8 days ago I seperated my shoulder during a heavy squat (dont ask, I have not yet figured out what went wrong other than I became unaccustom to heavy weight from the back stprain). Nothing tore and I did seek some medical advise*, consider it badly sprained although _some_ structural damage was done. It has/had very little stability (slips in the socket a lot) and felt prime for a more serious injury. I will post my rehab both because I am bored not being able to train and in the hope it will be noted and used to help others in thier shoulder issues.

I took a full 7 days off, using ice and 800mg X 3 times per day of Ibprofien. I did do some non-weight rehab work on fri and sat. This consisted of things like some stretches and hand-laterals, hand front raises and hand rear-delt laterals. Today was my first upper body workout since the injury.

whole body warmup (plate carry farmers walks and floor presses with the bar)

Floor presses 11 sets of 3 with 135lbs, 9 setsO 3 w/ 155
super-settted with
bent rows 11 sets of 3 with 135lbs, 9 setsO 3 w/ 155

1 set skull crushers w/ 95lbs. This felt terrible, so I called it a day.

This was 33% and 38% of a 1rm max on the floor press. I chose the floor press because near the chest on a press feels VERY unstable to me and because my shoulders are braced against the floor preventing them from slipping back.

jhind

* Im fortunate that my fiance (as of today ;-) is an emergency room RN and has a bach. degree in Sports Medicine and another in Exercise Phys AND was a athletic trainer for 3 college football staffs. So, I dont have to look far for medical/rehab advise!
 
 

5 Compounds using just the bar (20Kg). I used 10 reps per movement.

A compound is something I brought with me from Oly lifting, it consists of 4 movements done in superset fashion. Its purpose is to warm up, or use, the entire body.

1.) upright row, but take the bar straight up the plane of your body until you have both arms extended over head. This hits the rotator cuffs. (10 reps or so)
imediately go to
2.) Add a stiff legged deadlift to movement number 1. It should be a continuous movement from the shins until the bar is extended overhead. (10 reps or so)
imediately go to
3.) Squats, but military the bar overhead at the completion of every rep. (10 reps or so)
imediately go to
4.) goodmornings. (10 reps of so)

I just used the bar because Im trying to get some rehab work done. Studs can use up to 60Kg, olympic contendors can do these with 100Kg.

jhind

stability ball presses with 40lb dumbells, 4 sets of 15
shrugs wth 40lb dumbells 3 sets of 15
rear delt laterals with 35lb dumbells 2 sets of 12
various abs

jhind

Bench press: 135 X 3 reps 4 sets // very slow speed
Circut training 8 reps each: skull crushers, shrugs, rear delt raises, curls. 3 cycles, moderate weight.

Every rep of the bench press produced Rice Krispie type sounds from my shoulder during the bottom half. I have no idea what this could be, but it didnt stop so I cut it at 4 sets. Obviously not ready for full range yet, I'll wait at least another week before attempting full range.

jhind

The full range benches tore me up a bit, so I took an extra day off.
Rehab workout 5: The goal of this training session was to put a little weight on my rear shoulder/delt.

Rope pulley face pulls with a pause 5 sets of 5, moderate weight (machine stack, so who knows)
Bent rows 5 sets of 5 with 90Kilo.
This was all mixed in with some abs and shrugs.

I felt this was one of the more productive rehab workouts so far. The face pulls allowed me to get some blood in the shoulder without having it under a load. They will be added often.

jhind

The goal for today was to put a little weight on the front of my shoulders, and it went well.

Shoulder Rehab session 6.

Floor Presses
Bar X 1 Million reps 3 sets
135 X 3-8 reps 4 sets // 33%
155 X 3 reps 3 sets // 38%
185 X 3 reps 3 sets // 45%
205 X 3 reps 3 sets // 50%
220 X 15 reps 1 set // 54% I was VERY pleased with this so soon.
lots of stretching. We spent time stretching the rotator cuffs of both shoulders also. Im hoping that this will lessen the odds of a new injury as I increase loads.

The goal for the rest of this week is to work on the range of motion.

jhind

Rehab 7 and 8 were done last week 1 day apart.

Rehab 7:
Stability Ball presses 4 sets of 15 w/ 50lb dumbbells.
Rope Pulley Face Pulls 4 sets of 15 w/ stack
Multiple sets of bench presses with just the bar, working on regaining full range of motion. This was not pleasant; I purposefully stayed away from full range for far too long thinking I was "healing".
All super setted with ab work.

Rehab 8:
Spent 30 minutes tossing the medicine ball around in a variety of ways. This was done with no rest and trying a different toss with every throw. 16lb medicine ball.

Final Analysis:

It is very unfortunate to report that this will be cut short by a more dangerous non-related injury that has occurred to me. This injury will sideline me for at LEAST the next 3 weeks, and depending on how much I heal in that time, possibly much longer as surgery may be required. I cannot train during this time.
In retrospect, I did learn a lot from my shoulder rehab, and I think I brought it along most of the way. From this point forward, I would have continued to work on the range of motion and then began testing it with more weight (slowly, week by week).
Things I would do different:
1.) Medicine ball work from day 1. I felt this was one of the most effective things I did because it is self adjusting to your pace and strength.
2.) Full range of motion from day 1. Even if I had to use a broom stick (or just my hands!) I would "bench" multiple times per week to keep shoulder flexibility.
3.) More rotator cuff stretching. I didn’t do enough of this and lost too much flexibility.
4.) Toss the stability ball presses. Going heavy is too dangerous and they really aren’t a full range movement.
5.) Back off of leg and back workouts. I was trying to do the things I *could* do to maintain my strength. However, as I was hurt already, this made other injury vulnerabilities more likely, which finally happened. In fact, I think this shoulder injury was caused partially from being out of shape from a previous back sptrain. When you get hurt, stop the slide...***REST YOUR WHOLE BODY _MORE_ THAN ENOUGH***!!!
Things That were successful:
1.) Floor presses. As the shoulder is braced against the floor, you can perform these safely.
2.) Rope Pulley Face Pulls. This allowed me to hit both rear delts and to a lesser extent rotator cuffs in one safe exercise.
3.) Compounds. These allowed me to get my whole body moving AND rehab your shoulder. During my injury/rehab phase I got terribly out of shape. Things like compounds, walking, sled dragging need to be done to keep you at a minimum level of shape. This is not the same thing as continuing your leg/back training as listed in 5 above.

Best of luck!

jhind