Archery post-labral tear, frozen shoulder?

[rdp123]

Hi all,
Curious who has experience with archery after major injury. I have a couple of labral tears in the left shoulder, which is my drawing arm (I shoot leftie). The tears were not serious enough to require surgery, but I was continuing to have serious pain several months into PT and they sent me back to the doctor and found that while I've recovered my strength, I now have something called "frozen shoulder," where the joint locks up due to inflammation and you lose range of motion. So now I am back to PT with an emphasis on stretching instead of strength and it looks like a long road. When I asked how long until I can start drawing a bow again, PT said probably about a year. I started PT in June.

Has anyone experienced similar injuries? Were you able to recover your ability to shoot without re-injury?

For context, I had been shooting a compound (60-65lb) for a few years, but the injury happened as I was scaling up volume with a recurve still at fairly light poundage (started at 25lbs and moving up over a few months until injured, shooting 35lbs). It's not clear if the injury was repetitive use, or a mix of the weight lifting/climbing/shooting, or something acute — the first time I felt the pain was while stringing up a recurve.

Thanks for any input.

 

[Marble]

I tore my labrum in half and had surgery to fix it. 6 months post surgery, i was pain-free and could shoot fine.

Mine was also my left, my bow arm. I can draw just fine but have stability issues. I have a couple very strange exercises I do in the gym that look like total gymfuckery, but they help with stability.

I'm not sure where you live, but if your shoulder isn't healing properly, you need to go a different route. If you go the surgery route, find someone who does only shoulders. 3 months post surgery i felt good. 6 months was great, 1 year fully healed.

In the past, some friends that have had a "frozen shoulder " they got put under, and they basically move the shoulder to break up the scar tissue. There are videos on YouTube...they are quite disturbing.

My surgeries were in 2019 and 2020. I had a guy trip me playing softball and ripped an anchor out, hence the second surgery. I can do anything I want. My range of motion is probably 10% less than my good shoulder. Strength is slightly less. But I can shoulder press 185 lbs with ease.

Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk

 

[rdp123]

That’s great to hear, thank you! This slow recovery has been really discouraging.

 

[NealS02]

Not an orthopedic surgeon perspective, but I am an emergency medicine physician so take it for what it’s worth. I was classically trained that during the first several months of adhesive capsulitis you are going to be in the acute phase and have a lot of pain and significant range of motion limitations. Generally, after that, there is a phase that lasts anywhere from 4 to 6 months with persistent range of motion limitations with pain and the whole goal of the physical therapy is to limit the impact of this phase. After that phase, generally you’re gonna have some improvement in pain, but continue to have range of motion limitations for several months, but after a little over a year improvement in range of motion. This is by no means universal and physical therapy intervention can certainly change the impact and duration of these phases. It is super important that you follow all direction from your medical provider and do not push return to archery unless they tell you to do so as I strongly suspect that it was contributory to your labral tear. I hope this helps, but I know it’s discouraging given the timetable I outlined and our natural desire to return to normalcy as soon as possible. I’m sorry to hear you’re going through this and hope you heal up sooner rather than later.

 

[rdp123]

Thanks, this is helpful! I am definitely following the guidance of my PT and haven’t shot a bow since May. My main concern is whether I’ll ever be able to shoot again without going through the same ordeal, especially the recurve.

 

[LostArra]

I have two terrible shoulders, one previous surgery and I shoot compounds and traditional. I won't bore you with my decades of anecdotal "data" but something to focus on when you get back to shooting is keeping your bicep out of the draw cycle and use your back muscles. That long head of the bicep can be a nasty irritant when it gets into the shoulder.

It takes some concentration if you shoot with a tab. With a compound release the more you engage your entire hand the better. A thumb activated hand held release is good for this if you like that style. There is an index release called a Keeton that focuses on this hand position. I couldn't get a good anchor with it but I've changed the way I draw with my Short and SweetR so my entire hand is engaged. It makes a difference for me.

 

[rdp123]

Thanks! That makes sense to me — the biggest pain I get with this runs along the bicep, and a lot of the PT is focused on getting the back muscles activated. I thought I was doing that all along, but I can see now I wasn’t.

How much harder was it getting back into trad vs compound after recovery?

 

[Venator]

I had my left shoulder labral repaired and bicep tendonesis last march. In October I could start gradually shooting again (approx. 8 months post op) the left arm is my holding arm (right handed.)
I'm no doctor, no PA, no PT but I've had both left and right shoulder labrum repaired. My right was done 8 yrs ago.
In my experience nothing but surgery cured the tear or the symptoms, the strengthening just helps shoulder move the way it's supposed to but with a torn labrum you will always have the slop and something getting pinched or agitated with repetitive use or overhead movements (in my experience)
I did steroid shots, PT, for both but the end result was surgery.
It's a crap injury, the recovery seems long but if you follow the PT advice you should come out ahead.
My shoulder is still healing, I'm still getting stronger. Youre slinged up 12 weeks so you lose all or most muscle in the repaired shoulder.
I was shooting my bow at 65# pre surgery I'm now working towards that but had to go down to 51# to even feel I wasn't stressing repair.
Good luck with everything I feel your pain or did!

 

[rdp123]

Thanks! That sounds rough, but glad to hear you’re shooting again