I’ve been on a recovery program for a couple weeks now for a minor shoulder injury.
Initially, I felt a slight pain after my training session on Jan 1, 2015 (Week 7), I noticed stiffness and a bit of a sharp pain in my left shoulder whenever I lifted something heavy. Week 8 was my rest week, and I was hoping that the stiffness and the pain would go away after a week. I tried to resume my training on week 9 with a slight stiffness in my shoulder, but I immediately started to feel pain in my shoulder and was forced to stop the session before I complete my training set.
I had a couple meetings with my trainer about my shoulder. He assessed how much range of motion I had lost as a result of the injury and he also worked on my shoulder. He gave me instructions on how to properly roll on a lacrosse ball (a solid rubber ball, which works great for breaking up scar tissue), stretching, and heating and icing my shoulder. My shoulder has been healing much faster since I started following his instructions. Meanwhile, as I allow my shoulder to recover, I’m doing light exercises on my lower body. No climbing, no mountain biking, but I can ski, trail run and practice yoga.
While I have a bit of downtime as I recover, I’m sending my cams back for re-slinging. Most of my cams are 2-4 years old. Some slings are due for new webbing. Black Diamond recommends re-slinging your cams every 2-5 years with frequent use. Here are examples of the conditions of some of the cams I sent back. You can see rock scrapes, frays on the side and where the carabiner rubs (I can feel unevenness of the surface on the webbing).
These are obvious damages. My other cams don’t have as much wear as these ones, but I can feel the wear when I touch the webbing. I sent back all of my cams except for ones I purchased recently.
Hopefully my shoulder will be fully recovered by the time I get my cams back!
