Turning Point

 During the 2022 football season I went in feeling strong and well conditioned from years of pushing myself in the gym and watching upperclassmen do their thing. I had gone through with the first part of the season feeling great and not getting an injury. But one evening we had to drive up to Hermon Maine to play a game. That night we warmed up and I felt fine but the first play on kick return I went to block and when I made contact my arm was being torn out of its socket. I didn’t say anything to the coach because I didn’t want to let my team down by going off the field. So I kept playing and after a while it stopped hurting. Bme feel insecure and sad that I could no longer workout and push myself to my full potential.

But over 3 weeks of nourishing and caring for my shoulder it felt good again but not 100%. Over these few weeks I really wanted to lift but I couldn’t and it took every ounce of my being to not lift heavy weight to hurt myself further. But by being patient my shoulder felt better but would go numb or feel fatigued if I hit during practice or I worked it really hard. After not lifting heavy weight for 3 weeks I lost lots of strength. I started the process of building my strength back up and it took 4 weeks to get back to where I was. I’m glad I pushed myself to get my strength back and during that time I knew that I had to be patient and keep trying if I wanted to get the muscle back. So I did. Now when I workout my shoulder feels fine and I can lift what I used to.it soon it was time for yet another kick return and yet again it felt like my arm was tearing off.

But by now when we went on defense it started to hurt when I would tackle and hit with my shoulder pads. I played the rest of the game with my shoulder feeling awful. Despite my shoulder I never gave up during this time. After the game was over I had a hard time getting my shoulder pads off because of how my shoulder felt, yet on the ride home it felt fine. When I went to bed I could not sleep on one side because of the pain in my shoulder. I woke up the next day feeling sore but nothing worse than what I’m used to. It was 5 am so that means it was time to head to the gym. When I got to the gym I warmed up and felt fine until I did shoulder mobility movements to increase synovial fluid. I could not lift a 5LBS weight without feeling pain or fatigue. This was something I thought I could push through and get over but it proved to be more than a problem. So I decided to only do really light weight when it came to my arms and shoulders. Lifting weight became part of an everyday routine and was something I looked forward to in the morning and my shoulder inhibited me from doing so. This started to make me sad and insecure. After about 3 weeks of light shoulder and arm work making sure not to overdo it I felt my shoulder getting better but not feeling 100%. During this time it took every ounce of my being to not lift heavy knowing that in time it would get better this way. So I decided to start to work on getting my strength back that I had lost after my shoulder felt better. I pushed myself for 3 weeks to gain the strength back and to be lifting what I was Lifting before. It made me angry when I could not move the weight I had previously. I knew in time it would come back and it did. Now when I workout my shoulder feels fine and I’m happy with where I’m at.

“Oakland Raider Football Player JaMarcus Russell” by Eyeshotpictures is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.