shoulder pain/strain....keep going????

[srx600]

So i tweaked my shoulder last week doing a barbell shoulder press. It was at the top of the lift.....felt like I overstretched. The pain wasn't too bad and was pretty much gone after I took a few days off over the weekend.

So I worked out again on monday doing a push pull routine. I felt some pain doing weighted dips and the same shoulder press. Later that day the pain intensified.

Yesterday and today I would say it is a constant moderate pain. It hurts when doing a lateral raise or going over head. The pain is located right in the crease of the arm between the shoulder and the pec.....I would say the armpit/front delt. Anyone experience pain in the area before? It is a burning/tearing pain. Rotator cuff or something else?

I'm on week 3 of a 6 week cycle btw.

 

[youngandfree]

Explain what you mean by "overstretching it" during the top of the lift. You should press with shoulder blades back and basic shoulder girdle in a fixed position. Press until your arms reach full extension, and not move your shoulder girdle. Don't rotate your shoulders up to get that last inch. That's what puts you in a vulnerable position and where a lot of injuries occur.

Probably a rotator cuff. If it is a constant pain, you should lay low. Do a search and find numerous threads of people hurting their shoulders and continuing to lift and it getting worse. By doing more exercises that are stressfull to the joint, if not done properly, it's just going to keep giving you problems. And I'm sure like everyone here, since you are on cycle, you were probably pushing it a bit more than usual.

IMO, the decision you have to make is:
1)Am I going to be a tough guy and finish my cycle hell or high water and deal with the shoulder pain, get some pain meds, have it bother you for a lonnnnnngggggg time, or
2)Am I going to use my head, quit pushing it, maybe see a shoulder specialist so that my shoulder isn't screwed for the majority of my life, and figure out exactly what went wrong and how to not do it again.

Been there done that with hurt rotator when I was young and didn't know much about form and technique. Not saying yours was wrong, but you are asking if it is something you should be worried about. It didn't heal completely, my GP I went to was a fat lazy slob that suggested I shouldn't work out so much, so he wouldn't refer me to a specialist. I learned better form, learned how to train around it so I didn't make it any worse once I could start really using it. Now, I am somewhat of a form Nazi because I see so many with crappy form. I won't call you out in the gym or anything, but anyone I am working with I make sure they have good form so they don't get hurt.

My suggestion, try to salvage what you can of your cycle, lay off shoulders, dips, any chest exercises that aggravate it. Get it checked out. Learn the lesson you are supposed to from all this, and do it again better once you are healed up properly.

If you aren't getting payed or making a living from your lifting ability or your physique, it's not worth overdoing it and not getting an injury checked and properly healed. If you do enough damage that it's not just your lifting that's affected, but now your job is affected to because you can no longer perform it due to a stupid accident, was it worth finishing the last couple weeks of any cycle that you may be doing?

And yes, people say a shoulder pain is normal or pretty minor, and that alot of lifters have them, they just suck it up and deal with it. Well, you don't have to just suck it up, it's not worth being in pain for a long time or rest of your life because your ego was too big.

Sorry for the rant, just my opinion.

 

[rantorcha]

Man, that is such a tough call! There are so many factors involved including what pain tolerance you have and if it really is a tweak as opposed to a slight tear. If it were me, I'd lay off for about a week. If it still hurts after this week, I'd go have it checked out by a Sports doctor if you can. Shoulder issues (like back issues) are not something you want to mess with.

 

[JW32Hoops]

Dude...this happens to me ALL the time. So frustrating, right?

Check out this article, has lots of different stretches and rehab/prehab stuff you can do to keep your shoulder joints strong, flexible, etc.

http://www.criticalbench.com/bench-press-blowout.htm

 

[brownstown89]

id say do a light shoulder routine, i hurt my shoulder doing pec dec was doing upright rows on smith machine and it popped and when i went to front delts it was gone completely and i went from doing 60 for 2 on arnold press to 70s for... be careful shoulders are used in every upper body lift,

 

[srx600]

Over stretching bu totally locking out. When I do this I feel a lot of strain on the shoulders. I had done something similar a few times, but the pain was gone a few minutes later. This one is lingering and hurts much worse. I did arms and DLs today and i couldn't feel it too much during the workout because everything else was pumped. A couple hours later the pain returned. There is some popping with certain movements and a little shakiness. I plan to do some legs tomorrow and forgo the last push pull of the week on Friday.....taking the weekend off also and seeing where I am on Monday. Debating seeing a doc tomorrow.

 

[youngandfree]

Over stretching bu totally locking out. When I do this I feel a lot of strain on the shoulders. I had done something similar a few times, but the pain was gone a few minutes later. This one is lingering and hurts much worse. I did arms and DLs today and i couldn't feel it too much during the workout because everything else was pumped. A couple hours later the pain returned. There is some popping with certain movements and a little shakiness. I plan to do some legs tomorrow and forgo the last push pull of the week on Friday.....taking the weekend off also and seeing where I am on Monday. Debating seeing a doc tomorrow.

It sounds like you might need some work on getting your technique down. When you "stretch" to get to lockout, you rotate your shoulders in a way that isn't intended to move heavy weight. That's why on pressing movements, chest included, you need to keep your shoulders in a fixed position, rotated back and pinching your shoulder blades together in chest exercises. Obviously, for shoulder presses, you can't exactly pinch your shoulder blades together and still press overhead. But you should keep them low, keep your traps relaxed and stationary. When you rotate up to get that last couple inches, your traps will contract, and will feel like you are doing a shrug type movement. You shouldn't feel too much tightness in your traps and neck while doing presses. The act of rotating your shoulders to get the last bit is terrible for your shoulders. If you have rested it up, and tried to work them again, and they keep hurting, you aren't letting them heal and bad technique is just aggravating them. If it hurts much worse on a constant basis, get them checked out.

 

[srx600]

doc

Went to see the doc. She said the supra....something muscle of the rotator cuff was pulled. Took an X-ray, script for motrin 800's, ice, and PT. No results on the x ray yet, but pt should know what's up. She said take a week off from the gym. I am going to hit arms and legs tomorrow and take a week off.....if needed.

 

[thenomad]

i know your pain, my shoulder pops out frequently doing over head lifts. any rec's for shoulder exercises that aren't over the head?

 

[youngandfree]

Make sure you don't do anything to aggravate it doing arms. I can get a twinge in mine doing close grip bench, skull crushers, if I get too heavy on pushdowns, any close grip barbell curls, certain ways of hammer curls. You will be surprised how much shoulder activation occurs in alot of exercises. And it's not from moving the shoulder necessarily, it's when you tighten up to stabilize yourself during your set.

Food for thought.

 

[srx600]

Went to the PT yesterday. After many tests he thinks it is either a bad muscle strain or a labral tear, but he can't be sure without an MRI. He doesn't think its the cuff because the shoulder strength is still there. I referred me to two other PT's who will look at it on monday and culminate to try to diagnose it. He said I could still lift, but stay away from what irritates my shoulders. I decided just to take the days off because he said it's better reason for the GP to refer me for an MRI.