Hi Scott,

 

I am a rugby player and over the last couple of seasons I have been experiencing what feels like shoulder separations at least 6/7 times in the last year. I don't know how to describe the feeling other than my shoulder feels as if it is popping out and back in relatively quickly so no full on dislocation thankfully! It usually occurs with an outstretched arm i.e. attempting to grab someone in a tackle and my arm jerking violently or digging for the ball an being collapsed on. Im just wondering if this could be down to a badly damaged rotator cuff? Or something else? And any recommendations from yourself or the nation with exercises I could do to help stop this would be ace!

 

Thanks,

Blair

Blair, This sounds like you have stretched the ligaments the surround the shoulder capsule and hold the humerus into the scapula. Usually when playing a contact sport like rugby, taking numerous hits to the shoulder can do this. The first thing I would do is see a sports medicine doctor to make sure you haven't torn the rotator cuff. If your rotator cuff is intact but strained, you will need to do exercises to strengthen the infraspinatus, supraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis muscles which surround the rotator cuff. If you click on the "articles" tab here on SHF, it describes some exercises to do to help strengthen the rotator cuff which should also help tighten the ligaments. The bottom line is with a very hard hitting sport like rugby even with proper training you will always be at risk for shoulder injuries. John

Blair, The title of the article is "Overcoming A Shoulder Injury" by Cliff Bouvier. It has some great exercises to do. There is also an article on maintaining shoulder mobility you can check out as well. John

Thanks guys, I will definitely get looking into these options. Team physio is having a look at it tomorrow so hopefully its good news. Always an inconvenient injury. Only had a week off from playing in competitive matches and already missing hitting folk! haha. So hoping for a good recovery.

 

Shall keep you guys updated. Thanks.

 

Blair

Hi Scott,

 

I am a rugby player and over the last couple of seasons I have been experiencing what feels like shoulder separations at least 6/7 times in the last year. I don't know how to describe the feeling other than my shoulder feels as if it is popping out and back in relatively quickly so no full on dislocation thankfully! It usually occurs with an outstretched arm i.e. attempting to grab someone in a tackle and my arm jerking violently or digging for the ball an being collapsed on. Im just wondering if this could be down to a badly damaged rotator cuff? Or something else? And any recommendations from yourself or the nation with exercises I could do to help stop this would be ace!

 

Thanks,

Blair

Well I have been to the physio and she seems to think that my shoulder capsule is very tight due to my very limited range of motion on a medial roatation, also the afore mentioned rotator cuff damage was mentioned along with my ligaments being to stretched to hold my shoulder in effectively. The exercises I have been given to do at first are;

 

Medial External Rotation using a resistance band

Yoga Push up - without the standard push up

Lateral Raises - unweighted or light weight for overall strengthening

Various Wall Stretches to improve some of the mobility in my shoulder

 

Doing these at least once a day for the next 4 weeks as we have a christmas break in the season and will help assess how deep the damage is when games start up again. Of course still avoiding playing rugby too!

 

What do you guys think of that?

Thought I would put in an update on my shoulder for you guys. Been back playing full contact the last few weeks and the shoulder is feeling pretty solid, still working on improving the structural integrity of the area but seems good. Almost back to being able to do full on shoulder workouts! Been using kinesiology tape just to add a bit of extra support, don't know if that stuff actually works? But gives a bit of extra confidence which can only be a good thing.

 

Just thought I would say thanks for the recommendations, really helped!

Thought I would put in an update on my shoulder for you guys. Been back playing full contact the last few weeks and the shoulder is feeling pretty solid, still working on improving the structural integrity of the area but seems good. Almost back to being able to do full on shoulder workouts! Been using kinesiology tape just to add a bit of extra support, don't know if that stuff actually works? But gives a bit of extra confidence which can only be a good thing.

 

Just thought I would say thanks for the recommendations, really helped!

Can do pull-ups, wouldn't say that they are sore, slightly uncomfortable but as you said help with strengthening. And yeah I've been doing overhead presses, just sticking to around 10 reps no point trying anything silly ha. I do rate the K tape from the way its been , my position in rugby puts a lot of strain on the shoulder so having that extra bit of support is helping.

 

Plus side of the injury was that I got to focus more on my leg work, so always a good side to things! haha.