T4/5 Laminectomy Climbing rehab

[physiobob]

I tend to agree with your approach. The issue is that in order to perform a laminectomy some of the muscles need to be reflected off the thoracic vertebrae in the region and neighbouring spinal region. Your rhomboids are attaching in this area and they therefore won't have a great potential to cling on to their attachments in the beginning. That is why I suggest bouldering first before you have to hang to much off the shoulders. A peg board might just be to much load on that muscle attachment at this time.

Think of it as that relationship of the muscles attaching the scapulae to the spine and you should work so as not to put to much load on them for the first 3 months. That said a gentle contraction along the normal direction of the fibers is a good thing. Only the surgeon knows how much work he did in there so only he/she can really say how long they want you to be super careful. My opinion is that your best rehab is in the climbing wall but with advice from the local sports physio who can guide you in acceptable exercises to maintain and retrain the rotation elements of the spine in that area. We don't want tough scar tissue inhibiting movement that might tear on the first 'dangle' by the finger tips

So I think if you have a premise for deciding what is an OK exercise and what is not then you will be able to work forward on that basis. Discuss that with the surgeon in light of what is and is not stable at this time and what will become stable and what will be lacking in the future.

[markaut]

As an update, I have just started physiotherapy to strengthen the muscles and tissues supporting my shoulders.
From the way the exercises feel, they are targeting weaknesses which obviously need strengthening, but not explicitly (yet) the muscles which were interfered with during the operation.

My physio seems unaware of the unique stresses caused by climbing, and I have been asked to document my plans for when I start climbing again (as detailed earlier in the thread. She would like to plan for tailoring the therapy to these actions, but I am a bit lost for words.....
"I need to be able to pull, or push with my arm in any position" seems to be an accurate if perfectly useless description of what I aspire to doing again!
If I was rowing a boat, or doing archery, it would be reasonably easy to describe the actions as they seem reasonably simple and reproducible, but for rock climbing the arm and shoulder actions seem to be more complex and non-routine.

Could anyone help me put climbing in physio speak.....
Any specific muscle groups need particular attention?
Any specific risks as a result of the laminectomy which physio could mitigate?
Is there any physio / medical terminology which describes how I am using my shoulders?

Having worked professionally with a number of different professions, I appreciate that different groups have different 'languages' and if I can explain my needs to a non-climbing physio in 'physio-speak' I feel it will help us both get the treatment right.

Many thanks for reading so far, and all help gratefully appreciated.