Pullups and Shoulder Pain

[oldfart]

Anyone ever develop shoulder pain from doing front overhand grip semi-wide pullups?

I've done them for about 10 weeks and I always felt some shoulder twinges on the last few reps trying to pull myself to the top position.

Now I have a chronic shoulder condition that prevents me doing any serious military or chest presses.

I never made the connection between this shoulder problem and the pullups until a workout partner claimed pullups screwed up his shoulder too.

Any thoughts?

 

[Stingray]

Hmmm, Shoulder probs are a BITCH!!

It could be many different things. I know in my case I develped shoulder probs due to a muscle inbalance. Essentially I was unknowing giving more attention to my chest and front delts than to my rear delts and lats. What that did is to pull the front of my shoulder down and pinched the tendion under the Acromion. This caused cronic tendonitis because of the tendon constantly rubbing on the acromion and constantly being inflamed. This stated a year ago and I finly went to a orthopedic doc who told me the above info and suggested that I consentrate on my lats and rear delts, to pull my should back where it belongs. He specificly recomended lat pull downs. I havent done any chest or shoulder pressing excersises for the last several months and my shoulder is almost back to normal. Im at the point of starting a "Normal" routine again (being able to train chest again).

Im not a doc so Sorry I cant give any advice other than go see a doc. I just though I would share my experiance with you since it was similar (ya I had shoulder pain when doing pull ups and bench pressing, because the tendon was all jacked at that time)

SR

 

[oldfart]

Hmmm, Shoulder probs are a BITCH!!

It could be many different things. I know in my case I develped shoulder probs due to a muscle inbalance. Essentially I was unknowing giving more attention to my chest and front delts than to my rear delts and lats. What that did is to pull the front of my shoulder down and pinched the tendion under the Acromion. This caused cronic tendonitis because of the tendon constantly rubbing on the acromion and constantly being inflamed. This stated a year ago and I finly went to a orthopedic doc who told me the above info and suggested that I consentrate on my lats and rear delts, to pull my should back where it belongs. He specificly recomended lat pull downs. I havent done any chest or shoulder pressing excersises for the last several months and my shoulder is almost back to normal. Im at the point of starting a "Normal" routine again (being able to train chest again).

Im not a doc so Sorry I cant give any advice other than go see a doc. I just though I would share my experiance with you since it was similar (ya I had shoulder pain when doing pull ups and bench pressing, because the tendon was all jacked at that time)

SR

Interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if my situation was similar.

I've been doing plenty of lat pulls but my DC training regimen doesn't really isolate rear delts.

Didn't you have alot of pain doing rear delt exercises such as bent over laterals? I sure as hell do. I could probably bring myself to do reverse pec decs but I don't have access to an appropriate machine.

Did you experience alot of popping in your shoulder? Is the popping about gone now? Maybe the popping is the tendon getting pinched?

 

[Stingray]

Interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if my situation was similar.

I've been doing plenty of lat pulls but my DC training regimen doesn't really isolate rear delts.

Didn't you have alot of pain doing rear delt exercises such as bent over laterals? I sure as hell do. I could probably bring myself to do reverse pec decs but I don't have access to an appropriate machine.

Did you experience alot of popping in your shoulder? Is the popping about gone now? Maybe the popping is the tendon getting pinched?

I didnt have alot of pain while training. If it hurt I stoped. I noticed the pain later. kind of like a throbing toothach only in the shoulder.

Yes I did have a lot of popping or clicking in my shoulder. I noticed it mostly when I was doing bench work or shoulder presses. For a time I had tryed switching to db's instead of the bar to try to avoid the clicking. I think it helped the symtoms but not the cause. I do think the popping/clicking is the tendon getting either pinched or just sliding under the acromin (sp?) bone, because it was to far forward. My shoulder still popps/clicks a little bit, not like it use to though. My doc did not do an MRI, he said if it did not get any better to come back in and he would do one then to see if there was any perm damage. Its getting better so I dont think I will go back in.

Like I said there are many different things that can go wrong with your shoulder it is a very complex joint. I would really recomend going in and having it checked out. It took me almost a year before I did, and I just sit and think if I would have gone in earlier then I would have been back to training solid sooner. Instead of wasting months of time trying to work around somthing that was not going to go away on its own.

Good luck

SR

 

[rajscorps]

Shoulder problems are complex. I suffered for nearly 6 months before buying a book called "The Trigger Point Therapy" - by Claire Davies. It has been of immense help and all my problems (impingement, subluxation) are gone. I had been for MRI scans and no amount of rehab helped.

I strongly recommend you buy the book. Look up Amazon for the reviews. I believe a second edition is out. For now you should definitely rest the joint and try not sleeping on your sides as that could compound the problem. A stitch in time saves nine!

 

[oldfart]

Had it examined by an ortho last night. He said its definitely not impingement or rotator cuff problem.

He said it might be an inflammed or torn labrum but wouldn't know for sure unless he did MRI.

He basically said don't do any overhead exercises, ice it after workouts, take inflammatories (800mg ibuprofen) and do rotator cuff strengthening exercises.

If none of that helps he said come back and we'll do an MRI.

Thanks for the responses.