I (Neely) recently wrote a post describing my shoulder surgery (SLAP tear and bone spur, no anchors to repair the labral tear – just tenodesis and bone spur removal under the achromium) and the first 4 weeks of my recovery. It was long and detailed with horrible pictures of me, and if you’d like to read it, you can find it here.
Since then, I’ve gotten a few requests from people wanting an update on my recovery since then, so here’s a quick overview of how I’m doing.
12-Week Update
In short, I’m pretty psyched with my recovery, but I still have a long way to go.
- It’s been 3 months as of yesterday, and here are my stats:
- I was a 5.13 climber and now I’m projecting 11+ sport.
- I used to be able to curl 35 pounds and now I can curl 15 on a good day.
- I used to be able to shoulder press 20 pounds and now I can do 2.5.
- I used to have full range of motion in my shoulder and now not so much (see photo above)…
- I’ve gained a bit of muscle back (read: I can now detect some muscles when I flex and I’m able to flex)
Pain Levels
My bicep is the most painful part, since the biceps tendon was reattached from my labrum to my arm bone and it’s still not sure what the hell is going on. And sometimes I’ll get pain under the achromium (the top bony part of your shoulder) where they shaved off the bone spur. But only sometimes and usually it’s not too bad.
For a while – up until about 3 weeks ago – I would have a severe pain in my shoulder/bicep about once every couple days that would drop me to my knees sometimes and make my whole world go foggy. That hasn’t happened in a while, which I’m thankful for. Now it’s just sort of painful when I do random things or try hard on a climb.
I’m pushing through pain on climbs with the green light from my surgeon and PT (unless it’s terrible pain, which I haven’t felt so far).
Relearning How To Climb
Mostly, I’m relearning how to climb, which is fun but also sucks. My old warmups are quite literally now my projects (Yaak Crack (5.11c) currently in Red Rock), and I feel weird, tight, awkward, and pumped on them. My whole body is weaker now and doesn’t remember very well how to do what I used to do.
Also, there are moves that would have hurt a lot a month ago or 5 months ago and my mind still doesn’t think I can do them, so I say take. But then I try the move and it’s painless, so it’s just a process of re-learning what I’m capable of doing.
But it’s coming back!
Goals
My goal was 5.10 by January, 5.11 by February, 5.12 by March, and 5.13 by April. I did a 5.11a in January, and I’m about to send my 5.11c proj tomorrow (fingers crossed!), so I’m well on my way. I’m psyched! Did I already say that?
Moreover, I’m just grateful and a little blissed out to be climbing outside (or inside). I love it no matter what the grade, and this has really given me some perspective on that.
Continual Rehab
I do band work on both shoulders (because my other one hurts, too, and I want to avoid surgery on it) almost every day, sometimes twice a day. I have 3 different bands with different resistances attached to the front door, and I’ll do the typical rotator cuff work – 6 exercises 2 times each on each shoulder.
Then I have a rehab station in the living room, which consists of lots of 2.5 lb and 5 lb weights and adjustable barbells. About 3 times a week, I do another 5-10 different exercises with both shoulders with those while I watch TV.
If you want awesome rehab/preventative exercises for your own shoulders, definitely check out Jared Vagy’s (he’s a doctor of physical therapy) ebook, The Ultimate Climber, and his latest post on TrainingBeta called “How To Strengthen The Rotator Cuff for Climbing”.
As with the last post, I’d love to hear your own experience with rehab in the comments. The last post had some great dialogue about that, and I want this to be a place where people can learn from each other about shoulder surgeries/injuries. So do tell! And if you have any other questions about my recovery just let me know in the comments.I think that’s it! How’s Your Shoulder?
Hi, I’m now 2 months post op from SLAP repair, bone spur shaved off, and bicep tenotomy (as well as debridement of other tendon damages of the rotator cuff). For the first few weeks, the pain was rough. Then, it eased considerably. The past week or so, the pain has increased but seems localized and feels like nerve pain in a specific nerve. Any thoughts?
Hi Stephanie! Sorry to hear you had to have shoulder surgery, but it sounds like it’s going pretty well. I hope you’ve reached out to your surgeon or PT about this issue as it seems really specific. I don’t really have any educated thoughts about it, but in general I’d say that the healing process is really up and down. 2 months post surgery is not very long at all, so to have had the pain ease considerably for any amount of time sounds dreamy to me! I know I had all kinds of nerve pain for months after all of my surgeries, so it doesn’t seem abnormal to me, but again, I would 100% go see your PT or your doc about this just to make sure nothing is alarming to them.
Hi Neely, so happy to find this post. I had Slap repair 2,5 weeks ago, but i have so much pain at night… I dont know how to sjeep more than 3 hours. I feel so tired. Any Suggestions?
Soulshine – That’s tough! I’m sorry to hear that. It really helped me in the beginning to have one of those ice machines on me all night. I think the brand I used was called GameReady and I rented it for a couple weeks for like $150 or something. I got it from a rep who was affiliated with the hospital. I just looked, though, and you can get your own from Amazon or walmart. I honestly can’t imagine sleeping in the beginning without it – it offered so much relief and I would wake up in the middle of the night when the ice warmed up. My poor husband would have to go refill it haha! Anyway, give that a try, and play around with different pillow setups. My husband actually slept in a reclining chair after his surgery for a couple weeks and that was really helpful.
Hi Neely,
Not sure if you are still actively monitoring this blog but figured I would give it a shot. I am 10 weeks post biceps tenodesis for chronic pain from biceps tendonitis. I still feel daily underlying pain that is worse than what it was before the surgery. After PT the pain sometimes is so high it wakes me up and keeps me up at night. Surgeon is saying that I should be at “full recovery” 12 weeks post surgery but I highly doubt I’m going to be pain free and healed in 2 weeks considering I can’t even do a shoulder press with 3 lbs without pain. When did you feel you were pain free? Did you do PT through the pain? Did you have same experiences of bouts of intense pain while sleeping? I’m nervous that I elected to do a surgery that made things worse. Looking forward to your reply!
Andre – I’m sorry to hear it’s still so painful for you! I don’t know why they tell us we’re going to be healed in 12 weeks – it just seems ridiculous to me that they don’t give us more realistic expectations. Everyone is different, and you might have something going on that I didn’t, so I’d definitely go back to your surgeon and tell them that it’s still this painful. They might need to check to see if the repair failed or something (not to scare you, but I’ve heard of it happening). I was in a lot of pain at 10 weeks still, so it’s not surprising to me. I pushed through a lot of pain with PT and climbing and weight-lifting. I had to learn what was too much (if it increased pain for more than a day after PT) and what wasn’t enough through trial and error honestly. I wasn’t pain free until like a year out, but I was climbing hard-ish again by that time and only certain things were hurting it by then. It will get better!! Here’s another update I did on this surgery after a year: https://www.trainingbeta.com/year-shoulder-surgery-update-for-neely/ I had my other shoulder done a few years after this one and I’ll say that collagen and handstands were my saving grace. I was in a lot of pain even 9 months out from that surgery (same surgery as first shoulder) and I was at a loss. I started easing into handstands and taking collagen every day and things started improving within a couple weeks. I wouldn’t do the handstands now, but the collagen I’d start right away.
I had proximal bicep tendon tenotomy and soft tissue tenodesis surgery. Once the swelling went down I could feel something hard that would stick up on the top part of my shoulder. My doctor said it was a stitch and that my body would absorb it. Well 5 months after surgery I can still feel it and I still get pain in that area. Do you recall feeling something under your skin that stuck up after surgery??
Anonymous – I didn’t have that, but my husband did. It actually came out on its own after like 2 years – it was gross. I don’t know why they wouldn’t just take it out for you, though, if it’s hurting you. If it were me I’d insist that they take it out. It would probably just be an in-office little micro-surgery. IDK…
Neely,
Im not a climber but I am a Lineman. I climb telephone poles and work in a bucket truck. I’m about to go through this bicep tenodesis surgery. I’ve been researching recovery times and been very discouraged. Your articles all three of them so far that I’ve read about your journey are the only articles that have giving me hope about returning to work quickly. I’ve read all the different recovery times and they all state six months and so on and so forth. But I’ve read your article and it gives me hope that I’ll be able to get back in the bucket and start working right away Within 2 months or so. I just want you to know I appreciate your article and wondering how long the full process took before you were 100% and how hard was the physical therapy? If you have time to answer please let me know thank you!
Hi Ryan! I’m so glad my articles gave you hope, and I do hope your surgery goes well. I felt mostly back to normal after about a year, meaning I was climbing as hard as I wanted to after that amount of time. I still had (sometimes quite a bit of) pain that i worked through when I was climbing and training for about 9 months, honestly. The nature of your work is so overhead that I imagine you’ll have similar amounts of pain for a while, but you’ll likely be able to work through it, even though it hurts a bit. I had friends say they were back to basically 100% after 6 months, so I think even my surgery was a bit difficult. I highly recommend collagen supplements to help you heal!
Almost seven months ago I attempted to avoid running into one of my middle school soccer players during a drill in which I had stepped in to be a defender, stepped on the ball and went flying forward. I extended my left arm to break my fall and instead ended up breaking myself. 🤦🏼♀️ According to others who had seen it happen (Players and another coach), my arm folded backwards at the shoulder, ultimately with me laying on top of it with the palm of my hand touching the back pocket of my shorts. 😳
I felt it pop back into place when I stood up and the pain went away almost instantly. I finished coaching the practice, then helped coach my sons practice in a neighboring community before going home and icing. I iced for the next four days thinking it was just another minor sports injury. When I woke up five days later, I couldn’t move my arm at all. My husband had to help me get out of bed and get dressed for work, which I ended up calling in and going straight to the clinic.
The PA took one look at me, asked if I could lift my arm and without anything further said, “It’s an impingement. PT for 4 weeks. If it’s not better, call us.” Two weeks later it was worse, so I called and they got me in for an X-ray. Again she said the same thing. “4 more weeks of PT.”
In the meantime, I couldn’t do anything. I gave up with the clinic and was extremely upset with how things weren’t progressing at all. My PT noticed the range of motion deteriorating and said, “I really think you need to get a second opinion on this.”
Four months after the injury, I returned to the clinic and was able to get into a surgeon. He read the MRI (that was denied twice by insurance) and honest to God, walked into the room and said, “You have a small labral tear. I had one more significant that this 25 years ago and never had any issue. You’re fine. I want you to do 4-6 more weeks of PT.”
My incredible PT did one more session and said, “No, there’s definitely something wrong here. I can’t tell you where to go or what to do. But if you were one of my family members, I’d tell you to get another opinion at a different clinic.”
I listened and went to another orthopedic clinic. During my second appointment at the new clinic (first surgeon didn’t release MRI until I called and yelled, so the second surgeon hasn’t seen them for first appt) the surgeon took one look and said, “Oh boy, you really did a number on your shoulder. Why did you wait five months to be seen?!”
I explained everything that had happened and he showed me the MRI images. The other clinic missed the major fraying of my rotator cuff as well as a break off the collar bone, which wasn’t reset, resulting in the bone not receiving any blood flow.
Two weeks ago (six months after the injury) I finally had surgery to repair the damage. Bicep tenodesis, subacromial decompression, two major bone spurs from the fractures, rotator cuff fraying fix, and labral repair.
The collar bone is still bleeding causing additional swelling in the surgical arm, hand and fingers. I’m not cleared to begin PT until 4 weeks Post-op and was told with the amount of damage and repair, the surgeon doesn’t want me to even return to work or coaching until at least 6 weeks post-op. And I’m definitely in the immobilizer for the full 6 weeks. 😔
They nerve block wore off the morning after surgery and the oxycodone they gave only made me sick, so the past two weeks have been a rollercoaster ride. I do NOT recommend vomiting, sneezing or coughing right after surgery!!! 😭
Hi Neely,
Thanks for putting this all together. It’s pretty funny how accurate your symptoms are to mine prior to surgery. Long story short, I had a bad collarbone fracture which required surgery (plate and screws) and about 6 months post op , I still had pretty sharp pains right in the shoulder groove along with the same instable catching feeling when lifting arm to the side and out and away from body. Basically navigating it the same way you did by only moving my arm in certain ways to avoid the catch and avoiding heavy lifting for the pain . Anyway, I had an MRI which showed a tiny slap tear, and the doc said if they were to perform surgery, they would do the tenodesis, because the pain is really originating in the groove. Overall, kinda bummed only 8 months later I might have to deal with another surgery on the same shoulder, but hell if it relives these symptoms it would be worth it. My overall concern is I like to do a lot of weighted calisthenics (dips, pullups) and compound lifts (bench, deadlifts, rows) and I want to know if you personally feel any sort of limitation now with any type of lifts/workouts you can do? Another thing, did that “catching” feeling feel alleviated right away once you were able to begin PT, or is it something you had to work through ?
Hi Brian, sorry to hear about the potential impending surgery! To answer your questions, no, I don’t feel limitations now with any type of lifts/workouts I can do. Maybe campusing, but I just never got back into it after surgeries. And that catching feeling was alleviated pretty much right away, but there were a lot of other pains I had to work through for many months to get it to function well, so it was kind of a glass half full type situation for a bit.
Hello, I am not a climber, but I had to have the tenodesis on my shoulder, in my case they repaired the labrum and performed a bursectomy, I had a type 2 acromion. I am on week 10 now. I got to tell, I looked for information about the pain I am experiencing, I wonder if you had that, especially at night, I have this excruciating pain when I go to sleep that keeps waking me up basically all night long, It is so bad, and I don’t think is from the muscle because it feels so deep. So my question is this, Did you experience this type of pain and did it go away? If you did how long would you say before you starting feeling better about the pain? I am on PT, and It is very painful, but I keep telling my tech to push through the pain, I wonder if this is aggravating it, although I have to admit that when go further I feel my range of motion is better after, although the pain is excruciating.
Than you so much for your input
Hi Yoli – Sorry to hear about your injury! I did not experience that kind of pain at 10 weeks, no. I would go back to your doctor and ask them to check you out again. I did experience a lot of pain, but I wouldn’t say it was excruciating at night at that point, and it just makes me wonder if something happened to the repair. My pain lasted for about a year with both of my shoulder surgeries (I had the same surgery done on both shoulders), so it’ll definitely take some time.
I was having shoulder pain back in december, went to the Doctor in May and he told me I had a torn labrum. I had the surgery with the bicep tedonis repair at the end of May and I’m now 6 weeks into my recovery. Like others here, I still have pain on the top of my shoulder and have been concerned about it. Things have been hectic at my home because my wife and I had our first child a week before the surgery. The surgery was on my dominant hand so its been impossible to avoid using it at times. I just hope I have not damaged my arm or caused the surgery to fail. My range of motion up and down has improved alot, but I have a lot of pain with external rotations. Will this pain in top of the shoulder ever go away? That’s what made me want to get the surgery in the first place! After how many weeks of recovery will I be able to do pushups / more strength building exercises? Also has anyone used any topical pain relief creams?
Hi Thankyou for writing this. It really gives a perspective that you can’t get anywhere else. I am 8 weeks after the same surgery. My main reason for getting it done was impingement around the AC joint. They found the bicep injury on the MRI so did both procedures in surgery. Can I ask, did you get stiffness and niggling pain in your AC after it? I am getting it now, it actually started around week 5/6. I am hoping it gets better. Now you write at 12 months you feel great, does it feel like you have full capacity with no lingering tightness/ pain that reminds you that you actually had surgery? Cheers Dan
Hi Anonymous, I had niggling pain for at least a year, yes. I had pain all over both of my shoulders after surgery (I had the other one done in 2017 – same surgery). But now I don’t really think about them much unless I tweak them doing something dumb. I can’t really campus anymore, but I haven’t really tried to work into it, so I probably COULD if I wanted to? Idk. I was definitely stronger than I’ve ever been after both of my surgeries, though, if that makes you feel any better. I say that I “was” because I had to have wrist surgery in November, so now I’m still working back up to normal strength levels. Anyway, keep your head up and things will improve! Just get body work done regularly, do handstands (those really helped me), take collagen, and do your PT. And push through some pain but not too much for what that’s worth.
Hey Neely,
I know this post is very late but I just found your other article and moved to this one after. I had the same procedure pretty much, but just mainly asking about the biceps thing. I’m 2 weeks out, just had my first post op and everything looks good. But ever since the PA told me about this “Popeye distortion” thing, I’ve been bugging out thinking my bicep isn’t normal. I haven’t done anything to tweak it, literally been so careful, but just wondering – did your bicep look a little like it wasn’t “peaking” initially when you would curl up your arm? (No weight, just simply comparing the two arms in the mirror) and wondering if I’m overthinking and it’s just because I’m literally two weeks out from my surgery lol. Would love a reply – I am driving myself nuts over here. Thanks!!
Hi Geoff – I had no muscle to speak of after my surgery, so I couldn’t really tell. But no, neither of my biceps has the popeye thing (I had the procedure done on both shoulders). That’s why they did the biceps tenodesis – to make sure there was no aesthetic deformity. Did your doctor say that what he saw when you flexed was normal? I will say that I had contact with someone who was worried about the exact same thing you’re worried about, and he went back into his doctor and he had to have the surgery redone because he’d torn out the sutures. I’d go in to your doc and make sure they think everything is normal.
Hey all! I had bicep tendonisis July 6 so I am about 3 months out as well. My ortho told me there are basically two ways to do the surgery – the tendonisis with the cut and anchors or just the cut and no re-attachment that essentially releases the tendon and causes the popeye bulge. Because I am a leaner female doc recommended not the cut and release because the popeye bulge woul be prominent. The anchors cause a longer recovery because you want to let them “set.” I am big into Crossfit and slowly getting back into it. No kipping moves, I can do BB only overhead, pulling moves like deadlifts are OK but just don’t go super heavy. I still find my arm gets painful especially at night where sometimes I essentially have to use my other arm to move it. It is comforting to know though that the area I had pre-surgery is gone so fingers crossed that means it was successful.
Hi Neely,
I’m currently 12 weeks post op. While most of my recovery has gone well (really good rom early on) I have developed a small click or crack when lowering my arm down in the front. This happens just below shoulder height. Did you experience any clicking or cracking?
Hi Ty – Sorry to hear about your surgery. I have clicks again sometimes now, but I don’t remember having them that early on. Sometimes it’s just scar tissue or a tense muscle pulling things out of place. If you haven’t been getting any intensely painful bodywork done so far, I highly recommend it so you can nip those things in the bud early.
Hi Neely,
I wrote you a while back when I was told I needed surgery. I have since had a subacromial decompression, bicep tenodesis, bones spurs shaved off of my clavicle and acromion. Also some arthritis cleaned out of my AC joint. I’m writing you today because I’m concerned about my external rotation. I had my surgery on November 6th, so I’m just shy of 7 weeks out, and my external rotation is poor, imo. I am following my PT instructions to a T. My question is, at what point did you achieve full rom, namely external rotation? Were there any exercises that helped you with that? I’m slowly gaining ground on my internal rotation (up my back.) I realize my window to make these gains is closing soon, so I’m scared. Did you find that stretching more frequently in shorter spurts throughout the day worked better for you, or longer, fewer stretch sessions? My surgeon and physical therapist have conflicting views on it. Thanks for your time!
Hi DeAnna – sorry to hear about your ROM, but hopefully the surgery was somewhat successful otherwise. I didn’t get full ROM back for many months to be honest. Maybe like 9 or 10? I just had to work at it slowly with stretching most days, but I don’t recall if doing it more frequently rather than in longer, fewer sessions helped more. I can say that my turning point with ROM and strength occurred when I started taking collagen and when I started doing handstands. I wish I’d started doing handstands earlier. I started 7 months after my surgery, but I bet I could’ve started maybe 4 or 5 months after. I realized that’s a bit far in the future, but I highly recommend taking collagen and I know that the stronger my shoulder and scapula got, the better ROM I had. Sorry I can’t be more helpful…
I’ve had the same procedure done 3 weeks ago but I’m still getting pain in the top part of biceps and the boney part you refer to, some days worse than others.
I didn’t know if this was abnormal or not as we had a fire incident at work which caused me to use both arms and put some pressure on my shoulder, I’m in fear that I’ve done something to pull out the anchors or new tears but reading from everyone’s post it seems strong pain in 3rd week is normal and pain killers should be continued for now.
Odd thing is in the 2nd week I didn’t have much pain but 3rd week in its kicked in very strongly.
Will have my follow up with surgeon in 2 weeks and hope this pain is gone by then.
Thanks for sharing your experience, it helped a lot.
Hi -I had biceps tenodesis 9/13/18 to retrieve and reattach both proximal bicep tendons -Even though I rushed the recovery schedule the repair healed perfectly and my bicep is strong at 6 months out
However, a fall backcountry skiing resulted in enlarging a small rotator cuff tear into a small full thickness supraspinitus tear and high grade infraspinitis and subscapularis tears which are scheduled for arthroscopic repair April 4 -‘Guess the climbing goddess wanted me to take a longer rest break
I will be 69 in July and started climbing at 52 -There is hope for us all to continue gettin after it into our “twilight years” even though there may be a few bumps along the way
Thank you for your post, I thought something was wrong with my surgery until I saw your post. Now I know I just need to keep on !!
Hi Neely, thanks for the very complete and honest description of you surgery. I had the same surgery, bicep tenodesis and A/C decompression, on Aug 22,2018, 9 weeks this Wed. I had a complete A/C separation when I was 15 and I am now 55. I started climbing when I was 18 and have had shoulder pain the entire time. I am really looking forward to climbing again pain free and impingement free! I have full range of motion back and using bands for ROM and strength, but no green light for climbing yet or loading the bicep tendon. I understand your frustration in losing muscles mass, that’s tough for a climber but we’ll get through it. I used to dread working the antagonistic muscles but did them anyway, so it will be awesome to do them again without having the bone spurs digging into the bursa and shredding the bicep tendon. I have always done the rotator cuff exercises, so I was happy to hear that there was no Rcuff injuries. Big bonus.
Thanks again,
Ken
Had my right biceps tenodesis sx about 4 years ago. All healed and doing well. BUT
MY LEFT Needs surgery now!
I’m so scarred. It’s my dominant arm.
I’m so afraid to be out of work for and extended time.
I am a dentist. Drummer, weightlifter,tennis player.
All this will be effected.
My right biceps sx kept me out of the gym except for light weights for 6 months, the pain never went away until post surgical cortisone shots….
If my left takes that long, my business will be wrecked and so will my life!
I am a 74 year old woman 3 months post rotator cuff repair for huge tear-biceps was shreaded could not be reattached-labum tear could not be fixed-extensive arthritis—extensive debridement–I just want less pain cannot even think about climbing–should concentrate on pain free which is all I am asking for-having a terrible time
Thought id do a little update also, 2013 slap tear 2 anchors never got better, 2014 surgery capsule release, never improved pre surgery shoulder strength 30kg db shoulder press, now at 4kg on a good day, bicep pre surgery 17kg now 5kg with alot of crunching and pain, push ups 90+ now 6 or 7 , surgery number 3 in 3 weeks
Neely,
I`m 11 days post op…….On 05/14/2015 I had left shoulder arthroscopy, removal of loose bodies, debridement of the anterior-inferior labrum no anchors, debridement of the anterior-inferior glenoid, arthroscopic biceps tenotomy, micro fracture of the glenoid, and an open biceps tenodesis.
Which equals-No climbing for a while!
Any insight, advice, positive vibes, workouts, PT that works, training regiment sent my way, would be much appreciated! I`m a 5.11 sport climber and have been climbing around a year and a half. I just wanna climb, thats all!
Thanks
Hi Neely,
I had a Bankart tear in my labrum which was repaired sans bicep or rotator cuff work – 12 stitches in the labrum total – today is my 12-week surgical anniversary, so I am right about where you are in terms of recovery time. Overall, I have been really happy with how my recovery has been going – I was told pre-surgery that it would be 16 weeks at least before I was allowed to climb/train again, and I have now been doing assisted (i.e., weight removed via pulley) hangboard workouts for a week already! My PT has given me the green light to start some super easy climbing as well. I started with bands and light weights around week 7 (basically right after my sling came off) and have been able to steadily ramp it up since that time – I’m still not doing any crazy heavy lifts or anything like that but I can do all manner of planks, leg lifts, rowing machine, light kettle bell stuff and bands, which is at least keeping me busy and making me feel like I am doing something to help climbing-specific fitness. I think a big part of the recovery has been that I went into surgery strong – once I was diagnosed, I worked with my PT to come up with a bunch of rotator cuff exercises I could do without making my labrum tear any worse – in the two months before I had surgery I was doing band workouts 3-4 times per week, so my rotator cuff was feeling great- no way to tell but I feel like this minimized the atrophy in the 6 weeks I was in a sling and allowed me to start re-strengthening the shoulder pretty quickly afterwards.
Easing back into hangboarding has also been great- started with 45 lbs removed and have been removing 5 lbs from that every time for two sessions now with no problems. I see my surgeon in two weeks, and am hoping they will give me the green light to push it a bit more. My range of motion is similar to yours it looks like- overall I’m at about 85 – 90% except for the full “I” position (this is especially noticeable if I lie on the ground and extend my arms overhead) and external rotation when my arm is shoulder-height at 90 degrees- every week it gets a little bit better though so I am pretty confident I will get it all back. I have been able to start doing light Turkish get-ups and windmills which I think has been helping stretch the shoulder capsule a bit as well. Still some pain in the front of the shoulder where the tear was the worst, and the occasional scapular knotting/ twitching, but my PT has been able to handle these pretty well with her weekly massage/ dry-needling. Excited (and nervous) to start climbing again- happy to hear you’ve been making progress! Looking forward to more updates in the future!
Chandler
Neely, I have had no pain in the bicep, pre or post tenodesis surgery (please note I tore the long head bicep tendon because of a bone spur in the AC joint of the shoulder). Personally i thought I would of had pain there, I had more pain in the back of the rotator cuff. I went completely pain free around 4 months, I still get sore in the shoulder after PT or after climbing (no soreness in the bicep). The soreness lasts a few hours and is gone by the morning. I have not done any bicep curls at all, I have done tons of push-ups, Y’s and T’s (no I’s), cable pulls and band work.
In regards to what most people are calling route climbing these days,I have no good idea. I use rope or route climbing to differentiate from bouldering. i used the word “roped” in my post above to clarify that I didn’t just start bouldering after surgery. I started out slowly on routes first, then moved into easy bouldering once I could climb 5.11 again (a month an half worth of time). Then climbed at the 5.12- and v5/v6 level (another month worth of time). About 2 weeks ago I stepped it up a notch and started only bouldering doing one or two hard problems per session at the v7/8 level depending on the movement. I still avoid doing dynos which I need to completely body weight the left arm. I have started to moves that I need to dead point to with the left arm as long as I can keep my foot on.
The best thing I have taken away from all of this is that hard work and time is what it takes. I don’t look at the day to day, but week to week. At the end of each week I look at my training log, then plan for the next week.
Hope this all makes sense.
Aron
Neely, I am about two months ahead of you from the same surgery. At around two and half months I had the same pain “pain under the achromium (the top bony part of your shoulder) where they shaved off the bone spur”. Took about another month for that to go away. I have had no pain in the bicep muscle . I started climbing and training at three and a half months after surgery and around four and a half months the bicep and arm really started to work together, but the arm still felt weak to me. I am now five months post surgery and bouldering at v7/8 level. I feel like I could push harder, but I want to feel stronger in my left arm, especially in the back of the rotator cuff. I have been doing some of the same band work you talk about, plus I am still going to PT once a week. During these sessions I do a lot of work strengthening the rotator cuff while my arm is away from my body, plus I do a ton of ab work. For my training I did 10 hang board session for the month of January, plus roped and bouldered in the gym the day after PT or a hang board workout (climbing twice a week). Since the begin of February I moved to bouldering three or four days a week, plus strength training. About a week before I hit the five month mark, I got a ton of power back, I was able to a powerful v7 undercling problem (at 4 months I couldn’t even hang off the holds). My plan for the next month is to continue bouldering and strength training, plus add in some foot on campusing to start to strengthen the fast twitch muscle fibers. Then a quick trip to the south at the end of March to boulder on some sandstone.
Keep the updates coming, it great hear from someone else going through this too.
Thanks
Aron
Hi Aron –
Thanks for this! I have a couple of questions. Do you mean that since you had your tenodesis done you haven’t had any biceps pain at all? Or just recently it started to go away? It’s definitely the most painful part of my recovery. Secondly, I’ve been hearing people call route climbing or rope climbing “roping”. Is this what peope are calling it now?
Thanks,
Neely