As someone who's going to the doctor next week to discuss potential shoulder surgery, this is timely.
I really need to figure out whether it's going to make things better or worse, but unfortunately, that feels like something a doctor can't guarantee one way or the other.
Any anecdotes or other experiences/thoughts are appreciated.
One thing that bodybuilding taught me is to never underestimate how significantly you can change how your body works through weight training, mobility work and physical therapy.
I used to suffer from chronic low back pain. It hurt to get out of bed every day for years. 1-2 years after getting into bodybuilding the pain disappeared and didn’t come back. Not only that, but I’m not physically limited by my back whatsoever.
I’m not suggesting you start bodybuilding. But the things I think that helped was 1) weight training, 2) mobility work / stretching, 3) physical therapy. That combo can be really powerful.
Yes me too! I used to have back problems all the time, sometimes it would give out for no reason and I'm stuck in bed for a week. I started lifting from nothing, just the 45lb barbell, using a simple program called Stronglifts. That was probably 10 years ago, I have had some ups and downs of course, but overall my back has been solid since.
Double down on this. I had a way worse back and bad pain in my early 20s than now later in life. I started with just walking an hour a day, later added gym. You don't need to become the next Arnold, just show up consistently.
One side note: There are core strength/posture issues but also issues that need medical attention. The tricky part is figuring out which.
Unfortunately, it goes both ways. I started training 6-7 years ago and today have constant lower back pain (non-existent prior) and chronic shoulder pain (again, non-existent prior). When you lift, even with reasonable weight in a conservative progressive overload program, injuries can and will occur. In my case, there was no singular “injury”; the pain just gradually crept in and has not gone away.
I still wouldn’t stop weight training, as it’s a part of my life that I love. However, despite never going for ambitious PRs, I have chronic pain that I never had prior to starting - and no amount of physical therapy has resolved it.
this is well intentioned but bad advice for people with shoulder issues. The shoulder should not be put under load such as weight lifting.
I would recommend doing band work and calisthenics and also highly recommend analyzing your kinetic chain and form in any activity you do and figure out how to reduce shoulder arm and wrist for any force generation in sports such as tennis, golf, throwing etc.
After playing college tennis and developing bad shoulder issues with MRI indicating that surgery would be recommended. Two years prior my high school friend had had the same surgery and ultimately developed a opioid dependence during the crises and subsequently died of an overdose after 18 months of spiraling.
I ultimately was able to attribute the onset of flare ups to weeks where I was hitting a lot of serves and at first simply instituted a “pitch count” and later studied my form and discovered that I was not loading as much as I should have been from the base of my kinetic chain and a lot of that load was being put on my shoulder.
About 12 years later and I’ve recently switched to pickleball (no over head serve) and jokingly refer to myself as a tennis refugee.
As a body builder with a history of shoulder injuries, this is oversimplifying at best and wrong at worst.
You yourself recommend band work which is putting your shoulder under load
The real answer is the shoulder is complicated mechanically and you need to work on reinforcing or building the smaller groups (Is, Ys and Ts type of exercises and many others), if you can actively stabilize your shoulder this way you will reduce pain, inflammation and decrease the propensity for injury, allowing you to do traditional shoulder exercises like press etc without issue. I suggest working with a good PT
jader201 · · focus · HN ↗
I really need to figure out whether it's going to make things better or worse, but unfortunately, that feels like something a doctor can't guarantee one way or the other.
Any anecdotes or other experiences/thoughts are appreciated.
cj · · focus · HN ↗
I used to suffer from chronic low back pain. It hurt to get out of bed every day for years. 1-2 years after getting into bodybuilding the pain disappeared and didn’t come back. Not only that, but I’m not physically limited by my back whatsoever.
I’m not suggesting you start bodybuilding. But the things I think that helped was 1) weight training, 2) mobility work / stretching, 3) physical therapy. That combo can be really powerful.
tfandango · · focus · HN ↗
canpan · · focus · HN ↗
One side note: There are core strength/posture issues but also issues that need medical attention. The tricky part is figuring out which.
LakesAndTrees · · focus · HN ↗
I still wouldn’t stop weight training, as it’s a part of my life that I love. However, despite never going for ambitious PRs, I have chronic pain that I never had prior to starting - and no amount of physical therapy has resolved it.
As always, YMMV.
duncangh · · focus · HN ↗
I would recommend doing band work and calisthenics and also highly recommend analyzing your kinetic chain and form in any activity you do and figure out how to reduce shoulder arm and wrist for any force generation in sports such as tennis, golf, throwing etc.
After playing college tennis and developing bad shoulder issues with MRI indicating that surgery would be recommended. Two years prior my high school friend had had the same surgery and ultimately developed a opioid dependence during the crises and subsequently died of an overdose after 18 months of spiraling.
I ultimately was able to attribute the onset of flare ups to weeks where I was hitting a lot of serves and at first simply instituted a “pitch count” and later studied my form and discovered that I was not loading as much as I should have been from the base of my kinetic chain and a lot of that load was being put on my shoulder.
About 12 years later and I’ve recently switched to pickleball (no over head serve) and jokingly refer to myself as a tennis refugee.
hammock · · focus · HN ↗
You yourself recommend band work which is putting your shoulder under load
The real answer is the shoulder is complicated mechanically and you need to work on reinforcing or building the smaller groups (Is, Ys and Ts type of exercises and many others), if you can actively stabilize your shoulder this way you will reduce pain, inflammation and decrease the propensity for injury, allowing you to do traditional shoulder exercises like press etc without issue. I suggest working with a good PT