Two weeks before the world championships masters swim meet this past January, at 58 years old, I went for a lifetime personal record in weighted dips of 20kg (44 lb). While coming up on the fifth rep of the second set, I felt a weird “shift” in my left shoulder. I climbed down and looked at my shoulder with a vague feeling of nausea and an increasing revulsion – as if my shoulder was no longer part of me. The shoulder didn’t hurt per se, but something was fundamentally wrong. Testing it, I lifted my arm slowly over my head and to the back – like the first movement in backstroke.

When my arm reached maybe 70 or 80 degrees out to the side, a sharp pop echoed in my bones, dropped me to my knees in pain, and caused a passing gym bro to ask, “What the fuck was that?” Though it took me a while to get the medical diagnosis, I had just torn the subscapularis tendon in my left shoulder roughly 90% off the bone and caused a partial, medial tear of the supraspinatus tendon.

I tore my rotator cuff tendons because I was not following The Program.

How did I reach this point? After a few years of lifting, I thought I was experienced and knowledgeable in the Starting Strength program. A few years back, with the advice of friend who was tired of hearing me complain about pain in my lower back, I started doing squats and deadlifts. I found Starting Strength online, and I was captured by all the articles and videos and materials. Living in Europe, I went to a Starting Strength squat, deadlift, and press camp in Brussels led by Steve Ross. To accelerate my development, afterwards I asked Steve to be my online coach. A year or so later, when I went back to Texas for a high-school reunion, I managed to attend the full Starting Strength Seminar at our mecca, the Wichita Falls Athletic Club. There I met everyone whom I had seen in all the videos and articles online – it really felt like I was part of the community.  

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Back home in Estonia, I was even more of an evangelist for anyone who would listen about the benefits of strength training, especially for those middle-aged or older. I felt I was living proof: Starting Strength had supercharged my masters swimming career to reach the top of my niche sport of winter swimming (I wrote about it here Winter Swimming and Starting Strength).

 So, what went wrong? I tore my rotator cuff tendons because I was not following The Program.

In preparation for January’s championships, everything was going well. After six months of online coaching, I had gone off on my own and found that a four-day split (Example 24-20 from The Barbell Prescription) worked well for me. By the middle of last year, I had never been stronger in my life. At 183cm (6 feet) and 93kg (205 lb), my squats had reached a one-rep max of 154kg (339lb), deadlifts 165kg (358lb), bench 121kg (266lb), and press 73kg (161lb). In my niche sport of winter swimming, I felt confident that I could win a couple of events in my age group and even set a record or two.

About two months before the swim meet, I made a couple of fateful decisions. One of the toughest competitors in the sprint butterfly was a Scotsman who had set the age-group world record the previous year. So, on top of my four-day split program, I decided to add weighted dips as the movement is very similar to how one gets power at the end of each stroke in butterfly.

Then, after my progression on dips went very well, I realized that if I pushed the weight faster than planned, my 58-year-old self could beat the personal record in weighted dips set by my 21-year-old self who at the time played Division I collegiate water polo. So, yes, on that fateful day, I went for an ego lift.

I tore my rotator cuff tendons, because I was not following The Program.

So, what does one do if you have blown out your shoulder? Well, you go see an orthopedic surgeon. Sometimes even they find it hard to figure out what happened. Manual manipulation and an MRI scan left the surgeon puzzled. Given my description of the “pop,” though, he ordered a follow-up MRI with contrast dye injected into the shoulder joint beforehand. Finally, this test demonstrated clearly that my subscapularis tendon was hanging by a thread, and my supraspinatus had a medial tear. Surgery was scheduled, but because of some travel on both sides, it was postponed for over two months.

I didn’t want to just atrophy during this period – I needed help. I reached out to Pedro Pereira, a Starting Strength Coach based in Quarteira, Portugal, whom I had met earlier at the camp I went to at Brussels Barbell. Pedro became my savior. To prepare me for surgery, he did some research within the Starting Strength community, and he then put me back under the bar immediately.

Please remember that every case is different, and that you should talk to your orthopedist first. But, in this two-month-plus period, I was able to keep my muscles moving. I was able to squat with a safety squat bar. Pedro had me doing a strict overhead press (no hip bounce), starting at maybe 25% of my max, and I kept at it even though I finished my reps well in front of my head to avoid any pain. And I even got the bench up to 70kg (154lb) until the instability and my unease got us to drop bench and focus just on the press. In hindsight, moving my muscles for the months before surgery was the best thing I could have done for my recovery.

Starting Strength Coaching Set Me Up Well for Surgery and Rehab

My surgeon reattached the subscapularis tendon but left the smaller tear in the supraspinatus alone. Recovery from rotator cuff tendon repair is a long process. For the first six weeks, you are in a sling that binds your arm to your body, and you are required to wear it day and night. Afterwards, with your shoulder feeling like mush and squawking, the standard protocol is to spend three more months on range-of-motion exercises, with light lifting added only in months four and five. My surgeon and physical therapist both warned me against any real lifting before six months.

Already in the first month, I had started using leg machines while wearing my sling, and I shifted to light safety-bar squats and deadlifts after the first six weeks. Since Pedro had prepared me well for surgery, and my range of motion was improving, we cautiously started the rest of the Starting Strength lifts in the fourth month. Light weights only. Squats were with the safety-bar as my shoulder can’t turn back that far yet. Deadlifts were fine as there is no external rotation on the shoulder joint in this lift. I am going slow on strict overhead presses while lifting directly from the pins. And my bench presses are now done with pauses at the bottom.

We started with light weights, and any pain is a reason to stop or slow down. My strength is improving, and I can see myself returning to full strength and range of motion much faster than if I had just followed the physical therapist’s standard protocol. In all of this, I am driven by the understanding that the range of motion I get by the end of six months post-surgery is probably going to be what I have for the rest of my life.

The surgeon did leave the medial tear in my supraspinatus tendon. In the middle of the tendon, I have about half a centimeter pulled away from the bone. With the muscles I am rebuilding around the shoulder, it should be fine for me to return to heavy lifting and swimming.

Following Starting Strength Post-surgery Will Accelerate My Return to Swimming.

Today, my progress feels amazing. In the back of my mind, I am even thinking that if everything holds, then I might be able to compete in a couple of events at the masters world championships in winter swimming in March 2026 in Oulu, Finland. It would be a testament to strength training and to my Starting Strength coaching if I can pull this off at 59-years-old and less than nine months post-surgery. I will talk to my orthopedist before the final decision, and I might swim only breaststroke and not butterfly events as this stroke puts less stress on your shoulder.

During this year, boy have I learned my lesson: Follow The Program. You don’t need more; you don’t need less. You just need to follow the proven way to increase your strength.

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