Last year I had a pretty bad shoulder injury, got the shoulder rehab template which greatly improved my shoulder function and made my pain to be minimal, so i could train again. But, in the last weeks of the shoulder rehab template, I had a pretty stressfull week with poor sleep, pushed through and got a low back injury. I switched to low back rehab template, which has more upper body volume, my back healed but my shoulder started to acting up (without any limitation). After that, i thought of starting the hypertrophy template, but the volume of pushing and pressing work was too much, I might got superhyped because i was making bench gains again and overshooted some sessions and i got a relapsed to my shoulder. I started again the shoulder rehab template, I have the same symptoms, front delt pain and a sensation of something is pulled inside. I can handle deadlifts more that the previous time tho. All in all, I am a bit dissapointed of how foolish i was to increase volume and intensity so fast. Moreover, I am catastrohpizing a little bit thinking of autoimmune issues with my shoulder or TOS. Is this story something you see often with injuries or 1,5+ year of shoulder pain with ups and downs is a red flag?
Hey KLM,
I’m sorry to hear you are dealing with this. From reading your post, I would say you would probably be better off working with us on the rehab team to talk through some of your goals, and how to pivot accordingly with symptoms. It sounds like you have been trying to hit a bit of a moving target (or multiple goals) and quite often we need to have a more of a set plan. The shoulder template assumes that the athlete is feeling good elsewhere as does the low back. When there are multiple issues at play, we likely need a different plan. That being said, what you are experiencing is typical with pain going up and down. I would even more so when there appears to be a tendency to overshoot and get excited reaching for gains.
Hello Derek,
Thank you very much, my low back is fully healed now for like 4+ months and it did not bothered me at all during the hypertrophy template where the shoulder began to flare up again. The low back template went pretty good, I had some relapses in the start but half way i was 90% and then went into the last weeks of normal training without any issue in the back, I’ve even pred my 5 rep deadlift. I think my low back injury was not that bad overall expect of the first acute week and I had somehow great attitude towards it and went away pretty quickly (somehow i was excited that finally low back pain arrived to me, really i do not know why i was so sadistic but the shouder injury does not make me feel excited). My main issue that I’ve read some TOS stories (I do not have any symptoms down the arm or swelling and discloration etc and my pain is not in the clavical but deep in where the front delt is approaching the side delt) that frightened me and the fact that my legs are becoming huge with respect to the rest of my body and I developed some bodydysmorphia. I am thinking of giving a chance to the shoulder rehab template again since it improved my function vastly in the previous time and it seems that my shoulder feels better the day after training (but 2 days after it is at the same level of pain which is normal for me. The same thing was happening the previous time. Moreover, I am currently in the final run of writting my MSc thesis and I expect pain to raise because my stress levels are high and I sit a lot in front of the computer) . Also I would be extra carefull in the last weeks where the intensity will go up. If it does not work out or if I need more guidance after that i could consult with you.
Do you have any podcast that i could listen to with respect to the mindset for an injury?
Also, when the exercises are unirateral do i do the same weight in both hands or I could load one side more?