Recovering from Shoulder Surgery and Golf

I had a cyst removed from my right shoulder.  They found no tears, luckily.  For full recovery, about a year, but I was playing golf in two months with some restrictions.  Best advice I can give is to stick to the therapy and get your range of motion back.  This is especially important for the rotator cuff, both internal and external.  

 

I had a bit of trouble with frozen shoulder right after surgery (I am 52).  So as soon as they allow you to move it, move it to keep this from happening.  What got me really going during therapy was hanging from a bar with weight assist.  My YMCA has one of those assisted chin up/press up machines.  I could put 120 pounds on the assist and gentle hand on the bar to stretch the shoulder.

 

After that, I have really kept up with the PT exercises.  I do them as a warm up for any weight lifting.  I also do a lot of shoulder stretches to keep it from tightening up.  I really recommend doing this on a daily basis.  They are easy and you can do them anywhere.

 

Have your PT show them to you and be religious during recovery.

 

Lastly, ice is your best friend.  Ice it after PT exercises and any time your feel pain during the recovery process.  It really helps healing.

 

Best of luck.

I had a torn right shoulder labrum. Tore in '92 playing lacrosse. I had surgery on 12/16/09. From there I did 6 weeks in a sling with no mobility, followed by 6 weeks of PT, 2x a week. I went into PT telling the therapist my league started in mid april and I HAD to be ready. As much as she told me I might not be, I responded with I am playing!!!! 6 weeks of physical therapy followed by stretching at home, i loosened up pretty quickly. I was actually swining in my garage (lightly), by march 1st 2010, (but dont tell my physical therapist, she would kill me!) after 18 years on that bum shoulder I was a new man, it felt great, albeit a little tighter. It did take a few weeks to loosen and get rid of that tightness. I remember thinking after the surgery and after my 1st PT appointment, that due to the tightness, I would never be playing golf. my first bucket of balls was just a wedge, just to loosen up, I waited for the 2nd bucket for a full swing. But I started in mid april in my golf league and won my flight (which seems to be a 1 time fluke!) Just dont over do it and remember to stretch and ice! Best of luck!

Depends on your body, how hard you work at physical therapy, ect.. Look at Adrian Peterson, came back from a blown knee in half the time. So, it can be done, were you come back faster, but you got to balance pushing your self and rest.

 

If you haven't had surgery yet, look into some weight lifting exercises to strengthen the muscles around the shoulder, this will help stabilize the shoulder. They actually recommend this before having knee surgery, it can greatly decrease PT time after surgery because you have less muscle loss.