UKC

Purely out of curiosity have many of you been diagnosed with shoulder impingement and/or instability?

What happened after and did you require surgery? Or did you recover with simple physiotherapy?

Have any of you managed to go back to climbing and at what level?

Or..have some of you had to abandon climbing all together.?

In reply to The sharp end:
My son had this, no surgery, then physio and training, no further problems, leads 6b.

In reply to The sharp end:

An AC joint dislocation and 15 years of desk work with a mouse put my right shoulder into bad shape - it protrudes forward outside of the joint. Used to flair up with impingement quite regularly, and need anything from a week to a couple of months rest and ice to settle down.

I prefer to avoid surgery where possible, and previous physios mostly tried to loosen tight tissue which didn't really do much long term good, so I just lived with it, but the last physio I saw put me on to some new exercises to move the scapula and recommended Kelly Starrett's book, which had fairly quick results - there's still some work to do as my shoulder still doesn't look straight but I've been asymptomatic for probably 8 months or more and no problems from projecting up to 7b+ recently

In reply to The sharp end: Yes, I used to suffer from shoulder/upper back pain at the end of every session, so I took it to the physio.

My left shoulder is really unstable, and my shoulder blade moves about far too much, so I stabilise it using a theraband.

I never had to drop climbing although it does get painful again whenever I go a few sessions without my exercises, and I do worry about the long term problem.

In reply to The sharp end:

Had it. Was serious enough that I went through the system almost to surgery. With the help of a friend who I owe big time, I found a specialist physio to talk to as I wasn't keen on the surgery. Specialist physio spent 6 months on pretty intense treatment. I didn't need the surgery and now it's fine (though it may be a bit stronger if I kept up my exercises! ). The surgery sounded horrible, with recovery times that didn't fit in with anything I was doing, and the chances of it going wrong were too high for my liking. The physio meant I could keep working and doing all the things I liked if at a lower level for a while, but with a better result. If you go down that route... find a shoulder specialist.
Co:

In reply to The sharp end:

I've got impingement in both shoulders but luckily I got away with Physio to treat them. Some serious neck surgery was on the cards, the kind that could make you dead if it went tits up.

In reply to Ciro:

Which one? Just checked on amazon, and s/he's written a few.

In reply to The sharp end:

I currently have impingement. Initially had it last year on left shoulder, did lots of physio exercises and improved it then went back to climbing as normal. This year my right shoulder flared up - I realised that I'd only done enough physio to temporarily fix the problem rather than 'cure' it.

I can still climb to my previous standard but I have to be very aware of my shoulder position - in the long run I think this is a good thing. I think that physio exercises will be part of my daily routine, and they will have to be progressive too - I think stability strength has to stay one step ahead of climbing muscles' strength or the problem will come back.

In reply to The sharp end:

Yep, I've had severe impingement in my right shoulder and also had the 'winging' out of the shoulder blade as mentioned by another poster; instability of the joint.

I've had 2 shoulder operations, both of which involved debridement of tissue, but nothing had to be repaired. Apparently, the shoulder joint showed signs of having dislocated in the past though I have no memory of that happening! What's really worked this time round is lots of physio from April onwards (op was in Feb) including Theraband work, press-ups and side planks. Truth be told, if I'd only gone down the physio route, that probably would have sorted out. Surgeons are, according to my physio, very 'scalpel happy.'

Back to climbing though gently and slowly.

In reply to The sharp end:
I had impingement over christmas. I went to a physio a couple of times and to a shoulder exercise class, had a month or two off climbing. I spent a few months doing a theraband routine after each session that I've now gotten lazy with (which is bad I know).

Climbing stronger than ever now.

The main thing for me was to improve posture. And I'm now sitting up straight after this thread reminded me to.

Thought I'd need surgery but was amazed what 6 weeks of physio did, then a term of Pilates classes - pain free after that, few years now. Mixture of theraband type stuff, massage, stretching pecs lying on a rolled up towel, etc.

Now I make sure to do some "pre-hab" (someone's put up a good page of this title with shoulder exercises similar to what I do). Especially when I feel twinges coming on.

My must dos are: shoulder press with dumb bells, side raises w light dumb bells, external rotations with elbow by side at 90 degrees, pressups (or dumbbell bench press). I also do reverse wrist curl w v light weights, but that's for elbow pain pre-hab. I find it surprising how few climbers do this stuff - it's like magic for keeping the niggles at bay - but then again, until you've had the problems it's hard to see the point!

In reply to Everyone

Thanks to everyone with this wealth of information! I am actually astounded at all the success stories of physio alone.

Please keep up the theraband work folks as you guys don't want to go back to be injured.

I myself have shoulder instability and impingement and shoulder surgeon keen to shave a bone spur and tighten my ligaments..but that is major surgery with a potential to go horribly wrong. I have been resting nearly a year now due to pain and can only climb basic low grade routes. I have now have started some shoulder specific exercises as a last minute attempt to ditch surgery. Above info thus very! useful. One thing though I have noticed is that three different physios have given me three different sets of exercises and prognosis.
Not sure physio is helping or worsening my condition. Early days.

Ho hum....thanks for all the insights again.

In reply to The sharp end:

Injured my left shoulder just under 3 years ago & ended up with plenty of pain & not much movement.

Had physio, did loads of stretching & theraband work, acupuncure, injections into the joint, the whole lot.

I was scheduled for surgery at the start of July. The Consultant did a pre-op inspection & sent me home as he said that it was showing signs of spontaneously getting better (this is a known phenomenon).

A few weeks later, with no change to regime, it was almost back to normal. This can happen - the body says "OK, I'm happy now, you can have the use of your shoulder back" and releases the joint.

Only problem is that I am now fat & weak.

In reply to The sharp end:


I think it's because physio retrains your body to move and use the shoulder joint in a different way. I've got poor proprioception in my shoulder and that was partly the problem. So, by doing my Theraband exercises, I'm retraining not only the muscles but also creating a new muscle memory so it learns to move in a different way. Not just about strength and recovery; all about reeducating, too!

>One thing though I have noticed is that three different physios have given me three different sets of exercises and prognosis.

Same here. One physio said I had no flexibility in that shoulder and that was the problem, but her junior colleague (who I've worked with for 6 months) read her notes, screwed her face up and said, 'well, that's crap,' and we've concentrated on different exercises which have really worked for me.

Good luck with your operation and exercises; keep us posted

In reply to The sharp end:

I've had 2 operations in 2009 and 2010 for shoulder instability on my left shoulder. The first operation shortened the 4 major ligaments,and to remove a groove on the head of humerus (hill-sachs disorder) all done by key hole surgery. The 2nd wad to further stabilise the shoulder, with correction of over tightening of 2 ligaments, and I had 1/3 of the cartilage removed from the shoulder.
I had rehab and physio for 6 months and 4 months respectively.
I have had to change my climbing style and retrain myself to climb to reduce impact and strain on my left side.
Even though I still regularly have to have physio, as long as I climb within my pain threshold and warm up and cool down correctly I should hopefully be able to continue climbing.

Good luck

In reply to The sharp end:

Yes. I had a cycling accident just over a year ago and developed a frozen shoulder or adhesive encapsulitis which was very, very painful and a serious hindrance to everyday life.

In short, I had a steroid injection which alleviated the symptoms for a few months and allowed me to do the physio without screaming and in May I had a distension arthrogram (minor surgical procedure) which ruptures all the bound up tissues. Since then I've been doing a daily mix of flexibilty and strengthening exercises as set by a physio and I am slowly getting the use back. day to day is no problem, but I wouldn't try climbing or kayaking yet. Mobility is probably about 90% and strength will increase through exercise. I aim to climbing again next year. FWIW, I'm 50, skinny and generally pretty fit.

Nickinscottishmountains who posts on here is a medic and he had it done too, he emailed me a lot of good info and advice. It's worth doing a search.

Don't give up on it, it doesn't repair fast but you can get it back (with a caveat that I don't know your particular circumstances).

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific queries.