Starting Injuries...

Recently I have experiencing shoulder pain in my right shoulder. When I do bench press, front raises, lateral raises, or even sometimes curls it tends to hurt but when I do military press or push ups it doesn’t.

My other injury is just some pain in my left wrist when im bench pressing. Not much else seems to agreviate it.

I was wondering if anyone knew what might be causing the shoulder/wrist pain or any good exercises to help recoup. I have been doing some scapular exercises and it seemed to help the shoulder a bit.

My answer may not apply directly to what you have, but I’ll give you some BG on my own shoulder andf wrist problems, and maybe it’ll help.

I’ve had tons of shoulder aches over the yars, most likely from heavy pressing. I had seen one chiropractor who said I had a buildup of scar tissue and proceded to ‘break up’ said tissue each week. I don;'t know if this is actually possible, but it made sense to me, and I felt great after and could continue pounding away in the gym. Years later I saw an Active Release specialist who said I had problems with my ‘spinatis’ area. After he manipulated the area, I went straight to the gym and repped out with 315 like it wqas nothing,… and this was after not doing flat benches in a couple of years.

Nowaways, I shill move some heavy weights, but don’t do flat first as my shoulders take the brunt of it, and when I do, I use dumbells and focus more on getting a good squeeze. I also do my shoulder laterals FIRST in my workout. This way I’m kind of preexhausting the area and don;t get a joint-workout in stead of stressing the muscles.

My wrists have just been tweaked and bent all over the place. My only advice is to not let your wrists bend backwards too far when you press anything, and if doing Deads, grip the bar tightly instead of just letting the weight hang (another doctor told me he had seen similar situations in powerlifters who do heavy deads).

I hope that helps at least a little bit :slight_smile:

Stu

Shoulder capsule and rotator cuff pains are very common. Most can be traced back to an imbalance in a set of muscle groups.

First off, if this is becoming chronic, see a physical therapist. He will be able to target the problem area and provide specific exercises for you.

In general you should strive to achieve a balance on your own. This means pull as much as you push. Do some internal and (especially) external rotation work.

Also, be sure to warm up properly and keep your form very strict.