Has anyone had open rotator cuff surgery? If so, how did you transition back into weight training/bodybuilding?

I was injured at work in December 2013, had my first surgery January 2014. After 7 months of therapy I finally convinced them to do an MRI because I said something wasn't right. They found a full tear of the subscapularis, and I had my second surgery December 2014. They stopped approving therapy, leaving me on my own to strengthen it back in May. I still cannot raise my arm straight over my head to the front and only get to slightly above shoulder height to the side before it just stops.

The doctor says it's a muscular strength issue and it will continue to improve for another six months. I am starting to think something is still wrong with it. I use strictly machines and hammer strength plate loaded machines. Shoulder exercises are still pitifully light and progress is a snails pace. I am at around 40% without full range of active motion. I agree, the mental side of it is horrible! Thanks for your response and I hope you continue to progress as well.

At what point did you start training shoulders directly? Are you using primarily free weights, cables, or machines?

Just started a few weeks ago using Dumbbells mainly for front raises and side raises but for presses i use machine . At this point it is slow controlled movements just keeping tension on the muscle. Incline bench still out of the question for me but light weight benching on stability ball has helped with some shoulder stability . NO GO on Dips so far but getting some push-ups in for 3 sets of 10.. However range of motion is still an issue for me also- I can at least touch my fingers together behind my back and raise arm straight over head.

Thank you. My doctor's advice on how to proceed was to work through discomfort and stop when there's pain. It's really hard to tell if it's really injured or not. I couldn't tell after my first surgery when the second tear happened or if it was there all along. All that I knew was that something wasn't right and that the movement wasn't normal. I'm hoping the same thing hasn't or doesn't happen again, so I'm just taking it a step at a time and playing it safe.