Train Around, Not Through: Injuries Are Detours, Not Dead Ends

By 50, almost every man I coach has a history. An old knee surgery. A shoulder that clicks. A back that complains after a long flight. And for a lot of men, that history becomes the reason they stopped training, or never started.

Here's how I think about it: you don't push through a compromised joint, and you don't quit either. You train around it.

What does "train around, not through" mean?

A shoulder injury doesn't mean you stop training. It means you stop loading the shoulder and train everything else. Legs, back, chest from angles that don't aggravate it, core, cardio. The muscle still gets worked where it can be. The joint gets protected.

The modification isn't a concession. It's the method working. A man who keeps training around an injury keeps his strength, keeps his habit, and keeps the energy that training gives him. A man who stops entirely loses all three.

Training around injuries is also why I track the long game instead of the single session. One boundary matters more here than anywhere else in what I teach. I'm a coach, not a clinician. I don't diagnose injuries. If you have pain, you see your physician or physical therapist. What I do is adjust the training to work around what they tell you and what you report.

How do you tell good pain from bad pain?

Read it on two axes, not one.

The driver: what's causing it. The burn and fatigue of a working muscle is one thing. Sharp joint pain, nerve pain, or disc pain is another thing entirely.

The level: how much it limits you. A little working discomfort is normal. Pain that spikes, or lingers after the session, is a stop signal.

Start light and pay attention, not only to whether it hurts, but to what's driving it and how much. A man who learns that distinction regulates himself better than any written program can.

And trust your instincts. A man who has lived with an injury for years usually knows exactly what flares it. Most of the time, the right move is to structure what he already knows, and let his body's history guide the program.

How long does it take to work back from a serious injury?

Longer than most men want, and it's still worth doing.

I shattered my shoulder and upper body in a ski accident. I had surgery on the labrum and clavicle after a chest repair. For months I couldn't press anything overhead. It took more than a year to get back to overhead pressing at all, and roughly three years before that shoulder was truly functional again.

What got me there was slow, steady, patient work on strength and flexibility, never pushing through pain, consistently working the range back. Meanwhile, I built the shoulder with what didn't aggravate it: lateral raises, controlled cable work at clean angles, rotational work, rear delts. Strong shoulders are buildable without barbell overhead pressing. Overhead became something I earned back.

Not a quick path, but doable.

What old injury have you been using as a reason to train less?

~b