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So I broke my collar bone around 6 years ago and I've had shoulder pain/impingement since then. I let my ego get in the way and have always worked out through the pain. Its always popped, cracked etc with some annoying pain. However I've never had any issues with ROM or my injured shoulder being weaker than the other. Well I've decided to finally go see a doctor soon and give my shoulder some rest and hoping he can help without requiring surgery because I'm not able to undergo months of recovery at this point of my career as a Fireman.

So in the meantime, what can I do to make this situation better as far as my training? Thanks in advance.

Sorry for your injury.

Here is my 2c.. I’d take recovery as my priority and organize my life and training around that. Do whatever needs to be done for safe recovery first. Train without compromising the injury. It all depends. Consult first and make sure you are safe to implement particular exercises.

All I did was walking when I was in your shoes. Any other activity was painful to some degree.. YMMV. Every single injury is unique in a way..

I’d strongly suggest to find good PT in addition to the doctor and consult him in regards to the best recovery training plan.

It’s not safe to follow online advises, imho..

Good luck. Injuries suck but it can be fixed..

Barkadion wrote:Sorry for your injury.

Here is my 2c.. I’d take recovery as my priority and organize my life and training around that. Do whatever needs to be done for safe recovery first. Train without compromising the injury. It all depends. Consult first and make sure you are safe to implement particular exercises.

All I did was walking when I was in your shoes. Any other activity was painful to some degree.. YMMV. Every single injury is unique in a way..

I’d strongly suggest to find good PT in addition to the doctor and consult him in regards to the best recovery training plan.

It’s not safe to follow online advises, imho..

Good luck. Injuries suck but it can be fixed..

Thanks for the reply. I think im gonna implement ways to keep my endurance/cardio up without aggravating the injury. I can afford to lose strength but cardio and conditioning is something I need to maintain to be able to perform my job well. Maybe some LISS with HIIT as long as it doesn't involve shoulder pain.

I'm in you're situation right now. My shoulder has been hurting for about 3 years now. I trained through it but now I'm at the point where it pops and cracks constantly and hurts when I try to bench or OHP. Sleeping on my side has become a constant nightmare of shifting back and forth trying to get comfortable.

I've stopped all upper body pressing for the past few months and I've concentrated on letting it heal. I hang from a pullup bar for 1 minute 2x day and I use a lacrosse ball to really massage the hell out of the muscle. I've also starting doing bent over rows 3x week to try to balance the pulling muscles in my back and it seems to have helped.

You can still maintain most of your strength and mass by continuing to squat and deadlift. If squatting hurts your shoulder and straight bar deadlifting 3x week seems too much for you get a trap bar and use that.

I've been trap bar deadlifting 3x week for about
4 months now and I've gained a lot of strength and my shoulder feels a lot better. My cluster for operator is snatch high pull, trap bar deadlift, and bent over row. I haven't lost much if any upper body mass in my chest or shoulders and my legs and back have gained a lot.

So you don't have to stop strength training unless you can't find any exercises that don't hurt your shoulder. Experiment with new stuff and you'll keep making progress in new
lifts while your shoulder heals. Good luck

My shoulders have been bad for a long time. Right was reconstructed years ago. I just had a surgery consult for that shoulder earlier this week, the left isn’t quite as bad but could use some fixing as well. The surgeon said there is no sense in going in and doing anything other than a full replacement on the right. However, they want to wait. I am muscularly strong enough to keep the shoulder ‘together’ and post surgery atrophy may actually set me back more than my current limitations.

What I have done over the years -
PVC pipe shoulder dislocates
Front, side and rear raises
Internal and external rotation with a band
All pressing is done with elbows tucked in
DBs mostly for overhead work

See a PT, then go see a different one. Keep working to stay strong but bad don’t forget that shoulders hate egos.