My left acromion area seems to have a bony bump. It is tender, and at the same time this happened, certain motions became painful, namely shrugging any amount of weight as well as bench press and overhead press, and other difficult-to-describe motions.
I’m taking time off upper body, taking ibuprofen, and applying icy-hot daily, occasionally doing band pull-aparts and gently stretching.
Google makes me think this is something awful, like a torn ligament or rotator cuff, but I dont think (hope?) Its that bad.
Ideas on what this is, how to diagnose, and is it safe to try lifting again in a couple weeks or am I likely to hurt myself worse?
Thanks!
Where on the acromiom is the bump? Is it at the lateral border? The AC jt?
A pic would help
It seems to be at the AC joint.
Scary Google leads me to think ac ligament tear allows the tip of acromion to pop up, I don’t know for sure though.
Having not lifted upper body since December it seems to be less tender but still sticking up, and I dont know how much pain I’d have if I tried to press now (dont dare find out yet for fear of making worse).
But I’m at this very moment waiting on the orthopedist and hope to be better informed by lunchtime.
Update on this:
Orthopedist is not worried about it. There is a bone spur on my acromion, and there is inflammation at the AC joint, but after some time off lifting and using anti-inflammatories he thinks I can get back to using it.
He believes I probably “tweaked” the joint when compensating for my forearm tendonitis; now that that’s (hopefully) resolved, I should be out of the woods on the AC joint.
Very happy to hear that it’s nothing too serious, but also very happy I didn’t try to “push through the pain”.
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Look up a condition called osteolysis of the AC joint, it is quite common in lifters. So you may be developing this. Make sure your posture is correct ie your shoulder isn’t rounding forwards as these kind of postures can place addition force the AC joint. If I was you I’d limit barbell benchpress as this seems to one of the biggest aggravating factors in a condition like this, especially if you are lacking internal rotation of that shoulder. Dumbells are better for your shoulder health, anyways, best of luck!
Bone Erosion! Ouch! Hoping that’s not the case but it well could be.
Good tips on posture - always need to work on that.
On the positive side, the orthopedist did take X-rays and (I hope) would have noticed bone erosion if it were present.
Next six weeks are planned to be extremely low volume and light weight, I’ll progress very slowly after that and be mindful of pain if it recurs.