Crap shoulder

Triathlon Forum
1

I managed to succesfully completely mangle my left shoulder last summer and had some rotator cuff damage.Rather than go to the local quack I started getting ART therapy(soft tissue massage)from a chiro.Although the shoulder feels almost back to normal it still ‘clicks’ a lot(I am back swimming up to 1500 ish yds a session).My questions are twofold.1.Has anyone else used Active Release Technique to help an injury,especially shoulder and if not2.What other courses of treatment have you had that worked…

2

I got slammed into the roof of an airplane and it permanently jacked my shoulder. It was now almost 20 years ago and it still bothers my. Not good. Shoulders are worse than knees.

3

Agreed. I have one shoulder that is totally shot and has been operated on, the other is just kind of shot but I’m avoiding surgery. Its pretty simple, but I’ve found that those colored rubber bands (and the accompanying exercises) are really good for helping rotator injuries.

If you google rubber band stretches and rotator cuff you will get a lot of info. Pretty standard PT type stuff but seems to really work.

4
  1. No
  2. Ultrasound, massage, stretching, strengthening.
    No swimming or any overhead moves even though the injury wasn’t from swimming but from paddling.
5

stretching, strengthening.
No swimming or any overhead moves even though the injury wasn’t from swimming but from paddling.

I agree with what is left above. I have had ART (not for shoulder tho)

What has worked for me is therabands:

http://www.tjfit.com/products/images/elastic.jpg

Not the above exercise of course but some shoulder stuff my PT showed me way back in 1999. I still do the excercises at least 1x per week and still severly limit overhead activites.

http://www.take-care.com/img/spor/therabands-s.jpg

6

  1. ART treatment worked for my shoulder. I had a lingering shoulder injury from swimming (long time ago) that reappeared after I started to swim for a local Masters team.

  2. You can also try deep tissue massage.

7

first of all, there is nothing wrong with going to a good doc and getting into a good therapy program. this, coupled with massage, is what will heal you. Rubbing is fine and all, but you’ve got strengthening issues, etc to deal with yet. So, that’s what I’d do…3-6 weeks in rehab can make all of the difference.

8

Fish out of interest how long did you have the ART treatment for?Did you use therabands in conjunction?

9

If I remember correctly I had one session a week for 3 weeks. So 3 ART treatments for the shoulder. But I do lift weights and I always work my shoulders. But no therabands. I have also had a few deep tissue massages for the shoulder as well.

ART and the deep tissue massage will loosen things up but I agree with the other posters about building strength. I just had to get things moving before I could really get the hard swim workouts in or feel comfortable in lifting heavier weights.

I will admit that my shoulder is not 100% perfect but it is a lot better. I could probably do with another ART treatment and learn how to use therabands correctly. It would probably be better than weight lifting in fine tuning muscle strength around the shoulders and back.

Good luck

10

i messed mine up pretty bad last jan., and waited until march to get it checked out. turns out that i tore some cartilage, but was able to wait until the season was over to do anything. I had the same clicking, but it also dislocated pretty often. Ended up getting surgery on it about a month ago, and the recovery is going well so far, but they are expecting a 6 month turnaround, so if your going to go that route, i’d do it now so you are ready to race for the summer. good luck

bob