Shoulder injuries and the indoor trainer

As we know, the shoulder is a silly ball and socket joint that is held to gether by some muscle and ligament. Unfortunately, the great range of movement we have in our shoulder comes with a price that many of us have paid, the labral tear. When you look at a MRI of the shoulder joint, it looks a lot like a golf ball sitting on a golf tee. A stronger ball and socket joint would be your hip, which looks like a C covering a ball. This golf ball and golf tee joint is great for Range of motion, but is subjected to injuries easily. Unfortunately, my shoulder isnt different from anyone elses and popped out easier than finding a hipster in a local coffee shop. At first I was certain that nothing had been torn and I was going to feeling better with a little ice, cause ice fixes everything. After a x-ray, and a MRI, I had a feeling that ice wasn't going to do the trick. I had torn my labrum about 210 degrees around the socket, (the labrum is like a 360 degree circle in the joint, so thats bad). I had heard of people who where able to keep up activity and get it repaired when the season was over. Being a big skier, and injuring myself in february, I wanted to try and wait until the season is over to get my shoulder fixed.

After a few more dislocations, and the doctor saying, "the only thing holding your arm to your shoulder is your deltoid," I decided it was probably time to pull the trigger and get surgery. At first, my thoughts where positive. "It will only be a month of recovery," Ill be able to get on a bike in april." After talking to the doctor, and discovering that I will be 100% healed in august, 5 months after my surgery, I started to plumit into a oblivion of self pitty. I could not beleive how horrible this was going to be. The surgery was on march 12th, I had 6 weeks of braise, and then another 6 of just living with a shoulder that hurt all the time, then I start strengtheing the shoulder in June. The only thing I had going for me was I could bike in the beginning of may.

Once I got surgery and what seemed like never ending pain went away, I got the ok to start using a indoor trainer. I had road on a indoor trainer many of times, but absolutely hated it. I could not stand the fact of riding a bike that goes no where while sweating out all the water a had consumed since 2012. This dread dug deep into me until I finally said to myself, "if this is all I can do for a month, then suck it up and get to work. To make the most of this month, my dad suggested using "Zwift." If you don't know what Zwift is, it is an app that you can connect to a smart trainer, like the Wahoo KICKR, (I will link the Wahoo KICKR below) and you can ride in the virtual world. I didnt really get how this was gonna change how indoor ridinf worked, but I walked into the basement, turned on some fans so I dont die from over heating, and started riding. After 30 minutes I was astonished by how cool this indoor riding actually was. When the gradient on the road changed, the resistance on my trainer changed. I could see how many watts I was pushing, and the "speed" I was travelling at. Although it doesn't change the fact that riding outside is so much better then riding inside, I felt semi content with my situation for the next month. now that I know it isnt so bad to ride indoors now, it is time to dig into the pain cave and start the one handed suffer fest.

Wahoo KICKR link: https://www.wahoofitness.com/devices/bike-trainers/kickr/buy