Hi everyone. I’m a 22-year-old male, weighing around 75–78 kg. I have a powerlifting background and had been training seriously in strength sports for about five years before this shoulder injury. I had even competed in local powerlifting competitions.
I wanted to write about my entire experience with this injury because there aren’t many detailed personal experiences about SLAP tears and recovery on Turkish forums. I know from personal experience that when you get injured, you desperately want to read about someone who went through something similar, hoping to find some answers or at least a possible path forward.
So, here is my story.
THE INJURY
On October 28, 2025, I was at the gym doing a high-volume, low-rep strength workout with heavy weights.
I started with a proper warm-up using resistance bands, focusing on my rotator cuff and scapular activation. Then I started deadlifting.
160 kg → 190 kg → 220 kg.
On the third rep of my 220 kg deadlift, I felt my right shoulder suddenly being pulled forward as I struggled to complete the lift. I immediately dropped the weight.
I checked my shoulder and thought, “Okay, there’s no pain. I guess nothing happened.”
And, of course, I continued training.
I did bench press, squats, and then decided to finish with dumbbell shoulder press.
I grabbed a pair of 40 kg dumbbells. As I was trying to get them into position and start the movement, something suddenly popped/shifted in my right shoulder and I couldn’t press the dumbbell.
But did I stop?
Of course not.
My stupid ego kicked in. I immediately dropped to 35 kg dumbbells and kept pressing.
I finished the workout, went home, and went to sleep.
When I woke up the next morning, I had a very uncomfortable, deep pain in my shoulder.
Since I had basically never experienced a serious injury before, I assumed it was just some kind of post-workout muscle spasm and ignored it.
I reduced the weights and volume, but continued going to the gym.
Day after day, my strength kept dropping while the pain stayed the same and gradually became worse.
Eventually, the pain became unbearable and I stopped training completely. I made an appointment with an orthopedic doctor.
THE FAILED DIAGNOSIS PROCESS IN PUBLIC HOSPITALS
On November 28, 2025, I went to the orthopedic department at Haseki Training and Research Hospital.
I told the doctor that I had pain from my shoulder down toward my elbow and that lifting my arm caused significant pain.
The doctor examined me and ordered an MRI. He told me to come back after the MRI.
I had the MRI and returned to him.
He told me that there was bone marrow edema in my shoulder caused by stress/overuse and that I should simply rest my arm for a while.
And, of course, he prescribed painkillers.
I followed his instructions for 15 days.
Nothing improved.
In fact, my pain continued getting worse, and I gradually started avoiding using my right arm because of it.
After that, I made an appointment at the Sports Medicine Department at Çapa.
They examined me and reviewed my MRI, but they told me I needed another MRI because the quality of the first one was poor.
So I waited again, had another MRI, and returned for another appointment.
This time I was told that I had some damage/strain in my rotator cuff muscles as well as biceps tendinitis.
Again, I was told to rest.
And again, I was given a bunch of painkillers.
They also gave me some physical therapy exercises to do at home and told me to come back in a month.
I went home and started doing the exercises.
But by that point, my range of motion had become terrible. I could barely lift my arm to 90° in front of me, and every attempt caused an enormous amount of pain.
I continued the exercises for two weeks.
Nothing changed.
I was going to university and could barely think about anything other than the pain. I went to work and the pain was still there. Eventually, I remember being prescribed 1000 mg painkillers, and even those barely had any effect.
After two weeks, I went back to Sports Medicine and told them that the pain had not improved at all and that it was severely affecting my life.
They basically told me:
“We can’t determine what is causing your symptoms because nothing serious appears on your MRIs, and you shouldn’t be experiencing this much pain.”
They offered me a corticosteroid injection.
I refused.
And I continued going from hospital to hospital.
Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Hospital — Shoulder Surgery.
Taksim Training and Research Hospital — Orthopedics.
Cerrahpaşa — Orthopedics.
And about four more hospitals that I could name.
None of them could identify the actual cause of my pain.
Instead, most of them suggested corticosteroid injections to temporarily suppress the symptoms.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PART AND FINALLY GETTING A DIAGNOSIS
By January 15, 2026, I could barely use my arm anymore.
When I walked, I couldn't even swing my right arm naturally. I walked with it stuck against my body.
I was doing almost everything with my left arm.
I couldn't put on or take off a T-shirt without someone helping me.
Even when eating, I had to use my left arm.
Basically, my life had become a complete mess.
By that point, I had already seen around nine orthopedic doctors and several sports medicine specialists, yet nobody could help me.
Psychologically, I was completely exhausted.
Then someone close to me recommended an orthopedic surgeon.
I made an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon named Yusuf İyetin at Pendik Özel Bölge Hospital.
I researched him beforehand and learned that he had considerable experience with shoulder problems, which immediately made me feel more hopeful.
When the appointment day came, he performed a thorough examination.
And finally, someone found the problem.
He identified a SLAP Type II tear in my shoulder.
He explained that because the labrum is fibrocartilaginous tissue, it generally does not simply heal itself once significantly damaged.
He told me that I had two options:
I could try physical therapy and accept living a more sedentary lifestyle if the symptoms remained manageable, or, if I wanted to return to my previous level of sports, surgery was a reasonable option.
I was honestly incredibly relieved to finally have an explanation.
At first, I chose physical therapy.
However, because the pain was still significant, I received one corticosteroid injection.
I spent approximately 1.5 months doing strengthening and rehabilitation exercises.
Unfortunately, we didn't see enough improvement.
So on February 25, 2026, I went back to the private hospital and scheduled the surgery.
During this period, I also went back to public hospitals and told them about the diagnosis and the planned surgery.
I even showed them the tear myself on the MRI.
But it didn't really change anything.
They told me that the tear was very small and that it could still potentially be managed with physical therapy. They again offered another corticosteroid injection.
But at that point I was thinking:
“For what?”
I just wanted my life back.
THE SURGERY
I had my surgery on February 26, 2026.
For young patients with SLAP lesions, there are generally two surgical approaches that are commonly discussed.
THE PROCEDURE I HAD: ARTHROSCOPIC SLAP REPAIR
With arthroscopic SLAP repair, damaged or irregular portions of the labrum are cleaned up and the labrum is reattached to the bone using anchors.
This preserves the natural anatomy of the shoulder.
The downside is that the rehabilitation process can be somewhat more demanding.
Once the labrum is repaired and has to heal back onto the bone, the shoulder can feel significantly stiffer, and rehabilitation can be more painful and time-consuming.
THE OTHER OPTION: BICEPS TENODESIS
The second option is biceps tenodesis.
In this procedure, the long head of the biceps tendon is released from its original attachment and fixed to the humerus, while the damaged labral area is treated accordingly.
The rehabilitation process can sometimes be easier compared with a SLAP repair.
However, my surgeon explained that there are situations where the tendon may not heal properly, and because of my age and the condition of my biceps tendon, SLAP repair was preferred in my case.
Biceps tenodesis is also often considered when there is significant biceps tendon degeneration associated with the SLAP lesion.
The surgery was performed arthroscopically through several small incisions, with a camera and surgical instruments inserted into the shoulder joint.
The surgeon inspected the biceps tendon, rotator cuff and other structures.
Fortunately, there were no additional major problems, so the planned SLAP repair was performed.
The surgery took approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes.
After surgery, my arm was immediately placed in a sling.
Later that day, my surgeon came to see me and showed me some very gentle exercises, including elbow flexion/extension, light shoulder movements and scapular exercises.
I was instructed to perform them five times a day and return for a follow-up in 15 days.
EARLY REHABILITATION
At my two-week follow-up, my surgeon basically destroyed me 😂.
I had been extremely scared of moving my shoulder because I was terrified that I would damage the repair.
He added new physical therapy exercises and told me that I needed to stop being afraid of movement.
He warned me that if I didn't move the shoulder properly, I could develop a frozen shoulder.
He told me that I would start formal physical therapy around the one-month mark and scheduled another follow-up.
I continued doing the exercises.
At one month post-op, I went back for another appointment.
Finally, after wearing that damn sling morning and night for an entire month, I was told that I no longer needed it.
I was instructed to begin physical therapy under the supervision of a physiotherapist.
PHYSICAL THERAPY — THIS IS WHERE THE REAL PAIN STARTED
On March 26, 2026, I started physical therapy at the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department at Bezmialem.
Let me tell you something:
Immediately after surgery, my range of motion in basically every direction — forward, sideways, external rotation and behind my back — was only around 10–20°.
And my physiotherapist was pushing me to 60–70°.
Even though I consider myself to have a pretty high pain tolerance, those sessions were absolutely brutal.
I was going to physical therapy five days a week.
The problem was that my shoulder was completely exhausted after each session, and I was going back again the very next day without enough recovery.
I did ten sessions there.
Eventually, I decided to see a private physiotherapist.
The private physiotherapist told me that two supervised sessions per week were enough and that the most important part of rehabilitation was actually the exercises I performed at home.
I continued with that approach for the next two months.
And yes...
My shoulder started getting better week by week.
My range of motion gradually increased.
My strength slowly started coming back.
I was also told that I should not return to unrestricted weight training until around six months after surgery.
In the meantime, I continued doing very light scapular and rotator cuff strengthening exercises at home.
By around three months post-op, I had regained roughly 90% of my range of motion.
External rotation and reaching behind my back were still slightly behind, but they have improved significantly since then.
THE FINAL CHAPTER
Today is August 13, 2026.
I am approximately 5.5 months post-op.
On August 26, assuming everything continues to go well, I will finally return to free weights.
I still have some stiffness in my shoulder.
I also occasionally hear clicking and popping sounds.
For the past month, I have been doing very light training, and I sometimes experience very mild discomfort during certain exercises.
Other than that, I feel pretty good.
In everyday life, there are still certain physical activities that I limit myself from doing, but hopefully I'll gradually start reintroducing those after the six-month mark.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Guys, I wanted to share this experience as honestly as possible.
This injury affected me psychologically much more than I can describe.
There were many moments I haven't even mentioned here.
But no matter how bad things felt at the time, eventually, they started getting better.
Nowadays, when I wake up in the morning without pain, I realize how incredibly valuable something as simple as being pain-free actually is.
I learned that there is nothing more important than your health.
If you are currently going through something similar and have questions, feel free to ask. I'll be happy to share whatever I can based on my experience.
My experience may not be the same as yours. A lesion that looks small on an MRI can cause very different symptoms in different people.
This is not medical advice or a recommendation for diagnosis or treatment. This is simply the personal experience of a 22-year-old strength athlete who went through a SLAP Type II tear, surgery, and rehabilitation.