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Hurt Shoulder - Advice?

Bodybuilding
#1

Hey all,

I’ve got some kind of injury to my shoulder, and I’m trying to figure out how to proceed with it, because frankly, it isn’t behaving like a typical injury.

First, to describe whats going on:
I get a sort of “dull” pain in the shoulder, primarily when doing direct shoulder work. I’ll get a very little pain now and then on chest exercises, but most of the pain is on shoulder work. Its also noticeable when doing pushups. It doesn’t hurt at all when I’m not lifting (aside from being a tad stiff immediately after which isn’t all that remarkable for me).

Second, what I’ve done:
First, I figured, take time off. So I gave it about 2-3 weeks with no shoulder work and no chest work. If anything, it was WORSE after this! So after that, I tried just working through the pain - like i said, its dull, not a shooting pain. The week after doing that, it actually felt better. Then today, I barely felt it on my chest work, but it was pretty noticeable on shoulder work.

My concerns:
I don’t want to needlessly take time off… at the same time, I don’t want to hurt it more. Doing direct shoulder work doesn’t seem to make it worse at all, but I know working through pain is generally a bad idea.

My current thoughts:
I’ll continue to do my chest work. I figure I’ll take about 2-3 weeks off direct shoulder work though. After that, I’ll ease back into direct shoulder work with some low weight reps. If all is well, in 2 weeks or so I’ll return to going heavy.

Thoughts, advice?

Thanks in advance!

#2

sounds like impingment to me i have a similar condition

#3

Having fought a shoulder injury for a year, I know how frustrating it can be. MD’s will usually throw the trifecta of pain relievers, muscle relaxors and anti-inflammatory meds at it, which is not bad some times, but too much the go-to. I have ponied up for Inside-Out: The Ultimate Upper Body Warm-up Training, and am awaiting its delivery. Good luck.

#4

Get it checked out. No one is really going to be able to diagnose what is going on without seeing you, and self diagnosis/treatment can lead you down a bad path including surgery and long painful PT.

#5

[quote]ghargoyle wrote:
Get it checked out. No one is really going to be able to diagnose what is going on without seeing you, and self diagnosis/treatment can lead you down a bad path including surgery and long painful PT. [/quote]

I’d definitely do this if it was hurting me at all in “normal life” but since its only when lifting, I think a full work up is overkill at this point. I think I’ll try just laying off the direct shoulder work for a while, and incorporating more pulling movemants to combat potential muscle imbalance. If none of that helps, I’ll consider seeing a doc.

The problem I have with docs is they always do the same thing… Advil, and say “if it hurts don’t do it.” Well I have news, not lifting is not an option for me. Anyway, sorry for that rant. Docs are great for a lot of things, but I’ve found lifting injuries are not one of them.

As an aside, this shoulder is somewhat prone to injury. Its always “clicked” when I, say, do shoulder rolls, and while I was told by a doctor that there’s nothing wrong, I still think that the tendency to click is related to the tendancy to get sore - because its always this same shoulder.