How a baseball player got back to throwing after biceps tenodesis surgery

Soto plays baseball, and he came to us for post-surgery rehab after a biceps tenodesis. His surgeon cut the long head of his biceps tendon from where it attaches inside the shoulder joint and reattached it about an inch lower, at the front of the shoulder, which opens up space in the joint so the shoulder can move more freely. For a throwing athlete, external rotation, turning the arm out and back, is especially important.

At Thrive, our acupuncturists work alongside our physical therapists, so Soto's two kinds of care shared their goals: restoring his shoulder's range of motion, turning in and out and lifting to the side, and rebuilding his rotator cuff, the muscles and tendons that hold the shoulder joint steady.

With acupuncture, Clint Price eased Soto's pain and reduced inflammation, and helped his muscles and nerves work together again after the surgery. In physical therapy, our physical therapist used joint mobilization, moving the joint by hand, to help the shoulder glide down and out, because the better it glides, the easier the arm gets overhead. His exercises worked the same movements against resistance bands.

A few months after surgery, Soto had very little pain, and his range of motion was close to what it had been before the injury. With the spring season ahead, he moved on to a throwing program. His acupuncture widened from the rotator cuff to the muscles around it, like the deltoid and upper trapezius, to keep them from tightening and restricting the joint as he progressed. Clint looked for adhesions and knots in them and worked through each one.