So, I got my test results back and they're not looking too good. What's up, guys, Jeff Cavaliere,
Athleanx.com. So, yeah, what I hold in my hands here are my test results and actually have
something to do with the reason why I'm wearing this sleeve on my elbow and have been for a long
period of time. And what we're talking about here is an injury to my bicep, to my elbow, actually.
And what happened was I was walking my son into school back in February, it was icy out and
he slipped on the ice, and I was holding him and essentially as he dropped down, I tried to quickly
grab him. Well, I felt this pain in my elbow and I thought at the time that maybe it was a
supinator muscle strain deep inside my elbow. It didn't concern me all that much because I was
able to still train. I was again, I'll throw a sleeve around it and then keep going. And it kind
of holds a key part of my message here that I want you guys to make sure you understand
and that is the concept of training through and around injuries, which I'll get to in a second.
So, because we wanted to make sure we knew what was going on, I had an MRI done. Well, in addition
to having the MRI on my elbow, being a physical therapist and sometimes the worst type of patient,
you know, I said, Well, I do know that anatomically, if I'm looking at my elbow, I
might want to check out my shoulder too. And given the fact that I've had a long history of a lot of
shoulder problems dating back to the incident with the New York Mets when I threw a baseball,
I'll tell you about that in a second. Not so well by the by the way. I wanted to make sure we kind
of checked out what was going on there. So we go to have the MRIs done and that's what
this is right here. I'm actually going to share it with you guys here as we read along together. And
it turns out it's actually more interesting than the elbow itself. So, what it's telling me here
is that I've got, as far as the rotator cuff is concerned, a 50% thickness tear
in the supraspinatus tendon, which is actually the muscle in the rotator cuff that is responsible for
external rotation or one of the three that are. The infraspinatus and subscapularis are intact.
The AC joint, this little joint at the end of my shoulder here has a little bit of a spur that's
coming down from underneath the joint with some mild AC joint degeneration. The Bursae is fine.
The Glenohumeral Joint, interestingly has some diffuse glenohumeral cartilage thinning. So,
on the head of the humerus up there with some osteophyte formation or early arthritis.
The labrum, as we expected, has an almost complete circumferential tear with only a small portion of
the superior labrum intact, which I definitely could tell you from the second it happened.
The long head the bicep tendon is actually fully intact and moderate to severe glenohumeral
degeneration, I'll get to that in a second. So essentially in non-medical terms, this is
saying that I have the shoulder of a fucking 80-year-old man. Now for those that have never
heard this story, it all started with that throw. So back in 2008, I was at spring training with the
New York Mets, just minding my own business out in right field when one of our all-star outfielders,
Carlos Beltran, was walking by me. And I say, God, it's surprising how much shorter it is to go from
right field to third base. It just looks so much further on TV. So, he kind of looks at me and
he raises his eyebrows and says, You think it's short from here, there? Why don't you try throwing
baseball and see if you can get it there? So of course, not wanting to back down from
a challenge, I said, Well, I know I can get it there. I just want to know who's going to catch
it when I throw it. So, he hands me the baseball and says, I'll give you $1,000 bucks if you can
get it there on the fly. So of course, I wanted $1,000 bucks. I grabbed the ball and I unwind
just an explosive throw. The problem is it sort of died on the outfield grass somewhere behind
shortstop and the only thing explosive was what happened inside my shoulder as
I completely tore my labrum and apparently my rotator cuff, too. It's a good thing, though,
that I've got the MRI to remind me of how bad my shoulder is supposed to feel, because
quite honestly, it feels pretty damn good. I come into this gym every single night, 10:00, 1030,
after I put the boys to bed, and I train. And I train hard, and I feel great. And I don't have
the limitations that the MRI is suggesting that I have. And I think that's one of the things that I
want to get across to you guys are out the back because a lot of us have been in the position
where we get diagnostic imaging that tells us something that maybe we don't like to hear.
And the good news about that is that the diagnostic imaging doesn't always support what's
clinically happening with you. So, a lot of times there'll be imaging that says things look pretty
damn bad in there, but clinically you feel totally fine. So are you supposed to start worrying about
what's inside the MRI report, or are you supposed to maybe continue to do what you're doing because
clinically you're doing fine? Or the MRI will say nothing's wrong with you, but clinically you
feel like shit. So, you know, is there nothing wrong with you because the MRI says nothing's
wrong with you? I would disagree. You know, I think that when it comes to
learning about what's actually happening to you, you need to learn more about what's going on with
your own body. You need to become the master of your own body. And one of the main reasons
that I have this channel, one of the very main reasons I think, why we are as watched as we are,
is because I've always tried to give you guys the understanding and knowledge. Look, I understand
you can learn a tip or two on TikTok in 10 seconds, right? I think the to inform people
so that they know exactly what's going on with themselves so they can better prepare
for things like this and even have more informed training approaches, you need to
get the education. You need to understand what's happening. I've always tried to do that here.
So, using this MRI as an example, I'm going to hope to do the exact same thing for you
right here. So, let's pretend that this is you, right? What would you do? Well, if you don't have
an actual report or a visit to the doctor yet, I think you should start there. And I'm saying that
as both a physical therapist and a member of the medical community. But also, because I think at
least gives you a point of awareness of knowing where to maybe start. Maybe where to start your
own Google searches because you know what you've been told you have. But the next thing that we all
need to be able to do is quickly start to assess what it is that we're having a problem with. What
is it that's causing pain and discomfort? So, in the case of a shoulder, I want you to go
over and start bench pressing. Of course, I want you to do it very light. What I want you to do is
just assess what you're capable of and what you're not necessarily capable of pain free. And that's
beyond just doing a single exercise, we're talking about breaking down the variations. So doing an
Incline Bench Press, doing a Flat Bench Press, doing a Decline Bench Press and seeing which one,
if any, feels better or worse than the others. And the reason why that matters is because when
it comes to the structures in your body, there is a sensitivity to small things, even just like the
angle of the bench. Or the speed at which you move the dumbbells or the barbell. Or to that point,
whether you use dumbbells or a barbell to perform the exercise, all the little nuances matter.
And it's important that you don't just cross the exercise off your list because you think that
doing one variation of the bench press means you can't do any of them because that version hurt.
Once you do that, you want to take the exercises that are problematic out of the equation. I'm
talking about the specific variations of the exercises out of the equation. And the reason
why I say those can be removed, even though in the same breath I'm saying you can train around this,
is because I know that there's so many other variations of exercises that can do what you're
trying to do from the muscle benefit standpoint that aren't going to be problematic.
There are thousands and thousands of exercises. Some might say you have to do the squat, but if
the squat causes knee pain for you, I'm confident enough to say you can do a squat pattern,
let's say squatting down to a box. It s a little bit different than the squat, but the movement
pattern is the same, but completely eliminate any of the discomfort that you have in your knees. So,
without having to say I can't squat anymore, you're able to say I can squat this way,
at least for now, and maybe be able to resume squatting fully as I get over this injury.
And one of the worst things you can do oftentimes with any injury is don't do anything at all. So,
when you decide or maybe your doctor says, because it's the easier recommendation to make, Listen,
don't do anything right now. Let it calm down. I'll see you in four months. I don't think that's
the best approach to go because the disuse from not using the muscle in any capacity oftentimes
leads to other repercussions and problems down the road that you're going to have to try to undo and
those could be potentially even long term. So, I would say that with the approach of
finding the right exercises, this MRI report becomes a hell of a lot less meaningful.
Because once you have the exercises that are able to be done, you continue to build them up,
you continue to build your strength up. That's when you start to add your weight and build up
your strength in those exercises and always be mindful of how you feel as you're doing them.
And as you do this, guys, you start to become a lot more knowledgeable about what is right for
your body. I talked about it with this shoulder injury. Again, you do not know me for any time
frame from my early days on YouTube, I had the injury, but meanwhile I trained around it and
through it. Sometimes I had to abbreviate range of motion. Sometimes I had to choose completely
singular exercises for a workout for my chest. At one point in time when this was inflamed,
actually, from demonstrating a muscle up that really screwed this up again,
I decided to just limit my chest training to Cable Crossovers.
You know what? It wasn't very exciting; it was rather boring. But I was able to get
my chest engaged. I was able to get a complete contraction and not have to give up on chest
training completely. And after a period of time of limiting myself to just the crossover motion,
I was able to resume pressing without issue to the point where I'm pressing now without any issues at
all. I can do any variation of a Bench Press, and none of it hurts me at this point. And you have
to be prepared to play the longer game, right? Doesn't have to be forever, but it may not be two
months or three months or even four months. But as long as you're still able to train,
what does it matter, right? If you're still making gains and I think I've continued to be able to
make gains throughout my entire career because I've chosen smarter training methods. I've chosen
ways to still keep the flow going without having to stop altogether. And ultimately,
that is the biggest tool that you can put in your toolbox, is the ability to keep training.
To be able to choose the exercises that keep you in the game, rather than opting to go sit
on the sidelines and get no results at all. So, guys, I hope you found this video uplifting.
I'm like you, I've got some of the same issues. I get banged up, I get, you know, all kinds of aches
and pains. But I think that by having the training approach that I use here, I haven't been out of
the game ever. I keep going. And I'm able to keep going and have good energy and be able to attack
my workouts and make the right decisions along the way, because I've allowed myself to become
more knowledgeable about what my body is actually doing. And I've taken the right steps in whatever
training I do to ensure that I'm not taking steps backward, but more so always taking steps forward,
even if by just this much every single day. If you're looking for programs, guys,
where I try to empower you with the same ability to keep going no matter what and still make gains,
I've got them all over at Athleanx.com. In the meantime, if found the video helpful, if you
have a story that you want to share of an injury that you're dealing with, make sure you leave it
below. And if you haven't done so, make sure you click, Subscribe and turn on your Notifications
so you never miss a new video when we put one out. All right, guys, see you soon.