lifting after rotator cuff surgery- what to ask PT

[Brooksy Chuck]

am trying to think of what to ask my Physical therapist about progressing forward with shoulder workouts- i think he is about ready to release me he says there is nothing more he can do.. yet i still have some restrictions any ideas?
when i asked him last time about more exercises he said "what more could you want" he has me doing 14 exercises that take about 90mins most of the focus is on shoulders and i am supposed to do them 4x a week, with that much time it is hard to fit anything else in.
i asked him about using the graviton to to weight assisted pull ups and he didn't like that idea. i also asked about military press and he said he wasn't too keen on "overhead " for folks that have had shoulder issues. my shoulders feel great though after the repair and i dont understand the restrictions, he mentioned if i were to do military press to do it standing up and push up with my opposite leg to support the shoulder- it looked like "jane fonda" exercise.

when i asked him if i could rock climb in the future he said "come back and see me for training" i have a tendency to be really "gung ho" i want to be careful but i also want to be able to train . he also said no dips (even with weight assisted)
are these restrictions common with rotator cuff repairs? any suggestions on how to ask about going forward? thanks

 

[heretohelp]

If you want to do military presses, I suggest using a smith machine and avoiding dumbbells altogether. I tore my rotator cuff doing heavy dumbbell presses. Basically the dumbbell got away from me and the rest is history.

However I did recover from my injury. It took sometime but eventually I did recover.

I followed a simple home treatment program and was smart about working out.

Here is a resource if you are interested: It helped me quite a bit...

http://www.rotatorcuffinjurytips.net

Good luck
Gary

 

[Hydranted]

It's not uncommon for it to take much longer than the estimated recovery time (~ 4-6 months) to regain full function. It takes some people a year or so to regain that last little bit of ROM or completely shake the discomfort.

Restrictions will depend on the extent of your injury as well as how well you heal, but generally there are few restrictions. Many of the things they tell you not to do (dips, overhead pressing, etc.) are listed as restrictions because they are just plain bad for shoulders. Once you've had a serious injury to one, you're a bit more prone to having another injury. They advise to leave certain exercises out to keep you from reinjuring your shoulder. Some people have no issues with these notions, others end up back under the knife.