Newbie and archery injuries

[Thunderkat]

New bow shooter here.   I am retired navy (retired Nov 2016) and been shooting guns all my life but back in August of 2018 I bought a starter recurve bow at 30 pounds to see if I liked archery.   I have a few acres in my backyard so plenty of room for that.   It was fun.   I bought a second bow with 35 pound pull and found it to be easy.   My birthday hit a few days later so I decided to treat myself to a pair of 55 pound limbs.   It was so much fun shooting with that 55 pound bow and long range shots were much easier.   After about 15 shots something popped in my back around the shoulder area and it didn't feel good.   Shot one more arrow to see what happened and there was a generally not good feeling so I stopped for the day.   The next day I couldn't move my right arm except at the shoulder and below.   Few days went by and I went to the doctor, partial rotator cuff tear.   Ok, it is now January of 2019 and I can shoot a few shots every day with my 30 pound and 35 pound bow.   Started shooting again because my shoulder started hurting really bad and I noticed it felt better with some activity and the shooting seems to really help.   Anybody here have any experience with these partial rotator cuff injuries?   How long before I am back to 100% or will that never happen?   I am happy to stay with the 35 pound bow by the way as I consider myself a "fantasy hunter".   In my mind I have gone on many hunts and safari trips but due to always being busy while in the Navy I never went hunting and now I picked up some other pretty serious autoimmune issues and will leave my hunting to expeditions in my mind although the topic of hunting has always fascinated me.    Thank you for your responses in advance!

[bear mike]

Thank you for your service to this great country. You will want to take it slow and easy if 35 feels good try 40 a few weeks then so on I'd stay away from anything heavy for a good long while rotator tears are nothing to mess with

[Bowguy67]

Welcome to archery. Now as you know 55 was way too heavy. Most guys who use that weight have lots more experience.
Now I have rotator cuff tears in both shoulders. This may get some fellows to disagree but the Dr said I needed surgery. I couldn’t bring my arms to shoulder level and they’d throb w pain while I tried to sleep. Luckily I tend to have a higher than normal perhaps pain tolerance. I rehabbed it. My daughter at the time was 1. I couldn’t pick her up either. She’s 16 now. Never once did I stop shooting or lifting. I don’t think I’d advise that. Do what the Dr says but I didn’t need surgery just time. Also let me advise you from pain meds. Don’t take em. Look at the epidemic over em. The Drs don’t know enough to avoid that. Don’t let em get you here. Imo you want the pain, it tells you when you went/are going too far

[Sam McMichael]

Welcome to Trad Gang and traditional archery. I am sorry you suffered an injury. I am a fan of heavier draw weights but will be the first to tell you that  heavy draw weight is not necessary, even if you decide to actually hunt later on. 35# will successfully take a deer with reliability if a good shot is made. As you work back into shooting go slow and stay with your light draw weight. Always stay in touch with your doctor and/or therapist. Don't rush it. I had shoulder surgery (no rotator cuff tear) several years ago and was shooting a 40# bow in less than a month. Within 3 months, I was back shooting my 53# hunting bow. My time frame will probably not match yours, so just remember to go at a pace that suits your situation.

I am sorry to hear you have some autoimmune issues that adversely affects your hunting opportunities. I have the Alpha Gal issue, which is caused by a tick, and makes me allergic to all mammal meat, so I understand your frustration regarding immune problems. I also encountered Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever along the way. You may never become a successful bowhunter, but definitely look into 3D shooting. It is lots of fun. Keep shooting, just be cautious.

[Thunderkat]

Thanks for the responses, had one doctor tell me to put weight on the shoulder and another that told me to stop using the shoulder so it could heal.   Not moving the shoulder caused massive pain.   Moving it felt good and archery took the pain away.   Something happened to me as well with meat, I developed beef intolerance somehow and beef causes me hours of pain if I eat it so chicken, turkey, and fish.   Sad to not be able to eat beef in Texas!   Life happens to us all though :(   Going to try some string walking, just found out about it yesterday but the video said you needed an aluminum riser to do it and I have a wooden recurve.    Have a house full of guns, think I am about to have a house full of bows too.   

[McDave]

Rotator cuff muscles are prone to tearing, and that tendency increases with age.  A rotator cuff tear can be repaired, either surgically or naturally if the condition isn’t too severe.  While nobody wants to force an arm or shoulder to move if it's frozen in place and painful to move, inactivity is a bad idea once the initial pain goes away and you can move the joint again.  Inactivity leads to atrophy, which means that the muscles are wasting away, and then you have two problems to deal with rather than one.  They should have given you a series of exercises to do when you hurt it the first time, and if not you should get some that are specific for the rotator cuffs.  I have about 12 of them that I’m supposed to do every day, and actually get around to doing every other day or so.  If I have pain, they actually make the pain better, and it stays better if I do the exercises regularly.  The rotator cuff exercises are easy to do, but boring, because they take about 45 minutes to an hour that I would rather be doing something else.  It's kind of fun to exercise if you can feel your muscles working, but if you try to make the rotator cuff exercises harder to get a better workout, then you're doing them wrong.  It's just a matter of going through the movements to work these tiny little muscles that you can't even really feel (unless you tear one, of course).  I'm supposed to do them for the rest of my life, or at least as long as I want to keep shooting the bow.

Also find Arne Moe's YouTube video on the rotational draw, which is easier on the rotator cuff muscles than a straight back pull.

[Bowguy67]

The last post was a good one. My pain subsided pretty substantially when the exercises were done.

[Jock Whisky]

If you haven't done so already get to a physiotherapist and follow his instructions to the letter. Tell him you are an archer so he will have a good understanding of what you need. I had surgery on a full thickness tear, six weeks in a sling and five months of physio. It was so worth it not only for shooting my bow but life in general. You probably don't need surgery but the physio will really help.

[Thunderkat]

OK, my doctor didn't give me any exercises to do.   Next time I talk to him I will ask him what to do.    The thing that does help with the pain right now is shooting arrows from my 30 pound bow.

[SquareHead]

Shoulder injuries here also.  Non repairable through surgery.

I have several Toelke bows that were in the 45# - 48# range.

4 of the bows are a matching set that Dan made for me.

I sent the matching set back to Dan Toelke, and he reduced the poundage on all bows to 40#.

I sincerely believe that shooting bows in the appropriate poundage was one of the biggest aids to my recovery.

I started off slow, didn't worry about form, about full draw, etc.  Just shot my bows.  It wasn't until months later that I noticed my form started to come about on it's own....

Let pain be your guide....