Shoulder Dislocation

"Anand" wrote in message
m...
Hi,

This is my first yr riding, ended my season last week with a shoulder
dislocation. I'm starting physio therapy tomorrow. If my
rehabilitation goes well can I start riding again next season without
dislocating it again? I'm kinda worried after reading articles on the
web that once it starts to dislocate, it'll keep happening again and
again... What would be a good way to take a fall without hurting it
again??

I did the same thing last year and I healed almost good as new. You've
stretched out ligaments so you're more likely to do it again. You cant
tighten them without surgery, but you can bulk up the muscle around it which
will do the same thing and prevent injury. To heal fast you need to use it,
but use it right. Dont lift your arm above shoulder height for a while. Dont
do something stupid lke swing on monkey bars for at least 3 years. Go get
yourself some stretchy exercise bands, and use them every day. Most
important are rotator cuff exercises. The best 2 are to attach the band to
something like a door knob, and bend your elbow 90 degrees while keeping the
elbow stationary at your hip. Moving your hand rotate your arm from in front
of you to out to your side and back with resistance from the band. Keep your
elbow glued to your hip. Reverse and do the other way. This is the best
exercise you can do, trust me. Dont bench press or military press, or do
chin ups for 6 months. Do all movements SLOW and controlled. When youre
stronger make dumbbell laterals your friend. Do them bent over, in front of
you, and straight out to the side. Stop immediately if you get any pain at
all. Lift as heavy as you can without pain, you can tell the difference
between the bad joint ache and the good muscle ache easily. Think like a
body builder because the goal is to build big bulky shoulders, muscle bulk
is what will fill out the shoulder and keep it stable. Building up other
muscles like pecs and lats will help stabilize the shoulder joint as well,
but the main ones are the rotator cuff, particularily supraspinatus and
subscapularis (I think), they're the two that rotate the humerous each way.

Tuck your elbows in and fall on your forearms if you want to avoid doing it
again, this is how to fall correctly.

Machman, I understand that surgery is a better way to treat it but my
physio therapist says you get good results without surgery IF you play
it safe and do all the exercise right. There is always a risk but I
would prefer to take that risk instead of surgery. She said if you
keep dislocating it again & again, surgery would be the way to go...

Tom, I think those skeleton tools help reduce body ache and not really
help dislocating joints. The lesson that I learnt is DO NOT FALL WITH
STRETCHED ARMS, FINGERS...

Mofo, Thanks for the advice, would be very helful coz you have gone
thru this before. Thats my plan, do light exercices, strenghten
rotorcuff muscles for the next 3 months then maybe after 5 months do
light weight latpull, dumbell press and other (of course with advice
from my physiotherapist). I think those stetch band exercises might
help big time...

Fun!
Anand

Machman, I understand that surgery is a better way to treat it but my
physio therapist says you get good results without surgery IF you play
it safe and do all the exercise right. There is always a risk but I
would prefer to take that risk instead of surgery. She said if you
keep dislocating it again & again, surgery would be the way to go...

Glad to hear that - IMHO surgery should be a last resort. As your
shoulder improves you can lift weights and bulk it up, which as another
poster said will help. I had a rotator cuff tear last January and was
lucky not to dislocate my shoulder. Once the cuff muscles were well
enough to lift, I really concentrated on building my shoulders, and the
next time I had a similar crash, I was a bit sore but no real damage.
Also my wife dislocated her shoulder 3 years ago, did a very good job of
rehabbing, and has had no issues with it since. She's fallen pretty
hard a couple of times... hard enough in fact to break her clavicle on
the other side - but no problems stemming from the dislocation.

Remember, surgery involves cutting into healthy tissue. And that means
more recovery. And at least in the US there are plenty of surgeons who
can't wait to get their scalpels into people for no good reason at all.
My only experience with surgery was an emergency operation to remove a
ruptured appendix, it went very smoothly, they used a laparoscope (teeny
incisions) and I still never want to go through that again.

Mike T

Also my wife dislocated her shoulder 3 years ago, did a very good job of
rehabbing, and has had no issues with it since. She's fallen pretty
hard a couple of times... hard enough in fact to break her clavicle on
the other side - but no problems stemming from the dislocation.


This is good news... I'm gonna try hard and rehab by shoulder the
right way... After 4-6 months do weight training to build muscle
around the rotator cuffs.
First hand info is very helpful.

Thanks for all the advice guys!

Tom, I think those skeleton tools help reduce body ache and not really
help dislocating joints. The lesson that I learnt is DO NOT FALL WITH
STRETCHED ARMS, FINGERS

That's spot on, thinking about it. My gear is ideal for impact injuries, but
you could still just as easily bust an arm or pop a shoulder. I got into a good
habit of clenching my fists when falling, but a couple of times I put an arm
down and I can see how easily you can injure one. Quite hard to train yourself
not to put an arm down, but makes sense not to, especially if falling backwards
onto your butt.

Tom

Sharkie, you nailed it, after talking to a lot of guys they suggested
the same thing... Anyway 6 more months to go before I can hit the
slopes again.

Swimming will definitely help, but little too early, my physio says
rotator cuffs have to tighten before I start any strenuous exercise
(swimming), mite pop out again.


(Sharkie) wrote in message . com...
"og" wrote in message ...
What would be a good way to take a fall without hurting it
again??

I'm serious... You take it in the face!

uhrmmm... I've had this discussion with a few people lately,
and I say no, do not take it in the face.

On a snowboard you can fall either forward or back.

When falling back, I recommend fold your hands in front of you,
tuck your head, and roll back. Tucking your head will prevent
you from hitting it and also make you more "round" - so you
might just do a full roll. I've seen that several times, people
fall back, roll around, land on the board and keep on going
as if nothing happened.

When you fall forward use your forearms. Yes, have your both arms
in front of you, bent at the elbow, but straight at the wrists.
If one of your shoulder is weaker than the other, have the stronger
arm slightly lower, so it will take more of the impact. The good
thing about using your forearms is if you have a really hard fall,
you might still hit the face, but your forearms already absorbed
significant force.

To rehab your shoulder take up swimming.

Absolutely true. Swimming is an excellent rehab exercise.
I had a light shoulder injury a while back, and was told
to swim a lot, specially on the back. I would still talk
to a rehab specialist to ask what swimming strokes are best
in this case.

I seperated (much different than a dislocation) my shoulder last weekend
which pretty much has ended my season. good that i managed to get in over 25
days this year so i'm not too heart broken. The fall I took was so fast that
I didn't have time to get my arm out to break the fall and i ended up
landing on my left shoulder tip. it was a hardpacked icy kind of day so that
didn't help either. I felt some serious pain and couldn't really lift my arm
above above my stomach. i managed to continue riding for a couple more hours
and didn't fall but did use that arm to catch some washouts a few times and
the pain intensified. Should stopped when it happened but that's in the past
now.. Unfortunately the xrays only show bones so i'm not sure if there is
more damage then just the AC ligament. Ortho dr scheduled an MRI to see if
there may be a rotator cuff tear since the outside of my shoulder is also
sore. I figure the MRI will give me definitive information and can develop a
recovery plan from there. I still believe had i been able to get my arm out
that this may not have happened but then again...it's tough to really
predict. Good luck with you recovery!!!

"Tom" wrote in message
...
Tom, I think those skeleton tools help reduce body ache and not really
help dislocating joints. The lesson that I learnt is DO NOT FALL WITH
STRETCHED ARMS, FINGERS

That's spot on, thinking about it. My gear is ideal for impact injuries,
but
you could still just as easily bust an arm or pop a shoulder. I got into a
good
habit of clenching my fists when falling, but a couple of times I put an
arm
down and I can see how easily you can injure one. Quite hard to train
yourself
not to put an arm down, but makes sense not to, especially if falling
backwards
onto your butt.

Tom