Shoulder surgery? Have you had one yet?

All the shoulder threads are referenced in posts #56 and #59 in this thread: forums.usms.org/showthread.php. Avoid shoulder surgery at all costs. Very few swimmers bounce back from them and can swim at anything near their previous level. Beth is one of them, but she has far more determination than the average bear. :cheerleader: Typically, your range of motion is never the same. My shoulder injury is due to an overuse injury from mega yardage in my youth coupled with genetic loosey goosey tendons. Like my twin. I have a cranky worn out frayed labrum and a small SLAP lesion (discovered through arthrogram). It is not surgical though; I just have to constantly manage it and attempt to keep the pain at bay. I have a 5 part plan of attack for staying in the water. Some of it is unconventional, but it seems to work for me. At least, I haven't quit yet. I do: 1. rotator cuff & stability exercises even though I hate them and they are really boring; 2. periodic ART, www.activerelease.com; 3. I wear fins a lot to avoid stressing the shoulder further. Purists hate this, but I have no doubt that it helps me tremendously. :thhbbb: It has the added benefit of really helping my SDKs. 4. I am currently trying prolotherapy, www.treatingpain.com, to attempt to essentially replace/repair the micro-tearing that causes the pain. Many athletes use this method, but not many swimmers. It is a long process and painful procedure. But I am doing it because otherwise, with my condition, I coud get early arthritis in the shoulder; 5. I do not swim mega yardage and I cross train. I don't do that much freestyle, which seems to aggravate it the most. I don't use paddles, pull buoys or kickboards, which can aggravate shoulders. Quality over quantity for me. Beth is right. Fly is also hard on shoulders IMHO. I wish I didn't like fly so much. But the most important thing is to do #1 BEFORE you start swimming a lot. Or you could get a quickie case of tendonitis. Or, if you're lucky, you might have bionic shoulders. But a large % of masters swimmers have shoulder issues. Watch out for obvious sharp pains. Watch out for dull pain spreading across the back of your shoulders or pain in the front of your shoulder. That is often a sign on tendonitis. Watch out for pain in the trap area. That could be sclerotogenous pain indicating a labrum issue. Good luck Shark. I hope you avoid injury and stay healthy!

All the shoulder threads are referenced in posts #56 and #59 in this thread: forums.usms.org/showthread.php. Avoid shoulder surgery at all costs. Very few swimmers bounce back from them and can swim at anything near their previous level. Beth is one of them, but she has far more determination than the average bear. :cheerleader: Typically, your range of motion is never the same. My shoulder injury is due to an overuse injury from mega yardage in my youth coupled with genetic loosey goosey tendons. Like my twin. I have a cranky worn out frayed labrum and a small SLAP lesion (discovered through arthrogram). It is not surgical though; I just have to constantly manage it and attempt to keep the pain at bay. I have a 5 part plan of attack for staying in the water. Some of it is unconventional, but it seems to work for me. At least, I haven't quit yet. I do: 1. rotator cuff & stability exercises even though I hate them and they are really boring; 2. periodic ART, www.activerelease.com; 3. I wear fins a lot to avoid stressing the shoulder further. Purists hate this, but I have no doubt that it helps me tremendously. :thhbbb: It has the added benefit of really helping my SDKs. 4. I am currently trying prolotherapy, www.treatingpain.com, to attempt to essentially replace/repair the micro-tearing that causes the pain. Many athletes use this method, but not many swimmers. It is a long process and painful procedure. But I am doing it because otherwise, with my condition, I coud get early arthritis in the shoulder; 5. I do not swim mega yardage and I cross train. I don't do that much freestyle, which seems to aggravate it the most. I don't use paddles, pull buoys or kickboards, which can aggravate shoulders. Quality over quantity for me. Beth is right. Fly is also hard on shoulders IMHO. I wish I didn't like fly so much. But the most important thing is to do #1 BEFORE you start swimming a lot. Or you could get a quickie case of tendonitis. Or, if you're lucky, you might have bionic shoulders. But a large % of masters swimmers have shoulder issues. Watch out for obvious sharp pains. Watch out for dull pain spreading across the back of your shoulders or pain in the front of your shoulder. That is often a sign on tendonitis. Watch out for pain in the trap area. That could be sclerotogenous pain indicating a labrum issue. Good luck Shark. I hope you avoid injury and stay healthy!