In search of good muscular health

I've spent the week nursing my shoulder along and engaging cautiously in activities.

By Tuesday the cortisone shot and anti-inflammatory medication seemed to be taking effect, and the pain in my right shoulder had subsided.  I did a very short, very easy paddle Tuesday morning, going from the marina down to the mouth of the harbor and back.

After many years of dealing, as both a distance runner and a paddler, with a variety of aches and pains and muscle strains, I'm still no great expert, but I have learned a few things.  One of them is to resist the urge to return to training too quickly.  Another is that the injury was probably caused by a flaw in technique or by a muscle imbalance, and that I should look for some kind of corrective measure.

Correcting a muscle imbalance is a relatively simple matter.  I've found a couple of very simple exercises that I hope will address muscle weaknesses in the rotator cuff area in the coming weeks.  Determining whether there's a problem in my stroke is a trickier challenge for a self-coached athlete with no expert eyes on him every day.  At times like this I feel like my own worst enemy, trying to "protect" the injured area with each stroke rather than just paddling in a normal, relaxed way.

I paddled again on Friday--again, I just went down to the mouth of the harbor and back--and felt a bit more confident.  I hope to increase the distance a little bit next week and see how higher intensity feels the week after that.