4 months after surgery.. question on sports? Thanks

Hey this may be a lengthy post so pls bear with me
Background info:

I was in rock climbing and as part of training we had to do typewriter pull ups. Well it worked but in September 2010, there was a freak injury (sorta) and I injured myself (tearing sensation in arm).

Basically I didn't know it was an injury and carried on with activities as per usual i.e. Pull ups (normal not typewriter), push ups (without any problems).

Anyway in January 2011, when I was rock climbing I found that my overhead grip was severely weak and after consulting a doctor and going for some MRI, I was diagnosed with a torn labrum and my specialist said it was a bankart tear (though I didn't dislocate my shoulder).

So in February 2011, I had a bankart repair on the torn labrum (arthroscopic surgery) and am now undergoing physiotherapy (strengthening my arm, range of motion is completed)

[the physiotherapist mentioned that I can be discharged in the next visit or the one after that since my strength is very strong]


But basically, in the country where i'm in (Singapore), we have National Service, where all able bodied males have to serve the army. Anyway, my specialist advised that I should not do pull ups in National Service (this would limit the vocations that I can enter though) but it's not that I'm trying to go against his advice but I could do pull ups as per normal before my surgery (when I didn't know it was a torn labrum)

My guess is because he thought that I tore it because of pull ups but in fact I tore it due to typewriter pull ups (usual pull ups I could do it). Of course now that I'm injured I can't (but just yesterday I tried it at a pull up bar and managed to do one though I was shaking a little - nervous about putting weight on the injured shoulder)

So just wanna ask, do you guys think it's possible for me to resume doing pull ups? I just can't seem not doing pull ups for life (or for army for that matter).

Edit: Oh yesterday I had a physiotherapy session and after explaining all that to the PT, he said that by the 6th month mark (i.e. August), I should be able to go back to Sports and can do pull ups as usual.


Thanks :)

Thanks for you post. I dont think pullups are a problem in that you can injure yourself doing them anytime so the risk is there in anycase. The Dr is correct in that any end of range exercise with load will place more pressure on the labrum. So we need to ask outselves is this normal risk? Maybe yes, maybe no. Tennis players who have labral tears go back to tennis with overhead activities and cope well. Of course there's a lot of end of range strengthening first. So my cal would be it is up to you. There is increased risk but it is only a labrum and many of us have labral tears and don't even know it.

One thing though - a labral tear wont make your forearm weak!

Thank you physiobob!

If i may ask, if I were to resume with pull ups how do I do this uhm "end of range strengthening" ? Thanks for the help :)


Oh and may I ask after undergoing surgery and having fully recovered, is the torn labrum still susceptible to tearing easily? Because now in physiotherapy i am doing push ups (on exercise balls against the wall) and I feel alright. But when I tried pull ups the other time, it's like this foreboding feeling and I'm afraid to load that much on my shoulder (and also I'm afraid to "suck" in my shoulder joint in pull up where it's locked um yea something like that sorry :P )

Thanks