I apologize for joining only to ask this question, but I feel this is my last resort. I hope I am posting this in an okay area.
My name is Christine, and there is a problem with my shoulder. I have a feeling I have a pinched nerve in my shoulder. Or some other kind of impingement. Actually, I have no idea what I am saying, and am basically talking out of my ass. But there’s definately something wrong.
I’m 19 and have been training for almost 4 years now. I began reading T-Nation compulsively more than a year ago. I plan to complete a dietetics major and physiology minor in the next couple of years. I don’t play any sport, nor am I a figure competitor.
I train because I love the way it makes me feel. I don’t normally like to participate in forums because of the flaming and trolls and whatever the fuck else out there. I also take my training very, borderline ridiculously, seriously, and don’t like it when people fuck with me.
Anyway. About 6 weeks ago I was doing 1 armed dumbbell snatches. By the end of my third, and final, set, I felt a dull pain in my right shoulder and had a harder time gripping bars with my matching hand. I remember feeling an even duller pain a training session or two previous to that one, I didn’t think twice about it.
Since then I continued lifting weights, first taking out snatches, then not increasing load on shoulder exercises, taking out the very few isolation exercises for the shoulders, dropping my sessions to twice weekly, limiting sprints, avoiding cleans, and since last Thursday, I have not lifted at all. Yesterday I have had the worst pain from the last 6 weeks.
In the beginning only my shoulder bothered me, and my right trap was super tight. A week or two into it, I realized my right elbow hurt occasionally. A couple days ago, I have begun to feel a tingling in my right hand. And now, I begin to really worry.
I have a very high pain tolerance, and in the past it has been difficult for me to gauge whether or not something may be problematic. So this “pain” in my shoulder is more bothersome than painful. it is most bothersome in the finishing position of a clean, or when I grip the bar while performing back squats.
I also really feel it when I wipe down treadmill screens. (as in wax on, wax off) More recently, it has been hurting while I’m not training. Right elbow flexion is more difficult to perform than left. And I just occasionally feel something in my right hand.
A few things I have been thinking about: my left leg seems to be shorter than my right. No one else realizes this but me. I believe the shortage is in the femur. This leaves my left hip slightly lower than my right.
I have read how imbalances transfer from one side of the body to the other, and made a connection. I also used to have a dull pain on my lower back on the right side a couple months ago. I wasn’t training at the type due to some sort of mental slump I was experiencing. When I got back in the game, it went away. Just another thought.
The pain has been getting worse and worse, and for the first time, I am scared. My life revolves around training, and I can’t even imagine what it’d do to me if I had to give it up, or even become impaired.
I really need help. I’d just like to have some thoughts. I’m open to seeing a doctor, I just don’t know what kind or which one. Any suggestions, experiences, thoughts, comments, I don’t know, anything, would be appreciated.
