What did I do to my shoulder?

[Zero Tolerance]

I've been racked with injuries all my life. My biggest injury until now was my left wrist/forearm, which I injured while attemping to curl way too much with a straight bar.

Now, I did something to my right shoulder. It's been getting a little better every day, but it's pretty bad. I did delts and traps a few days earlier, but the day after chest and tris, I started feeling this..

If I extend my right arm straight-out in front of me, as I move my right shoulder more and more to the left, I get the pain. This isn't the only way I get pain, but it's the worst way..

Any ideas of what I may have done? I'm going to see a sports doctor soon (I'm out of state right now) but I'd like to have some sort of idea what might be wrong before I get there...

Thanks in advance...

 

[Lean One]

Rotator cuff probably... Sucks

 

[Zero Tolerance]

Hmm.. What if I don't have any pain at all on the outside of my shoulder? I thought a rotator cuff injury would include that.. I'm not sure, though.. I've got a little "click" when I move my arm in certain directions now (just like with my wrist injury). The pain is only on the very inside of my shoulder.

 

[kmac6225]

rotator cuff sounds right. I had an injury to mine about a year and a half ago and had pains just like you describe. Can you lift your arm above your head at all?

the only thing i can say is REST IT and maybe light rehab work (like 5lb dbs or elastic bands). Slow controlled laterall raises and front raises.

 

[Lean One]

Hmm.. What if I don't have any pain at all on the outside of my shoulder? I thought a rotator cuff injury would include that.. I'm not sure, though.. I've got a little "click" when I move my arm in certain directions now (just like with my wrist injury). The pain is only on the very inside of my shoulder.

The rotator cuff is comprised of 4 muscles that act to hold your shoulder in socket and assist in rotation. There are internal and external rotators. Depending on the nature of your injury, you may feel pain in deifrent areas. See your doctor. Whatever you do, Don't try to "work through it." Rest it ,then do what your doctor says.Rotator cuff injuries can stay with you for life. Trust me... I speak from experience.

 

[Zero Tolerance]

Crap.. At first, I could bearly lift my shoulder over my head. Now, I can with very little pain. It's other movements that hurt more. As soon as I get back home, I'll set up an appointment with a doctor.. How long could this take to heal?

 

[Lean One]

The rest of your life. Seriously, if it's not too bad and you do well rehabing and strengthening it,You could be doin pretty well in about 8 weeks or so. You will probably need to make rotator cuff specific exercises a regular part of your routine indefinitely.Even then, you'll still have to be careful. I fried both my shoulders about 6yrs ago doing tree work/climbing for a living. I'm still not 100%. There's just certan things I can't do anymore.

 

[Zero Tolerance]

Hmm.. Very depressing.. What types of exercises can't you do anymore? I've never had shoulder problems before. I just added some 'explosiveness' to my movements and that must be what did it...

 

[Lean One]

Hmm.. Very depressing.. What types of exercises can't you do anymore? I've never had shoulder problems before. I just added some 'explosiveness' to my movements and that must be what did it...

No more barbell bench presses or dips. I can get by with most other pressing movements as long as I'm careful with form. And everything is slow and controlled.

 

[Zero Tolerance]

Ohh.. It must have been the dips.. Heh. Wouldn't that figure? I just added them to my routine. Actually, I'd only do them to work triceps before recently. Only a couple of weeks ago (I probably did 3 workouts with dips since I started) is when I started using dips as a chest exercise..

I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed about healing quickly and completely - if that's possible...

 

[Lean One]

Good luck.

 

[natedogg]

That's why you have to take protective measures BEFORE this **** happens. Lesson learned. Hope everything turns out well for you.

 

[kmac6225]

when you get back into your normal routine make sure you warm up your shoulders before you lift.

I warm mine up before any upper body day in the gym and I've yet to have another setback (knock on wood). Unfortunately there's no fast way to get over this - good luck bro

 

[Zero Tolerance]

Ohh, now it's even more depressing.. I haven't had any measurements done since I was 18 and my arms were 16 1/2 inches pumped. A friend took a measurement today and I was 20 inches unpumped. I was doing so well... I kinda can't wait to get to the doctor to hear what types of things I need to do to begin the healing process. I was just getting "really" serious for the first time in my life and it only lasted a month...

 

[Zero Tolerance]

I hate to keep harping on this, guys - but I'm getting sickly depressed about this.. Is it saying anything that I have pretty-much a full-range of motion in my shoulder without any pain? The only time I feel any significant pain is when I move my shoulder out of it's normal range of motion - AND - after I've been sleeping with my arm extended over my head and under my pillow, and then I move it...

I can't stand being away from home without my doctor to tell me what's wrong... The suspense is killing me..

 

[Boourns]

Not trying to depress you any further but 5 years ago I had an injury to my left shoulder and your description of the pain is almost the same as mine. I say I had about 60% range of motion. Doc told me to get some muscle therapy for about 3wks. I didn't really see the need for the treatment. I just think the nurse liked shocking me. Even then I had a little pain but range of motion was better. I healed around the 5th wk.

 

[ryansm]

If it makes you feel any better there are many of us who have had this injury, to include myself, and still move on fine. I use to powerlift, and do not anymore partly because of this injury, however, I am still able to do most lifts and go heavy as LONG AS I DO A PROPER WARM-UP FIRST! Not trying to yell at you, but just trying to get across how imprtant warming up is. Good luck.

 

[Zero Tolerance]

Thanks, guys.. I've been doing more research and I think what I've got is Rotator Cuff Tendonitis. Let's see what the doctor says when I get back home. I have 100% range of motion but some movements aren't perfectly comfortable..

Believe it or not, I do so much stretching between movements that I feel like a spectacle. I guess I just need to be more "warm" before I hit the weights. Maybe an extra set or two of light weight on presses will help..

Thanks all...

 

[Lean One]

Just bide your time and see what your doc says. To give you a little encouragement, Your symptoms sound like there is still plenty of time for you to correct this... Just do what your doc says.Actually, it almost sounds like what I live with day to day.Mabey not quite as bad though. At my worst, I had constant pain, and could barely hold a gallon of milk when fixing my coffee in the morning. It was a long road back, but like ryansm said I can work around it just fine now. You just need to learn what not to do anymore... And what to do to strengthen it.

BTW, if you check out the pics in my Superdrol test log, There's one of me from about 6 yrs ago when I was at my worst. So the gains I've made since then will show you that it's possible to get through this...If you train smart.

 

[silverSurfer]

I posted this on another thread here at AM - same topic. You may want to print the attached links and show them to your doctor. Ideally you want to go to a sports rehab specialist and not your general practitioner, but that is entirely up to you. Either way good luck and I hope you get well soon.

There are some rotator cuff specific exercises you can do. They usually involve very light weights, like 5 pounds maybe 10. One of the BB mags had an article on this a few months ago, can't think of the name. Do a google search and I'm sure you'll find links. I used to have a manual from Health for Life called "The 7 minute rotator cuff solution". It is out of print and the bastiages at amazon have it for like over $100.00.

... here you go, I found some links for you:
http://familydoctor.org/265.xml
http://www.aafp.org/afp/980215ap/fongemie.html
http://www.aafp.org/afp/20030315/1315ph.html

 

[Zero Tolerance]

Thanks again, guys.. And thanks for these new links. I'm getting ready to head back home so I'll read them tonight or tomorrow. My "plan" dictates that I need to get a referral for a specialist. Waste of time....

Otherwise.. It's been a few years since I had a problem with this shoulder but some of the exercises on those linked pages remind me of what my doctor told me to do during my last injury. I didn't think they could be related, but now I'm thinking they must be.

I used to have a great throwing arm. I could be playing the outfield (baseball) and throw the ball to homeplate with one short hop to catch a runner trying to score. Well, one day I decided to play a softball game and felt very discouraged when I couldn't even get the ball to second base on one-hop. To make a long story short, I DID get that softball to home plate on a single hop after a few shots - and I did that for the rest of the game.

The next day, my shoulder was shot. Much worse than it is now. The specialist told me the bones in my shoulders weren't ideal for this type of activity and that "this" was bound to happen. I'd need to get the bones cut a bit in order to throw properly. I never did get that surgery but I stopped throwing and things have been fine until now..

I guess that's a good little bit of information in case someone else has this trouble and does a search later on...

 

[joshingyou]

Sounds to me like Osteolysis of the distal clavicle. can you locate the pain specifically to the AC joint? Does the pain
hurt most when you cross your bag arm to touch the shoulder of your good arm?
The big issue with shoulder problems is their vague pains that could be several things. A major problem would be
a "full thickness tear" of any of the rotator cuff tendons. Weakness and limitied range of motion are signature trademarks
of tears.

In whatever the case, stop doing anything that hurts the shoulder completely until you visit an orthopedic dr. Make sure
the dr. you see specializes in arthoscopic shoulder surgery. Otherwise you'll be wasting your time. If your plan gives you issues
on referrals you'd want a specialist from the start. Don't be afraid of surgery, it may be your best option for a quick recovery.
If it IS a ODC problem, that's pretty much cutting out some bone and other than pain, you'll be recovering and back to lifting sooner
than tears.

 

[Zero Tolerance]

Ohhh!! I've stayed away from these forums for a while now. I can't stand it anymore! Well, here's where I'm at.. I went to the doctor, hoping for a referral to an orthopedic surgeon, but the doctor said I didn't need one. The strength in my shoulder, when I went about two weeks ago, was fine. I had full range of motion.

The doctor said I had tendonitis. I forget exactly what TYPE of tendonitis he said, but it was one I remembered from reading and following those links posted above.. At any cost, for the past couple of weeks, the only time I feel pain is when I, like Joshingyou mentioned, touch my good shoulder with the hand of my bad shoulder. In other words, when I take my right hand (bad shoulder) and touch the left, I feel the pain. But, every day becomes less and less painful. In fact, now I've got to pull on that left shoulder to feel any pain.. So I'm healing...

Oddly enough, I think I had two injuries at the same time on the same shoulder.. At the very top of my shoulder, where one might 'pat you on the shoulder', I had some pain. I noticed that I couldn't flex the traps on my right side and that actually still felt funny until a couple of days ago. Still, when I do a shoulder-shrug without any weight, it gives me a little pinch at the top of the movement. Again, getting less and less noticable every day...

I think I'm going to go back to the gym next week and try a little bit of everything with very light weights and very slow movements...

By the way, I think I have a feeling why this happened.. On the last day I trained, my Wife needed me home (what else is new) right away, so I rushed all my sets. I was going so fast that I felt like a crack-addict, bearly resting 20 seconds in-between sets.. Hell, you can't please everybody - I should have taken my time...

 

[Lean One]

Glad to hear you're healing. Sounds like you're learning a lot from this.

 

[rajscorps]

How about you give “Trigger point therapy� a try? I had severe shoulder problems (impingement and subluxation) and no amount of rehab worked. Behind neck presses, dips and all those. The rotator cuff exercises do strengthen your shoulders but the pain would cause you to cringe even then. Much of the pain is actually referred pain. So if your shoulder hurts it may actually be your rhomboids or subscapularis that’s causing the trouble. In other words the cause of the pain is not always found at the site of the pain. The medical community has done a fair bit of research on trigger points.

Google or look up triggerpointbook.com.

 

[Tad50]

No more barbell bench presses or dips. I can get by with most other pressing movements as long as I'm careful with form. And everything is slow and controlled.

I agree. After I had surgery on my shoulder, the Orth. surgeon told me to stay away from barbell bench presses. He said it's one of the worst exercises for your shoulder. I listened.....stayed away.....only dumbells/cables for chest....I can still get a hell of a workout with no shoulder problems:thumbsup:

 

[Lean One]

He he. I always chuckle to myself when I get asked "how much do you bench?" and I reply " I don't bench"

 

[Zero Tolerance]

I'd love to hear more about what Joshingyou was getting at... Anybody know?

 

[joshingyou]

Zero, How are you doing with this condition? Is it getting any better. From all you say I don't think its a tear of the rotator cuff. I'd go with what I said before about the ODC.

If your dr. brushes you off find a specialist that will give you a thorough exam. The best test would be to inject the AC joint and numb it. If the pain goes away you can pretty much be sure its that.

 

[ivydude]

I have a bad case of rotator cuff tendonitis and I would reccommend taking Zyflamend (It's OTC). I had better results on this than on Vioxx. It doesn't completely alleviate the pain, but it definitely helped.

 

[The Paper Route]

I have had the same problem for years i messed up my right rotater cuff from playing baseball.

 

[TheGame46]

could be bercitus