Dips Hurt My Clavicle?

grew7 2006-04-15 17:30:11 UTC #1

I'm not asking for medical advice on the Internet, that would be stupid. I just want to know if this normal or something I should see a doctor about. Have the rest of you hurt your clavicals from dips before? From poor form or good form?

I'm just doing them with two back-to-back chairs, not sure if that would mess up my form.. Though, I don't really know what proper form would be, either. Am I not supposed to just grab two things and lift myself by pushing down, palms in?

beebuddy 2006-04-15 17:40:44 UTC #2

From your post it's hard to tell how bad you hurt it. If it is a case of minor discomfort that you experience everytime you do the dips then perhaps you need to build your strength up so that form isn't an issue.

To build up more strength for dips start doing 25 reps of incline, flat and decline push-ups. The try chair dips. After a month or two of gettting really strong at this the regular dips will probably be much easier.

Chair dips...

http://www.free-online-health.com/chair-dips.htm

grew7 2006-04-15 18:35:31 UTC #3

I tried chair dips for a week and my clavicals felt like this until I got strong enough to do more than just a few of them. I guess you might be right. Still, I'm not sure what you meant from you post.. Did you mean it's normal and your clavicals hurt a few times as well?

I'm sorry I can't describe, it just feels like.. What's that called when you're running and your shins hurt? Shin splints, I think?

Professor_X 2006-04-15 20:24:29 UTC #4

Dude, from your pics, you are pretty small. I think some of you need to realize that your body has to adjust somewhat to training regularly. If you are a beginner, you can't expect to hop into this with full force and not feel any minor aches and pains. It is a signal to back off a little. However, bodybuilding is about finding your initial limits and pushing them further a little each time. Unless this pain is excruciating, some of this you just allow yourself to heal and attack the exercise again until your body gets used to it.

That is, assuming your form isn't complete crap and you aren't headed towards an injury. No one can see you perform the exercise over the internet. That means some of this will require your own footwork with regards to either watching others or having someone more experienced show you how to do it right. Someone more experienced does NOT onclude the guy who has only been lifting 6 months longer than you.

GuyIncognito 2006-04-15 21:02:08 UTC #5

I went through something similar when I first started dips, I would get this type of pain at the end of my last sets, especially painful when I would get down from the bars. The pain went away eventually, I just took a small break and started back, I haven't had any pain since. You might want to check if your not favoring one side or twisting when performing dips, it doesn't have to be much and tends to happen late in the sets. Anyways, hope this helps, good luck.

itsthenickman 2006-04-15 21:21:26 UTC #6

[quote]GuyIncognito wrote:
I went through something similar when I first started dips, I would get this type of pain at the end of my last sets, especially painful when I would get down from the bars. The pain went away eventually, I just took a small break and started back, I haven't had any pain since.

I have this same problem as soon as I get down from the bars. I've worked up to 90lbs for reps and get the nagging pain around my neck/clavicle area on my left side. I took about 3 weeks off from dips and the pain has subsided. Does anyone have any idea what muscles or tendons would be causing the pain?

beebuddy 2006-04-15 21:35:17 UTC #7

Grew7,

I am wondering what kind of dips you are talking about. Chair dips like the ones pictured in the link above or body dips like the ones pictured in this link?...

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://www.campusrec.neu.edu/ptraining/pictures/dips1.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.campusrec.neu.edu/ptraining/dips.shtml&h=768&w=1024&sz=52&tbnid=noEZ6ta3UOUCOM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=150&hl=en&start=19&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbody%2Bdips%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official_s%26sa%3DN

I think ProfX has given you some decent advice here. Just push it without hurting yourself. I think I was able to do 50-75 continuous push-ups before I started messing with body-dips. The chair dips are not an excercise I do very often so I couldn't tell you what the problem is if that is the excercise you are talking about.

Anyway, get strong at whatever pace your body will let you and don't push it beyond what it can do, otherwise you'll get injured eventually.

grew7 2006-04-15 22:07:43 UTC #8

The dips I was talking about in my first post were just body dips between two back-to-back chairs. Then, by "chair dips," I was referring to the ones on this page:

http://www.free-online-health.com/chair-dips.htm

I'll take the advice given and just back off for a couple weeks and then start again with just chair dips for a while. Once I've made a significant amount of progress with the chair dips, I'll try body dips again.

cap_nsalty 2006-04-15 22:59:11 UTC #9

Come on people, read the post. This is the third time he has said he was doing chair dips.

bobbity 2006-04-16 16:57:37 UTC #10

If the pain is occurring as you dip then this isn't going to help. If the pain really kicks in at the end, as you take the weight off the shoulders then I suggest you do what I do, and that is to very gradually take the load with your legs. If I jump right off after my set then my shoulders are murder, gradually releasing the load prevents this pain.

jolly_roger 2006-04-17 08:50:28 UTC #11

I concur with this approach - I get the same burning/sharp pain, and I've found that gradually taking the load off does help. Good luck.

Chris_Colucci 2006-04-17 09:48:52 UTC #12

Grew, do you have any pre-existing shoulder injuries? That could also be a significant factor.

I (or rather, my bigger, meaner sister) broke my collarbone when I was about 7, and I can't do any type of Dips now, because I don't have the range of motion for it. However, any other type of chest pressing is fine. Just something to consider. If you're coming into the exercise less-than-100%, it may not be for you, no matter how beneficial the movement can be.

kmanley 2006-04-17 11:12:20 UTC #13

Sounds to me like its your acrimo-clavicular (AC) joint thats giving you the troubles, you've may have incurred a level 1 sprain. Its commonly injured in impact sports, and usually dips and decline bench just worsen the symptoms, but its is possible to hurt it on dips. Possibly dropped too quickly, were alittle uneven, or maybe the load was just too much for the joint.

Anyway I'm not a doctor, just heard of this kind of thing before. If its a minor sprain and you don't have any shoulder impingement outside of exercise it should clear itself up in a coupe of weeks. If you try to work through it with heavy loads you could turn it into a longer term thing.

livinthedream 2006-09-25 00:38:10 UTC #14

I have the same problem when i do them. I do them with a 30 on my feet and when i stop to take a break my clavs kill right wen i stop. is that normal?

stockzy 2006-09-25 01:17:39 UTC #15

Pain is the bodies way of telling you your doing something wrong! Damn! No Exercise should give you pain. Muscular fatigue is one thing, actual acute pain is another. You either have poor form or poor bio-mechanics....Get real advice from a professional.

PB_Andy 2006-09-25 01:37:36 UTC #16

Same thing happens to my left clavicle. My form is good, i know that much, and it happens when i stop for maybe just a second. what i feel is a sharp pain, and the pain is increased when the load is heavier or i do more dips.

Bonn1997 2006-09-25 01:58:54 UTC #17

On the topic of dips: How low do you have to go? If I go low enough so that my arms form 90 degree angles (like in Berardi's Scrawny to Brawny book), I get brief discomfort in my shoulders. It's a little more intense than just typical soreness but it goes away fairly quickly. This doesn't happen if I don't go down nearly as low. I'm not a big and brawny guy: I can usually do only 5 dips at once if they're unweighted. Maybe I just need to build more chest and shoulder strength? Or should I not dip to 90 degrees?

facko 2006-09-25 02:51:46 UTC #18

only when i first started doing them...of course if i get lazy on them and start them again after like a month....for like the first day of doing them i get a little minor discomfort in like the area where my ribs meet in the middle of my chest

Kratos 2006-09-25 03:55:53 UTC #19

You should only go wown as low as is a comfortable range of motion. If you feel it's too short, you might need to stretch and increase it, but it's better not to do it under load.
I used to ache there a little, and still do sometimes if I ge really heavy. My sternum pops a lot after a heavy set. Only lately has that started to hurt. It never used to before.

cblasco 2006-09-25 04:19:07 UTC #20

I went through exactly the same experience at first - pain on my clavicle area on the last rep when going down. The pain eventually disappeared completely (after a long time, though).

I had less pain when I lowered myself very slowly on the last rep.