I’ve been an “exercise person” for as long as I can remember.

I started as a runner in my teenage years, and when I entered physical therapy school, I was introduced to strength training—squats, deadlifts, overhead presses. I loved how it felt. I felt stronger, ran faster, and for the first time, I saw visible changes in my body. That eventually led me to CrossFit and Olympic weightlifting, where I found not only a new physical challenge but also a sense of community. Exercise became more than self-care. It became a shared experience with friends. I was drawn to the process of getting stronger, but also to what it represented. I found myself
doing things I once thought were impossible like pull-ups, pistol squats, snatches. It shifted how I saw myself. Lifting heavy weights, especially as a woman, felt like reclaiming a part of me that had been small for a long time.

Over time, though, something began to change.

Persistent shoulder pain is no match for a carefully applied strengthening program. Garet had suffered two bouts of recurrent shoulder pain from a chronic rotator cuff tear.

Physical Therapy student Nathan LaRosa recently shadowed GMCF physical therapist Dr. Kerry McCarthy as part of his studies. He provided the following summary of his experiences, reflecting on what he learned.

This article is the first of several in the Strengthening for Pain and Performance series. My aim with this series of articles is to break down why strengthening is such a potent treatment for pain, how it can help prevent injuries, how to use it to improve performance for endurance sports (or any sport for that matter), and the myriad of health benefits it imparts to people at any age.