[Herbert]

Some time ago my shoulder did something odd while climbing. In an awkward position on a crack it seemed to lever out of joint, almost as if it was partially dislocating. At the time it was very painful, but after a weak or so of soreness it cleared up. Recently it's happened again on  two occasions, the culprit seems to be awkward cracks where I force it to go through a range of motion it obviously doesn't want to. Mid route, it's rather disconcerting and although when it happened today it wasn't particularly painful it did put an end to climbing so I'd like to stop it happening if I can.

I'm sure my best bet is to go to a physio, in the meantime I always hear the phrase 'shoulder instability' being bandied about and various exercises suggested as means of remedying it. Is this semi-dislocation/weird poppy outy thing the same thing as 'shoulder instability'?

 

[GCW]

Quite possibly labral pathology.

[Herbert]

Thanks, tried googling this but not too sure what it is..who would be best to see about it, Doc or Physio?

[robertostallioni]

Labral Pathologist?

[GCW]

Someone that has an interest in shoulders, be that physio or GP.  I'd get it checked out if I were you.

[Herbert]

Thanks for the advice, Dr it is.

[TommyG]

I recently suffered a similar inujury, a dislocation of the shoulder while in an awkward position.

Suffered huge amount of pain for about 4 weeks and as this settled through physio I have begun to regain my range of movement and now nearly 10 weeks on have been doing some light climbing.

The culprit, a weak rotator cuff set up.

In climbing we over emphasise our chest and forward shoulder muscle rather than the stabilisers in our shoulder.
As these forward muscles develop and get stronger they put the shoulder in a negative position and can result in damage or dislocation later. This is also a major contributor to the bad posture you see many coaches with, hunched over and shoulders sloping forward.

The answer?
A good phsysio should be able to teach you how to strengthen your rotator cuff muscles through theraband and free weight exercises. Having strong and stable muscles will also help your performance by strngthening the whole joint.


Excuse the cheese video links but might be useful: