In August 2019, I started to have problems with my right shoulder related to my right rotator cuff. After meeting and being examined by my physical therapist he told me that I was experiencing right shoulder impingement syndrome.
Improvement with my Right Shoulder
Over the past 4 months (after meeting with him for 3 sessions and doing the exercises he gave me) my right shoulder has significantly improved.
At the beginning of last week (November 23) I was able to begin doing repetitive mirrored movements. Repetitive mirrored movements using both my right and left shoulders without pain or discomfort.
Having a full range of motion back in my right shoulder (without pain or discomfort) is awesome.
Started back Training
Thank God I have been able to start back training (neuroplasticity) with components of different martial art disciplines. I have been using the principle of neuroplasticity over the past 25 years. See my article: Neuroplasticity, Small Successes, and Learning/Relearning Skills and Skill Sets, for more insight.
Left Shoulder
In May 2016 after undergoing an MRI I discovered that I had tears in my left shoulder rotator cuff (infraspinatus, supraspinatus, and subscapularis).
Thank God that I did not have to undergo surgery to fix these tears. After meeting with a physical therapist for 6-7 sessions and 8-9 months working on my own, I successfully rehabbed my left shoulder.
I wrote an article to share my process and journey at that time. If you would like to read about my rehab process in 2016-2017, please click on this link: Continuing to Train in Martial Arts with Rotator Cuff Tears — Don’t Give Up on Your Goals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shoulder impingement syndrome is a syndrome involving tendonitis (inflammation of tendons) of the rotator cuff muscles as they pass through the subacromial space, the passage beneath the acromion. It is particularly associated with tendonitis of the supraspinatus muscle.[ This can result in pain, weakness, and loss of movement at the shoulder
Neuroplasticity, also known as brain plasticity, neuroplasticity, or neural plasticity, is the ability of the brain to change continuously throughout an individual’s life, e.g., brain activity associated with a given function can be transferred to a different location, the proportion of grey matter can change, and synapses may strengthen or weaken over time. The aim of neuroplasticity is to optimize the neural networks during phylogenesis, ontogeny, and physiological learning, as well as after a brain injury. Research in the latter half of the 20th century showed that many aspects of the brain can be altered (or are “plastic”) even through adulthood. However, the developing brain exhibits a higher degree of plasticity than the adult brain.
Neuroplasticity can be observed at multiple scales, from microscopic changes in individual neurons to larger-scale changes such as cortical remapping in response to injury. Behavior, environmental stimuli, thought, and emotions may also cause neuroplastic change through activity-dependent plasticity, which has significant implications for healthy development, learning, memory, and recovery from brain damage. At the single-cell level, synaptic plasticity refers to changes in the connections between neurons, whereas non-synaptic plasticity refers to changes in their intrinsic excitability.
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