Injury - What Happened?

I’m a little bit worried atm. I went into the gym and started doing some incline db presses…after doing 3 warm up sets with 40 lbs I grabbed some 50s and got ready to do another set. As soon as I started the exercise I felt a shooting pain in my left arm/shoulder, in that small area that seems to connect your chest to your arm, just above my armpit.

It’s now hurting pretty badly, and I’ve taken some aspirin and iced it and I’ll continue doing that throughout the day. I can lift my arm sideways but I can’t raise it in front of me and I still have some nasty pain in that area. I know I must’ve strained whatever ligament/tendon that is, but I’m worried something may have torn. How can I tell?

Additionally, if any of you have had this injury before, any recommendations on what I can do to aid my recovery?

Jason:

It’s difficult to figure out what’s wrong with you from a post. However, it sounds like you tore a muscle. If you did then you would have trouble raising your arm, as you have suggested.

Did you hear anything pop or tear? Was the pain evident all of a sudden, or did it come on gradually?

I tore a muscle in that exact location in 1998. It took five full weeks to recover from it, and it was quite painful at the outset.

I used lots of ice the first 5 days. Once the pain subsided a bit I went to hot packs and then eventually did ultrasound.

The good part is that it was as good as new after about five weeks.

[quote]ZEB wrote:
Jason:

It’s difficult to figure out what’s wrong with you from a post. However, it sounds like you tore a muscle. If you did then you would have trouble raising your arm, as you have suggested.

Did you hear anything pop or tear? Was the pain evident all of a sudden, or did it come on gradually?

I tore a muscle in that exact location in 1998. It took five full weeks to recover from it, and it was quite painful at the outset.

I used lots of ice the first 5 days. Once the pain subsided a bit I went to hot packs and then eventually did ultrasound.

The good part is that it was as good as new after about five weeks.[/quote]

I didn’t hear a pop or tear, but it was a sudden very sharp pain that almost made me drop the weight from my left hand. I’m using lots of ice and it’s now just a continuous pain when it hasn’t been slightly numbed from the ice. Hell I can barely cut my chicken breast right now. It also feels really tight. I guess I’ll give the doctor a call if it doesn’t feel any better by tomorrow and if it is a tear will try that one dumbbell workout Dan John wrote an article about.

Thanks for the info!

Jason:

It really does sound like a muscle tear. You can go to the doctors and get it checked, but if it’s a tear you are looking at 4 to 8 wks depending upon the severity.

Don’t worry about it, keep icing!

Hang in there. It’s a good time to work a different part of your body. Just be careful.