[Closed] Shoulder impingement.. recovery time?

Same thing here after an off two months ago. I can ride a bike but can’t put one on the car roof rack. Cant sleep on that side, some days flipping painful, some just annoying. Had three physio appointments (after seeing a doc, all dressed up). Told to rest it and keep it moving, told might be (prob will be) a few months but can take a year plus 🙁 . Currently in danger of being more nuisance than a collar bone break but time will tell. I don’t have age on my side, hope yours does better.

It depends what is causing the impingement. Usually it is owing to there being very little space between the acromion and humerus (the gap between shoulder blade and top of arm). Every time it impinges, there will be some swelling and therefore ever less space between impinged part (tendon, nerve, etc) and the boney bits doing the impinging. Worse still, you will be compensating the normal movement and setting up problem patterns that will lead to deterioration in function. Untreated you my end up with aa frozen shoulder (usually takes 2 years to get reasonable recovery from that).

So, avoid doing any movement that causes the pain, consider using ice and get to see a good physio. You're likely to benefit from stretching out your chest muscles and strengthening upper back to maintain good alignment (face-pulls, pull down/backs and gentle external rotation of humerus would be a reasonable place to start).

It's a complex joint, so I'd recommend seeing a professional. You may have partial tears of rotator cuff (4 elements to this) if you've led an active life, but very unlikely to need repairing unless fully torn (that's easy to diagnose but unlikely given your brief description).

Best of luck with getting it right asap

Thanks both.

It's a nightmare. Wakes me up every time I turn over at night into that side.

I can't lift a 5kg weight above my head.

I can feel tightness in my neck and shoulder as I'm compensating when it hurts.

I've got some exercises from the physio but they don't seem to be helping.

Different cause, but when I broke my shoulder + humerus, the time from being out of the sling most of the time (6 weeks) to it being as good as it's going to get, was about 18 months - but my starting point there was not being able to lift my arm above shoulder height. Eventually got to between 90 + 95% range of motion back, only really noticeable now when I try to put on a suit jacket!

Frozen shoulder here caused by breaking my collarbone and the subsequent op.
Six months and counting so far (collarbone still not healed either)
Doing physio three times a day which is painfull as **** but I have gained a lot of my ROM back.
Acupuncture seems to be helping with the pain and also the ROM as I can stretch more when I have less pain.
Gone from not being able to lift my arm up to 90 degrees to now being able to get it above my head.
Hoping that the bone has healed enough at my next xray that I can put some weight on it and get more aggressive on the physio.
Best of luck getting it sorted.
The sleepless nights and constant pain it's given me are no fun at all.

Go and see a shoulder specialist physio and follow their instructions to the letter. The use of your neck and upper trap will make matters worse over time as the larger muscles are taking over. Most likely you have injured one of your rotator cuff muscles which is being compensated for by your traps. Get that sorted ASAP - my shoulders are wrecked and I have to constantly see physio and do stretching mobility and strengthening exercise for them. I wish I could go back in time to the late 90s and show myself the effects of not taking injuries seriously.

You don’t want to be posting a new version of this thread in 2030/35.

Edit: just saw you last post - you have to persevere, keep on at them. If they say you won’t get mobility back in full etc see someone else. It may be true but if they say that they are looking to get you back to everyday levels not careering along a trail level of shoulder function. This is from experience, it’s your body don’t settle for second best.

Looking at The post below, the pec minor can pull things out of alignment and will be tight if you have been holding your shoulder up and forwards. Try putting a cricket ball etc in the door frame and pushing it into your pec by the front delt whilst looking up to the opposite side.

I had suffered this at the start of lockdown in march after lifting my son onto my shoulders and was given the exercises by a physio over zoom. Couldn't sleep or lift my arm with any strength at this point. This didn't help until she saw me in person as soon as covid allowed in early May I think. She changed my exercises, released my pec muscle with the deepest most painful massage I've ever experienced and taped my shoulder blade back to improve my very poor posture. Slowly it started to improve from then on but probably took to September before I could sleep on that side. I'm now pain-free with a full range of movement. I'd suggest following the advice of a decent physio will work, but I was told to stay off the bike for several months which I followed and now I'm pain-free I am glad I took that seriously.

Did my right shoulder years ago (10 maybe) and needed steroid injections into the joint. Pain subsided and movement was reasonable, but I finally got full movement back last year.
I’ve now done my left shoulder, but not as badly, doing physio is sorting it and movement is coming back better. Still twinging though.
I just remind myself that my right shoulder is damn near perfect now.

I have posted up a few times about a horrible crash last October which resulted in a shoulder reconstruction end of November 19. Rotator cuff and pretty much everything else torn and the humerus plated. I have been doing daily physio work since 6 weeks post op. It’s a lot better and as others have said, there is around an 18 month window to get it to as good as it can be.

I haven’t tried, but would think I would struggle to get a bike on a roof carrier. I can just about adjust the interior mirror in the car now. I started back at swimming this weekend and have done 2 sessions of 1k of front crawl and am really feeling a benefit. Unfortunately gym and pool closes later this week, but the home daily regime will continue.

Riding is fine, though I am extremely nervous of a tumble.

Go and see a shoulder specialist physio and follow their instructions to the letter

This. Exactly this. Shoulder specialist, and follow the instructions. To the letter. Probably for the rest of your life I fear.

Landed heavily on shoulder June 2019. Whatever I'd done was pressing on a nerve in the shoulder joint and from neck to fingertips was agony. First physio didn't do it. Second physio explained that either the crash - or my subsequent protecting of of the injury - was pulling the whole shoulder joint forward and down, causing the impingement. He worked on getting it back for 2-3 sessions, and gave me a couple of simple exercises to follow up with.

Took 4-5 months to get pain free. Got lazy, stopped the exercises, over stretched the shoulder and it locked down again. Another physio session, another couple of weeks of the exercises, back to normal again. Have let the exercises slip for 2-3 weeks, felt it tightening up and now back on it properly, just 5 minutes, twice a day.

Fwiw, my physio reckons shoulders can be 80% mental - we protect them too much when they hurt and so they get tighter and hurt more so we protect them some more.

Had an identical situation as you Renton, nothing broken but my specialist explained that the tendons were inflamed and struggling to fit through the narrow holes in your rotator cuff, thus the pain when raising your arm.

For me it was simply time that was the healer....reckon it took 8-9 months. No exercises at all.