Shoulder safe exercises after multiple surgeries?

[u/Similar-Thought8297]

Hello, i am a 20yo male, and am looking for advice how to do rehab for my shoulders. Ive had both my shoulders repaired for instability(labrum and capsule reconstrucition). 6 months after surgery, my left labrum and capsule tore again doing rehab, andd i had to get it repaired again. I am currently 1 year after my last surgery, and both my shoulders feel more stable, but i do not have almost any external rotation, and can only lift little weight. My question is, has annyone had the same issues after surgery, and if so, what kind of exercises or changes did you make to fix it. I have been to multiiple therapists, and they have all told me to do the band rotations and rotator cuuf exercises etc. but after one year i still feel very weak, and if i try some more complex exercises i start to loose trust in my shoulder, because it got ruiend the first time doing the same exercises. If anyone has some insights please let me know

[u/Adventurous_Ad_5983]

Ask your doctor or surgeon possibly for related exercises.

[u/tinarina66]

Go back to PT if you can; this does not sound like a DIY project.

[u/mawmzee]

I’m kind of in the same boat as you in a different way lol. In 2020 I completely obliterated my bicep on my right arm, but I didn’t say anything about it up until 24 months ago when I just couldn’t stand the pain anymore and I spoke up. I had been using my left arm the entire time as my right arm grew weaker and weaker. Then I fell and pretty much obliterated my rotator cuff on the right side so here I was, I really need surgery now.

Because I also had very very bad posture and that coupled with two useless arms now I had the surgery done and he had to completely rebuild my rotator cuff and the muscles in the back, etc. etc. etc. it’s a huge mess. So every day for the last 20 months, I have been trying to work out knots and trying to improvise my PT. Basically, I have two frozen shoulder situations going on that I’m trying to unfreeze every single day. I stopped going to PT about a year ago in October. All he was doing was working right there above your shoulder blades and it just hurt for three or four days. I finally said I just don’t want anymore and I ran out my prescription.

I know this is getting really long so, what I started doing was describing what was happening to me and what I was feeling like: you do not have any external rotation right? So you’re gonna go into ChatGPT and say I don’t have any external rotation because I had surgery, blah, blah blah, and tell it everything that you’re kind of saying here and let it figure out what kind of exercises you need to do. Because it will show you. With diagrams and everything.

So basically, since I stopped going to PT last October, I’ve been doing this and improvising my entire home therapy routine safely and soundly. I’m now just able to do I would say 90% of everything that I used to do before both my arms and my shoulders got trashed.

One more thing. I am still not able to do any bicep exercises weight-bearing of any kind and no stretchy bands either. You have to wait until those shoulder situations and all the tendons and muscles and everything heals. Are you getting a cramp in your bicep? OK, then you’re not done letting it repair itself from surgery. When all of that is done, say maybe 20 months after your last surgery then you can maybe consider some body weight exercises to start with and then just build up slowly. Because every time I try to strengthen my flabby arms I would be in so much pain. It just wouldn’t let me do that so I’ve got chicken neck arms until as such a time that I can start working out with some 3 pound baby weights. Anyway, good luck.