How I recovered from my shoulder injury

A few years ago, I fell on my shoulder while rollerblading. After that, it hurt to move my arm and lift it overhead. Of course, I stopped playing volleyball, doing pull-ups, and push-ups because all of these caused severe pain. For a while I lost hope I’d ever get back to normal.

I went to a doctor. He took an X-ray, prescribed anti-inflammatories, and said: “If it still hurts in 3-4 months, you can come back.” I realized that I would have to fix my shoulder myself.

The first thing I tried was hanging from a bar. There was a study where 90 out of 92 people recovered from chronic shoulder pain after several weeks or months of such hanging. But it didn’t help me.

Then I learned that weak lower trap muscles are correlated with pressing pain. This is what I had. One easy way to train lower traps is with the “superman” exercise. I used to do it a lot in the past. It’s a great exercise, but it didn’t help me.

Many therapists talked about external rotation. But all their exercises looked weird, and I didn’t feel better after doing them. But I did learn about the rotator cuff - small muscles in our back that stabilize the shoulder.

Then I found a video by KneesOverToesGuy. He showed how to train the rotator cuff with full range of motion and with a dumbbell. I went to the gym and tried this exercise. After the first set, I felt better. My shoulder seemed to fall into place, and it wasn’t so painful to raise my arm anymore. Of course, when I cooled down, the pain returned, but I already knew that I had found the path forward.

I continued to train this exercise, and after a couple of months, I could do push-ups and pull-ups again. Six months after the injury I could play volleyball. I was on cloud nine because I finally returned to the sport I love without pain.

Why didn’t hanging and the superman help me? The system is as strong as its weakest link. Before the injury, I was already strong in hanging and the superman exercise. But I had never trained my rotator cuff. And the injury likely weakened it even more — to the point where my arm wasn’t properly sitting in the shoulder socket. That’s why training external rotation helped me so much.

But I don’t recommend everyone do external rotation. If you are untrained, the weak area might be the front shoulder itself, so you need to train basic pressing movements. What helped me wasn’t the exercise itself, but trying different movements until I found the one I was weak at, and then working on that weakness. And that’s what I advise you to do. Keep searching. The worst thing you can do is to stop moving - then the pain won’t ever go away.

If you want to find the cause for your shoulder pain, I have a section on shoulder health in my exercise library. Every shoulder ability for any equipment. All in one place. It’s completely free.

The most important thing in fixing your pain is being consistent. I created a community where we help each other stay accountable and reach our goals. I check in daily myself to answer any questions you might have and post my own progress. It’s €20/month.