I've had 3 shoulder surgeries. The first was a minor tear, surgery was quick, with the actual procedure (once I was out) taking about 15 minutes. My understanding of that one is that the torn bit was simply trimmed off. Since there was nothing to further damage or come apart, I had no restrictions on my movement, other than significant pain, which I was told should be "pushed through". Probably 10 years later, I had more of a reconstruction on the same shoulder. I had a SLAP tear, and the LHBT (long head biceps tendon) had dislocated, which was the final straw pain-wise, that made surgery a must. It also required a cadaver graft to repair the Supraspinatus. Additionally, the biceps tendon had become too frayed to repair, so I was also given a biceps tenotomy, in which they simply cut it and let it heal back wherever it ends up. That results in what's often called a "Popeye" biceps, which is not pariticularly attractive, but what can ya do? About 3 years after that, I had basically the same exact procedure done on my left shoulder, with one difference being that the LHBT on that side had not dislocated yet and was able to be "tacked down".
So, regarding recovery time I would go with whatever your doctor is telling you as that is obviously going to vary greatly, dependent on several different factors. I am always extremely conservative when it comes to recovering from surgery. In my experience, along with the experience of several of my clients and others in the gym, even after say, being back to all activities after a couple months or whatever, it still seemed to take about a year to feel 100% back to normal. Of course, the older we get, the slower we recover.
I believe that a couple of my favorite shoulder moves (strength training) ended up contributing to my shoulder issues, along with my then non-existent stretching of the muscles I kept contracted in my right shoulder on stage every night. The strength training movements that I believe contributed significantly were medial lateral raises with slight internal rotation at the shoulder (thumb lower than pinky), and upright rows with the elbows as high as possible. My understanding is that both of these are contraindicated these days but were not back in the day. Additionally, as with
@ryco I also remember throwing a baseball as hard as I could with ZERO warm up at a county fair to see what speed the radar gun showed. As soon as I let go the fingers in my right hand went painfully numb and I immediately knew I had just done something incredibly stupid. BTW, the speed was a whopping 45mph. I used to recommend the book "The Seven-Minute Rotator Cuff Solution" to my clients who also had shoulder issues. I am also a big fan of active isolated stretching.
I am of the opinion that going with only the palliative approach, whether that be Cortisone shots, acupuncture or whatever, often does more harm than anything else in the long run.
The surgeon who did my last two procedures was a super specialist who did nothing but shoulders. My advice to anyone is to always find a doc who is as specialized as possible. Give me the doc that only does one thing but does it as well as it can be done.
I also used to tell my clients "The surgery is the fix. The PT is where the healing begins." A great physical therapist is a must.
