Shoulders (Injury, Recovery, etc.)

GnarShredd · Backside 180 Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Posts: 1529 City: Seattle

Anyone else have or have had shoulder issues? I'm going to be really surprised if I make it to 30 without having some kind of surgery.

My lead shoulder (right side) often gets yanked trying to hang on to tricks that I don't land quite right and it gets a lot of stress put on it. It was doing well and I started going to the gym again which was helping, but I hurt it last night lifting too much weight without a spotter (idiot, I know, usually I'm fine but it got away from me in a weird direction). It's sore today, I don't think I really did much other than stretch things a bit, but it got me thinking about what I can do to improve my chances of not having a doctor dig around in there in the next few years.

Anyone have any tips for strengthening my shoulder without hurting it further? I'm going to be moving some exercises over to machines instead of freeweights to limit the movement for a while, but I'm not sure how long to rest before doing that or if going back in to things right away would be ok if I take it easy.

POPTART · 360 flip Joined: 24 Jul 2007 Posts: 7621

swimming and stretching

miller · Backside 180 Joined: 08 Aug 2004 Posts: 2394 City: Regina

GnarShredd, I have had 3 surgeries (two knees and ankle) and should have had a couple more (shoulder and wrist) and swimmiing, stretching, and patience is key.

Jake S · Backside 180 Joined: 29 Dec 2010 Posts: 683 City: SLC

I had shoulder surgery last summer. I tore my labrum pretty bad wakeskating. It finally got so bad I needed surgery. For my injury I've been working on strengthening the muscles around my labrum, so all the muscles in the shoulder. I think that will help in other shoulder injuries as well. From what I understand if all the muscles in your shoulder are tight, then the injured part has less of a chance of slipping or pulling out.

Be careful and work your shoulders out. I would take it easy on lifting a lot of heavy weights, they could possibly do more damage than helping. I haven't ridden since the surgery and I'm taking it easy this summer, working on building up the muscle and the guts to ride again. I don't want to go through physical therapy/surgery for my shoulder ever again..