Moving it at all causes pain? Were you doing a lot of gaston moves? Particulary high or extended gastons?

I’m thinking: Ice, ibuprofen, and stop climbing for a little while (but I’m no Doc)

No gaston moves. A lot of reaching back. On Friday I was climbing rope 1 and using the wall a lot. Pretty much any movement irritates it.

Sounds like a rotator cuff to me. Ice, rest and then some rehab exercises. You can find plenty of rotator rehab exercises online…or on climbinginjuries.com

I’m with MDUB here. Most injuries that have a tear or partial tear don’t need surgery. Plenty of rest, and ice it initially. After at least 2 weeks of non-climbing, gently ease into some exercises that mimic climbing. Of course I’m not a Doc either, if it is still painfull have it looked at. After you have healed from your injury, my recommendation is to try to do some warm-up exercises to increase blood flow before you climb. Lightly traversing or stretching is great before you start climbing again. Try to work on the accessory muscles that support the shoulder, which will give overall strength. Also cool down slowly after climbing.

Not being able to lift your arm above shoulder height w/o pain is a good indicator of a rotator cuff injury. Take it from me, after having shoulder surgery for torn rotator cuff, impingement and torn cartilage (college wrestling injury, not climbing), you don’t want to push it and climb on a wonkey shoulder. You’ll just end up forcing yourself to have surgery. For the shoulder, rest is key. Absolutely make sure you warm up properly from here on out if you are not doing so. When I climbed at Fitplex people would joke with me about how long I took to warm up, but it was worth it for preventing injuries like this. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks guys

I went to the doc yesterday, and he said I have a strained rotator cuff. I have to wear a sling for two weeks, and won’t be able to climb!

What’s the prognosis for after the 2-week rehab? Will lite usage be okay? Moderate?

I would start with light rehab first since you will probably have a bit of atrophy in you shoulder and be at a high risk of reinjuring yourself. Being near the climbing wall is TOO tempting. Nicros’ website has their section that Eric Horst has put together and it has some solid exercises for shoulder rehab. If you are doing any climbing it should be on less than vertical walls. I’m sure they will give you some basic xeroxed copies of rehab exercises at the doctors office. One thing I have consistently done to keep my rotator cuffs from being susceptible to injury is the internal and external rotation exercises on the cable machine.

When I go back to the doc, he will give me a list of rehab exercises. He stated that I should be able to go back to light climbing after the two weeks, but he’ll let me know when I go to see him again. This really sucks!!