I’ve been lurking here for quite some time. Love the site. Lots of great info. I’ve been lifting about 3 times a week since January. Between diet and exercise I’ve managed to burn away about 30 lbs of fat and I’m down to about as lean as I’ve ever been. I’m 151 lbs at 5’ 9". Now I want to put some of the weight back on in a good way and actually start building up some muscle. Which brings me to my injury.
A little over a month ago while doing some low rep high weight incline press (admittedly with bad form) I wore my shoulders out. The following few days they were sore, but as the soreness went away the left shoulder kept hurting during overhead movement. It’s a stabbing pain in the front top part of my shoulder whenever I hold my arm out straight and try to raise it. I did some reading and it sounds a lot like my rotator. I haven’t been to the Dr yet because it will feel better after a few days of rest. The pain never goes away completely and lifting again only makes it really bad again. Is it time to break down and go to the Dr or should I rest it longer and see if the pain goes away? Thanks for the advice.
What have you read that you decided you can start lifting again after a couple of days?
Read these instead:
Shoulder the Load
by Mike Robertson
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=538204
Long Live Your Bench
by Ian King
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=460658
Out of Kilter IV
Stop Shoulder Pain Cold!
by Ian King
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459716
8 Weeks to Monster Shoulders
by Alwyn Cosgrove and Chad Waterbury
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=818555
Question of Strength
By Charles Poliquin
http://www.T-Nation.com/findArticle.do?article=2cp
Cracking the Rotator Cuff Conundrum
by Eric Cressey
http://www.T-Nation.com/findArticle.do?article=280rotator2
Heal that Hunchback!
by Mike Robertson, M.S., C.S.C.S., U.S.A.W.
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459846
Shoulder Savers: Part I
by Eric Cressey
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1053531&pageNo=0
Shoulder Savers: Part II
by Eric Cressey
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1055409
Well geeze…the post above I think answers it all. But I just want to chime in and say that if you really did hurt your rotator cuff than you’re looking more at 3 to 6 months recovery time depending on the severity. Also if you do go see a doctor(which there’s nothing wrong with that) make sure they’re a sports doc. That will make the world of difference.
[quote]Wreckless wrote:
What have you read that you decided you can start lifting again after a couple of days?
[/quote]
It wasn’t anything I read. It was mostly a denial that I’d done anything really bad to it and the fact that it had started to feel better. Not to mention I really want to bench. However, I don’t want to bench more than I want the future use of my shoulder. 3 to 6 months would be well worth a full recovery.
That’s the reason I’ve opted for the doc visit. I want to find out exactly what I’ve done so I’ll know for sure how to rehabilitate it.
What I did:
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Stretch the pecs and the anterior delts several times a day.
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1 week of Ibuprofen. This would be a good time to have that 1 week off you have been postponing for months.
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5 extra weeks of resting the shoulder no pressing or pushing. no overhead stuff, not even overhead triceps extensions but lying ext instead. Concentration curls for biceps instead of standing biceps curls
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6 weeks of rehab with internal and external rotations at least twice a week.
After that, gradually start taxing the shoulder again with cable flyes (they pull the shoulder open, not push it in) and start with light weights.
Also push-ups.
Then decline db presses
flat db presses
finally flat bb presses
Back off if your shoulder starts acting up again.
Thanks for the info, Wreckless. How bad was yours? Did you ever see a doc about it? Does it give you any problems now?
Have you iced? Most people avoid ice, but it works wonders, not miracles, just wonders. It will help with the length of recovery, but I’m sure you know that.
This was posted by DoggCrapp (Dante) on another forum. If you want to help your shoulders, READ IT!!! 
With a large towel or broomstick I want you to hold it with straight arms for the entire time of what i describe in the following movement–a large “rolled up like a rope” beach towel works good but honestly a longer broomstick (without the bristles) works best in my opinion. Start out with it with a really wide grip (with straight arms) in front of you (on your quads) and with straight arms bring it up and overhead and then down and back to the middle of your back–STRAIGHT ARMS ALL THE WAY–this is going to be very difficult and hard the first couple times out and then will be “old hat” with time----and its going to be painful in a stretching pump kind of way—i want 50 reps each time you do this–one repetition is from in front of your face (all with straight arms) to up overhead and back, and then down all the way to the middle of your back and then back up overhead to in front of your face again (again all with straight arms)–the important part of the movement is the area overhead that is really tight–do all of this carefully/slowly—dont just whip it over and back—if your hand is slipping off the broomstick even with the widest grip, or you cant bring your arms over straight and the start bending on you, you have some serious shoulder inflexibility and need to work this hard and get up to speed (or you could just need a longer broomstick too)–again do all of these revolutions controlled and carefully–push into the stretch as you go along toward the 50 revolutions, your chest will be pushing outward and your shoulders rolling back–your shoulders are going to blow up with so much blood its going to be incredibly painfull pumpwise–Do this once a day at nite as many times a week as you can—sometimes I have people do it every single day—but every time you do it try to move your grip inward (thats the key)----its going to be very hard to do but try your best to move your grip inward for the next 2-4 weeks and your range of motion with shoulders will increase dramatically and any impingement and the majority of other problems should be gone in 2 weeks–also try to move your grip in as you are doing the 50 revolutions–start off with a stretching but relatively easy 10 to warm up some, then try to move your grip in even by a centimeter if you can for the next 20 revolutions and then at 30 try to move the grip in another centimeter–really try to push what you can do stretchwise once your warmed up here–trust me this sounds easy but your going to be muttering “fuck you dante” after you get to your 25th revolution–Ive cured too many shoulder problems with this simple movement now its pretty ridiculous, and this and a menthol rub applied liberally daily and before sleep has cured alot of shoulder/bicepital tendonitis in trainees — but remember the broomstick goes overhead and all the way back to the middle of the back.
I had a picture somewhere, but can’t find it. I like to use a beach towel wrapped up because I like to go all the way down to my butt. With a broomstick, you can only go back so far.
Do these and let us know how your shoulder feels.
While you are nurturing your shoulder, you can view this as an opportunity to work on another aspect of your physique. You’ll want it to be something you can train without involving your shoulder.
For example, you could work on improving your vertical until you can dunk (although without Oly lifts but still).
dude if you hurt your shoulder be smart and go to the doctor. I injured my shoulder and continued to train and made it ten times worse. I had surgery about a month ago and will not be able to use my arm on that side for anything for six months and even after i recover i may never have full function of that shoulder again. all of this could have been avoided if i had gone to the doctor sooner.
[quote]ghargoyle wrote:
Thanks for the info, Wreckless. How bad was yours? Did you ever see a doc about it? Does it give you any problems now?[/quote]
Mine wasn’t that bad. But like you, I hesitated going to the doctor. I shouldn’t have.
He prescribed me the Ibuprofen, the stronger doses you can’t get without prescribtion and after a couple of weeks he directed me to a physical therapist who messaged it (hurt quite a bit) en taught me a few exercises I had to adapt for the gym.
You should see a Dr, but it sounds like you impinged your A/C joint. Its where your collar bone meets your shoulder blade at the top of your shoulder. It will hurt like a sumbitch and if you ignore it the only way to correct it is w/ surgery. I had a 1/2 inch shaved off my collar bone to correct mine. I feel fine now w/ some looseness in the area. You can rehab it yourself by doing more anterior delt work, scapula work, or just plain upper back work following benching. You may just just irritated the joint at this point but you need to ICE the hell out of it to get the inflammation out along w/ Motrin every day until it’s gone. Try using dumbells w/ a natural grip until the pian goes away. I’d still see a Doctor and get x-rays and possibly an MRI to rule out a tear. If the pian stays at the top of the shoulder it’s probably just an impingement, if it shoots down your arm into your elbow and stuff then it’s probably a tear. ICE until then.
Thanks for all of the advice and experiences guys. I’m feeling an overwhelming go-to-the-doc vibe. I have an appointment scheduled with my primary care doc on the 7th of June. I’m hoping to get a referal from him to an orth.
At this point the pain is not intollerable. I’m not on any pain meds and it only really bothers me if I lift my arm in front of my above horizontal. The pain is very localized right at the front of my AC. I haven’t been icing it, but I’m going to start for whatever benefit reducing any inflamation might do. I’m going to avoid upper body workouts until either the doc clears it, or the pain is gone, and I’m going to ease back into it at that point. Until then I plan to stretch my shoulders reguarly througout the day. I’m also going to do a lot more reading.
I went to the Doc. He gave me an anti inflamitory called Mobic with the insturctions to take one a day and rest my shoulder for two weeks. If it does not improve he’s going to send me to a shoulder specialist. According to him, however, it sounds like my AC. I’ve noticed improvement in the pain over the past few days.
I hurt my shoulder being thrown in MMA sparring about 2 years ago (left shoulder top/front) of course bench press made it worse and i had to rest it for a few months.
When i came back to bench press after educating myself on rotor cuff and shoulder stretching and i eased back in.
Before training i did arm rotations and crossed my arms in front of my body and extended them out side ways. I was also advised not to touch my chest with the bar. This worked very very well!!
2 days ago i trained without stretching and am in agony what a dipstick!!!
The advice at the top of this page makes a lot of sense im starting right away strenthening my shoulders and pulling and will never forget to stretch again.