Chest Pain

[BigLarry]

Hey AM, was wanting to know if any of y'all have had the same experience and what you did to mend it

Every now and then I'll have a dull throbbing pain in my upper pec near my shoulder that will be set off during bench. I've figure it to be tendon inflammation and just take ibuprofen till issues subside. This has worked but regardless out of the blue it'll come back.

It's definitely not hurting enough to make me quit doing chest but something to make you uncomfortable under heavier bench loads, almost scared of tearing something...

My question is will stretching be the easiest answer to this or is this a bigger issue with no real fix?

Like I said it'll happen every now and then and will bug me for a few weeks till it'll go away with me backing off my lifts and using ibuprofen. Really annoying me now when I'll be strong on bench but I'm being held back by this, and afraid of hurting myself by pushing it.

 

[VO2Maxima]

Upper pec near shoulder that flares up during benching makes me think either bicep tendon or referred pain from infraspinatus (part of rotator cuff, tends to refer to front of shoulder). Really hard to say how to treat it without knowing what the issue is. If it's bicep tendon, usually you can replicate the pain by digging into the front of your shoulder with your thumb. You could have someone do deep tissue work on it, or you might be able to work on it yourself. If it's a little more medial (towards the pec) than that, and you can't replicate it by pressing on the pec itself, might be infraspinatus referral, in which case you'd want the back of your shoulder (the meaty muscle on the back of your shoulder blade) worked out, and you'd want to add in external rotation band work as prehab/rehab work. Unfortunately, that's a hard one to work on yourself and you'd probably want to see someone who can do Active Release Technique or Graston. Another sign that it's rotator cuff is trouble putting your arm behind your back, or you feel weak if you hold your arm out in front of you with your thumb down (second part of O'Brien's test if you want to look it up). It could always be pec itself too, which could be rolled out with a lacrosse ball and stretched.

 

[BigLarry]

It'll hurt if I push my thumb like you said, but I've also had my share of shoulder issues as well.

Both of my shoulders would subluxe when I played football and rugby, only ended up getting surgery on one of the shoulders. The pec that is currently bugging me is on the shoulder I didn't get surgery on, but I've had the same issue with my pec on the other side as well.

I appreciate your response!

 

[celc5]

BigL, if your trace your thim down, is it the biceps tendon? From ur original post, i was wondering if this is a pec minor issue?

Vo2, I'm thinking the whole entire shoulder complex sounds like it may need to be addressed. Btw, your posts are excellent. i think we may be in the same field.

 

[VO2Maxima]

Vo2, I'm thinking the whole entire shoulder complex sounds like it may need to be addressed. Btw, your posts are excellent. i think we may be in the same field.

I agree, at the very least, the entire shoulder complex should be assessed to figure out where the issue is coming from. But with a history of it happening "every now and then," you're right, probably want to figure out what else is involved and what else is involved, has contributing, might be compensating and now compromised, etc. Also the second post makes me think that OP has some excessive ligament laxity, which makes me think that the shoulder may be unstable in general, even more of a reason to strengthen the small shoulder stabilizers.

And thank you, I'm a chiropractor, btw. I'm assuming you're either a PT or one of the more evidence-based chiros?

 

[celc5]

Yup, orthopedic PT. I do chiro referrals all the time. You guys make my job easier!