Training while rehabbing shoulder

So I dislocated my shoulder on 05/31, and am still deciding between PT and surgery as the ultimate solution. Right now I'm going to be doing PT 3 times a week, and was wondering if anyone could recommend to improve climbing shape while keeping the upper body off limits. I'd only been climbing a couple of months, and think I pushed too hard too quickly. That being said, I'm not trying to maintain climbing shape as I haven't achieved it yet.

For climbing specific, your best bet is to isolation train grip strength with some kind of grip trainer device. You may also be able to do static one-arm work on a hangboard.

For all other training, mountain athlete has a cool training plan for working around an arm injury - strongswiftdurable.com/shop….

Do not hangboard on one arm. Unless you want your other shoulder fucked too.

You will not improve your climbing fitness while you have a shoulder injury (you are confusing since you say you want to improve it but then you state you aren't concerned about maintaining it. Que?). You have only been climbing for 2 months, so just focus on keeping your general fitness good and your weight stable, doing your rehab, and then figuring out how you won't be too gung-ho again once it's all over.

Sure, you can try grip trainers but my personal opinion is that they will not make any real difference once you return to climbing later. It is boring and you will lose interest over the time period it takes to rehab the shoulder. Also, they don't mimic climbing gripping motions too well either.

I was meaning that I'm not in climbing shape since I haven't been climbing long, so there's not a high level to maintain, more that I'm looking for anything I can do to keep progressing towards climbing shape. Think I'm going to stick to cardio as much as I can.

I dislocated my shoulder about two and a half years ago in a non-climbing related accident. I did not undergo surgery and only completed PT. The whole ordeal took me 7-8 months to recover. During that time, I focused on general fitness and dieting. I was a fairly new climber at that point in time, but it made me that much more determined. Eating properly and dieting compromised 70% of my efforts. As for rehabilitation, I focused on shoulder articulation and general fitness. The jarring movement of running restricted my cardio to elliptical machines or walking stairs. During your recovery, make sure to re-establish your shoulder's full range of motion. I would also make sure to start slow when you do get back into climbing. I have heard of instances where tendinitis can afflict the other shoulder as a result of compensation; I would recommend listening to your body and moving from that point forward. As for preventative maintenance, I work antagonistic movements (such as military presses or push presses). Remember that there will be scar tissue around the affected area, so make sure to foam roll or knead these points (this is incredibly painful BTW). Don't be deterred by any setbacks and focus on the joy of being able to climb pain free. Good luck and I wish you a speedy recovery.

Phil Chai wrote:I dislocated my shoulder about two and a half years ago in a non-climbing related accident. I did not undergo surgery and only completed PT. The whole ordeal took me 7-8 months to recover. During that time, I focused on general fitness and dieting. I was a fairly new climber at that point in time, but it made me that much more determined. Eating properly and dieting compromised 70% of my efforts. As for rehabilitation, I focused on shoulder articulation and general fitness. The jarring movement of running restricted my cardio to elliptical machines or walking stairs. During your recovery, make sure to re-establish your shoulder's full range of motion. I would also make sure to start slow when you do get back into climbing. I have heard of instances where tendinitis can afflict the other shoulder as a result of compensation; I would recommend listening to your body and moving from that point forward. As for preventative maintenance, I work antagonistic movements (such as military presses or push presses). Remember that there will be scar tissue around the affected area, so make sure to foam roll or knead these points (this is incredibly painful BTW). Don't be deterred by any setbacks and focus on the joy of being able to climb pain free. Good luck and I wish you a speedy recovery.

Thanks! I think I'm going to focus on shedding the 10lbs or so I can lose. Luckily, I'm only a couple weeks out and have full range of motion with pain only when I put my arm behind my back, so running doesn't hurt it. I start PT Monday and definitely will be going much slower and build up my strength once I get back to climbing as opposed to trying routes way out of my experience out of the gate.

Aerili,

Are you saying that one arm hangboarding is not safe in general or are you concerned about mc813 doing it because his other shoulder already exhibited issues through dislocation?

I was 5+ years into climbing when I smashed my AC. During rehab elliptical and core work set me up for a fast recovery. My injured friends and I also attempt to cut down the beer drinking during our recoveries.
Now I'm sitting on a torn bicep, same plan but running is on the table. If desperate to improve grip play with a squeeze toy, and rice bucket/rubber band for antagonists.
Dislocations heal fast. 7 months after my friend was back up to v11.

Tyler Wick wrote:Aerili, Are you saying that one arm hangboarding is not safe in general or are you concerned about mc813 doing it because his other shoulder already exhibited issues through dislocation?

I think two things in this case:

1) This person is new to climbing. Injured or not, their tissues are not ready for one-arm hangboarding. This would be something more appropriate for experienced climbers who have work-hardened their connective tissues gradually over much longer periods of time.

2) When one gets injured, frequently the uninjured bilateral side will become aggravated as well simply from performing double the activities of daily living. Adding a high-stress training load on top of this is a bad idea in my opinion.

mc813 wrote:I was meaning that I'm not in climbing shape since I haven't been climbing long, so there's not a high level to maintain, more that I'm looking for anything I can do to keep progressing towards climbing shape. Think I'm going to stick to cardio as much as I can.

The most important thing for can do for your long term climbing fitness, health, and ability is to get that shoulder healed up 100%. This should be priorities 1, 2, and 3.

Otherwise, maintaining good general fitness and staying away from the ice cream are a good idea. Spend time outside, go for hikes, and enjoy other activities. There is plenty of time in the future, once you shoulder is healed, to pursue climbing-specific fitness.

As mentioned above, I would avoid things like 1-arm hangboarding. Aerili's comments are spot-on.

No worries, I'm not at the "1-arm hangboarding" level yet. Plans are to get after it in PT, probably load down a pack and do some hiking to shed some lbs while enjoying the outdoors to prevent from going stir-crazy. Appreciate the information guys.