My Shoulder and Subsequent Rehab

Back in early February, I was constantly pushing to achieve my biggest distances over the most possible challenging terrain I could find. The week before I had completed my first marathon distance and so in snow and ice and strong winds, like the wally I am I took myself off into the Pennine foothills running on ice in gale-force winds. The wind was so strong that despite being normally within my capability the wind was pushing me backwards down the road.

I was tired but didn’t feel anything untoward other than a bit sore until the next day. The next day I had no use of the arm, I gave it another 24 hours to be sure it was more than just a bit of muscle soreness but it got worse and so I made a physio appointment. I went private to ensure a speedy assessment to avoid doing more damage waiting for an NHS physio and of course I wanted to get back to training ASAP.

That first appointment was heartbreaking. When I made this video I honestly felt downtrodden. Like I’d ruined all my hardwork so far and was almost guaranteed to gain weight. Her assessment had been that it wasn’t the should but the trapezius but that full recovery was likely to take 18 months.

She had given me really basic exercises to do and no wheeling or hand biking. I spent the week doing her rehab religiously several times a day, by the time I went back the following week I was much stronger and in less pain, though still very much struggling.

The physio still felt Hadrians Wall was out of the question and wanted several more sessions but with my financial constraints, she did agree to give me a suit of exercises to work back up to fitness and agreed to discharge me, advising against pushing too hard.

We are now at the end of March and whilst I have still yet to get back up to the distances I was doing I am getting PBs over 5kms, half marathons and all distances in between. I am easily within the minimum pace Great North Run and confident about completing Hadrians Wall.

This has been a very strong lesson in building up challenges gradually and listening to my body. It has definitely helped have a personal trainer to take over where the physio left off. She did recommend I find a sports therapist and have semi-regular sports massages as I increase the training, something I still need to act upon.

Please, if you experience anything untoward with your body get suitable medical help straight away. Had this been a shoulder injury and not the trapezius and had I left it and not listened to advice I could easily have created a lifelong issue. As laypeople we just don’t know what a symptom means, most things have several potential causes so get the trained medical professionals to tell you what it is in your case.

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