06/17/2026
Three months ago, this was impossible.
The reality of weightlifter’s shoulder put my pull-up progress on hold. Pushing was also not happening—no pushups, no bench presses, no overhead work. I watched as my left shoulder atrophied and thought it might never be the same.
Today, I’ve had to put one of my favorite kinds of exercise, but also my best tool to deal with anxiety and stress—running—on hold. I’m dealing with a lot of foot pain, probably from ramping up my mileage too quickly.
But. Yesterday I bench pressed 25 pound dumbbells for three sets of 10. And I also knocked out 3 sets of 3 pull-ups. I rode the bike for 45 min. Not my favorite form of cardio, but it works. Got my heartrate up and pushed through a few sprint intervals.
All of this to say…injuries almost always feel like they’ll never get better. That’s when we get frustrated and stop the work. But there’s always, always something we can do.
So, my advice is to find the thing you can do. Make a goal for how you want to improve in that area. And then go for it. To quote my favorite squat coach (), it’s “so simple it’s hard.”
Hopping up on that pull-up bar feels like a comeback. My foot may have grounded me for a bit, but I’m going to capitalize on what’s working right now. 💪🏻
How are you moving today?
