Thread: Recovering from shoulder dislocation

For those who have done this, how long until you were 100% again? I dislocated mine Wednesday and had to go to the ER to pop it back in, I saw a specialist yesterday and xrays turned out all good. Current pain level is pretty mild, just extremely tender around the joints and tendons and I don't have a full ROM yet obviously. I'm basically sidelined the entire month of September, in a sling for 3-4 weeks except for showers or to move elbow around a few minutes. I can start rehabbing it in 2-3 weeks and I get a followup in 4 weeks. Very depressing but good news is that it doesn't appear to be really messed up so with proper rehab and time to heal I should recover fine. I have some good joint support on the way to aid in the healing process.

If all goes well I should be back in the gym in about 5-6 weeks but I will be starting pretty light. Originally I was planning a cycle to kick off around October, obviously not gonna happen now, looking at maybe December if all goes well and I reach 100% by mid November which time will tell.

So, any tips or pointers would be much appreciated. What exercises really helped you? How long until you were 100% again? I'm planning on sticking to light machines and cables the first several weeks then slowly ease into free weights again. I can not do any overhead movements for quite awhile, that's how it happened in the first place doing DB shoulder presses. Anyone who suffered from this kind of injury able to do those types of movements ever again with no issues? I am trying to figure out how I'll ever build my shoulders up bigger with no overhead movements so that is a bit discouraging but since my shoulders are one of my stronger areas it's possible I can get by without those movements. I want to get back in as soon as possible but I also want to do this the proper way, last thing I want is to be one of those people who start having dislocations all the time. Right now I don't require surgery and I can't afford it now anyway so I definitely want to keep it that way.

Not sure of any cartilage damage, I know there was a little tendon damage that the Dr. said would take 6 weeks or so to heal. Based on what the Dr. said I don't think it will be more than a couple months of recovery but time will tell. It is feeling a little better each day so I think that's a good sign at least. And absolutely about the training, I will not be training at all the entire month of September aside from some rehab exercises I'll be starting in about 3 weeks.

I would like to be back to the gym in early October with light machine and cable work if I am able to but the more heavy lifts I do not expect to be doing until mid to late November at the very earliest, possibly later depending on how recovery goes. I will not even be attempting heavy shoulder work until next year, anything targeting shoulders will be very light for awhile even after I get any type of clearance to train again. Very frustrated because they were coming along nicely but I want to make sure it has time to heal properly and since I can grow shoulders quickly it shouldn't take long to catch them up if they begin to lag behind. For the time being my main focus is just to maintain what I have now and give it time to heal so I can hopefully avoid any issues with it in the future.