Cut From Steel

They told him he would never kick again.

Bruce Lee wrecked his back in 1970 doing a heavy barbell lift without warming up first. The bar was roughly his own bodyweight. Something in his lower spine gave on the last repetition, and the damage to a sacral nerve stayed with him for the rest of his life.

Linda Lee Cadwell later recalled what the doctors said. They ordered him to bed, told him to stop training, and told him to forget kung fu because he would never kick again. The man who had built an entire philosophy out of movement was handed a verdict of stillness.

I find the next part remarkable. Lee could not train his body, so he trained the only thing available to him. Flat on his back for something close to six months, he filled notebook after notebook with everything he understood about fighting, balance and the uses of a human body.

Those notes became The Tao of Jeet Kune Do, published in 1975 after his death. He also got up. Lee returned to work, made the film that turned him into a permanent figure, and did it carrying a spine that hurt every day.

You are not being asked to write a philosophy from a hospital bed. Your shoulder grumbles when you reach for the top shelf, so you started reaching with the other arm instead. A joint you stop using is a joint you start losing. Lee could not move for six months and still refused that trade.

The arm you stopped raising

You reached into the back seat about a year ago and something in the shoulder bit you. Nothing dramatic happened. The next week you loaded the groceries with the other arm, and you have been doing it that way ever since.

I have watched this exact drift in men your age more times than I can count. Nobody decides to stop using a shoulder. You simply stop putting it above your head, stop reaching behind your back, and one morning you cannot fasten a seatbelt without turning your whole body.

You did not injure that shoulder by using it. The range disappeared while you were protecting it.

It's not age. It's these three.

I want to break the shoulder down into three separate problems, because men treat them as one and then treat that one badly.

01 / Your Rotator Cuff

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons says most rotator cuff tears come from the tendon wearing down slowly over time, as a natural part of ageing, and that risk climbs after forty. Roughly two million Americans a year see a doctor about one. AAOS also notes that some tears are not painful at all, though they can still leave the arm weak. So weakness without pain is worth a look, rather than a wait.

02 / The Capsule

Frozen shoulder is a separate animal, and it targets your exact demographic. AAOS says it most commonly hits people between forty and sixty. Cleveland Clinic reports that between 10% and 20% of people with diabetes develop it. The bag of tissue around the joint thickens and tightens until the arm simply stops going where you send it, and Harvard puts full recovery at anywhere from several months to two or three years.

03 / The Sling You Built

Harvard Health gives the warning worth pinning to the fridge... you do not want to stop moving the shoulder altogether, because that can lead to frozen shoulder, where the tissues around the joint shrink and cut your range of motion. Immobility is on the clinical list of causes, not just a consequence. The sling nobody prescribed is the one you built out of habit.

Take it back today

You should know the odds before you panic about surgery. AAOS reports that in about 80 to 85% of patients, nonsurgical treatment relieves pain and improves shoulder function. Harvard says more than 90% of people with frozen shoulder improve without an operation, with physical therapy as the cornerstone... stretching the capsule first, strengthening afterward.

I want you to run the check a doctor runs. Reach behind your head and try to touch the top of the opposite shoulder blade, then reach behind your back and try to touch the bottom of it. Physicians call that the Apley scratch test. It is an examination move rather than a home diagnosis, so treat a bad result as a reason to book an appointment.

You start today with range, not weight. Take the arm through its full arc in every direction, slowly, twice a day, and stop short of real pain. Then get an actual assessment before you load it. A physical therapist is cheaper than an operating theatre and better at telling the three problems apart.

You have spent a year working around that arm. A joint you use is a joint you keep. Raise it today.

— Travis

Insider Member's Corner

6 free habits that keep the hinges working:

You didn't put in 45 years to settle for beige.

01 / Wheels · Jeep Wrangler Rubicon

The Rubicon is the version Jeep builds for men who actually leave the pavement... locking differentials front and rear, a disconnecting sway bar, and gearing meant for rock rather than the interstate. Kelley Blue Book puts the current four-door Rubicon in the low fifties before destination. It rides like a farm implement and it will get you up something a luxury SUV would refuse. Some purchases are about capability you rarely use, and there is no shame in that.

02 / Leather · Saddleback Leather briefcase

Saddleback cuts these from full-grain leather in shapes that have not changed much in twenty years, and backs them with a hundred-year warranty against defects in craftsmanship or materials. Their briefcases run from about $380 to $940, with the Classic and Front Pocket models landing near $650. This is a bag your son ends up arguing over. Buy one thing that outlives you and carry your work in it.

03 / Book · Can't Hurt Me, David Goggins

Goggins published this in 2018. He came out of poverty and abuse, dropped an enormous amount of weight, went through Navy SEAL training on his third attempt, and turned to ultra-endurance racing after that. The argument running through it is that most men use a fraction of what they have. Read it with some salt... the man is an outlier and the book knows it. Read it anyway on a week when you are negotiating with yourself.