Through my eyes: Living with shoulder arthritis

You won’t be able to weightlift anymore.” That’s what my orthopedic surgeon told me when we sat down to discuss getting a total shoulder replacement, something that seemed necessary to relieve my shoulder pain and arthritis.
Though I have had a long and successful career as a homebuilder, powerlifting has always been my passion.

I have been powerlifting for about 15 years, competing on the world stage with more than 30 world records to my name.

In 2014, at the peak of my competitive powerlifting career, Kabuki Strength, the gym I co-own in Portland, OR, opened its doors for amateur-to-elite-level lifters. This began the venture that has had the largest impact on my performance, health, and overall life.

However, around this time, I was also suffering from intense shoulder pain and needed it to subside. But by that point, what had started as a hobby had become my passion.

Plus, I was only in my 60s. There was no way that I wanted to step away from it all, retire, and put an end to my powerlifting career.

So, I took a deep breath and told my doctor, “No.” I didn’t want a traditional total shoulder replacement. I refused to accept that I could not continue to lead an active lifestyle. Instead, I decided to do what I had been doing for decades:

I continued to work through the pain.

It wasn’t easy. All that training, especially the squats and deadlifts, were taking a toll.

Over time, the cartilage in both my left and right shoulder joints was wearing out. It was getting to the point that whenever I moved in certain ways, bone hit bone. My range of motion was becoming increasingly limited, and I was often in pain.

Outside of the gym, even simple, everyday tasks were becoming more difficult. You don’t realize how much you use your shoulders until you’re in pain just from trying to put on a shirt.

The same goes for getting a dish from the top shelf of a kitchen cupboard or reaching to open the umbrella on a patio table; I found that ordinary tasks were starting to become challenges, and they usually left me grimacing in pain.

All of this wasn’t just annoying, it was also embarrassing. Here I was, a world-class powerlifter, and yet, whenever we were out in public, my wife had to help me put on my coat. With my limited range of motion, I couldn’t do anything like that by myself anymore.

Believe it or not, this went on for a few years. I continued to train as well as I could, but the deterioration of my shoulder cartilage only got worse. Finally, I decided that I had to take some kind of action, and I went back to my orthopedic surgeon to review my options.

Source: Medical News Today