I am 7 months post-surgery, an arthroscopic clean-up on my left shoulder (rotator & labrum). I had the same surgery done on my right shoulder last year.

Some (overhead) MWOD stretches make my left shoulder numb, no pain. Also if I directly smash the posterior area of my delt, it will go numb. This happened before the surgery though. Right is fine. Left I clearly hit a certain “wall”, an impingement when going overhead.

I had a check-up appointment today with my orthopedic surgeon/doctor about this. His advice is contradictory to that of MWOD…

He said the numbness is not indicative of a problem with the shoulder, which was relieving to hear. It’s due to the superficial nerves – the c5 nerve which stems from the neck. He said to avoid doing any deep massage/SMR with the ball for another 6 months on all of the surrounding area (including scapula). He said to focus on flexion & external rotation stretches, and to do them very lightly – which I have not been doing, I’ve been doing them with a lot of banded resistance, putting my whole body into the stretch. More so he said to focus on stretching the chest (doorway stretch).

He said I don’t need to do internal rotation stretches. Why? Because “I’m not fighting lions”, we don’t need to or aren’t designed to or something to that extent – basically implying it’s not necessary, and if I must to do it then stretch IR lightly after I shower…

So, if I take his advice, then:

• no SMR for another 6 months (so it will be over a year post-surgery before I’m clear, by his estimate)
• don’t stretch internal rotation of the shoulders
• for shoulder flexion & external rotation stretches, do them very lightly

This seems really conservative to me, especially considering the surgery was only a clean-up, no repair. I just want to heal up so I can finally lift again – I’ve only doing light weight rehab work in the gym. Considering he’s a good doctor and has seen both my shoulders under the scope, I’m hesitant to ignore his advice.

What are your thoughts?