[quote]meshuggah wrote:
I am an elite asshole, but not professional anything. Other people’s opinions may contain valuable information.
I don’t know if the reason you are doing so much BB work is because you are a powerlifter, but you should stop until your shoulder is in better condition. One reason many Olympic Lifters do not do Bench Presses is because it freezes their shoulders. Any Barbell Pressing movement (and any other movement where your wrists cannot move freely during the press, such as pushups and dips) has this potential, but it is by far the most common with Bench Presses. Possibly because bench presses are very common. You may think that because you do not get pain when doing bench presses that is not the cause, but it probably is anyway and the pain you experience otherwise is caused by your acclimatization to the BB Bench Pressing you are doing. It’s possible there are other causes as well or instead, but I would look at BB Pressing and particularly BB Bench Pressing first.
When you are pressing a barbell, your wrists are fixed but your elbows are not. As your set gets harder (or your one rep, whatever you are doing) you will unconsciously try to bring your elbows in to shift the load you are pressing from your shoulders/pecs to your triceps, which are in a stronger position in terms of leverage. The degree to which your triceps are stronger than your pecs/shoulders will vary based on your unique muscle insertion points and your performance style, but the trend that triceps are the fallback muscle in BB pressing movements is very common.
When your elbows come in during your press while your wrists stay fixed, you end up doing an arm-wrestling-like movement as you press that looks similar to a little girl throwing a punch. A common scenario among gym rats like me is for the rotator cuff to end doing a huge amount of work, and instead of getting stronger, the muscles simply freeze. Then you have to go see a specialist, like your appointment tomorrow.
Switch to Dumbells ONLY for pressing for the next couple of months. Try to keep your elbows directly under your wrists, and be aware the degree to which your shoulders “shrug” forward and backward while you move the weight. Don’t do presses from behind your head ever again unless you have some specific reason from a coach who is coaching YOU, not writing a program on the internet. Dumbells are best, but I know you want the weight you can use with a barbell.
I know that you are talking about a cracking noise in your shoulder while doing lateral raises. Lateral raises are not the cause, pressing with a fixed wrist position most likely is. I would bet you are doing a chest/triceps/shoulders day, though you may notice signs of this/these problem(s) on other days. Bench Presses and Pushdowns will create and reinforce this problem, and if you do lateral raises next you have frozen your shoulders and done nothing to loosen them up before transitioning into a movement that involves some external rotation >>> noise. Good thing you aren’t using the weight on lateral raises you are using on these other movements.
In the future, make sure that you move your arms through a full range of rotation as part of a warm up before any workout. Parts of warm ups include swinging your arms in circles, bending your elbow at 90 degrees and rotating your forearm so that a)your fingers start pointing at your left side, then point to your right side, then return, while your arm hangs down from your shoulder, and b) your fingers point up, then down, then return while you hold your upper arm parallel to the floor. You can add resistance to these movements if you want, but use some hollow tubing or something, not a dumbell or weight plate. I see fools in my gym treating these exercises like they could potentially create inroad or stimulate growth. The purpose of these mobility exercises is simply to access and activate your Rotator Cuff’s muscles. You don’t jerk off to build a callus, don’t do mobility drills to build muscle.
You may also want to start doing exercises that incorporate shoulder rotation (and aspects of it) as part of a movement chain. Some exercises I use include Dumbell Snatches, Dumbell Cleans and Presses, explosive pushups, and so forth. Taking some time to swim or play basketball (methodically = not once and never again, but once per week once you have recovered, and more often until then) or whatever is appropriate to you can also help you use these muscles in non-specific movement patterns, which will also help you build and maintain healthier shoulders.
A blanket T-Nation recommendation is to balance your pushing movements with your pulling movements. For additional meaningful T-Nation advice, look up Eric Cressey’s Shoulder Savers 1, 2, and 3, and Cracking The Rotator Cuff Conundrum, also by Cressey. For ways to incorporate DB Snatches/Cleans+Presses, you may want to check out Scott Abel’s YouTube Channel and look up The Intimidator.[/quote]
Seriously, did you type all that out. Point form, man, point form.
You can even sleep on the side with enough pillows under your arm and head, but I still wouldn’t recommend it. Awkward on the rib cage area in my case…