A few months ago I was doing dips with like 3 45’s attached. I got a few reps for sets and called it a day. The next morning, I could’t raise my arm over my head. My shoulder was fucked.
I haven’t done dips since. The pain went away so I figured everything was cool…
Last week, I was doing Behind the Neck Press on Wed. Shoulder started acting up again…I called the workout short. On Friday I tried Incline, same thing.
This Monday, I tried flat…everything was cool until post workout. Shoulder felt a weird pain, and oddly, it would hurt when I tilted my head down.
I believe I can do dips again. My buddy doesn’t do dips, as he labels them the “shoulder-fucker.” He also doesn’t go all the way down on any pressing moves. I call him a pussy…
1.) Considering once I get my shoulder strength, rehab issues in order, I should be able to do dips again right??
I mean thats like saying I can’t do full squats because they hurt your knees.
My upper body (triceps and chest) have lagged in strength and size since taking dips out of the equation.
2.) What can one do to prevent shoulder pain when dipping? and Behind the Neck pressing? Am I going too low??
p.s. I have decided to take this week off…and probably won’t hit the gym until I get my shoulder looked at. I don’t want to risk it. Also, I haven’t had a week off in like 3 or 4 months, maybe longer. I hope to get ART before the new year. Thanks.
I recently read Ian kings top 10 tricep exercises. You should look that up as he gives some tips on how to avoid injury. (It does involve not going all the way down and going slow)
Hey greek. I would say you can do dips again after treatment for your current issues, for sure. As for how to do them to prevent soulder pain, your right on the money, don’t go quite so low. I personally don’t break parallel with my upper arms. (incidently i use a relatively heavy weight for this exercise, too, so safety is a huge deal to me as well.)
Good luck with recovery!
Dude I know you know your shiznit but that seriously sounds like a cuff rotator type injury. I messed up both of mine and after having tight pecs and weak cuff rotators, and doing things like behind the neck shoulder presses and the good old bench press.
The reason why I say it’s your cuff rotator is because you said it hurts when you raise your arm that’s like a classic symptom of a cuff rotator related injury.
Sounds similar to a problem I recently encountered. After talking with a Physical Therapy professor, I realized that the root cause of the injury was a muscular imbalance and poor posture. My front delts are way too big compared to my rear delts, and my rhomboids and mid and lower traps are not up to par either. Now, you may be saying, “No way, my back is huge!” but guess what - that’s what I thought too. I’d suggest going light on pressing movements for a while (higher reps). Also, your posture may be a problem. Train rear delts, mid/lower traps, and external rotators for endurance 3 times a week; stretch the anterior muscles (pecs, front delts) frequently; and work on your upper back posture (excessive kyphosis, protracted scapulae) throughout the day. Hey, come to think of it, if you haven’t read the kyphosis article in this week’s issue, read it now!
You should be able to dip again, but don’t rush back into it! Correct that imbalance (if there is one) first.
Any other questions, I’ll be glad to help if I can. But I’m no expert, as I’ve been struggling with my shoulder injury for about 3 months. On a side note, I dedided that this last 3 months would be a great time to work on my squat!
Dude, you can probably work back into dips if you go light and ease up on the ROM. Think about it, when your arms go past parallel your shoulder is under incredible stress. All your bodyweight plus your plates is resting on the shoulder joint. Plus, the joint is already at its limit for motion. It’s kinda like you’re tryin to rip your arm out of its socket backwards. Only go till your upper arms are parallel. As for recovery, ice it periodically for a while and definitely stretch. I have a shoulder inpingement that causes me similar pain. Stretching, however, greatly reduces the soreness.
Typically when an injury just appears like that it is more the result of a long term problem that had been missed/ignored. Previously existing muscle imbalances or lack of stretching could’ve resulted in this acute pain. Once you’ve addressed the symptom make sure to go back and evaluate the cause.
That said, sometimes when I see people do dips they have a hard time decelerating the weight at the bottom and they bounce slightly. This could have played a part in your injury if you were going right to the bottom.
Behind the neck anything sucks. Puts a lot of stress on your shoulders. This goes for shoulder presses or lat pulldowns. If you wanted to press back a little farther than military presses, try dumbbells.
I agree with Deezlodawg. Dips have never bothered my shoulders a bit, but every time I’ve tried back-of-neck presses I end up with a fucked up shoulder and a 4-6 week layoff.
Dips (even full-range ones) shouldn’t cause any problems if your shoulders are healthy to begin with.
But that’s a big “if”.
Behind the neck presses, on the other hand, will screw pretty much anyone up if done long enough. There doesn’t seem to be any real theoretical reason for this to be the case, but time after time I see people messing themselves up with it. And I’ve done it as well.
So my advice would be as follows:
*Ditch the BTN presses. Permanently.
*Get a qualified rehab specialist to look at your shoulder. It sounds very much like you’ve screwed something up in there.
*When you get a rehab prescription, FOLLOW IT. Do not cut ANY corner at all. Doing so gives you about a 99.9% chance of extending your rehab time. (Needlessly, I might add.)
*When you do get back to doing dips, take them slow and easy.
*Stretch. Every workout, without fail.
Sounds like rotator to me as well. Read EC’s article and work in the cuff complex for a couple of weeks. This fixed my shoulder pain that I had for over two years!
OK…so i go to my PT today…and ask him if he’s ever heard of ART? “What’s that?”
Nonetheless, he performs a series of tests on my shoulder for about a half hour using his hands and moving my arm all over the place…and then declares my shoulder is fine and that I just should not in the future go all the way down on dips. He said my shoulder and surrounding area does not appear to be damaged or injured and I probably just aggravated it, and to lay off dips and BN presses for about 4-6 weeks. That’s it…
Should I still get a second opinion or go see an ART specialist?? Shoulder feels fine today by the way…
Greekdawg, I’d say “both”!!! There are fabulous PTs out there, and some not. Mine did an assessment to get precise ROMs on different movements, complete with using a protractor type device to calculate angles for purposes of comparison. He compared internal rotation strength to external rotation strength. And he put together a fabulous program for me. I started seeing results quickly; less pain, more range of motion.
Call two or three orthopedists and ask them to recommend the best shoulder rehab PT they know. And get ART too! It’s an investment in your lifting future.
I too get the pain when descending all the way, right in the middle of my anterior delt. From my understanding of the anatomy of the rotator cuffs, the supraspinatus is the one with an insertion point on top of the humerus and this is the culprit of shoulder pain (as it gets pinched between the humerus and acromion). I can understand this happening when I raise a load above my head but why does it occur on dips?
As I recall, you contacted me about the exact same problem last summer/fall, didn’t you? If that’s the case, did you ever do anything to iron out the imbalances causing the pain?
It’s probably external impingement, and not a very difficult diagnosis at that. Brief synopsis of what to do:
Stretch the levator scap, upper trap, pec minor, pec major, lats, anterior delts, posterior shoulder capsule, subscapularis, teres major, sternocleidomastoid, and the suboccipitals.
Strengthen the neck flexors, infraspinatus, teres minor, rhomboids, mid trap, lower trap, serratus anterior, posterior deltoid, and cervical/thoracic erectors.
This will start to take care of rounded shoulders, kyphosis, and forward head posture. Might as well treat them all, even if they aren’t all there (yet).