There is a misconception today among patients that have had surgeries on shoulder, back or hands that the big job is done by having had the surgery, this could not be further from the truth.
If we look at shoulder surgery in 2020 we have come a very long way from what it was in the past.
In the past the risk of stiffness or nerve damage was much greater than it is today.
But the rehab part is very important, and we have over 15 years of experience from rehabbing clients on behalf of private hospitals who specilaizes on day surgeries on patients.
And we have learned over the years how very important it is to start the rehab of the shoulder/shoulders as soon as possible after the surgery is done.
If you ask bodybuilders or people who are active sports people on what body part you do not want to injure, then over 95% will say the shoulders.
And think about it, you use shoulders in almost all upper body workouts like deadlifts, bench-press, military press and dumbbell training and what ever-else you might do.
There is usually a few ways that you injure your shoulders and we have listed a few of those below here.
For younger people it is usually that you lift to heavy in the gym or you overstrain the shoulders so they do not have enough time to recover between training sessions.
Sometimes when you lift to heavy you might break something that requires surgery now or in the future.
But often if you do some rehab without surgery it will be fine inside a year or so for young people.
The second thing that can happen is that you work in a way that your shoulders takes a lot of punishment in your work life.
The way to avoid that is to try and listen to your body and make changes into the work positions you are putting your body into on a daily basis , there are a lot of repair jobs and construction work that creates these problems for people.
And then you have just an accident that you need to have trauma surgery on your shoulder/shoulders.
The last one usually comes with age, and it is simply that you have overworked your shoulders for years and now they are worn out.
But the good news is that we have true science come along way with shoulder surgeries.
Then when it comes to back surgeries and back rehab it is a very different situation since the back is a much bigger muscle group compared to your shoulders.
So when it comes to back rehab it is extremely important that you start up with both lower and upper back rehab as soon as possible.
We have over the years had clients that had back surgery 20+ years ago and they have very little mobility and strength left in their backs.
We usually recommend swimming as a great rehab tool for back rehab both for the upper back and for the lower back.
Usually one hour twice a week in the water will make a lot of difference in the clients mobility and their strength levels.
Sometimes also the water training and swimming can remove some pain and stiffness in the back.
The second training method we use for back rehab is deadlift, usually with very low weights and 10 sets at 10 reps each once a week.
This is for the lower back and then for the upper back we do barbell and dumbbell movements and rope pull downs in different versions.
So the back is a muscle group that is very important to rehab for a long period of time and slowly build up both the mobility and the strength along the way.
We have clients that did not do proper rehab 20+ years ago that has come to us later on in life, and even if they will never have normal back strength again, but with 4 times a week active rehab they can also get the mobility and strength back to a level where they can have a more active life and with less pain along the way.
When we talk about rehabbing from hand surgery we have to honestly say that this one is usually the hardest to recover from.
There are many ways of looking at hand surgery, if you have trauma surgery usually the nerv damage can be severe.
Then when you have surgery to try and relief pain, you have to take into consideration osteoporosis.
Bone density is also a big factor in how successful a hand surgery for a person over 60 years will be.
And many of our clients over the age of 60 years that has had hand surgery to try and get rid of the pain , have not been successful in that.
When it comes to hand rehab we usually use a lot of rubber bolls and different types of balls to try and build up grip strength.
We also use a lot of different bags that you would normally carry in your everyday life, to try and build up stamina to carry bags and other necessities that you might need to live a normal life.
So if we would recommend a patient anything, who have had surgery on any of these body parts on how to make sure that you recover and build up stamina ,strength and mobility , that would be to consult a rehab specialist who can help you out with a program that fits you as an individual.
If you are in a situation where you can not afford assistance(personal rehab training), at least get enough money together so you can get a rehab program drawn up by a professional on how to do your rehab even if you have to do it yourself with out the supervision of a specialist.
The best recommendation from us to you that will cost you almost nothing, is to find a swimming pool and slowly to start doing movements in the water and slowly to start swimming with slow moments in the beginning and then build up the strength and stamina and your mobility along the way.
So please remember that rehabilitation is so very important after surgery and you should never skip out on that, no matter how boring you might feel that it is.
Take care.
The LWC team.
