{"id":15438710,"date":"2021-03-02T13:01:06","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T18:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/golf.com\/?post_type=article&p=15438710"},"modified":"2021-07-06T11:41:53","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T15:41:53","slug":"golf-shoulder-injury-what-ive-learned","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/golf.com\/instruction\/fitness\/golf-shoulder-injury-what-ive-learned\/","title":{"rendered":"What I’ve learned (so far) trying to play golf again after a bad shoulder injury"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article was published in partnership with GolfForever.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 54, I have entered life\u2019s middle passage, but I can still remember the good old days, when I actually had to do something to get hurt.  In more recent years, it\u2019s been a different story; I\u2019ve barely had to move for the injuries to mount.  My medical record over that period is a sorry document of physical decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have thrown out my back while tying my shoes, strained my neck while looking in my car\u2019s rear-view mirror and tweaked both knees while climbing steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last July, I reached a new \u2018athletic\u2019 low when I tried to throw a cherry pit at my son (if you have a teenager, you\u2019ll understand the impulse) and felt a shooting pain in my upper arm, as if someone had stabbed me with a knife and twisted.  With a little ice and rest, I thought I was okay.  But the pain returned when I tried to swing a club.  Weeks passed, and the discomfort worsened. The mobility in my right arm dwindled to next to nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One MRI and a visit to an orthopedist later, and I was given a diagnosis. I had frozen shoulder, an apt name for a condition that is also known as adhesive capsulitis. It involves a thickening and contraction of the shoulder joint capsule to the point where nearly any movement of the shoulder and upper arm causes agony. To call it unpleasant is an understatement. I wouldn\u2019t wish it on Attila the Hun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the nine months since, I\u2019ve gone through a gamut of treatments: traditional physical therapy; deep-tissue massage; acupuncture, you name it. But while I\u2019ve made some progress, I\u2019m nowhere close to recovered, and I still can\u2019t take a full swing with a club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rehabbing has been what they call \u2018a process,\u2019 often frustrating and frequently painful but also educational. Just last week, my colleague Luke Kerr-Dineen<\/a>, Golf Magazine\u2019s director of game improvement, introduced me to something I\u2019d not yet tried. It\u2019s called GolfForever, a customizable digital golf fitness program<\/a>. The site\u2019s robust video archive includes an array of instructional classes, led by experts in the field, that help you build your strength, flexibility, power, consistency—everything you need to get your body golf-ready and keep you injury-free over the long haul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the short term, I\u2019m just hoping it will help me get back on the course. Though I\u2019ve just gotten started on my road to recovery, the program has already renewed my hope by tuning me in to invaluable fitness fundamentals. Here are three lessons I\u2019ve picked up so far.<\/p>\n\n\n

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