The life is ****ing weird sometimes. I kitesurf, skydive, play tennis, hit the gym, no major incident, then 1 wrong move and I need surgery. Six months no kitesurfing.....I need some antidepressants fast....

Went to do Ultra Sounds today to my shoulder, after experiencing huge pain from a wrong move, result: Supraspinatus tendon full thickness tear. I have to have surgery done to it fast, otherwise, it will only get worse.

Anyone had this type of injury before? Any advice? How long did it take you before being able to get back on the water?

I have tennis elbow, herniated disc, strained levator scapulae, and I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and I am only 27. You really need to rest for around 3 - 6 months after the surgery visit your physiotherapists every other day. Shoulders are like our weakest point one simple mistake will cost us a long lasting if not permanent injury. I do diving, I hit the gym 4 times on a weekly basis, wakeboarding recently, cycling, and still learning kite surfing, but you need to set a limit as some sports contradicts the other, by that I mean when I do cycling I avoid doing any leg exercises, when I hit the cable park I don't exercise my shoulders etc...

Please dont let this kind of injury demotivate you..**** will always happen especially to people who are into sports.

Best of luck.

I believe strength training is great but you also need flexibility, I've been doing a regular Pilates class for the last year and at 41 I'm more flexible than I was 10 years ago.
By lengthening and stretching these tendons in a safe manner you lessen the chance of a tear when the joint gets over extended in a crash.

Also found I don't wake up with a stiff back and don't get knots between my shoulder blades anymore unless I take a break from doing Pilates for a few weeks while on holiday. Better core strength gives me longer sessions without getting tired.

Hope this helps

Kozzie said..

as someone who is juuuust about to quit his job to kite and glide for a year this sort of thing is my biggest nightmare. could you please tell me some details on how it happened and what time. i believe that on job sites nearly everyone gets back injuries in the early morning. ive done that myself at about 7am. so seems plausible that maybe cold and lack of stretching and warm ups increases the risk. i have intentionally taken up paragliding because paraplegics can still do it so i got something to do incase i loose my legs somehow.

I think I weakened this tendon a couple of years ago when I fell in the shower, but what broke it was just trying to push my work suitcase between the front and the back seat. I pushed it with my arm stretched and when the bag suddenly went down, my entire body weight went on it causing the damage.

18 months out from a sizeable full+partial tear, shoulder function and strength is better than it was prior to injury.
i opted to not have surgery.
supraspinatus is a small muscle and, apart from initiating arm abduction, orients the shoulder girdle; my approach to managing and recovering from the injury involved stretching and loading to activate and realign tendon tissue.
i found the main problems, and resolution, arose in the bigger muscles - trapezius, lev scap, subscap, infraspinatus and the lat. chronic misalignment here manifests in the torso, hip and lower back myofascia. this is where i focussed.

it takes time; tendons have limited blood supply and repair at glacial pace. however, contrary to conventional wisdom, they can:
vvv
www.shoulderdoc.co.uk/article/1029
www.shoulderdoc.co.uk/article.asp?article=384§ion=419
&
"Tendon Injury and Tendinopathy: Healing and Repair"
Pankaj Sharma and Nicola Maff
J. Bone Joint Surg. Am. 87:187-202, 2005

PM me if you want copies of the articles.
cheers and good luck
denis