Dr. Patrick Denard says most shoulder replacement patients regain overhead and lateral arm movement, returning to golf, tennis, swimming, and weightlifting. His clinical studies show high rates of functional recovery, and he argues current evidence doesn't support strict postoperative lifting restrictions.
One of the most important questions is how well will I function after a shoulder replacement? I would encourage you to really take a look at my social media page. You can see examples of people getting back to high-level activities. But generally speaking, we're gonna be able to achieve the ability to get your arm overhead again, get out to the side. And my goal is always to try to meet the individual needs of my patients. So if that's lifting weights, we're gonna shoot for that ability. If that's playing golf or tennis or swimming, we're gonna shoot for that ability. And we've looked closely at my patients in particular and done several studies these categories and found very high return of function of things like golf, tennis, swimming, yoga, shooting, etc. So all these things are possible. I don't think it's good to tell people they cannot get back to their activities if they have a shoulder replacement. For instance, I do not provide lifting restrictions after a shoulder replacement. Some surgeons will do this, but there's actually no evidence to say that a certain lifting restriction is necessary after a shoulder replacement.
