Comeback: Your Worst Injury

[MarioNTexas]

Not sure if there has ever been a thread of this nature, but I would like to know what has been everyone's worst injury they have had to overcome.

I was recently reading an article about Ed Corney, who suffered a heart attack and stroke, as a result of shoulder surgery. For a time, he was in a wheelchair, but he eventually ditched it and was able to return to the gym. Not an easy feat, especially considering his age. Of course, I'm sure he takes it easy now.

I've also noticed people on this site, who have had to overcome difficult hurdles, in order to attain their current physiques and lifestyles. People who are phsycially challenged, yet have refused to throw in the towel. These are people who are a deep well of inspiration and bravery.

For myself, my most difficult injury took place when I was 18 years old. I started lifting when I was 16, and was very active in high school athletics. Unfortunately, there was a time when I ran with a wild crowd; and as a result, I suffered a gunshot wound to my heart. A .22 calibur bullet was lodged in my left ventricle; and I required emergency open-heart surgery to remove it. In addition, my spleen had to be removed, and my diaphragm requried repairing, via surgery. I was a complete mess and was on life support the first day out of surgery. Fortunely, there was no serious damage, and I was given the OK to resume physical activity within six weeks.

It was the most difficult injury of my life. I had dropped 20 pounds in a week, and my muscles had wasted away. On top of that, recovering from surgery was quite painful, considering my sternum was cracked open and I had over 150 staples from the bottom of my stomach to the top of my chest. It looked as though I had a giant zipper along the center of my torso.

Of course, being that young, there was less fear in me than there would be today. Immediately after six weeks, I began to jog very lightly, but could only run half a mile (I could previously run 3.8 miles in a little over 20 minutes). I went from doing over 100 push-ups to a measely 20. No doubt, it was quite easy to allow depression to set in, as I didn't quite know if I would ever be the same.

Eventually, as I took my time and paced myself, I was back to running a couple of miles (though never with the same speed as I could before the injury); and I was up to about 60-80 push ups within a few months. I had also started working at UPS, 6 months after surgery, unloading trucks during the hottest times of the day. But once again, I was very young, and my body was able to bounce back very quickly. Within a year of surgery, I was back to lifting weights again. And within 2 years of surgery, I was benching well over 300 pounds.

Since my surgery, I sometimes get arrythmias and palpations; but I know when to take it easy, by not pushing myself. Of course, if they were life-threatening (which is not the case), I probably wouldn't be working out at all. Probably just participate in moderate activity.


I haven't had quite the same wind that I did before surgery, but I was still able to capture an amatuer boxing title in 1996, when I was 24 years old. I went from having excellent cardiovascular conditioning, before surgery, to just good conditioning, after surgery. Mostly, my chest locks up, due to the way that it was put back together, and I'm sometimes not able to get a full breath when I exert myself. Other than that, I'm okay. :-)

Since then, I've had an emergency appendectomy and a blown pectoral. But those injuries were nothing, compared to what I went through when I was 18. Of course, now that I'm older, I'm not sure that I have it in me to come back from an injury of that magnitude today.


Please feel free to share your worst injuries, how they challenged you, and how you have overcame it.

[Phil2009]

In order of time:

1) Fractured big toe
Couldnt do any standing exercises, had to use machines for all my leg exercises. Took about 2 months before I was at it again, wasnt such a big deal.

2) Fractured pinky finger
Couldnt hold any weights, this was a hell of a lot worse than a broken toe. Took about 1 month before I started up light, and 2 months before I was fully training again.

3) Fractured same pinky finger
This wasnt as bad as the first time. A month later I was training again.

4) Finally, and worse of all. March this year I had jaw surgery, so training wasnt the problem. Not being able to eat solid food for a month, and not being able to eat proper food for a month after that was by far the worst. I cant even look at soup anymore. I was trying to maintain my weight, but its really hard with your jaw closed up. Lost about 7.5kg (16.5lbs) and still trying to get it all up there. This set back my training and weight range heaps. Finally getting back up there.

[DaBurg3r]

well I wouldn't call mine so much of an injury as I would describe it was what I did to myself before I got into weight training. I used to do A LOT of drugs, hard **** I mean. After a few years of this, the drug abuse had caused my veins and arteries to narrow to the point that I got a six inch blood clot starting in my right arm extending into my chest all the way to the inferior vena cava. The surgeon who removed the clot had seen this type of thing before (I was 17 at the time) and was pissed. Any way though long story short, I spent 24 hours in the ICU and another 4 days in the hospital before being discharged. I continued using though, and 3 years later when I finally decided to do something about my bad habits. I was down to about 115 pounds, and couldn't even run a 1/4 mile. I got into body building about a year after I got cleaned up, and have been doing that for the past 2.5 years now. I am up to a body weight of 188 right now, and will be doing my first weight lifting competition in september. That's my come back story, I rule!

[DaBurg3r]

0h yeah, one time I got carpal tunnel in my right arm from working on this huge project at work and had to stop training biceps almost entirely because it hurt to squeeze the bar and curl. I used to be able to rep 95lbs 12 times, but have only just worked back up to sets of 8. That was in january of this year. I had to basically stop using computers entirely and could really only do hammer curls

[MarioNTexas]

In order of time:

1) Fractured big toe
Couldnt do any standing exercises, had to use machines for all my leg exercises. Took about 2 months before I was at it again, wasnt such a big deal.

Those injuries are a bummer. I once fractured my big toe when I dropped a 25 lb. plate on it. Working out my legs was painful for my foot. Too much pressure on leg press, etc.

4) Finally, and worse of all. March this year I had jaw surgery, so training wasnt the problem. Not being able to eat solid food for a month, and not being able to eat proper food for a month after that was by far the worst. I cant even look at soup anymore. I was trying to maintain my weight, but its really hard with your jaw closed up. Lost about 7.5kg (16.5lbs) and still trying to get it all up there. This set back my training and weight range heaps. Finally getting back up there.

Heh! Wait until you get to my age; and you'll be happy when you lose weight. Last Fall, I had a tonsillectomy (right after I tore my pectoral), and I freakin' gained weight! Really sucked. But I know how it is when you are young and are trying to gain/maintain size. I remember when there was a time, in my younger years, when I would lose weight if I stopped lifting for 2 weeks, or if I was sick for a couple of days.

[MarioNTexas]

well I wouldn't call mine so much of an injury as I would describe it was what I did to myself before I got into weight training. I used to do A LOT of drugs, hard **** I mean. After a few years of this, the drug abuse had caused my veins and arteries to narrow to the point that I got a six inch blood clot starting in my right arm extending into my chest all the way to the inferior vena cava. The surgeon who removed the clot had seen this type of thing before (I was 17 at the time) and was pissed. Any way though long story short, I spent 24 hours in the ICU and another 4 days in the hospital before being discharged. I continued using though, and 3 years later when I finally decided to do something about my bad habits. I was down to about 115 pounds, and couldn't even run a 1/4 mile. I got into body building about a year after I got cleaned up, and have been doing that for the past 2.5 years now. I am up to a body weight of 188 right now, and will be doing my first weight lifting competition in september. That's my come back story, I rule!

That's quite a story, there. Congrats on staying clean.

[MikeDS]

Not as bad as others but I was bench pressing one day and the bar accidentally slipped out of my (sweaty) hands ( no gloves then ) and it smacked right onto my stomach and I found out the next day that I tore my bottom left ab muscle. Couldn't walk for a week and stayed in bed for about 3-4 weeks.

[Tyrbolift]

i once did a heavy leg workout, including different kinds of leg curls, and then the next day I went mountain with a buddy and we did some bouldering, which requires raising the legs up really high and then pushing down to "get up" on each boulder. That's when I tore my hamstring ligament.

It caused extreme pain to sit still for too long, or to drive for too long (it was the right hamstring). Sometimes it just felt good to wear a tight wrap around it and walk back and forth instead of sitting. It took a good year and a half to heal, but what really did the trick was taking fish oil capsules. That's when it really started to heal in earnest.

[MarioNTexas]

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