For a few years now my left shoulder always had a bit of click and crunch to it with overhead movement. Whenever I overhead press heavy for more than 3-4 weeks, the shoulder gets irritated and I need to take a few week off. Google tells me it may be the infraspinatus tendon??
In everyday life the pain does not bother me and I feel I am not limited in movement in any way. On palpation there is a very tender spot that is limited to about an area of 3cm x 3cm, located where the pectorial muscle inserts into the anterior shoulder. I sometime feel a slight diffuse pain with bicep curling, although it is mainly irritated by overhead pressing.
My questions are: what is the likely diagnosis, and what can I do to improve the situation? Is self myofascial therapy a good idea?
Could be a few things: biceps tendonitis, shoulder impingement (supraspinatus), or a torn labrum. If it’s the last one, then you can do lots of rotator cuff work and that will help support it, but it won’t fix it.
Since you mention that it gets worse, then goes away when you lay off, it sounds inflammation/tendinosis-ish. However, that’s not an area that should be getting inflamed from overhead pressing if your shoulder positioning is good.
I would work on improving your shoulder positioning by a mix of deep massage work on the pecs and front deltoid (tennis or lacrosse ball), and strengthening your mid and lower traps. Out of all the things I’ve tried, one of the best exercises for me is basically a straight-arm pullapart with a rope/chain on a pulley.
A normal rope attachment isn’t long enough, but the idea is this. Set up a high pulley, a little above head height. Hook the middle of a rope or chain to it. Then stand back and do a straight-arm pullapart, keeping your fists around eye level. As you pull the ends apart, the center will come toward your face; it helps to try and touch your nose with it when the rope is fully extended. Try not to lean back more than necessary. Do sets of 10-20 reps, increasing weight over time.
There’s probably a name for that exercise. For me it worked better than standard face pulls and band pullaparts.
The combination of the two should help pull your shoulders into a better position, which should then mean less rubbing and irritation to your tendons, and less chance of this happening in the future.
I say “should” because it worked for me, and from what I understand of shoulder anatomy in general, it should work for most people.
Thanks friends.
I will try those straight arm pull-aparts when I am next in the gym.
I usually do a bunch of pull-aparts in my warm-up, although usually its only 1-2 sets of 20. Maybe I need to spend more time on such rehab moves. In the mean time I will take a week or two off from overhead pressing. I suppose that means I will have to refrain from handstand practicing which I was about to commence this week. Anything else I should try?
[quote]theBird wrote:
Thanks friends.
I will try those straight arm pull-aparts when I am next in the gym.
I usually do a bunch of pull-aparts in my warm-up, although usually its only 1-2 sets of 20. Maybe I need to spend more time on such rehab moves. In the mean time I will take a week or two off from overhead pressing. I suppose that means I will have to refrain from handstand practicing which I was about to commence this week. Anything else I should try?
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If it’s shoulder impingement, you can try the pendulum stretch. It helped me a lot.
[quote]nkklllll wrote:
If it’s shoulder impingement, you can try the pendulum stretch. It helped me a lot.[/quote]
Thanks for sharing. Didn’t know about that. Even after doing it just for a bit, my left side already feels better.
[quote]nkklllll wrote:
If it’s shoulder impingement, you can try the pendulum stretch. It helped me a lot.[/quote]
Thanks for sharing. Didn’t know about that. Even after doing it just for a bit, my left side already feels better.[/quote]
Yep. I have type III curved acromium. So I get inflamed tendons a lot. That helps every time.
[quote]nkklllll wrote:
If it’s shoulder impingement, you can try the pendulum stretch. It helped me a lot.[/quote]
Thanks for sharing. Didn’t know about that. Even after doing it just for a bit, my left side already feels better.[/quote]
Yep. I have type III curved acromium. So I get inflamed tendons a lot. That helps every time. [/quote]
So from what I have learnt via youTube, is that the idea is to let your arm hang holding a small weight and using your body momentum to get the arm to swing?? How long do you do this for? Any tips on the execution? How does this stretch work? Should I be feeling a stretch anywhere, any cues?
[quote]nkklllll wrote:
If it’s shoulder impingement, you can try the pendulum stretch. It helped me a lot.[/quote]
Thanks for sharing. Didn’t know about that. Even after doing it just for a bit, my left side already feels better.[/quote]
Yep. I have type III curved acromium. So I get inflamed tendons a lot. That helps every time. [/quote]
So from what I have learnt via youTube, is that the idea is to let your arm hang holding a small weight and using your body momentum to get the arm to swing?? How long do you do this for? Any tips on the execution? How does this stretch work? Should I be feeling a stretch anywhere, any cues?
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Yeah that’s right. Shouldn’t really feel a stretch. You’re distracting the humerus from the acromium. You don’t really feel that part, but if it is Impingement, it should offer some relief of pain. Also, I just did if for 10-12 swings forward, 10-12 side ways, and 10-12 in a circle motion.