I would recommend going to a doctor and setting up some imaging so you have a definitive diagnosis. In the meantime, however, I would agree with all the comments above regarding voodoo flossing, and if you have access to a bamboo bar, use it every other day. Hang two 25lb plates on either side and do roughly 4x25. Good for shoulder rehab, prehab, and strengthen of the rotator cuffs. It will also reveal part(s) of your bench press that may need additional technique reinforcement.
Unfortunately I don’t have a bamboo bar, but I’ll probably end up having to get it looked at.
I also think I have to take a break in bilateral pressing, and even for pulling stick to majority DB/single arm work.
I feel some tightness in my left front delt, which I assume is because it compensates too much for my right side. No injury there, just tightness.
So besides rest, rehab, mobility work, and a potential doctor visit, all I can really do is single arm work, squat free leg workouts, maybe deadlifts.
Even goblet squats hurt if I lose tightness even a little.
This is gonna be strange and mentally hard since my background is strength training and fighting, none of which I can really do right now.
Test passive internal and external rotation of both shoulders and post results.
To do this, lay on your back with knees bent and feet on the floor. Exhale fully so your lower ribcage drops “down” and your lower back makes light contact with the floor. Keep this position for the entirety of the test.
Place your upper arm straight at your side at 90 degrees. Elbow should be bent 90 degrees so your finger tips are pointed to the sky. Let your hand fall “backwards” towards the ground. Don’t try to make it touch the ground – just stop when there is resistance. Thats external rotation. How close to the ground are you?
Repeat the process with your hand falling “forward” towards the ground. That’s internal rotation. How close to the ground are you?
Again, don’t allow any other part of your body to move (not your back, not your lower ribs, not your shoulder blade). Post results.
Here are pictures to illustrate the positions. Picture A is internal and picture B is external.
Have you gotten the surgery? How are you feeling?
I’ll give test these when I get home from work, thank you!
@bert2145 i don’t have any advice on this specific injury, but just a reminder that it’s way better to not be able to do the things you love for a couple months than never again.
3 Likes
Sounds good.
It sounds to me like a classic presentation of an AC Joint strain. Depending on severity (which is impossible to know without imaging), some can heal on their own or with physical therapy and modest treatment, and some “require” surgery. If this is the case, exercises that require a high degree of shoulder extension (dips, dumbbell benching with an exaggerated range of motion, gymnastics movements where your arms reach behind your body, etc) should probably be avoided as a precaution, but many people are able to return to mostly-normal training after a strain heals.
If this is the case, the question really becomes: why did you strain your AC joint doing an incline bench press? Measuring your shoulder range of motion can help provide some insights into that. If there are significant limitations, you likely want to address them regardless of the specific injury.
1 Like
This is solid wisdom that I wish I internalized a decade ago. haha
1 Like
From what you and others describe, as well as the place of the pain, it appears to be AC joint.
I don’t have a clue how it happened on Incline press. I used to do close grip Incline regularly with no problems, and years ago when I focused on bodybuilding style training I used to use ‘normal grip’ (wide enough to hit chest) Incline, both with zero problems.
This one was a medium grip which itself could have been awkward and part of the problem, but otherwise I don’t know what was different than any other time I pressed Incline.
I can do DB bench press with a band looped around my wrists so I’m constantly reminded to keep an extremely tight upper back/rear delt contraction, but even then, if I lose tightness or change an angle slightly, I feel my AC, or what I believe now is my AC.
In regards to mobility, in the past day or 2 I have figured out that my left side overhead mobility is worse than the right, but my left side is more mobile in reaching behind my back with my arm down, if that makes sense.
Although I haven’t tested as specifically as you told me, and as I will tonight.
You are 100% right. I will just have to put my ego aside and accept not being able to load the bar, or get a good pump in certain muscles for a while.
1 Like
I have not. Can’t afford that type of downtime with a 2 year old and 8 month old at the moment.
I can function, not in a lot of pain or anything. Just can’t do certain lifts.
I’ll probably have it done in a few years once the kids are older.
1 Like
Glad to hear you’re not in much pain. I imagine if you’re having a full replacement, theres not much harm in putting it off for as long as possible since they take the whole damn thing out anyway. Given that replacements do wear out and technology is always improving, waiting as long as possible seems like a smart choice.
2 Likes
Just did the test. External rotation was better on my right side (sore side), just over 45 degrees, and it was around 45 degrees on my left.
Internal rotation was the other way around, hair over 45 degrees on my left, and 44 degrees or maybe even a little less on my right.
When you say 45 degrees, do you mean your hand is several inches away from the ground on both tests on both sides? Just clarifying because that is not a surprising IR result but it is very limited ER
Yes, so for simplicity instead of thinking through 180 degrees, I kind of thought my hands pointing up at 90 degrees at starting point.
Then each way is plus or minus 45 degrees, so yes, my hand is several inches from the ground, if I don’t twist my shoulder blade with it to accommodate.
1 Like
That’s a really useful piece of information. For reference, “normal” (whatever the hell that means) shoulder rotation is in the ballpark of 160ish degree total – about 90 degrees external and 70ish degrees internal.
I personally have a buggy shoulder with a visible AC joint separation that requires a fair amount of care and upkeep if I want it to feel alright. If I neglect it and just train how I want to, it doesn’t take long for my total range of motion to drop to about 90 degrees (70ish ER and 20ish IR). When it’s like that, it hurts like an SOB and I basically can’t do any pressing without serious pain. With some care and attention, I can get my total ROM to a consistent 140 degrees or so and things feel MUCH better. So, theres my anecdotal experience, for what its worth.
In either case, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to try to address that limitation in shoulder motion and see if that helps to alleviate some of the symptoms you’re having. Of course, its never a bad idea to seek out the opinion of a medical professional when pain is present – particularly when there was a clear “mechanism of injury” (i.e “I was incline pressing and my shoulder started to hurt”). That said, mobility work is much less invasive than most medical interventions, so maybe not a bad place to start once you rule out any serious issues.
I can send you a recommendation for the book that I have used which has had a tremendously positive impact on my ability to train without (too much) pain. It includes very specific warmups and breathing drills, as well as a complete exercise program that allowed me to keep training while still improving my range of motion in several joints. I think it’s like 5 bucks on Kindle.
Other approaches likely work as well, but I never had much success with them, so I have a pretty strong bias in place.
2 Likes
This might be awesome for all of us! Maybe throw the recommendation in the “stuff you like” sub forum as well? I don’t know how many folks look there, but something like this could be useful if you’ve actually found real-world value.
2 Likes
So my shoulder rotation appears to be 60-70 degrees less in ROM than what’s considered normal. That seems a hell of a lot to me, makes me think it almost certainly plays a part in my problems.
When I try to do the touching my hands behind my back test, I don’t know its name. When one hands over the shoulder and one’s from behind the back. It’s VERY noticeable how well my left shoulder rotates internally (behind my back from under) compared to the right, and that my right is a few degrees better from above (the other way around) than the left.
When mine flares up I have issues even with some pulling movements if the angle is not right, however I can always do OHP which is strange to me. But again, I don’t have full understanding of the AC joint and it’s surroundings.
I would definitely opt for mobility over surgeries or even injections any day if I have the choice.
Yes please, I’d really appreciate that. I have fairly little knowledge of shoulder problems because so far I was lucky and didn’t have any, so it’ll be good to learn something, and hopefully get some results from the book.