Friday 27 July 2012

Shoulder injury

I've busted my left shoulder! (TNS!)

I can't believe it! It's only after Week 2 of training! (TNS X2!)

No, I didn't bust my left shoulder muscles or tore it to bits. I've injured my front shoulder ligament (coracoacromial ligament) that connects my left shoulder blade (scapula) to my upper back part of the shoulder blade (acromion).



How do you distinguish the injuries? Simple.

Muscle soreness typically goes away after 3 days and in some serious cases 4/5 days. If you have adequately worn out your muscles during training, recovery should typically be around 3 days. Also, soreness should be limited to the broad muscle area.


Bone or tendon injuries result in a more acute pain usually around the joint area. Pain lasts much longer, typically over a week. If so, quickly see an orthopaedic or a "tit tar sifu". I have opted for the latter. Will touch on this in my next post...

If I'm not wrong, I sustained this injury early last week when I was training chest and biceps (Day 1 Training Programme). Please refer to my earlier post for details of my Training Programme.

Chest? But how can chest training involve shoulder muscles too? Well, chest training is a compound movement. This means although the chest muscles are primarily trained, it also involves secondary muscles such as shoulders and triceps.


Injuries can happen whenever and wherever...not withstanding the amount of weight you carry. The risk is certainly greater when you are lifting heavy weights. In my case, my weights were light but challenging enough to provide the requisite intensity. Plus, my rest period is short so that I'm able to maintain the intensity level. I suspect the main cause of my injury is because I don't do any warm-up exercises before starting on my working sets. Big @$$ mistake!



In my defence, due to my various commitments etc I don't have much time for working out. I would be in and out of the gym within an hour and each training session lasts approximately 45 mins. My training programmes are designed in such a way to maximise the workout intensity at the least amount of time. The high reps also double up as cardio for me.

I guess I should now incorporate at least 5 mins of warm-up exercises before hitting my working sets. Better safe than sorry (just like using protection!) *Guffaw!*


Just when I'm finally in motion again and progressing well with my training, I've to sustain this injury and be out of action! (TNS X3!)

Sigh...I guess it has to be boring cardio on threadmill/stepper/elliptical machines for the time being...*Yawn!* How inspiring...



8 comments:

  1. so are you 100% now? shoulder injuries suck big time!!



    http://cikipedia.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wouldn't say 100% as it can sometimes feel tender after a workout. But training goes on for a vain pot like me :-p

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  2. Hi! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for
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    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i'm running on google blogspot. i didn't like the wordpress configuration so chose google blogspot instead. cheers!

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  3. A "tit tar sifu" or physiotherapy treatment would be also a great alternative way for curing injuries. But if you’re not totally aware of the treatment, it is much advisable to go to an orthopedic, which is more familiar to most of us. I hope the treatment that you opted helped you get back to normal track. @ Fort Lauderdale Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hi sienna!

      yes, you are right. tit tar is a traditional way of curing injuries. the chinese have been practicing this for many centuries/generations. however, they are not always right though. for me, if there's no improvement after a few tit tar sessions, i would go see an orthopedic and take an xray.

      cheers,
      fl

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  4. How to relax during tit tar treatment? It is so painful that I tense up

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. take deep breaths and think happy thoughts!

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