Seems like I’ve seen a lot of overtraining/injury posts on the BB forum recently. Time to add my own sob story. I’ve really gone and fucked up my right shoulder… to the point where benching is painful. I’m no stranger to perservering through injury (ran through shin splints in cross country), but after being a skinny bastard all my life, I was almost able to bench my bodyweight (165). To add to that, I’ve got to a sticking point in backsquat far below a satisfactory level.
This lack of progress (and even a few steps back in weight) has gotten to me mentally so I don’t even feel like lifting. I took a week off and just completely put lifting out of my mind but to no avail. I came back and everything still hurt and my lifts were lackadaisical to say the least.
How do you guys (and gals) deal with setbacks like these? Any advice for me?
Well i have
:
Cancer
and
SERIOUSLY bad Hayfever at the moment.
And why am i not sitting at home bemoaning my bad luck ?
Because i read TC’s book about people ALOT worse off than me, so i quit feeling bad and went back to the gym.
When i get bad enough THEN maybe i will quit the gym, untill then ima keep lifting weights.
So i feel sorry you hurt your shoulder, really i do.
But be a man and deal with it like a man, MOVE ON with life and keep going to the gym.
You’ve got to ask yourself a question…why are you standing in your own way? Why are you blocking your own goals?
Perhaps an injury is your way of blocking yourself or of giving yourself an excuse to not succeed.
Now stop emphasizing the negative (pain, futility, etc.) and start focusing on what you get out of lifting. Clean the crap out of your brain.
Let’s face it, a lot of people are here because they’re succeeding and looking for more. Others don’t have the same clarity of mind and purpose. Even more people are not even here on the site because they’ve got NOTHING. You’ve obviously got more going for you than people who have not even found T-Nation. Just don’t let the super-motivated people here discourage you because you haven’t achieved their level of focus.
Wow looking back on that post, I did sound whiny. Not my intention.
Corkonian,
I doubt you are telling me to train THROUGH the injury. What exercises would you recommend to train AROUND the tender shoulder? I’ll try to keep doing overhead press and cut down on the amount of baseball I play (since that definitely aggravates the shoulder – probably the primary reason it hurts in the first place). However, in terms of other lifts, off hand I can’t think of any that don’t involve considerable shoulder involvement. Any ideas?
I’m gonna play it day by day, but if the shoulder really needs medical attention, would soft tissue work do more harm than good? I mean can soft tissue work alleviate and reverse legitimate pains?
Yorik,
Ridiculously good post. Very true words that will take me some time to digest.
I had a pretty painful back injury before. I couldn’t walk without pain on every step. I still did power cleans for the two weeks I had it. After not being able to tie my shoe, I stopped for the week. I came back four days later and got a 25 PR on squats. I am not trying to sound all noble or cool, but I am trying to say that injuries can’t stop you indefinitely.
Like all the posters above, there are people off worse than you. Don’t give yourself excuses.
I was in a car accident on 6/26, and I just now saw the x-rays. my spine is visibly compressed, and my neck won’t bend correctly. I guess I can still lift, but I’m not gonna put any major loads on my spine. it hurts, but it’ll hurt if I lift or not. I don’t feel manly for it or anything, but I’m not gonna stop unless I positively have to.
OK, so running through shin splints is not the best example of overcoming pain, but you seem to getting what people are saying.
I’m not saying you should train through your shoulder pain, but rather you should be proactive by figuring out what’s going on.
Some great proactive things to do: Find a good sports doc and get checked out. Educate yourself by reading everything on here by Hartman and Cressey. Work overtime and buy Inside-Out.
My shoulder has been jacked for a year nobody seems to understand whats wrong with it. Even posted a post on here wondering if anybody had a simliar issue got no replies.
Does it stop me from working out hell no. Does it stop me from progressing in certain things as fast as I would if it was healed sure. Even still I work with it trying to fix it (trial and error). It has been getting better but the process is slow.
Funny thing is after I posted on T nation asking about it I went to the gym shoulder bugged out which ticked me off so instead of putting the weight down nicely after my set I just dropped it out of anger and frustration. Funny thing is when I did my shoulder didn’t slip. So it got me thinking the only time my shoulder slips is when i’m finished with a set putting the weight down So I did this after every set and my shoulder hasn’t been hurting me since. I might look like an asshole starving for attention banging the weights but fuck it my shoulder is more important then what people think of me.
