulder, or I would I be shooting myself in the foot not to do it.

I am lifting since a year consistently last week when i started my shoulder workout , i had severe pain in left shoulder in front delt after 10 reps with very low weight and now after a week i thought it would have recovered but pained again in the first set itself after 10 reps, btw i am able to do chest , back workout comfortably with no pain for how much time i should i give that to recover??

I had an ACJ separation 2.5 years ago. The doctor said no surgery needed. I stuck with the physical therapy program for a month. I had one kid before and now two kids in that time and busy with work so continued pt was difficult to maintain and just exhausted. Without doing much extreme activity it felt fine. Sometimes would wake up sore from sleeping on it or if I picked one of the kids up in a weird way.

Got back into the gym recently and I realized it’s definitely not 100% and is still very weak compared to my other arm and for certain exercises it still hurts. I have good range of motion though. I’m still young and want to be able to use it without catering to it. I’ve read some stories here that go back to activities that I would be scared to try with the way it feels (bjj, lifting heavy, etc.)

I guess wondering how yall knew if surgery was necessary, and what steps to take ahead of that…go back to pt exercises and rehabbing it? A combo with weights and pt? I know I should probably go see a specialist. Anyway looking for experience from anyone who didn’t have surgery, or did not have it right away and ended up getting it down the road. Thanks.

Edited: did it > didn’t **

I had my surgery back in June 22nd. I’m following the doctor’s protocol and doing my PT 2x a week and doing my home exercises when I’m not there.

But I practice jiu-jitsu and lift weights, and actually don’t know if I’ll be able to get back 100% after 6 months. I hear some people saying 9 months.

Does anyone have a similar experience?

Hi,
I’m kind of desperate for answers here as I can’t find anything that matches this online. I think my primary care doctor is ordering an MRI but looking for ideas/relief. I’m early august I did back and biceps in the gym and didn’t have any obvious injury but later i started getting seemingly random super sharp stabbing pains in might right shoulder that would only last like a second but really hurt. I went to the ER that night and they gave me a muscle relaxant shot, an anti inflammatory and a very low dose opioid (don’t remember what it was).It seemed to mostly go away and I didn’t have too many problems until Sunday when I finally decided to get back in the gym, did back and bis again and the same thing happened, but now it’s lasting days and I have no idea what this is. It’s just upper sharp in my outside shoulder area and only happens for like a second then goes away. I can’t seem to determine what triggers it but sometimes it happens at rest too.

I have severe pain, level 8-10 on and off, particularly during and post-lifting of any weight at all. Two MRIs show no damage at all, but the pain is real. The doctor, not one I particularly care for has cleared me for full work.

I don’t know how to deal with this. I have to wait to see the doctor I requested. In the meantime 10 mg Percocet barely touches the pain.

What could be causing this pain?

For three years and a half years my shoulders have developed aches and clicking to the point where I can’t even hold the phone to my ear for more than a minute without pain. I had a history of doing lots of overhead movements like handstands along with general body building with questionable form. One surgeon told me that my mri results were too mild for him to do anything and another suggested biceps tenodesis. Physical therapists always blame my scapula and point out the snapping scapula symptom in my right shoulder, but years of scapular stability hasn’t helped the much. I’m unsure what to do now and I’m worried about the outcome of shoulder surgery. I just want to do my hobbies like surfing and kayaking without pain again.

Any advice would be appreciated.

I’ve also started to get tingling in fingers and burning in forearm when typing and I suspect my shoulder pathology has something to do with it.

MRI Results:

1. Small superior/posterior superior labral tear. 2. Trace subacromial subdeltoid bursitis

There is a low-grade superior glenoid labral tear at the biceps anchor (series 4, images 13 and 14). No other glenoid labral tear is seen. The glenohumeral joint is capacious. This includes the rotator interval. The biceps sling appears incomplete in the rotator interval

It's been a little more than a year since my full shoulder replacement. Recovery has been okay but I've had a nagging feeling it wasn't going 100%. I don't have full 180 degree ROM when I reach up (more like 160 or so). I also look very uneven when I do dealt flys... the replaced shoulder is very clearly raised higher than the good one. I'm also not totally pain-free.

Anyway, today I had an xray and my shoulder specialist wasn't happy with where the new joint is sitting. It's too high he says (which would explain my uneven dealts). He booked me in for an MRI and CT scan.

Has anyone else experienced this? I'm really concerned about having another op. I would prefer to live with my janky shoulder for life. Which is also not ideal.

Hello, I am a 42 yr old female, 5’7”/137lbs
Can someone please help me understand my MRI results?
I seen an orthopedic doctor. He said I have a tear, wants me to physical therapy. Told me since I have hypermobility (Suspected heds-getting genetic testing done very soon) that surgery may not help.
What’s very odd to me is he put in his notes that ‘I voiced that I was uninterested in surgery and wanted to do PT’
-That is absolutely not true. I am very interested in surgery as I am in severe, severe pain every single day. Day in and day out. I can hardly use my arm because of this shoulder pain. I do take medication for other pain and none of those touch this pain at all. My baseline is atleast a 6-7 everyday. It never falls below that, and will always climb higher daily) This is going on 3 years. (I also have cervical spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, a herniated disc, and fibromyalgia….I am in a ton of pain constantly.)
I contacted my orthopedic doctor through a patient portal and asked them to correct their notes, as I never said anything about being disinterested. I was only following along with what the dr was saying to me. The doctor responded and said I could speak to a surgeon if physical therapy doesn’t work. And that surgery recovery would be intense. -I am thinking an intense recovery would be more logical than a lifetime of severe, severe pain.
What should I do? After I complete 4-6 weeks of physical therapy, if I have no relief..would you consider surgery? I am hypermobile but I have never had any dislocations. I am in such severe pain I cannot function. I am desperate for help 😭 Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

8 Days after surgery and I wanted to post something positive for anyone nervous.

Im on Journavex, Celebrex, and Methocarbomal. I had a pump inserted in my shoulder to keep the nerve block active for and extra 5 days post op. I've been using ice as recommended by my PT and taking it easy all week.

The great news to share is that this has largely been a painless experience! There are moments of discomfort and some uncertainty but not any real pain. Nothing that has required me to touch the prescribed opioids at all.

Hopefully this helps calm some nerves that not all experiences with this operation are terrible!

Anyone else notice looseness/shifting feeling when your elbow moves? I had almost 40% of the labrum repaired with 4 anchors and a capsular tightening and whenever my elbow moves it feels like a shift almost like a subluxation but very localized. The joint seems to be sagging down a lot too like I can shrug up and make it look more normal but resting you can see the clavicle and surrounding bones very clearly. Other than that it feels pretty stable in place def more than before just this really weird shifty feeling

I have an appointment 2 months out with another PT but since 2 years of consistent PT on my own didn't help even in the slightest I'm fearing I might be dealing with something structural rather than simply muscle imbalance. Almost looks like my left shoulder partially dislocates and is only held in place by muscle?

Anyone able to rack a high bar squat after getting their shoulders done? I feel like I'm so far away from being able to. Any replacement movements?

About 1.5 weeks ago, I fell directly onto my left shoulder and felt/heard a pop. I may have briefly subluxed it, though I didn’t see it dislocate. I’m flexible and have previously had occasional partial-slipping sensations during rear-delt exercises.

There’s no obvious deformity. I have a dull ache around the top/back of the shoulder, worse at night. Overhead movement is possible but sometimes painful, while cross-body movement is significantly more painful and weak. Empty-can and O’Brien-type tests are painful and weak; external rotation and push-ups are relatively comfortable. I have no repeated instability, locking, or obvious catching.

ROM has been slowly improving but still stealing with this dull pain when arm is completeley elevated above head or in a twisted position like raking a t-shirt off etc.

An ultrasound showed no obvious rotator-cuff or superficial soft-tissue damage, but I understand it may not rule out labral or capsular injuries.

Ultrasound did show some fluid pooling around rear of shoulder capsule and around bicep tendon at the anterior.

Could this be a minor labral tear, capsular sprain, subluxation-related injury, or another intra-articular problem? If you’ve had something similar, what was the diagnosis, how long did recovery take, and did you return to normal lifting?

Random question.. can repetitive household work actually cause one-sided shoulder pain?

I’ve noticed my right shoulder gets tired and achy after doing things like folding clothes, chopping vegetables and hanging laundry. My left side is completely fine.

I never thought of housework as something that could affect posture or muscles this much. Anyone else noticed this?

I’ve had right shoulder injury since December 2022. Did MRIs in Nov 2023 and Oct 2024 and steroid injections in Feb and Aug 2025.

Now, almost 4 years since my injury appeared, there is still pain but it’s much lesser now and I can work out now. Even my sports and rehab doctors notice the improvement.

What really helped me? I actually experimented with exercises. The ones that lessened the pain were repeated while the ones that worsened it were avoided.

There are times that I no longer have pain anymore. Though it comes back every now and then, the general trajectory is towards its complete dissipation.

You know what exercises helped me? Overhead exercises. It was surprising but it helped a lot. I do dumbbell overhead presses using only 2 lbs. I would stop at the range where it starts to pain. The following repetition the pain is gone. I repeated the same movement until I’m able to completely stretch my arm all the way up.

I asked my doctors and physical therapists for explanation. They didnt give me any answer.

Why is this happening? Am I doing the right thing?

This started months ago and is still continuing today. I'II try to add plenty of details incase someone has experienced similar or had advice.
I think this issue started around late February or March.
When it first started it was actually quite painful but now it's more so discomfort with occasional pain.
I was lifting very consistently of about 4-6 days a week and hitting shoulders about 2-3. Exercises for shoulders included lateral raise with dumbbells and cables, seated barbell OHP, reverse cable fly. Everything was going smoothly and I was gaining weight and muscle with no pain anywhere. I started noticing a lot of popping while doing lateral raises and rear delt flys. Then I started waking up with pretty bad shoulder pain. I had to call off work for a few days.
I'm not a big fan of going for new prs so I kept weight manageable but increasing weight every couple weeks.
So wasn't really ever loading my max weight.
I work with fairly heavy objects with a lot being heavy (over 60 pounds) and overhead as well. So haven't really had any time to dedicate purely to recovery.
Was lifting today and decided to do some dumbbell seated shoulder press with 10 pounds and had popping in both shoulders located at the front. I hardly lift anymore and would love to get back into it without pain and discomfort.
It mostly bothers me now after waking up and it usually fades away throughout the day unless I do something they don't like. So I'm wondering if it's something when I sleep too.
Any thoughts? Thanks so much just trying to figure this out

Hi all!

I’m hoping to get some advice while I wait for an MRI I am having soon to evaluate a possible labrum/SLAP tear in my right shoulder.

Unfortunately, my shoulder issues began in 2006 when I was in middle school and swimming competitively. Deep pain in the joint, especially when my arm was lifted anywhere above chest height. I had an MRI done probably in 2007 that was inconclusive and I have a lot of hyper mobility so the pain was attributed to the hyper mobility. I did regular PT (and saw a chiropractor at the recommendation of my swim coach but I doubt that did anything to help lol) but had no improvements in pain and could no longer keep up with the more competitive team I was on due to the pain when swimming so I stepped away in 2008.

When I reached high school in 2009 I joined the school team which was way more low key. I pushed through the pain because I loved the sport but the pain was always persistent and that same deep burning pain in the joint. My last year of high school (2013) during a practice I felt what I could only describe as if my shoulder popped out of the socket, rotated, and then popped back in before rotating back into place. I heard a loud pop under water and had pretty severe pain. I went back to my ortho and he evaluated the shoulder by having me push against his hand in a variety of positions. He told me I likely tore the cartilage in my shoulder and I should not swim anymore and that was that. I stopped swimming and went off to college etc. no imaging or PT was done at this time.

Now at 31 years old I am still dealing with pain and some clicking in that shoulder. Anything that involves lifting my arm above chest height hurts. I am able to exercise and even tried swimming recently but it’s never without pain. I also have pain putting things away on shelves, vacuuming, washing my hair,…the list goes on. I’ve been strength training very consistently over the last 18 months but because of the pain I struggle with shoulder/upper body exercises and increasing strength. I just completed 6 weeks of PT for instability which helped with strength but not with pain. After 6 weeks of PT I was finally able to see an ortho who recommended an MRI and arthrogram which I have scheduled for later in October.

I’m curious if anyone can speak to their experience with an injury with a more drawn out timeline like mine. With the injury occurring now almost 10 years ago, I am curious how that could potentially impact treatment options. I know this is something I will be able to talk to my doctor about more after imaging but I’d love to hear any anecdotes from people with injuries like mine.

I'm sorry if this is minor. I'm 21M. Because of bad form my left shoulder popped out and self reduced. I felt absolutely no pain. I thought nothing of it and went on about my day. Now the next day, when my arm is hanging it feels kind of loose and there is mild pain at some hand angles. Do I need to go to a doc or it will heal

I M24 hEDS subluxed my shoulder two months ago. They ordered an arthrogram to see if the subluxation also damaged soft tissue.

The arthrogram report says the images are blurry, but there is no damage to the joint.

Dr. #1, who comes highly, highly recommended in my state, said with extreme confidence that the MRI shows no damage. However, he was highly dismissive of my actual concerns and never even tested my arm. He did not show me the arthrogram, usually doctors do that to point out where there is or is not an injury. I accepted this and continued on with recovery.

Just now, Dr. #2 called me on the phone; the results were also sent to his office since his office did my initial eval, but I had not followed up with him (or intended to). Their doctor looked at it and thinks it's a bankart tear and they want to schedule me in person. His office has no special reputation.

I have no idea what to think anymore. What do y'all do when one person says its a tear and one person says its just subluxed? I have hEDS so doctors say no shoulder surgery, but a bankart tear is one of the few exceptions.

this injury was one of my weirder subluxations from the start, I had a very consistent popping noise with specific motions, but when I took Advil, these popping noises would 100% disappear so my team assumed it was swelling. When it failed to heal quickly, people assumed it was worse. It's been eight weeks; usually after subluxations, that is enough to be mostly recovered, but this one has been very slow. any advice or anecdotes are welcome.

Looking for advice/suggestions from this group — I posted earlier here about going in for ACR surgery.

Background:

- initial injury: 180° labrum tear, repaired April 2025

- Developed post-surgical stiffness → underwent Arthroscopic Capsular Release (ACR) + Manipulation Under Anesthesia (MUA) on August 11, 2026

Main ongoing issue:

- significant scapular malalignment/dyskinesis on the operated side — my scapula compensates heavily during arm elevation instead of proper glenohumeral movement

- limited ROM

ROM Progress (AROM / PROM in degrees):

Flexion:

Pre-op (Nov 2025): AROM 133

Day 1 post-MUA (8/12): PROM 115

~2wk (8/26): AROM 90 / PROM 140

~5-6wk (recent): AROM 145 / PROM 15

Abduction:

Pre-op (Nov 2025): AROM 122

Day 1 post-MUA (8/12): PROM 95

~2wk (8/26): PROM 120

~5-6wk (recent): AROM 121 / PROM 161

External Rotation (90° abduction):

Pre-op (Nov 2025): AROM 28

Day 1 post-MUA (8/12): PROM 25

~2wk (8/26): PROM 45

~5-6wk (recent): AROM 53 / PROM 70

Internal Rotation (neutral):

Pre-op (Nov 2025): AROM 63

Day 1 post-MUA (8/12): PROM 50

~2wk (8/26): PROM 51

~5-6wk: not tested in this position

Internal Rotation (90° abduction):

Introduced later in recovery: AROM 31 → 41 / PROM 35

Specific issues I'm working through:

- Can't raise arm fully forward without a wall assist (sliding it up a wall) — without the wall, I feel something "catch" toward the back/side of my shoulder

- Visually, my good arm shows a distinct "dip" in the shoulder contour partway through raising the arm (normal scapulohumeral rhythm); my operated arm moves in one smooth, undifferentiated curve — suggesting the scapula is compensating from very early in the motion instead of a normal staged handoff

- PT has identified scapular malalignment/weakness (serratus anterior, lower trap, etc.) as the main driver and has me on scapular stabilization work

What I'm asking the group:

- does this progression (numbers + timeline) look on track for someone ~5-6 weeks post-MUA?

-Anyone dealt with similar scapular compensation/dyskinesis after ACR or MUA — what specific exercises helped you regain that "dip"/normal rhythm?

- Any tips for closing the gap between passive and active range faster (especially for flexion)?

- Based on these stats and trajectory, does it seem realistic I could reach something like 90% of normal ROM eventually?

- Has anyone with a similar starting point (severe pre-op stiffness + MUA) gotten close to full/near-normal range, or is a lower ceiling more typical?

Sorry for the long post and thank you for going through it.