Doing HYROX pain free after a shoulder injury playing rugby.
Jason has been super active since a kid, starting wrestling in 6th grade, track and field in 8th grade, and wrestling, track and field, and football all through high school.
He played football in college, then joined the Army PSYOP. It was after the Army that he discovered rugby while watching the movie Invictus.
He went out and bought “Rugby for Dummies” and some equipment to train on his own before the tryouts. Needless to say, he made the team and played the entire season.
On the first game of the second season, he fractured his cheekbone and orbital socket. By the time it healed enough to play again, he was enrolled in the police academy, and instead trained CrossFit.
Many years later, at the age of 41, Jason started playing rugby again. He was also doing CrossFit regularly, which was getting hard on his body.
During a game, Jason attempted to tackle a bigger player, who “took his arm with him.” He felt something was off with his left shoulder, but self-diagnosed that his rotator cuff was still functional, so he figured he’d give it a chance to get better on its own.
After trying flossing, stretching, foam rolling, and several sessions with a sports chiro, the pain was still there. In the gym, he couldn’t do pushups, bench press, pullups, or kipping movements. With rugby, he had to switch positions to drive with the right shoulder instead. At home, it was disrupting his sleep, he had a hard time just taking off a shirt.
He had heard that Lily had worked with several athletes from his CrossFit gym, so he scheduled a discovery call, did the eval, and signed up for his program.
“I came to Dr. Lilly a few weeks after I injured my shoulder playing rugby. My shoulder continued to weaken and get more painful, even though I was mobilizing and stretching it. After I got to the point I couldn’t do a push up or barely take my shirt off without pain, I decided I needed help.
Within a few weeks, I was doing push ups again. Then another week or two later, I was able to do dips. After six weeks, I could bench press 225lb for 5 reps. Her knowledge and experience provided an elite level of service and allowed me to return to my normal life in a short period of time. I absolutely recommend Ninja Physio for any physical therapy needs.” – Jason
What surprised him was how quickly he recovered. A few weeks in and he was able to do pushups without pain. A few weeks after that, he was bench pressing his pre-injury weight of 225 five times with no pain. Just as important, he learned things that he could do to keep his shoulder strong and help prevent future injuries.
As a precaution for his neck fusion (due to being hit by an IED while on active duty), he figured it’d best to not play the rest of the rugby season and coach his team instead.
His next challenge? Hyrox. Having done things like CrossFit, powerlifting, strongman, and 10-milers, Jason likes that Hyrox requires a combination of endurance, conditioning, and strength. To train for Hyrox, he increased his running volume from 6 miles to 25 miles per week, which eventually started causing some knee pain.
Having no time for pain, he scheduled a session, got the pain resolved, and learned what he needed to do to maintain the running volume without issues (and his shoulder is still doing great, by the way).
He’s already participated in two Hyrox events to get a baseline and measure progress, but he’s set big goals for his next one in November 2025.
