Dislocated left shoulder, which core exercises are safe?

Question

TL;DR I dislocated my left shoulder a month ago and it is slowly healing. Which exercises are safe to build my abs, chest and back?

I have dislocated my left shoulder a month ago. It is no longer throbbing with pain or causing numbness in my left arm. I can sideways open it up for 90 degrees and continue my daily routine with ease. However, it is not completely healed yet.

Meanwhile, I have a large belly I am trying to get rid of. In the last two months I lost 5.5 kg (from 70.8 kg to 65.3 kg). Since I am 171/m, I do not wish to lose any more weight but get rid of the belly fat.

Due to my condition, the exercise I currently do are

• Wall sits
• Leg raises (one at a time, double leg raises causes slight pain in my shoulder)
• Crunches (with my hands on my chest, not around ears)

I do the last two exercises on a relatively soft bed, however, I plan to move to an exercise mat.

As I said my primary ambition is to get rid of belly fat and secondary one is to build up my biceps, shoulders, abs, chest and back. 2 kg biceps curls with a water bottle do not really hurt, but I only do one or two to check if it hurts. Besides, I used to do 7 kg curls the last time I exercised, so 2-3 kg curls would probably mean nothing.

Biceps and shoulders before completely healing my shoulder might be hopeless, but what can I do to develop my abs, chest and back?

Answer 1

In general, all injuries should be consulted with physical therapists, trainers. Someone who can examine what's the problem how it goes, and that way find out what is good for you. Shoulders are quite open joints, so dislocation can mean many things. I would advise to recover fully, other way you can hurt yourself more, as a consequence it can be that you would not be able to perform some exercises.

If you still wants to try... Keep in mind that if it pains then you should stop. A specially if you can't recognize kinds of pain.

Still want to do something? - try kind of warmups, like here but start with no weight. I would include some wide circles. Look for "shoulders warmup", "rotation cuff warmup" - choose maybe 5 exercises you can perform with no pain. Keep slow move, maybe ten reps of a kind, find out where the pain is, and observe if it changes. Later, you can use bottles. If you fill any problem, discomfort - drop weight, or stop exercising. What ever you do - do not increase intensity, weight too fast. You should not change it more often then once per week, and change if you feel recovering progress.

After injury your body can have problems like muscles are shorter, as well as same other structures. Slow, controlled motion allows them to get back. Moving slowly you limit risk of potential problem. If you are sure that your injury is gone, and still there is a pain - talk with trainer at the gym. Face to face talking should be much more effective. Someone can touch you, observe how you move.

Usually problems with shoulders comes from luck of stability. Maybe good idea is to learn how to stabilize your shoulders with back blades? Yes, trainer should be helpful here.

If you started, and it happened - you want to get back. Recover and get back on track. Please note that sometimes much better is to do other exercises, just to keep up, and let shoulders get back on their own. If I have to guess - I would expect something around 4-6 weeks to see your shoulders recovered. In other case it can take half a year. I see your priority, but at gym first priority is not to get injured. Second recover well. Joints are quite problematic, once broken requires full recovery - that way you limit chance to get injury back.

If you want to get rid of belly... Diet gives much better results. If you include any walking, cycling, or cardio machines - that is better then weight exercises.

Fingers crossed. :)