# Getting over fear after a major injury



## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

Season is coming up and I am having hard time getting back into snowboarding again after I broke my arm in May in fear of getting hurt again.
Anyone has similar mental difficulties?


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## easyrider16 (Sep 28, 2020)

I broke my leg snowboarding in 2017 and it took about 2 years to fully recover both physically and mentally. Start slow and build confidence. Ride some easy trails and work on fundamentals, things like keeping your weight centered, pressuring your feet correctly through the turns, carving, etc. Over time, be it days or weeks, or months, build up to more challenging trails as you gain confidence. It will take time but you'll get there.


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## SEWiShred (Jan 19, 2019)

Extreme sports are not about how much you can push yourself, but how much you can safely progress. It's very easy to go out there and start doing runs above your skill levels and hitting features above your skill level, while not doing so very well and having lots of room for error. 

I am a hill rat where I go and I talk to a lot of people, including coaches for racing. There are people who go very fast and are great racers, but they push themselves too hard beyond what they're comfortable with and they hurt themselves and have to quit racing. You would think racing would be just limited by skill, but you can easily be fast and unsafe. 

The same goes for freestyle, you can easily do tricks in an unsafe way and still survive most of the time. 

The key to being a good snowboarder is to progress in a way where you are safe enough to not hurt yourself yet still making good progress. It is not how fast you can make progress. Make progress too fast and you hurt yourself and you take huge steps back. 

Just get back up on the hill and remember you pushed yourself too hard, I don't want to be rude but unless it was some freak accident, you wouldn't have hurt yourself if you were more in tune with progressing within your limits. Just take a little step back and start progressing and pushing yourself once you feel more confident at your what you're currently doing. 

I've never had a serious injury, but I have had some very good crashes. And every time it's because I was pushing things too far.


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## Oldman (Mar 7, 2012)

I had rotator cuff surgery in January of 2020 after blowing the shoulder out in November of 2019. I lost the entire '19 / '20 season. I took my rehab very seriously and last year, fall of 2020 I was back on the hill. I took it very easy at first, never getting out of my comfort zone. As the season progressed, my comfort zone expanded, but only after my first fall when I realized that the shoulder was up to the task, that my confidence level returned to what it once was.
Get back on the hill, but pace yourself. It's all about confidence and have some confidence in knowing that a break heals faster and better than soft tissue damage.


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## Eivind så klart (Aug 30, 2020)

I had a bad injury that put me in the hospital for a week. Didn’t ride for two years after that, lost my sponsor and never took place in a contest again.

I didn’t miss the actually riding, i missed talking shit while building jumps in the BC, the friendships and afterpartys. But watching S.B movies gave me the cravings to go riding again.

So I have no other tips than to do what made you stoked to go riding before your injury, for me it was the S.B movies that gave me butterflyes.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

A couple of years ago I had a boarding crash that resulted in a significant lower back sprain with patrol bucket, ambulance and ER thing. I was off the hill for three weeks and then VERY tentatively back riding...Mrs. W and buds thought I was crazy. But hey I was back on the bunny hill...THANKFUL, LOVING IT and chatting up the noobs. However it took me the next season to really get my confidence back. Now at 62 yrs, have a completely different mindset of riding another day and getting off the hill in one piece. Some days just relax and take it easy. I'm fine with just getting one or two runs that feel on point and flowing.

So the point is...dial back your expectations, just take it easy and be thankful. Work on skills and drills; confidence will come and you'll be back in the zone in no time.


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## WigMar (Mar 17, 2019)

wrathfuldeity said:


> So the point is...dial back your expectations, just take it easy and be thankful. Work on skills and drills; confidence will come and you'll be back in the zone in no time.


I agree with this wholeheartedly. I've had a number of really bad injuries that I've had to limp back from. With the amount of hardware I'm rocking now, I ride much differently than I used to. Gone are my big park days. I even freeride more conservatively. I'm the guy spotting the landings on drops more often than not these days. Thankfully, deep carving and tree riding keep me really happy on the hill. Even that comes with risks, but I'm avoiding the steel for the foreseeable future.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

speedjason said:


> Season is coming up and I am having hard time getting back into snowboarding again after I broke my arm in May in fear of getting hurt again.
> Anyone has similar mental difficulties?


The break down...lol. "Getting back into" = anticipatory anxiety which is imaginational not reality...instead focus on stokage...watch sb movies, wax and prepare equipment, hang with your riding buds.

Yea, "I broke my arm" (idk was it snowboarding or something else?)....well fuck at least you didn't loose it nor is it non functioning.

Its always interesting that folks don't mention pain. Pain is an interpretation, a learned response. There are several interpretations of pain...perhaps S&M, stupidity leaving your body...oh its a lesson dipshit...etc. Anyway later, pain is not felt as in remembered...its only the situation that is remembered in which the pain occurred.

"Fear of getting hurt" Hey its fear or LOVE. Which would you rather do...get chased all over hell by your fears, demons and anxieties or...chase your passion, love and joy? Living life in fear or with love? I know which one sounds like hell to me.


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## ridethecliche (Feb 27, 2019)

I've had two bad injuries, one when cycling during college when I used to race and another when snowboarding. For both, the best way I found to move forward again was to start back at the basics and only move forward when I felt the itch and boredom from holding myself back. Part of things is that you need to prove to yourself that you can do simple things before building back up to where you were. It'll come in time fosho, but if you force it you really risk doing too much too soon and hurting yourself physically or taking a mental hit that is going to throw you in the hole again.

So go ride easy. Go take a lesson again. Just go enjoy yourself. Worry about the development and the checklist later. Remind yourself why you went out there to begin with. Let the rest fall into place as it feels right.



wrathfuldeity said:


> But hey I was back on the bunny hill...THANKFUL, LOVING IT and *chatting up the noobs*.


So how many of them did you introduce to the creepy basement video?


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## RobPowderjunkie (Oct 7, 2021)

speedjason said:


> Season is coming up and I am having hard time getting back into snowboarding again after I broke my arm in May in fear of getting hurt again.
> Anyone has similar mental difficulties?


hey man!

I understand you 1000%. I know where you´re at because I´ve been there myself. Almost torn my left MCL after crashing from a big jump which resulted in having to stay put for a month at home with a knee-brace. On the 5th week the hunger for snowboarding was big and I went back.....but putting the 3rd gear instead of the 6th... then after riding a day at this more relaxed pace, the next day I went freeriding at a steep spot at my home resort. And as I was riding down, something flipped, like a switch in my brain and got into the "surfy flow mode" where I completely forgot about reinjuring again. That being said, I still toned down my snowboarding (meaning no big jumps, at least in the park for the remainder of last season!!).

The point of all this, is that at some point it´ll be inevitable for you too, to press that button in your brain, where you can finally free yourself from the fear of getting reinjured. For some people this takes 2 weeks. For some other 4, for some even months! Just don´t stress it and especially don´t give in to "social pressure" and end up doing things you still don´t feel confortable with. It´ll all come back again buddy  Just GO BACK OUT THERE, but at YOUR OWN pace  all the best!!


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## Snowdaddy (Feb 2, 2018)

speedjason said:


> Season is coming up and I am having hard time getting back into snowboarding again after I broke my arm in May in fear of getting hurt again.
> Anyone has similar mental difficulties?


What do you mean when you say “get back “?


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## unsuspected (Oct 26, 2015)

Drugs.


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## lab49232 (Sep 13, 2011)

I've ran the gamut and with no exaggeration nearly died on more than one occasion 

Stranded in crevasse, lacerated liver, ruptured adrenal gland, separated all my ribs from the cartilage, broken arm, torn hip flexor.

And snowboarding is still the thing I get most excited to do. Only the crevasse incident had my mentally shook for a little while.

The crazy part is I am by no means a desperate adrenalin junkie, I ride next to 0 park either. With each incident I was immediately able to look back and go "this is what I did wrong, that was a stupid mistake" and that is the most important part. Every fall and accident was a teaching moment which in a way gave me new confidence. Most people don't need to brake a bone more than once to not make the same mistake again. As long as you learn rather than blame happenstance you should be just fine.


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## RobPowderjunkie (Oct 7, 2021)

lab49232 said:


> Stranded in crevasse, lacerated liver, ruptured adrenal gland, separated all my ribs from the cartilage, broken arm, torn hip flexor.


Damn… what happened in the crevasse incident? Did you break all of the above in that single episode.??


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## lab49232 (Sep 13, 2011)

RobPowderjunkie said:


> Damn… what happened in the crevasse incident? Did you break all of the above in that single episode.??


The above are a combination of 4 incidents, the crevasse incident, while scariest, actually resulted in only mental injury. 

Classic idiot story. Huge powder dump, on a weekday I had off, at a resort I was new to. Being a weekday I had nobody to ride with, and yet I decided to go in to a gated, but in bounds, part of the resort. Got to the gate and only one line of tracks were there so i went "hey just be safe follow those, it'll be fine." Well after a while the tracks went up and over a small knoll, i couldn't see behind the knoll and decided to circle around it staying in a small ravine, second i got around the knoll I see a small deep looking hole and try to slam on the brakes. Suddenly all the snow under me gave way and i was falling down the hole. Amazingly while falling i managed to wedge my board in to one side of the wall and my back against the other side. So im sitting there suspended about 5 feet below what was the surface. I look below me, it's a giant cavern with a stream running through it. Probably about a 20' drop to the bottom if I go, and absolutely no way out.

Long story short I sat there afraid to move in case the snow gave way more for a long LONG time. Eventually i realized there's nobody who is ever going to find me there, Decide I have to find a way out myself. Managed to reach my binding straps just enough to get them off. Then slowly did this kind of walk up one side of the wall, then inch slide my back up the other side of the wall, did that all the way to the top of the hole and dragged myself out. I didn't want to even see snow for a few weeks after that. Only time I have ever put my snowboard in storage during season.


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## Scalpelman (Dec 5, 2017)

lab49232 said:


> The above are a combination of 4 incidents, the crevasse incident, while scariest, actually resulted in only mental injury.
> 
> Classic idiot story. Huge powder dump, on a weekday I had off, at a resort I was new to. Being a weekday I had nobody to ride with, and yet I decided to go in to a gated, but in bounds, part of the resort. Got to the gate and only one line of tracks were there so i went "hey just be safe follow those, it'll be fine." Well after a while the tracks went up and over a small knoll, i couldn't see behind the knoll and decided to circle around it staying in a small ravine, second i got around the knoll I see a small deep looking hole and try to slam on the brakes. Suddenly all the snow under me gave way and i was falling down the hole. Amazingly while falling i managed to wedge my board in to one side of the wall and my back against the other side. So im sitting there suspended about 5 feet below what was the surface. I look below me, it's a giant cavern with a stream running through it. Probably about a 20' drop to the bottom if I go, and absolutely no way out.
> 
> Long story short I sat there afraid to move in case the snow gave way more for a long LONG time. Eventually i realized there's nobody who is ever going to find me there, Decide I have to find a way out myself. Managed to reach my binding straps just enough to get them off. Then slowly did this kind of walk up one side of the wall, then inch slide my back up the other side of the wall, did that all the way to the top of the hole and dragged myself out. I didn't want to even see snow for a few weeks after that. Only time I have ever put my snowboard in storage during season.


Crazy story. Lucky to be alive. So you lost the deck? 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

lab49232 said:


> The above are a combination of 4 incidents, the crevasse incident, while scariest, actually resulted in only mental injury.
> 
> Classic idiot story. Huge powder dump, on a weekday I had off, at a resort I was new to. Being a weekday I had nobody to ride with, and yet I decided to go in to a gated, but in bounds, part of the resort. Got to the gate and only one line of tracks were there so i went "hey just be safe follow those, it'll be fine." Well after a while the tracks went up and over a small knoll, i couldn't see behind the knoll and decided to circle around it staying in a small ravine, second i got around the knoll I see a small deep looking hole and try to slam on the brakes. Suddenly all the snow under me gave way and i was falling down the hole. Amazingly while falling i managed to wedge my board in to one side of the wall and my back against the other side. So im sitting there suspended about 5 feet below what was the surface. I look below me, it's a giant cavern with a stream running through it. Probably about a 20' drop to the bottom if I go, and absolutely no way out.
> 
> Long story short I sat there afraid to move in case the snow gave way more for a long LONG time. Eventually i realized there's nobody who is ever going to find me there, Decide I have to find a way out myself. Managed to reach my binding straps just enough to get them off. Then slowly did this kind of walk up one side of the wall, then inch slide my back up the other side of the wall, did that all the way to the top of the hole and dragged myself out. I didn't want to even see snow for a few weeks after that. Only time I have ever put my snowboard in storage during season.


That's a crazy story. I once slid half way down a boulder cliff due to powder and poor visibility. Clawed my way up. The drop was about 20 ft and rocky.


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## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

Snowdaddy said:


> What do you mean when you say “get back “?


I mean get back to riding after a couple months.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

lab49232 said:


> The above are a combination of 4 incidents, the crevasse incident, while scariest, actually resulted in only mental injury.
> 
> Classic idiot story. Huge powder dump, on a weekday I had off, at a resort I was new to. Being a weekday I had nobody to ride with, and yet I decided to go in to a gated, but in bounds, part of the resort. Got to the gate and only one line of tracks were there so i went "hey just be safe follow those, it'll be fine." Well after a while the tracks went up and over a small knoll, i couldn't see behind the knoll and decided to circle around it staying in a small ravine, second i got around the knoll I see a small deep looking hole and try to slam on the brakes. Suddenly all the snow under me gave way and i was falling down the hole. Amazingly while falling i managed to wedge my board in to one side of the wall and my back against the other side. So im sitting there suspended about 5 feet below what was the surface. I look below me, it's a giant cavern with a stream running through it. Probably about a 20' drop to the bottom if I go, and absolutely no way out.
> 
> Long story short I sat there afraid to move in case the snow gave way more for a long LONG time. Eventually i realized there's nobody who is ever going to find me there, Decide I have to find a way out myself. Managed to reach my binding straps just enough to get them off. Then slowly did this kind of walk up one side of the wall, then inch slide my back up the other side of the wall, did that all the way to the top of the hole and dragged myself out. I didn't want to even see snow for a few weeks after that. Only time I have ever put my snowboard in storage during season.


Yup valuable life lesson. Had a similar experience 4 decades ago free-climbing alone on a wall in the Tetons. Got about 3/4 up. After about 1.5-2 hours of being absolutely petrified, it was getting dark and cold...decided I'm going to die or die trying. Twas able to skooch along a 1/2" crack/ledge for about 80 feet and then jump down about 20 feet to a shale sluff. Got back to camp a changed person. But not that much, a couple of years ago a friend gave me a t-shirt with a snowboarder..."Don't follow me, I do stupid shit."


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## lab49232 (Sep 13, 2011)

Scalpelman said:


> Crazy story. Lucky to be alive. So you lost the deck?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Honestly my brain has kind of repressed whole parts of it at this point, weird way we cope with trauma. Without going in to a huge story i was exhausted in the middle of nowhere in feet of snow and realized i wasn't making it back without my board in that state, this was rugged steep terrain. So I went a ways back from the whole and started kind of digging a trench towards it, then hooked a tree branch through the heel cup of the binding and pulled it out. If I didnt absolutely need the board to make it back I would have gladly said good riddance and let the mountain have it, digging back to the edge of the pit that almost ate me was not a great experience mentally.


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## DaveMcI (Aug 19, 2013)

I broke my arm 2 years ago in the glades of Killington on a powder day by my self. Found a downed tree that traped my board and flipped me over hyper extending my elbow (crack), total freak thing. Rode my self out and drove home. I cant not think about it whenever I'm out there. I don't think I'll ever forget. You have to get out there, successful repetition will build confidence. Also a little WHISKEY helps.


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## IanL (Mar 30, 2021)

speedjason said:


> Season is coming up and I am having hard time getting back into snowboarding again after I broke my arm in May in fear of getting hurt again.
> Anyone has similar mental difficulties?


*Danger is lurking right around the corner.* Or under the snow because you don't always know what's under the snow. I've got a fairly long list of injuries from snowboarding. One time I did break my arm too and after that I hardly snowboarded at all for like 15 years. Then I started a safer sport like BJJ and Judo, lol. But last season I got back into snowboarding and had so much fun.

I always tell me self to play smart and focus, but you got to play really smart and even then something unexpected can happen like you hit a rock and patch of ice or someone jumps out of knowwhere.

My thinking is you want to push yourself - I do anyways. I like riding but I like hitting jumps. I like practicing tricks - I am a little eratic, some days are good and others I can't do what I was doing before and then I try harder but that is asking for it.

Some jumps are better than others some days are too. This past season I rode like 80-90 days often for just 2 hours, but it was fine. 

I tried to ease back into it. No hucking I'd say yet sometimes I tried to hard, then sometimes I got hurt a bit or aggravated an old injury and even doing little stuff. Like this one time there's this little hit where I was practicing switch backside 180's and I sort of floated weird, touched down and saw I was pointed right towards the trees then the next thing I know I caught my heel edge and my head slammed into the snow. 

Head didn't feel right for a few days. Gotta get a helmet.

It's so easy to get caught in the moment. So I've asked myself why have I had so many injuries? I think there are different reasons yet I also thought for every time I got injured there were thousands of times when I didn't.

Give yourself a margin of error. Lots of things I could say. Slow down. Watch your EGO. Play smart. Appreciate what you have and can do. Stop trying to impress people. 

But you get caught up in the moment. 

And careful who you ride with.

You have to stop and think of how fast you're flying by trees. I hit a tree once not fun. I went riding with a couple dudes from my work last season and just way to fast. Like thye pretty much pointed it straight down the hill. It's not only your ego you have to watch but other people's egos too. 

Some get kicks off of jumps and trickery and others speed. Heard one liftee last season who was a good skier went flying off the trail into the woods luckily he ended up okay. But you can die.

Pros get effed up too.

The truth is I don't know what the best mindset or way is to avoid injury other than not doing it. I already said the things I tell myself but I still get hurt often when I am tired or trying too hard or just too close to the edge where a little unexpected variable can throw you off.


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## 16gkid (Dec 5, 2012)

Dude im right there with you, I destroyed my wrist mid august riding my onewheel and its the hand that usually ends up on the ground when im carving. Im definitely gonna be out there but gonna be riding a little easier and take a few less risks, and of course wrist guard


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## Snowdaddy (Feb 2, 2018)

speedjason said:


> I mean get back to riding after a couple months.


So what we have here is a case of fear of being scared in the future? That's actually not very uncommon.

Get on the snowboard and don't have any goal than doing really mellow runs. My guess is that your skills are well above getting down a green run safely. Get some mellow carving in. and see how it feels once you get that board on edge.


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## easyrider16 (Sep 28, 2020)

Repeat this to yourself slowly:

"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."


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## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

Got back on the hill last two weekends and even went back to the place I hurt myself. Gave me a mini panic moment but the joy of being able to ride again overcame the worry very quickly.
Thanks everyone for helping.


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## That_one_guy (11 mo ago)

I had a fall that led to a concussion and I am still trying to gain back confidence from falling and I got no idea how so I need some tips but what ive been doing is just going on easier runs.


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## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

Update, took a fall early this month, arm is fine, wrist not so much. Distal radius fracture. Good thing is no surgery is needed. My left arm hates me. I have broken it in three places. Nothing else on the rest of my body.


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## Scalpelman (Dec 5, 2017)

speedjason said:


> Update, took a fall early this month, arm is fine, wrist not so much. Distal radius fracture. Good thing is no surgery is needed. My left arm hates me. I have broken it in three places. Nothing else on the rest of my body.


Jeez dude. Put some wrist protectors on next year. 


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## PistePioneer (Nov 28, 2020)

Scalpelman said:


> Jeez dude. Put some wrist protectors on next year.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I'm considering getting some myself next year. I've been playing around with butters a lot more this year and it has resulted in me catching my edges and spraining my wrists a bunch lol


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## speedjason (May 2, 2013)

Scalpelman said:


> Jeez dude. Put some wrist protectors on next year.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I am gonna. I guess I got over fear no problem lol.
Need to pad up next year when hitting the park for sure.


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## ridethecliche (Feb 27, 2019)

Note to self to add pads next season.


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## lajs1 (Jan 29, 2021)

The last time I was on a board was March 2021. Caught an edge and was thrown forward into a patch of ice. My left shoulder took majority of the impact. First week of 2022, had a trip planned for Saturday for my first ride of the season, as well as since being hurt. Got called in to work instead. Someone on forklift backed into to me pinning me between another piece of equipment. Acute compartment syndrome surgery had me using a walker until April, and I have a feeling I’m not going to be recovered enough to get out this coming season either.


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## Kevink121 (Oct 26, 2010)

Ive separated my shoulder 3 times. Im 33. Still getting after it but at a much reduced level. 

Go slow, get into whatever groove feels comfy for you and dont over exert past your comfortability level.


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## Scalpelman (Dec 5, 2017)

lajs1 said:


> The last time I was on a board was March 2021. Caught an edge and was thrown forward into a patch of ice. My left shoulder took majority of the impact. First week of 2022, had a trip planned for Saturday for my first ride of the season, as well as since being hurt. Got called in to work instead. Someone on forklift backed into to me pinning me between another piece of equipment. Acute compartment syndrome surgery had me using a walker until April, and I have a feeling I’m not going to be recovered enough to get out this coming season either.


Wow that awful. Thigh or leg? Both?


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## sabatoa (Jan 18, 2011)

Oldman said:


> I had rotator cuff surgery in January of 2020 after blowing the shoulder out in November of 2019. I lost the entire '19 / '20 season. I took my rehab very seriously and last year, fall of 2020 I was back on the hill. I took it very easy at first, never getting out of my comfort zone. As the season progressed, my comfort zone expanded, but only after my first fall when I realized that the shoulder was up to the task, that my confidence level returned to what it once was.
> Get back on the hill, but pace yourself. It's all about confidence and have some confidence in knowing that a break heals faster and better than soft tissue damage.


Glad to hear this! Had surgery August 2 to repair a massive full tear. Doc said surgery was good, and should have a full recovery if I am diligent with PT and not lifting too soon. He says to wait till January to ride, and to take it easy this season, not the year to learn new tricks, but otherwise I'm good to go. I'm happy to hear that next season will truly be a back to normal season.


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