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Supraspinatus & Subscapularis Tear

S

Stickastars

New member
Hi all

Have just been diagnosed with a partial and full thickness tear of both tendons.

This occurred while doing bench press 4 weeks ago, the first gym injury I have ever had.

Sharp pain and discomfort has subsided just general pain and dull ache. I haven't returned to the gym.

Have had 6 physio sessions and 4 deep tissue whole body massages.

I am very active and play touch football.

I have a major event in 6 weeks time (state level) and considering my options.

a) persist with rehab, return to some form of training and compete

or

b) have an op ASAP and try to recover in time

Q. If I don't have op and play, can I do any further major injury (I know this is a generalisation)

Q. If I have an op, whats the general recover time before elite level activity again ?

Any advice appreciated

Rgds
Sticka
 
The first thing to consider is tendons take a long time to recover due to their low cell turnover rate.
I myself am rehabbing a supraspinatus tear trying to avoid surgery. I too have that same blunt pain you describe. I have had to completely lay off any pressing work and have been working around the injury.
The best thing to do is REST but being a lifter that’s just not going to happen so you need to work around the injury.
If rest is an option then completely lay off it... personally I wouldn’t be playing any form of sport. If you were to all and land on that shoulder say goodbye. You could end up tearing the tendon completely off requiring immediate surgery and a much longer rehab period.
My advice is to avoid surgery but undergo an intensive rehab program... I wont lie this is going to take months, maybe a year to get back to full health. Even then tendons take longer to recover to 100% so you need to be very careful.
I am going to see a sports doctor about having plasma injections, it might be something to consider but it depends on the extent of your injury.
 
Hi Danimal

Thanks for the reply.

Did not want to hear months or full year recovery without surgery either.

I guess I need to ask Surgeon whats the chances of further injury i.e off the bone

Have been reasting for 4 weeks and have another 6 before comp, but it sounds as though thats not long enough.

Rgds
 
You said you had a full thickness tear... thats going to take 6 or more months to recover, and thats if your lucky.

Like I said tendons take a LONG time to recover they dont get the same blood flow as a muscle, nowhere near it. Especially once you hit 30 the blood flow to tendons drops off more.

Look Im not a surgeon or physio Im just telling you what I know after my own research and experience with this... Im suffering myself with a tendon tear, it happened 3months ago, and in that time (yes I have been working around it but still on it a bit), its maybe recovered 20%.

Its a long process.
 
If your supraspinatus or any of those other annoying rotator cuff muscles has evulsed from the bone, I'm afraid it's up to your surgeon now. Don't do anything silly with a torn cuff, or you risk dreadful and long term damage to your shoulder joint. The shoulder is of a pathetically unstable design to start with.
 
You can play but expect if anything happens such as being hit in the shoulder, falling on the shoulder etc it can set you back a lot by aggravating the injury.

Full thickness tears are a bitch but at least you have not completely torn the tendon as you would need surgery as Vonfram suggested.

Sadly only rest will heal it BUT you need to look at why you injured it in the first place. I would look into your shoulder mobility in regards to internal rotation, your scapula retraction ability (both strength and movement), other stabilising muscles of the humeral head (rotator cuff, pec major etc) also look into how tight your pectoralis minor is as it can be one of the major culprits in poor humeral head position in the glenohumeral joint when benching etc. Once again these are only corrections for the reason as to why it happened, they will not significantly affect healing of the actual tears though they can help take some stress off of the affected areas.
 
Yeah any part of the cuff is annoying. If you can avoid, completely rest it and limit strictly to rehab movements.
 
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