I have been dealing with a sudden weakness in my left arm. There is no pain or numbness in my arm, shoulder, back or chest. This isn’t a small decrease. I have probably lost about 100 lbs on my bench. I did a test with dumbbells, right arm did 50 lbs no problem (probably stopped at 12-15 reps, but could have done many many more). Left arm got 6 reps. I was doing chin-ups which also felt harder (but not to the degree that bench felt harder), I was told I looked very lopsided. Additionally, my arms fall asleep at night almost every night. Not sure if that is normal or not?
I am leaning towards an impinged nerve. I would think I would have pain if this were the case though?
I have now been dealing with this for about 2 weeks, with no improvement. I have been taking it really easy. Only light pressing (I think I have done a single at 185, and my recent 1rm is 385). Light rowing on the cable machine. I have been doing legs as those don’t seem to be impacted. I have been doing SSB and camber bar to not strain the shoulders or biceps. I hate training like this! I don’t think pushing things makes sense right now though.
What are your thoughts? Should I get an MRI? I have talked to a friend that is a PT and a friend that is a chiro. They are also leaning towards impingement. The chiro thinks it is in part overtraining, but I wouldn’t expect this much of a drop off?
Can you be a little more specific about your arms falling asleep? Is it just your “arms” or do you have like tingling numbness all the way into your Ring Fingers?
When my woman has been training hard for too long her arms fall asleep at night. From tight traps/upper back I guess. After she backs off for awhile, she is cool.
I’ve been reading about impinged nerves in the neck or shoulder, and a lot of times they get specific about numbness into the ring finger being associated with compression on a specific nerve. And then that compressed (impinged?) nerve prevents the Serratus (rib meat) and Sub Scapularus (“bottom” rotator cuff muscle) from working properly.
If your shoulder blade was “loose” because of Non-working “stabilizer muscles” it would definitely, definitely mess up your pressing and chinups. And if your pec minor and upper traps and neck muscles tried to jump in and compensate to stabilize your shoulder it could definitely cause you to twist or rotate your shoulder in some weird, lopsided way.
I don’t know about MRIs or anything, but I would definitely try to get my Serratus Muscle fired up to see if it worked, and make sure my scapulas were able to move. Check out this drill from Kabuki Strength.
Then I would start looking for tightness in my neck. Like are tight neck muscles cranking down on my neck vertebrae, squeezing my nerves and causing trouble? You could massage around feeling for lumps or tightness. Or Gently try an easy neck stretching routine.
Also dude, are you the guy with the elevated rib on the left side? Or is that another guy? Because that could probably be related to this.
A few guys who were dealing with shoulder and upper back related issues tried out the Bowtie. Everyone mentioned that when they used it it pulled their shoulders back and made them more Aware of how tight and slumped they were. But I don’t remember anyone using it really long term and often.
If you’ve got a Mini Band or something like that you can double loop it then figure 8 it around your shoulders and behind your back to get the Feel of it.
Hey bro I’m 7 weeks postop from c5 cervical disc replacement surgery. You may have a cervical disc pressing on your spinal cord. If you are losing strength in 1 of your limbs it’s important to go down and get an mri. My ring finger was going numb as well. And it almost felt like it was all in my shoulder but it was my fucking neck!!!
How was that surgery? Have you recovered? Do you now have even levels of strength?
I have had nerve tests done a few times. I always pass.
I still have the weakness (mostly triceps it seems) on the left side. The standard nerve test doesn’t really test triceps. I thought the test would pick up issues with nerves in the arms though (even if not directly testing the triceps)?
I have seen minor improvement in strength, but there is still a huge discrepancy in strength between left and right.
Nope. It’s happened to me twice. Once up top (one arm weaker) and once down below ( one leg weaker). No pain, just loss of strength.
Prognosis: for me, I kept the weight off my spine for a few weeks (4) and did lots of shoulder and spine mobility work and massage gunning. No squats or deadlifts and mobility work and massage gun every single day. It went away after a month and hasn’t returned since.
I see it’s 21 days since your original post. Have you seen any improvement?
Edit: I see you’ve seen a little improvement. Have you stopped loading up your shoulders and spine and stretched and massaged every day? Not telling you to eat your vegetables, just asking. Because if you’ve been doing those things three weeks and aren’t seeing improvement, it may be time to go see a doc.
What was the % loss of strength one side to the other? Mine is fairly sever (like with a single arm pressdown, my right can do double what the left can do).
Hmm, I have been doing lots of squats since I can do those fine. I would think for arm issues, the issue would likely be in the neck, right? I have been doing deadlifts too, but not as much as that other impacted muscle (doesn’t seem to be to the same degree as triceps) effects the deads a bit. Just doing those once a week at a little less intensity. I am thinking one can get nerve impingement in other spots besides the neck. Perhaps my impingement is in the shoulder.
I just got a off brand hyper volt. Have had the wife use it in some of the trouble areas on the back. I was doing some single arm hangs as well. Should probably do some more of that. Maybe a bit of inversion table?
Another thought I have is that it is how I sleep. Usually start on my side, and end up on my stomach. I try to fall asleep on my back, but it is very difficult for me.
I’m not sure because I never do unilateral work. For the upper, I know I went from incline benching 275 for reps to only being able to do 205 for reps, so pretty major, like you.
For lower, my squat absolutely sucked. I stopped doing anything less than 20 reps because my low-rep strength was horrible, then I stopped loaded squatting all together for a month, as described.
Yup. I’m no physical therapist, but there is a nerve bundle that runs down the front of your neck, under your clavicle and out to your arm. With lots and lots of very heavy squatting and deadlifting, it gets compressed/damaged and makes your arm weak. That’s what happened to me. I learned about it from Jeff Cavalier. I would post a link to the vid, but the last time I linked a vid about training, Chris removed it faster than a virgin nuts on prom night.
I fucking herniated/Buldged my disc doing upright rows. I will never do them again. Then again doing standing cross overs for rear delts never will do that variation of a rear delt workout again either lol. Spine surgery has came along ways in the last 10 years. I have a disc l4 that acts up about 3 months out of the year can’t wait to have that 1 replaced. I haven’t been able to return back to wait training. I have an appointment with my neuro surgeon in June and then I will be released to weight train
