Hey guys,

I've been back at the gym for about three weeks after a shoulder reconstruction earlier in the year.
Apart from the obvious lack of strength, managing the soreness is what is really annoying. I have no problem feeling sore after the gym, but it's really hard to tell if it's a beneficial thing or if you are doing damage.
I usually liked to push myself pretty hard, but I've been really tentative lately, to the point where there is sometimes even no soreness at all, which then probably wouldn't be giving any benefit.
So I was just wondering what sort of injuries you guys might have had, and how you managed the intensity once you went back the gym.

Cheers.

You should know whats a good and bad pain. You won't always feel sore after a gym session. I know I rarely get sore anymore as my body is conditioned now to what I dish out to it at the gym. Unless I throw something unexpected to shock the muscles I rarely get "sore"...

Just take it easy with your weights, keep a journal of your starting weights and each week add some weight, reps or sets and keep building on that, just keep progressing up.

Recently with lifting in correctly and labouring i managed to rotate a vertebrae. Ive also had an inflamed bicep tendon that is having a hard time healing.
Basicly im not working out atm because of it all.

Good has come from it tho. Ive been seeing a osteopath, using deep tissue massage and recently tried pilates. Im learning alot about my body. Its not just a matter of picking things up off the floor any more. If i could have my time over again i would love to work in that sort of industry.

Low weight and high reps is the way to go until you start building strength up again, get your range of movement back. As far as soreness goes some people get DOMS after the gym some people don't it depends on the person, if you feel pain straight away in a particular area then that is your nervous system warning you that you are doing damage to where ever the pain is, normally it's a sharp pain that comes on suddenly much different to DOMS.

I tore my Rectus Femoris(one of my quad muscles) couldn't do any leg work for 6 weeks but like I said above started doing high reps and low weight to get my strength and ROM back gradually.