John, I am just curious, you may have mentioned what happened to your shoulder but I didnt see it anywhere, but what did you do and how did it happen??

I am asking because last August I dislocated my shoulder (Bankart Lesion was the final diagnosis) doing dumbell military presses :bb: . It popped it right down to where my shoulder joint was sitting on my rib cage. Anyway, the Dr told me that you actually have better odds of it healing on its own the older that you get (I am 28). So I went to physical therapy and rehabed it exactly as I was told to do and I was lucky enough to escape surgery. I lost a TON of strength when it happened since my arm was in a sling strapped to my body and it took about 2.5-3 months until I felt comfortable enough to even start any kind of moderate shoulder workouts and chest (hanging weights above my head with a bad shoulder sounded kind of dangerous to me). It still makes me nervous sometimes when I start putting a lot of weight on but it actually is stronger than it was before, although I had only been lifting weights for 8 months before it happened. And I think that the nervousness is a mental thing.

Anyway, I was just curious what happened to you?

Yeah...I'd like to hear about it as well.
I must have missed that part somehow... :p

It popped it right down to where my shoulder joint was sitting on my rib cage.

Damn that must have been scary, the pain would have been one thing but the realisation of what happened would have made me freak.

I'm not saying you were a beginner or pushing too hard but its a good example of what can happen to a beginner trying to do MAX-OT. Its always best to be safe because one mistake could cost you years.

Marcus :tucool:

I tore my rotator cuff doing very heavy weighted dips. My arms could handle more weight than my rotator cuff could. I've been doing rotator cuff strengthen exercises in an effort to make them stronger. I'm also going to cut out the weighted dips when I can do upper body workouts again.

I think your injury was a lot worse than mine, damn!

The shock when I looked down and I couldnt see my shoulder is what really got me, the pain didnt even start until about 5 minutes after it happened. So I had to hold my arm up for an hour and a half until the Dr in the ER got around to putting it back into socket because if I let it fall the pressure would kill me. But it was a hard lesson I learned that day but one I will never forget.

Hopefully you can get your shoulder back up to strength without surgery! :gl:

Right after I got my new bench my wife was lifting on it and she tore her rotator cuff. She hasn't lifted since and it's been over a year.

She's in school now becoming a massage therapist so she cannot afford an injury now plus her work is her workout so to speak. But it took a long long long time for it to feel right again.

I've been watching Johns progress to see how his recovery has been going just to see if it was similiar to my wifes. She would feel 100 percent then do one rep and she'd know it wasn't ready yet.

When was John's injury, Oct or Nov last year I think?

It's a long road but since she has taken anatomy and pysiology (sp) we've learned that even when you are injured you should exercise it, although I would think exercises specific to the cuff rather than benching. I forget the reason, something about exercise will create new cells which hang around the injury area and lessen the scar tissue and make for a smoother recovery and less scar tissue.

Something like that. I'm sure others will have input or I can get her to put it to words if anyone is interested.

Thats my 2 cents

Hey John,

Which exercises do you use to build rotator cuiff's strengh?