Recovery Program
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).
