John's shoulder

rboit · Tue, February 17th, 2004, 09:59 AM

Hi John,

I saw your message this morning (2/17) about your shoulder not healing. I seem to recall that you still do a bunch of pushups every day. Pushups can aggravate rotator cuff injuries. Have you thought about laying off of them for awhile? It might be worth a try if you're not getting any better.

Good luck!

***John Stone*** · Tue, February 17th, 2004, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rboit

Hi John,

I saw your message this morning (2/17) about your shoulder not healing. I seem to recall that you still do a bunch of pushups every day. Pushups can aggravate rotator cuff injuries. Have you thought about laying off of them for awhile? It might be worth a try if you're not getting any better.

Good luck!

Somehow the pushups don't seem to hurt it at all, except right after I injured it. Just to be safe, maybe I should stop them for a while...

Jingo · Tue, February 17th, 2004, 12:34 PM

consider the alternative, weeks off for surgery

not only weeks off for surgery, but....

How would you do your daily pic with your arm in a sling! thousands of people's world would come crashing down around them if your daily pic looked different.

djerickd · Tue, February 17th, 2004, 01:08 PM

Did you injure it working out?

I'd lay off it for a while just in case and work those legs!!

Thats what I did, legs and abs till my shoulder felt better.

LCJ · Tue, February 17th, 2004, 01:19 PM

He needs to quit putting it off and go back to the doctor

***John Stone*** · Tue, February 17th, 2004, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LCJ

He needs to quit putting it off and go back to the doctor

Uh, he went to the doctor and she told him to rest it and take the anti-inflams and to see her again when they were gone if it was not better. He has about about 2 weeks to go.

Andrew M · Tue, February 17th, 2004, 02:39 PM

Hi John,

One of the commonest reasons for injuries taking longer than expected to clear up is lack of proper rest. Usually people stop doing the thing that hurts for a short while, then, every so often, will 'test' the injury to see if it is better. When the pain experienced is less, and the person can cope with the pain/stiffness/whatever, then they start exercising again with lower weights/slower/whatever. The vast majority of the time, this is well before the injury has truly healed.

Your 100 daily press-ups, along with any other upper-body workouts will be putting stress through whatever rotator-cuff muscle you injured. I recall it was dips you injured yourself doing (correct me if I'm wrong) and this will put greater stress on your lower cuff muscles. However, ANY movement of your shoulder joint will cause activation of all of the cuff muscles.

What might be required is to competely lay off upper body workouts for 4-6 weeks. That will be difficult, I know, but, it's been quite a long time now since your original injury, and you still get pain/stiffness. In the long-run, despite the upper body lean mass loss that would occur, allowing your shoulder to fully recover could mean greater overall gains.

Andrew.

***John Stone*** · Tue, February 17th, 2004, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew M

Hi John,

One of the commonest reasons for injuries taking longer than expected to clear up is lack of proper rest. Usually people stop doing the thing that hurts for a short while, then, every so often, will 'test' the injury to see if it is better. When the pain experienced is less, and the person can cope with the pain/stiffness/whatever, then they start exercising again with lower weights/slower/whatever. The vast majority of the time, this is well before the injury has truly healed.

Your 100 daily press-ups, along with any other upper-body workouts will be putting stress through whatever rotator-cuff muscle you injured. I recall it was dips you injured yourself doing (correct me if I'm wrong) and this will put greater stress on your lower cuff muscles. However, ANY movement of your shoulder joint will cause activation of all of the cuff muscles.

What might be required is to competely lay off upper body workouts for 4-6 weeks. That will be difficult, I know, but, it's been quite a long time now since your original injury, and you still get pain/stiffness. In the long-run, despite the upper body lean mass loss that would occur, allowing your shoulder to fully recover could mean greater overall gains.

Andrew.

Yeah, you guys are right. I'm going to stop doing the pushups, and rest it 100%. Thanks for all the good advice.

rboit · Tue, February 17th, 2004, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Stone

Yeah, you guys are right. I'm going to stop doing the pushups, and rest it 100%. Thanks for all the good advice.

As someone who also injured his shoulder last year, I sympathize and wish you the best of luck.

Just out of curiosity, are you having pain at rest or is it only certain movements that bother you?

LCJ · Tue, February 17th, 2004, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Stone

Uh, he went to the doctor and she told him to rest it and take the anti-inflams and to see her again when they were gone if it was not better. He has about about 2 weeks to go.

Uh, I didn't realize that you still had two weeks of meds.

andi · Tue, February 17th, 2004, 03:15 PM

separate corners, boys

LCJ · Tue, February 17th, 2004, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LCJ

Uh, I didn't realize that you still had two weeks of meds.

Seriously from your updates (2/13 and 2/7) it seemed like you were putting off going to the doctor. I have heard men are notorious for not going to the doctor.

Teg4e · Tue, February 17th, 2004, 11:13 PM

Yeah, definitly be conservative on your shoulder, John. I've had two surgeries for a minor tear in my labrum. Each time I was in a sling for one month, went through 2 months of physical therapy, and was not allowed to lift with heavy weights for a full 6 months. This happened two years in a row, and was very frustrating, so definitly be careful with it.

Fudgam · Wed, February 18th, 2004, 02:09 AM

Quote:

Uh, he went to the doctor and she told him to rest it and take the anti-inflams and to see her again when they were gone if it was not better

I can tell you about some natural anti-inflamitories if you would like.

djerickd · Wed, February 18th, 2004, 09:03 AM

do tell!

WaltMan · Thu, February 19th, 2004, 11:29 AM

I have had a rotator cuff injury and it took 6 months for mine to heal completely. However, I was given certain exercises to help promote the healing process. You may want to ask your doctor about this as well John.

***John Stone*** · Thu, February 19th, 2004, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WaltMan

I have had a rotator cuff injury and it took 6 months for mine to heal completely. However, I was given certain exercises to help promote the healing process. You may want to ask your doctor about this as well John.

I've been doing a bunch of rotator cuff strengthening and rehabilitation exercises every day.

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moeamaya · Thu, February 19th, 2004, 01:25 PM

I have never posted about my shoulder injury but now that I am growing more and more impatient, I have been considering surgery. Its strange, I started checking John's updates back in June March of 03 and I started Max-OT at about the same time he did. Except I injured my shoulder trying to get a dumbbell in position for overhead dumbbell presses. Now when only doing 4-6reps that kind of weight ended up putting a large amount of stress on my joint and I guess I must have tore something. But anyways, my injury happened about two days before I read about John's injury and our first visit to the doctor was on the exact same day...some day in October?

I was also given anti-inflammatory pills but she told me to just give it a month and I would be fine. Me being an unwise nineteen year old, I hit the weights in a month and honestly everything was fine. I only used machines and used relatively small weights. Well the next week was a hectic week in college so I quit lifting for a while and I didnt start up again until this January and I actually did okay lifting. There was some mild pain but in the end I decided to not continue until I felt completely healed.

Right now I am stuck at a point thinking that I will never recover enough to lift again but also to a point where I feel I can lift at least in the 12-15 rep range. If I decide to go on, I feel as though I will be limited in the size I can add on. I know I am not really looking for Pro-sized results but maybe a little bigger than where John is right now. I thought it'd be nice to show John that he isn't going at this alone.

fstrife · Fri, February 20th, 2004, 06:29 PM

I had a rotator cuff injury for about a year. I thought it was never going to heal and am still fairly careful with it (no longer playing volleyball). I was accustomed to sleeping on that shoulder/side and it took a while to realize that sleeping on it wasn't helping. Just something to consider.

Fudgam · Fri, February 20th, 2004, 06:44 PM

Quote:

do tell!

Magnesium is GREAT for relaxing muscles if they are cramped or coming off an injury. We buy a product called Ionic Fizz. Its a magnesium powder that you mix with hot water and then let it cool off a little. It is sweetened with stevia and is rasberry flavored.
Fish oil is also an anti-inflamitory. We buy Carlsons Cod Liver oil. It is lemon flavored, not fishy at all. Fish oil is something you should take everyday anyway, like you would your daily multi-vitamin.