Complete Loss of Left Arm Strength

Hi Everyone,

I was tryin got find out information or at least guidance on the next step for my injury. I had been searching around on the web but cannot seem to find anyone with a similar problem.

Here goes:

Last week I hit my tops on Bench Press 315 for 4 reps and it was actually something that I did not struggle too much with and felt comfortable doing again. I continued with the rest of my chest workout and the next day also had a great shoulder workout pressing 100lb dumbbells on my Should Press.

Fast forward 5 days to my next chest day- I warmed up with 135 it felt heavy, so I went to 175lbs and couldn’t even get 2 reps because of a Sharkey feeling on my left chest/shoulder area. So I stopped my workout for the day and continued with the rest of my weeks workouts. Next day on Shouder press couldn’t do anything higher than 60lb dumbbells.

My issue is this, how could I have lost almost all of my strength on my left arm and have no pain at all? I am able to perform all of my other lifts no problem, no loss of strength and even when I do the bench or shoulder press there’s no pain just an uneasy, shaking feeling. Has anyone experienced this? I am at total loss, I have tried getting massages, stretching and taking a few days off from the gym but none of that helped. Thanks for listening.

A good place to get medical advice: a doctor
A bad place to grt merical advice: the internet

Go and see a doctor.

2 Likes

Most people assume that every tear or strain will carry severe pain with it, but some strains or even tears can be relatively pain-free for a bit. See a doctor, get an MRI if possible - it could be nothing that I just mentioned, but if it’s a minor strain, and you keep going with it, you’ll be setting yourself up for surgery.

Ok, I am about to go on vacation for a week so I planned to give myself that time to recover. If I felt bad after I was going to get an MRI done, I was just wondering if It could be a nerve thing?

It could be literally anything, I think you could rest it if it’s pain free, but don’t jump back into benching to test it out, and have a plan to see a doctor. Wall pushups should be enough to tell you if something isn’t right after a week.

Most likely nerve related. When I separated my clavicle, it was a month before I could do a single pushup.

I had that happen to me in the right arm , after weeks going to pt they found out I had stretched a nerve in my upper back right side, hurt pretty bad , no strength at all till it healed