The Injury Thread

[Rob]

I want to start a thread about any injuries you may have and how it impacts your workouts.

Mine is my left bicep. I hyperextended it last August going too heavy on the on the preacher curl. At first I wasn't too concerned because I confirmed that it wasn't a tear. I decided to give up any lifting that involved my biceps. Went to physio for a couple of months then slowly worked biceps back into my routine. No isolation exercises just compound. Last month I felt it was finally strong enough to start doing a couple of isolation exercises for my biceps. I'm not in pain but it is still really tight so I'm afraid of going too heavy.
I was also doing some boxing classes (for cardio purposes) but I can't jab for very long because it will start to bother me. Thinking of giving them up.

So while there was no evidence I had a tear I am really tempted to have an MRI done. I'm sure that it will be quite the wait (Canadian health care system) before I could have it done. I just thought it would have fully healed by now.

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[BigBadBruins7708]

i'd get the MRI done. sounds similar to what i just had, except my pain just randomly started, there was no 1 injury that caused it

quick backstory: between pitching and lifting my left shoulder is junk anyways. have had 3 surgeries on it.

so, last spring my shoulder go really painful and limited movement. pain was in the front of the shoulder and went down my bicep.

go to my orthopedic and he immediately says its my bicep tendon in the shoulder. go through the routine of multiple cortisone shots to no benefit and get an MRI done which confirms the tendon is trashed

In October had the surgery done (bicep tenodesis). what they do is cut the tendon off the shoulder, shorten it and screw it to the top of your arm bone instead. removes the damaged area and relieves the pressure in the shoulder.

down side is after 6 weeks of a sling and 4 months of PT, I just got back to the gym in early March...and between the time off (10 months without lifting) and the recovery, Im at ground zero of the rebuild.

bad arm is up to ~half the weight of the good arm, and have 25lbs to gain back...but its feeling good, just short on stamina still.

 

[sabresfan129103]

Years ago I f***ed my right shoulder doing OHP. Every video I watched wanted you to bring the bar to the top of your chest which was what I was doing. Bringing the bar that far down I ended up tweaking something pretty bad. That injury affected a ton of my other lifts. Bench was the worst. I had to stop doing incline bench completely because it hurt too much. It took over a year for my shoulder to feel normal again. I don't do OHP anymore. I do dumbbell shoulder press instead and haven't had any issue.

 

[Rob]

Good news. My left bicep is completely healed. Curling the most I have done in over two years.

Bad news. I think l may have torn my right meniscus. No more squats for me. This is so depressing.

 

[Srsly]

I’m pretty injury prone so I’m sure I’ll be a regular in this thread if it lasts. I was recently(ok three months ago?) diagnosed with golfers elbow after excessive use due to a combination of CrossFit and my job as a software engineer. I ended up finally getting through it by doing exercises with a theraband flexbar and swapping to running rather than weight training. After a few weeks with the flexbar I’m finally able to start doing some light weight training focused workouts and I wish I’d been turned onto it to begin with.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Good news. My left bicep is completely healed. Curling the most I have done in over two years.

Bad news. I think l may have torn my right meniscus. No more squats for me. This is so depressing.

You should probably just stick to body weight, not sure your body can handle lifting if you are getting injured all the time from it (or your form is just terrible?).

 

[DingDongCharlie]

Good news. My left bicep is completely healed. Curling the most I have done in over two years.

Bad news. I think l may have torn my right meniscus. No more squats for me. This is so depressing.

Do you do a proper stretching routine prior to lifting? I ask as most don’t but everyone should. Get some resistance bands and really warm the body up prior to the weights

 

[Rob]

Do you do a proper stretching routine prior to lifting? I ask as most don’t but everyone should. Get some resistance bands and really warm the body up prior to the weights

Not as much as I should especially after work as I'm usually in a hurry. Should definitely make time for proper stretching though.

 

[Rob]

You should probably just stick to body weight, not sure your body can handle lifting if you are getting injured all the time from it (or your form is just terrible?).

I think I was just going to heavy. I'm a stickler for good form so that isn't the issue.

Been talking about injuries with other guys at the gym and was surprised the number of nagging injuries the bigger guys have. Some have had surgery but still keep at it. Other just workout through the pain.

 

[DingDongCharlie]

Not as much as I should especially after work as I'm usually in a hurry. Should definitely make time for proper stretching though.

I hear ya but as I shared in another post. A 1 hr workout is only 4% of your day. At times it can see impossible to find the time but that 5 mins to stretch can really pay dividends. Not only with avoiding injury but also with making progress/gains.

 

[eXile3]

I've had really bad patellar tendonitis in my knees. Trying to take some time off for them to recover but I'm about a month in and I'm still not sure if try lifting legs again. If it comes back it will be more time with no leg days.

My shoulder is also fried in someway. Probably requires surgery but it's not stopping me, benching more than I ever have, so I keep putting off getting it looked at. It's been messed up for a while.

 

[Antonio Gentereo]

I often pull ligaments in my right arm, in my shoulder lineup, after a game. I got tired of it and decided to go to the doctor and find out what to do. He advised me to do certain exercises before I get on the ice. And after the game I restore them in a simple way, I bought a good electric massager, it's small, and you can carry it with you wherever you want. And in the evening I rub the problem area with creams that have hemp products in them https://therapistpreferred.com/products . There are so many companies that you can try out, but they have CBD in them. I only use one and it works for me . This is how I deal with the problem.

 

[LokiDog]

Currently nursing what I think is a rotator cuff tear. It started as pain around my scapula and traps, but for 4-6 weeks now it's been a constant dull ache deep in the head of the medial delt with radiating pain down the bicep/tricep to about the elbow, with intermittent pins and needles from my inner elbow down to thumb.

I'd rest it for ~2 weeks and then try to workout, noticed significant weakness, especially in all of my pressing activities and then it would flare up badly the next day with significantly more pain in the arm/shoulder and gradually calm down to where it usually is. It's been about 3-4 weeks since I worked out at all. I was trying to do unilateral lifts and just work my other side but it's unsatisfying and eventually I just gave in.

I've considered running some BPC/TB but I don't really want to go through the trouble of reconstituting it and injecting every day. Probably worth it to get healed though. I'm pretty miserable about the whole thing though. I was about 205lbs (5'10) at 10% BF prior to this all and I feel like my shoulders and arms have shrunk considerably and I've probably gone up to about 14% BF. Also I'd been competitively powerlifting for several years and all of my lifts are going to suffer because this pretty well precludes me from doing any of them since my shoulder mobility for bar positioning on the squat was poor to begin with and there's no way I can back squat now, let alone low bar.

 

[Rob]

Currently nursing what I think is a rotator cuff tear.

Was there on single exercise that you were doing that caused the injury?

 

[nihlify]

Do you do a proper stretching routine prior to lifting? I ask as most don’t but everyone should. Get some resistance bands and really warm the body up prior to the weights

Warming up properly is not the same thing as stretching. Stretching before a strength workout is not always beneficial.

 

[Behn Wilson]

I ad shoulder surgery years ago, torn labrum and they cleaned up impingement while fixing labrum.

Doc who was formerly on staff w LA Rams told me two exercises I did that were major culprits in injury. Behind the neck press and behind neck lat pulldowns. Im 60 and back in my day everyone did these. He said they absolutely rip the shoulders and should be done in front of neck, not behind, That is how pretty much everyone does them now.

Another contributing factor is i did not do any exercises for rear shoulder and front was too large compared to back. I now do rear peck deck flys as part of shoulder workout and limit amount of fron shoulder exercises as I hit them pretty good on chest workouts and they kind of come natural for me, I have to focus on keeping up on the rear to balance out.

Warming up properly is not the same thing as stretching. Stretching before a strength workout is not always beneficial.

Agree. I am older now (60) and I absolutely have to do light sets before my bench workout, I always do one set w bar only and one w 25s on each side. Makes a world of difference. Have to be more careful as you get older as body doesnt recover as quick.

 

[IComeInPeace]

Delete.

 

[Dueling Banjos]

Partial tear of ulnar collateral ligament.

Anyone dealt with it in the past? I've gathered some info already (doc & almighty internet) but would like to hear first hand experiences.

 

[IComeInPeace]

Deleted.

 

[PALE PWNR]

Recently been having a lot of issues with my Left Arm while doing curls. Just have this aching pain that runs from my elbow to my pinky, that sometimes feels numb and tingly, has touchy areas that just hurt a lot like a bruise when touched around halfway down the forearm on the pinky side, and takes forever to recover. I let it rest for 2 weeks and then have the same thing happen eventually again. Ice and ibuprofen helps, but I'd really like to figure out whats up. Doctor said its just a overuse thing, but I don't have any issues in my other arm doing the same exercises, and in general my left arm I tend to be able to get more reps out of when healthy.

 

[JMCx4]

Recently been having a lot of issues with my Left Arm while doing curls. Just have this aching pain that runs from my elbow to my pinky, that sometimes feels numb and tingly, has touchy areas that just hurt a lot like a bruise when touched around halfway down the forearm on the pinky side, and takes forever to recover. I let it rest for 2 weeks and then have the same thing happen eventually again. Ice and ibuprofen helps, but I'd really like to figure out whats up. Doctor said its just a overuse thing, but I don't have any issues in my other arm doing the same exercises, and in general my left arm I tend to be able to get more reps out of when healthy.

The ulnar nerves runs from your elbow to your pinky. If it's inflamed or entrapped, it can cause the sorts of symptoms you describe. "Tennis elbow" (aka, lateral epicondylitis) and other types of tendonitis could present similar pain & sensations. You should seek a consult & treatment from an orthopedic specialist.