About 4 weeks ago I started feeling a pain in my shoulder when punching. I didn’t think much of it to start with but then it turned into a big pain whenever I punch, push etc. I went to the doc and he diagnosed me with tendonitis, gave me a cortisone shot and told me to rest. I think the pain is getting less but I can’t stand just sitting around doing nothing. So far I’ve been doing side lying external rotations every day.
I’ve read the shoulder articles on T-Nation and my plan is to do a routine consisting of external rotations, face pulls, shrugs and rows. Any body else here been in a similar situation? I would really appreciate any advice as I want to get back fighting as soon as possible.
Imo, you honestly do need to just rest it. nothing heal tendonitis than that. Do more lower body work or something to keep your mind busy. If you want to do something for your upper body get on dip bars and do shrugs on the dip bar, not full dips… just shrug up and down. We always shrug up, but never do the opposite motion.
I’m in a similar situation though, coached ramped it up a lot lately and now I get a shooting pain in my forearms when I punch hard.
I have tendonitis in my external rotators. An important thing to remember is that this thing will be bothering you off and on forever. If I slack off on my shoulder prehab they start to hurt again pretty quickly.
I keep it managed by strengthening my external rotators, stretching the internal rotators and focusing on scapular retraction/stabilization. Also be sure to stretch your chest and lats.
I think those of us that punch alot should get free shoulder replacements every three years.
I’m first in line.
No experience with tendonitis, but I have a lot of experience with shoulder issues. And I’m serious bro- rest it. I know it drives you crazy, but you just have to rest it. If you keep grinding away, you’re going to be gettin metal on metal soon, and you’ll regret it.
Shadowbox slow, work on your technique. You do Muay thai, so work on your legs and kicks and conditioning. But give that shoulder a much needed break.
Also, if you don’t already, learn how to relax when you punch. I know that I used to feel it in my shoulders big time when I would punch “hard” a lot. It wasn’t until I really learned to relax and punch “powerfully” (letting the technique/body mechanics do the work) that I stopped getting discomfort in my shoulders.
Thanks for the comments guys. Looks like I will just have to keep resting it then It’s so frustrating because I can’t even work on my kicks as you twist your shoulders that causes pain.
And to make things worse, my room is literally a couple of metres from the ring so for 7 hours everyday I have to listen to other people training!
At the moment I’m on a vegan diet (as part of a Chinese Buddhist festival), but when that finishes I’ll bump up the fish oil. For the guys who have had tendonitis, how long was it before you could start punching, push ups etc?
[quote]JonnyTMT wrote:
Thanks for the comments guys. Looks like I will just have to keep resting it then It’s so frustrating because I can’t even work on my kicks as you twist your shoulders that causes pain.
And to make things worse, my room is literally a couple of metres from the ring so for 7 hours everyday I have to listen to other people training!
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What about front/push kicks (or teep as it’s called in MT)? Do those hurt your shoulders? You don’t need to rotate to throw them, so you should be able to practice them.
I haven’t done much as far as fighting sports go, but both my shoulders have been bitchy for a few years now (typical rotator cuff problems from bad form when I was completely inexperienced).
Everybody’s already given some pretty good advice, and all I have to add is maybe, once your shoulders feel all right again, try Turkish getups (there’s a video on Youtube). If you try them, start really light (10-15 lbs.) until you get the form.
I’ve been doing them for about two months now and haven’t had any problems worth mentioning. The main goal of the getups is to strengthen the entire shoulder girdle as one unit. Hope this helps.
It’s so frustrating because I can’t even work on my kicks as you twist your shoulders that causes pain.