Dislocated My Shoulder at the Gym feat. Ligament Laxity

Part of my 2026 Resolution is to get fit. I did buy a 180-day off-peak gym pass using the SG60 government’s money. And 2 weeks later, I had already gone to the gym five times. Here’s an update from someone suffering from NAFLD and chronic conditions.

Bukit Canberra ActiveSG Gym

I’m going to put it out here: Gymming is hard. But gymming with ligament laxity, worn knee cartilage from sports injury, an unknown exercise-induced anaphylaxis (prawns), some new influenza bug spreading in the office, insomnia and NAFLD? Gymming is much harder.

I’m not comparing my progress to others but I did not think it would only take me two weeks before I suffered my first major setback.

The setback? My left shoulder is partially dislocated after the gym flop session yesterday.

How did it happen? Let me narrate while typing with one hand because my right wrist is also fucked up.

For context, I’ve been very busy lately due to my official job, doing the year-end accounts closing preparations. I barely had any time to give Coffee Creed the much-needed attention. Despite it all, I still made time after work for the gym as promised to myself.

Did I feel under the weather? Absolutely. Did I give a shit? Not particularly. After all, it’s discipline that gets things done and not motivation.

That’s the first major rookie mistake. Always listen to your body.

Hokkein Mee at Woodlands 11

As usual, I would eat lunch before the gym. Normally, I’d order duck noodles. It’s usually something light. But I already had that on Monday, and it was Thursday. I could afford to try something new, so I opted for prawn noodles instead. Normally, I’m alright eating prawns. At most, I’ll get a terrible nose itch for a few hours. It’s like Russian Roulette when it comes to shrimps for me. I’m not particularly allergic to them, but they can get annoying.

No big deal, right? I mean, I’ve done this before.

That was mistake number two. Know that my immune system was already fighting insomnia and an influenza that might be spreading in the office. On Wednesday, I already felt a tingle at the back of my throat. Did I listen to the signs? No. Moreover, to counter insomnia, I had a double dose of strong coffee. My blood pressure had never been higher. Never jeopardise your immune system before a hard workout. Your body has been through enough. It does not need more work unless you intend to destroy it.

After all the food, I finally travelled to the gym. At this point, my nose had started to itch very badly, and I was feeling a little sluggish. However, I just brushed it off as something normal because it happens. That was a major miscalculation on my part as I checked into the gym and started my usual routine. The following was the plan.

Sometimes I add stuff and try new machines. However, this is the fixed set I try to complete each session. Note that I’m not max loading my muscles. I’m in rehab mode for physical mobility after months of chronic illness, sometimes bed-bound for weeks in 2025.

However, below is the actual result of what happened.

The total time spent was about an hour before I gave up and left. With the heart rate watch beeping in alarm at 145 bpm, telling me to slow down while I was doing the deep kettlebell squats on the second set, I had to admit something was terribly wrong.

On top of feeling more breathless than usual and weak, I suffered vertigo. That has not happened in a while. My heart was racing, so I took it as a serious sign to stop the kettlebell and move on. However, after setting all the machines, with the exception of the glute extension machine, to my regular weight, I noticed something very wrong.

I could not feel the same ease of handling the weight. It was almost as if someone had swapped all the weight plates with something else that made lifting anything much harder. The lats pull down tricep version had my shoulder clicking. But I wanted to finish that last set, and so I did. As a result, I woke up this morning to a partially dislocated shoulder that I put back myself.

I had no idea that weights can be dangerous. I knew that without a spotter, I should not use free weights. Cable machines come with fixed safety mechanisms. I should have been relatively safe, but the shoulder still ended up partially dislocated. Ligament laxity is a real bitch.

Feeling unproductive, I went to the cardio and chose the seated cycling machine because it felt like ‘making up’ for the failed gym session so far. There, I spent twenty minutes almost dying because my heart rate was elevated much more than during the relaxing activity.

Did I learn to listen to my body? Clearly not. But I did research about my condition to see if I should be taking a protein shake after all that dizziness. I decided against it and simply hydrated with coconut water. After all, nausea from overexercising isn’t new to me.

After a difficult gym flop session yesterday, I woke up to a shoulder injury and red skin with many patches that itched worse after I had my morning coffee. As it turns out, overexerting oneself at the gym can result in inflammation and itching. My overworked immune system treated the result of labour as an external threat. Of course, it could easily be fixed with antihistamine pills. I keep those around for a reason. But it’s not exactly great to be relying on it.

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TLDR, listen to the body as a chronically ill gym baby. Don’t be a dum dum!

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