Hey guys. I adore dips and I love to put them into my routine, but every time I try them I experience an odd problem.
During my set (weighted or BW only) I feel fine, great fatigue, feels awesome, however the moment I lower myself and relax my grip, I get sudden, agonizing, shooting pains across both of my collarbones.
It feels like a skeletal pain - I know you can’t get “bone pain” but it’s the best way to describe it. The intensity quickly fades into a very dull ache the persists for a day or two after my workout.
The best analogy I can make to this sort of pain are the shooting forearm pains people get after barbel curls, right when they relax their grip.
I typically go just below parallel and use dumbbells between my knees for added resistance.
I’m not sure if it’s a form issue, grip issue, muscle issue, or what… But it’s irritating because it’s intensely painful and basically means I can’t do dip.
#1. stay away from them, at least temporarily #2. book a doctors appointment
I was naive and foolish and trained through identical pain and symptoms…end result was clavicle osteolysis and surgery. I am not saying that is what will happen, but err on the side of caution.
I’ve been to doctors before for various lifting-related ache and pains. For example, the wrist pain during bicep curls.
As expected, they told me “ice it, take ibuprofen and rest.” Completely useless information. The wrist problem in particular was solved with a simple form adjustment - I’m hoping this situation is similar. My bench PR has stalled and I’m at weights that make it difficult for me to get DB’s into position since I train alone and have no spotter. Dips were one of my favorite exercises until the pain started.
I’m not trying to discount your advice, just hoping there’s an alternative that doesn’t involve me not dipping.
Maybe going to low when doing the dip? I sometimes get a pain in my neck from going what I believe my body is telling is to low. Maybe stretch more? Try a wider or closer grip might help.
This happens to me to, but somewhat differently. I only get that pain (I know exactly what you are talking about) on my left collar bone, and the pain goes away a few seconds after the set (no soreness after). I greatly relieved this pain by changing my form, and I think this could work for you.
Do you dips normally, but when I was doing them and started to get fatigued with BW or weight attached, I would start to shrug my head down into my shoulders, so the bottom of my earlobe would be just a bit higher than the top of my shoulders.
I think what you have to do is really emphasize sticking your chest out, don’t “crunch” into you shoulders, and try to keep your shoulders low the whole range of motion. Basically, don’t shrug your shoulders up.
I had a similar issue, same kind of pain 3 years ago. I reduced the weight a little bit (didn’t go below 8 reps or so), never trained through that pain and now, 3 years later, I can do much-much more with no pain at all. Do not aggravate the issue would be my advice.
How old are you? Your problem as well as pain in the sternum are very common in youger guys (teens through mid 20’s). Our shoulder girdle isn’t totally developed untill we’re almost 30! The clavicles actaully fuse eventually at the sternum. MY clavicle pops really loud sometimes, but isn’t painful.
Check with the doctor, make sure noting is seriously wrong, then give the dips a break for a bit, and then go back to them and if the problem persists, and it doens’t bother you to much, just deal with it, as far as I know its not going to do damage, its just a nagging ache.
I had the same thing when I was doing lots of dips. I still do them but not as often. For now, I do them once every other week. I love the exercise but for some reason I just can’t do them alot. Now when I do them it doesn’t hurt but every time I start increasing the frequency it comes back.
I had a similar program when I was a beginner. I stopped for a couple weeks, then began again, and did them correctly. I didnt go too low or anything and the pain is now gone.
My doctor is useless when it comes to “injuries.” He’s just one of those people who thinks exercise should be done on swiss balls, the yoga mat, and the treadmill. Great doctor in terms of other things, but I think its time to find a new one. He tells me shit like, “well you know all this weightlifting and training is just over stressing your body and is causing these injuries.”
I then ask a trainer, change my form, and bam, no more pain. Go figure. Again, im not advocating to ignore a doctor, but some doctors are anti-lifting. Maybe a sports-doctor would be able to help.
i noticed similar problems weeks ago. when doing heavy dips i felt a bit pain and stiffness in my left shoulder, it actually felt like a muscle that goes THROUGH the clavicle, so i think it must be the supraspinatus, not totally sure though …
im not sure what to do, i stopped doing dips and i dont have pain in my daily activities, i can move my arms in any angle without pain. but when i flex my traps, rise the scapula and push my arm straight forward i feel a bit of a pain right in the clavicle area. i wonder what happened to my left supraspinatus and how to treat it, any ideas?
I will try this - running it through my head it seems like this might make a big difference. Hopefully it’s just a form issue and this will solve it.
To address some of the other questions; I’ll be 22 in Augest and I while I really love full, deep dips they tend to strain my chest and shoulders a little. I usually go minutely below parallel.
I’d be interested in hearing about that clavicle fusing issue - I have some unusual tightness in my left collarbone when I rotate my arm forwards and over my head (think backstroke movements) until the pressure gets to be too much and my clavicle -pops- out of place suddenly.
Sorry, that was a little off-topic. I’ll throw some dips in tomorrow and see how it feels - thanks for the advice, guys, I really love this site!
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
This happens to me to, but somewhat differently. I only get that pain (I know exactly what you are talking about) on my left collar bone, and the pain goes away a few seconds after the set (no soreness after). I greatly relieved this pain by changing my form, and I think this could work for you.
Do you dips normally, but when I was doing them and started to get fatigued with BW or weight attached, I would start to shrug my head down into my shoulders, so the bottom of my earlobe would be just a bit higher than the top of my shoulders.
I think what you have to do is really emphasize sticking your chest out, don’t “crunch” into you shoulders, and try to keep your shoulders low the whole range of motion. Basically, don’t shrug your shoulders up.[/quote]
Hey guys. I usually hate to bump threads - especially my own, but I’d really like to get this resolved.
I had a small epiphany the other day while I was carrying steel drums for my school job (a waste lab, which isn’t usually physical…usually) which composed mostly of me squeezing my hands together around the rim rather hard. Every time I set them down I’d get the exact same shooting pain across my clavicles.
I’ve also noticed that I have a fairly substantial anterior deltoid dominance - there’s a visible and pretty significant difference in the size of my deltoids. I also have a moderate internal rotation to my arms. I’ve been thinking that perhaps this is the reason for my collarbone pain? I’ve noticed that after my sets of dips, it really DOES feel like my shoulders are compressing together in the front and putting pressure on my collarbone. I’m wondering if attempting to fix this imbalance would help at all.
It might,I too have the same pain,Doc could find no reason for it.I started incorporating external rotations into my workouts and foam roller work on my thoracic area after every workout and the pain has substantialy subsided.Check out the article “Feel better for 10 bucks”.
[quote]SGDerek wrote:
Hey guys. I usually hate to bump threads - especially my own, but I’d really like to get this resolved.
I had a small epiphany the other day while I was carrying steel drums for my school job (a waste lab, which isn’t usually physical…usually) which composed mostly of me squeezing my hands together around the rim rather hard. Every time I set them down I’d get the exact same shooting pain across my clavicles.
I’ve also noticed that I have a fairly substantial anterior deltoid dominance - there’s a visible and pretty significant difference in the size of my deltoids. I also have a moderate internal rotation to my arms. I’ve been thinking that perhaps this is the reason for my collarbone pain? I’ve noticed that after my sets of dips, it really DOES feel like my shoulders are compressing together in the front and putting pressure on my collarbone. I’m wondering if attempting to fix this imbalance would help at all.[/quote]
Internally rotated shoulders and dominant anterior delts eventually cause shoulder pain in one way or the other. Plus your posture will be awful and that can lead to a host of other problems.
Thoracic mobility, external rotations, scapula pushups and face pulls. Do them.
I have wide shoulders and experienced that same pain. Really I’ve only made two adjustments that seem to work.
Find a dip machine that allows to to adjust to width of the handles.
And taking my weight slowly off my arms rather then kind of hopping off. Sounds silly but try to place you feet down slowly onto the floor or onto the steps.
Regardless of the potential benefits of any given exercise, if it hurts every time you perform it, assuming your technique is spot-on, you might consider taking the exercise off your menu.
Certainly, address any underlying problems and correct any physical imbalances that may have developed, but training around a chronic condition only makes it worse.
I broke my collarbone when I was a wee lad and the bone set just a bit off-kilter. I haven’t done a dip in years, and I’m trucking along just fine. There’s nothing magical about dips. They’re a great compound exercise…for most people…but your training world will not collapse if you don’t perform them.
I used to not do dips for the same reason. No pain on any other exercise.
I got a tip from Larry Scott and tried the dips facing the other direction and now do them all the time (must be on a dip bar that is some what V shaped)