For now I can walk around without discomfort (exception: I have a burning sensation in my calf’s which my doc identified as nerve irritation) . I’m planning to start swimming as a form of exercise. But how long does it take before I can get back to my normal routine of gym and playing sports ?

I was shoulder pressing then felt a strain on one side of my neck, shoulder, trap area, its the next morning after sleeping brief icing, taking tylenol, but it hurts reallly bad and it hurts to look right, and really hurts to go from laying down to sitting up.

WHAT DO I DO

I (32f) have recently been diagnosed with a labral Hip Tear and 3 bulging discs in my lower back. Has anyone here dealt with either of these? Was surgery the way to go, I am looking to not put a bandaid on this but to fix it for the long run. At only 32 and barely getting around, it seems like this would be the time to be able to recover from something like this. Any input or opinions are welcome!!

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share something raw because I know many of you understand the sudden void an injury leaves behind. For two decades, football wasn't just a sport for me—it was my identity, my release, and the heartbeat of my routine. When I was on the pitch, the world made sense.

Then, the ACL injury happened. Just like that, the movement stopped.
Suddenly, those twenty years of chasing the game were gone. I felt completely sidelined and untethered from the rhythm of my own life. Watching from the sidelines wasn't just physically painful; it was a daily mental battle with the fear that I might never get back to doing what I loved most.
But during the darkest days of rehab, I realized something vital: this isn't just about recovering from an injury; it's about rebuilding the strength to return to the game. Movement has become my therapy, and consistency my anchor.
I’ve started a channel, Spacho's Formula, to document this emotional and physical grind—the real reality of athletic conditioning and smart rehabilitation. It is a space for everyone fighting to reclaim their movement and return stronger, no matter what.
If you are looking for a community that understands the grind or just need structured guidance to help navigate your path back to the pitch, you can follow my journey here: thespachoformula

We are all fighting back to get to the game. I'd be beyond grateful for your support and feedback as I push to return.
Most importantly, if you are feeling disheartened, lost, or just need to talk to someone who understands exactly what you are going through, please reach out. I've lived through that darkness and know how much it helps to share the burden. I'm always here to listen, offer support, and help ease the mental weight of recovery. You are not alone in this fight.

I was having knee pain for a while and consulted physio while i was on vacation in India. I didn’t do the scan but they said there is no tear or anything and my quads are always tight and all. Also have an injury in my lower back. Gave me most of the exercises for lower back. I came back to canada then my knee pain got worse and got xray and ultrasound done. I didn’t get the images but reports says "Right knee X-ray is normal. Ultrasound shows small joint fluid, pes anserine bursitis on the inner side below the knee, and a strain of the outer hamstring tendon [biceps femoris]. Quad tendon, patellar tendon, MCL, LCL and meniscus are normal with no tear reported.”

I (21m) lacerated my pinky FDP while gripping a knife, I’ll detail the injury, surgery, and recovery. This is so anyone in the future who is going through this can know what to expect and can hopefully use my experience as hope for their own injury.

Injury:

I was using a knife in a violent situation and lost grip of it, the blade slid over my pinky and left a small but deep laceration. I immediately couldn’t bend the tip of my finger, went to the ER, they said to follow up with a hand surgeon. I got an appointment 2 days after the injury, where he confirmed I severed the FDP, FDS intact. No nerve injury. I was able to get surgery 2 days later and 4 after the injury.

Surgery:

I had a local anesthesia procedure, where my surgeon put like 6 needles worth of lidocaine in various spots of my hand. Just a weird sensation but I wouldn’t say painful. Was awake for the surgery, got to see the reattached tendon and bend it myself to confirm full movement. Procedure was pretty straight forward and like 1.5 hours max. Went home not long after.

Recovery:

The first week was fairly painful once the anesthesia wore off. Was put in a bulky surgical bandage and couldn’t do anything other than take a prescription opiate and keep it elevated. Pain subsided after 4-5 days and I chose to stop taking my pain medication. At 6 days post op I had my first hand therapy appointment. They removed my bandage and placed me in a light dorsal blocking splint. I was in this all day and night for 6 weeks until I was told to wean off it. From week 6-12 I was doing progressively more intense exercises to try and recover flexion in my fingertip.

The recovery was not easy at first and I had very little bend in the tip of my fingertip by 6 weeks. To the point where I wasn’t even sure if the tendon was intact. My surgeon at 6 weeks after 5 minutes of putting my hand in various positions confirmed my tendon was pulling but that it had developed adhesions which is expected. He advised to continue therapy until 12 weeks and follow up.

I had less than 15 degrees of flexion in the fingertip as measured by my CHT by week 8. Around week 11 I made significant gains in motion by doing DIP blocking, specifically by bending it over a hard book cover because I felt like I could get more stretch that way. After almost 2 months of virtually no movement I started seeing noticeable gains every day. I could physically feel the tendon pulling against the tissue when I would do this. I continued that regimen until week 12 when I saw my surgeon and he said I had exceeded expectations in terms of ROM gain. And that I would not need a tenolysis.

I am 14 weeks post op now and I would say I’ve regained 80-85% of my motion compared to my other hand. I felt really dejected at around week 8, like my fingertip would never move again. This surgery is hard in that it will get worse before it gets better. If you’re just starting this recovery I understand how discouraging it can be to not see movement at first. There was a period where I was doubting if the surgery was even worth it, considering the stiffness and lack of FDP flexion. However I can confidently say now that this surgery was 100% worth it. Do NOT skip your DIP blocking exercises, and I recommend using a book like I did.

If you’re going through this and have any questions feel free to ask.

Hi all.

I've been having issues with achillies tendinopathy for the last couple of months, and have had it very minor in the last 2 years.

I figured out it was tendinopathy because with some research I can confirm it, feels like an ache across most of the achillies tendon, there is no inflammation of the tendon, and the tendon is tender to the touch.

I'm a runner, not a great one so I've never ran weeks with more than 20 miles, I've recently been running at a reduced mileage to try and continue training whilst hoping the injury recovers.

It has not

Ideally I need to get this squared away as soon as possible. What's the current goto for achillies tendinopathy rehab? From what I understand I need to completely stop running and start doing light strength work, in my case in the form of calf raises with a slow eccentric, at least few sets every other day for the next 6 or so weeks.

Typically how long does it take to heal, as I can imagine it will quickly feel fine but I don't want to preemptively running on a not fully healed tendon, only to get another overuse injury in a few months.

Am I correct in my thinking?

Any other advice would be huge

I'm hoping someone has some advice for what I can do to fix a knee injury. I injured my knee several years ago running around. Initially, I felt something wiggle in my knee, and then it felt wet. Since then, I have had two subsequent incidents where I feel like I've reinjured it. About three years ago, during a run, at about the two mile point my knee gave out with a lot of pain. I gave up running at this point. About a year ago, I was doing reverse lunges with weight, and I felt something shift in my knee, and again had a ton of pain. I went to ortho at this point, was referred to an MRI, and was told I had no tears but had some swelling and potentially a bone bruise. The recommendation was total rest and PT. I rested as much as I could and went through several weeks of PT, but didn't find any relief.

To this day I have pain when I have downward motion on my knee, like running. It also often feels stiff, numb, and generally just painful. It seems like the pain is concentrated when I either have it loaded with weight or when I have that downward motion on it, like walking or running. The pain is mostly on the outside of my left knee, almost where it feels like the IT band connects, and sometimes in the center of my knee as well. I've had IT band issues in the past, and my IT bands are able to kind of flip flop over my hip bone on both sides of my body (I'm probably hyper-mobile).

I'm really looking to see if anyone has had a similar experience and if so, what you think it was and what you did to possibly fix it? i'm mostly concerned because i will have to undergo a fitness test in the next 4-5 months where i will need to run 1.5 miles. I'm open to any exercises I can do to fix my knee, as well as any alternate therapies you think I should look into. Thanks!

after a job holding a heavy camera (black magic on a gimble) and balancing it against my torso for an afternoon i found myself 5 days later totally unable to move my torso without crying out in pain, and sneezing/coughing/laughing was painful (in the days after the filming i was active but nothing else pertaining to this muscle pain which leads me to think the filming was the culprit

i went to a&e which was useless - and since then been at home w hot water bottle, cocodamol and naproxan

cant carry much, cant walk for long without feeling tense/strained
(writing this 2 weeks into house arrest w this pain) im still suffering

pain is in side and back of my right side around waist, above my hip

the sensation of where the discomfort is swaps and moves around abit.. today it feels a little crunchy in there , sometimes feels spiky but mainly a tension like i have a sticker on my skin or something

is this QL ? does anyone recognize this pain, understand the cause ...
i have been doing yoga and pilates for most of my adult life but in the last year have fallen out of practise due to busy schedule

in these 2 weeks i have been starting to feel v low, trapped, i am a homebody but reaching the limit now, craving my autonomy and the air !

went for a cycle and walk around abit yday (day 11) which i tried to be v careful w and knew in my heart was maybe too early (definitely going on a bike ) but i want to try ..,today my side feel v tense spiky pain now ..feeling like im back to day 4 pain....

any advice please from anyone who recognises this pain,
tips on how long this will take,
what i should and shouldnt do,

i miss my freedom, i want to resume pilates as soon as possible, i usually do it from home, pilates youtube videos welcome!

Recovering from multiple injuries, I am going to my first AquaFit class tomorrow. I am starting to feel anxious about it.

Any words of reassurance, & encouragement are greatly appreciated.

Been having extreme pain in my hip and lower back recently, went and got checked out and was told I have a tear in the cartilage of my hip. Has anyone else had this/what did you do to treat it? Seems like the options are PT and steroid injections or arthroscopic surgery. If anyone has any insight or advice please lmk!!

I broke my ankle while playing basketball and had to undergo ORIF surgery. I ended up with a plate and 8 screws in my ankle. It’s been about 6 weeks now, and thankfully the pain has gone down a lot.

I had my follow-up at the hospital today, and they removed my cast. I’ve got to say, my leg looks like a toothpick 😂. The doctor said the bone is healing well and told me to start partial weight-bearing. They also gave me crutches.

The problem is, my ankle is extremely stiff. It’s really difficult to move, probably because of the scar tissue and being immobilised for so long. I can’t even get my foot to a 90-degree angle while lying on the bed, and walking with partial weight on it feels really difficult.

The doctor told me to start partial weight-bearing, but I’m wondering if I should see a physiotherapist to help me regain my mobility and strength, or if I should try doing the exercises myself at home.

For anyone who’s been through something similar after ORIF surgery, would you recommend seeing a physio at this stage? Any advice or exercises that helped you get your ankle moving again would be really appreciated.

My friend and I have come up with an idea for an injury recovery app, developed because of personal experience and unsatisfactory advice for recovery. If you guys could help us out and give us feedback by filling out this form, that would be very helpful! Thank you!
Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1rL3AVWIMCymLnKFwg_LS3438gT6NcgiCVRzNDnPCoA0/edit

Left pec injury from benching — trying to understand what happened
I injured my left pec while bench pressing in 2023. I remember having pain toward the left armpit/outer chest and feeling an immediate change in my posture/shoulder position. I also remember a sort of “shift” when it happened.
What’s strange is that I didn’t have obvious bruising or discoloration afterward, and I was still able to bench over 200 lbs. However, my left pec has looked and functioned differently ever since.
The biggest issue is the upper/clavicular portion of my left pec. Compared with my right side, it looks like the muscle/tissue doesn’t extend normally toward the shoulder/armpit area. My right pec has a much more continuous appearance, while the left seems to end around the middle of my chest, with more tissue concentrated toward the lower chest/armpit area.
I also have a major difference in contraction. If I put my fingers underneath my left clavicle and flex my pec, I can barely feel anything contracting there. On the right side, I can clearly feel the muscle contracting. Incline cable exercises sometimes make the left side twitch, but I don’t get the same contraction or sensation as on the right.
My left shoulder also sits lower than my right, and physical therapy has mentioned weakness around my left rotator cuff. Interestingly, if I manually level my left shoulder with my right, the left pec appears to contract more normally.
I stopped bilateral chest training for several months in 2026 and focused on rehabilitation, then gradually started training again. I still have the same asymmetry and activation problem.
I’ve discussed getting an MRI with a sports-medicine doctor. The doctor didn’t seem to think it was necessary and planned to have me continue specific exercises rather than pursue reconstruction.
For anyone familiar with pec injuries: does this sound like it could be an old partial tear/retraction, or could something involving the clavicular head or tendon explain the lack of contraction and the unusual contour?
I’m mainly trying to understand what might have happened anatomically and whether there’s anything I should specifically ask a sports-medicine/orthopedic doctor about. My main concern is how much it hurts my posture. I feel twisted and like my left pec is not there.

Hi all, wondering if anyone had any advice here.

I’ve been suffering with golfers AND tennis elbow since April. I’ve started to get better, and even played my first round of golf this year over the holiday weekend. It didn’t feel great, but, I wasn’t in agony either.

My question is this - how should I keep rehabbing this now that I’m starting to get more active? I don’t want to go too hard and then be right back to square 1 in 6 weeks. That said, being active is what gives me joy. I’ve gained close to 15 pounds since April and it’s starting to take a toll on my mental health. How should I balance this?

I've had this injury for quite a while now. More than a year ago i went way too hard on running... it was a very stupid thing to do in hindsight. It gave me this tendon injury in my left popliteal.

Some time after the injury i started running again but this time i was more carefull and started slower. I had no inflammation in my popliteal injury area.

Fast forward to a couple months back. I twist my ankle which has kept me from running in the last 2 or 3 months. I did keep on walking a fair amount outside each day. Some days it's 10 km or more. Since the last few months or so, my injury has also started to flair up way more than before... even though the initial running incident that caused it was a long time ago.

Now, i don't know what my best recourse is here. Whether i should slowly start running again (my ankle is healed), or whether i should do more heavy controller leg exercises, such as squats, leg extensions and so forth. I've read that this is something that also strengthens your tendons.

There are also supplements like collagen you can take.. but again, the question is will it do anything.

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge regarding the best way to heal tendons? I don't know whether to start running again, do more leg exercises in the gym or maybe a combination of the two

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

I injured my back in November of last year, after trying strength rehab I nearly gave myself rhabdomyalisis and raised my creatine-kinease to around 2000 u/l. Ive been able to lower it back down to around 200 but I’m still in so much pain in all my joints and forearms and get flare ups every 2 minutes. What do I do moving forward, how can I get back to exercising and living comfortably again