shoulder problems

[Simco4]

I have been having some problems in my left shoulder. It started about three weeks ago, so I took a week off, and I started lifting again last week. My shoulder was fine during my arm and back workouts. I did chest last Friday, but I kept it light. I didn't experience any problems except for maybe a little weakness. I did chest again yesterday, once again, keeping it light. No severe pain, but my left shoulder is a lot more sore than my right. I haven't had any real harsh pain in there since it began, but it just feels like somethings not right in there. The only fairly new exercises that I have added to my training are decline bench and behind the back shrugs using the smith. Could either of these be causing the problem. I am also left handed, so my left shoulder gets more everyday use than my right. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Methyl1]

Sorry about your pain bro, lay off the behind the back shrugs, those are very hard on the shoulders. Any sort of exercise where you have to place your hands behind your back put your shoulders and rotator cuffs in a vulnerable and unnatural position and cause injury and pain because its yanking your arms and shoulder back and down. Keep your wieghts light and in perfect form, especially on over head presses which will cause much pain.

[Magickk]

Try doing frontal raises or lateral raises with like 5 or 7.5 lb dumbells. When you do heavy weight you put the meat on your shoulders, but the interior tendons, etc. in the shoulder don't get worked very well, and they tend to get weak, stressed and whatnot. Using a really light weight is one way I've discovered to minimize this in the shoulders. It works your interior rather than outer. Good luck.

[Simco4]

Try doing frontal raises or lateral raises with like 5 or 7.5 lb dumbells. When you do heavy weight you put the meat on your shoulders, but the interior tendons, etc. in the shoulder don't get worked very well, and they tend to get weak, stressed and whatnot. Using a really light weight is one way I've discovered to minimize this in the shoulders. It works your interior rather than outer. Good luck.

Thanks Magickk,

Do you seperate light and heavy days for your shoulders, or do you try to hit the interior and exterior on the same day? I am assuming on these light workouts you are doing are large number of reps.

[Magickk]

Thanks Magickk,

Do you seperate light and heavy days for your shoulders, or do you try to hit the interior and exterior on the same day? I am assuming on these light workouts you are doing are large number of reps.

Depends. Like yesterday my shoulders felt good, I did frontal raises, DB presses, then when I went to lateral raises my right shoulder began hurting, so I stopped, went on and finished up legs, then came back and did some lightweight reps (2 sets of 12-15). But if my shoulder is bothering me bad enough that I am not doing shoulders, I'll just throw them in on arm day, or any other day and do 4 sets of 12-15 until my shoulder is recovered and I'm ready to lift 110% on it again.

[Ubiquitous]

Simco, most importantly you need to address why you have this problem in the first place.

Most of the time, shoulder problems result in poor form on the bench. People get it when they don't retract their scapula to take their shoulders out of the equation. I have been guilty of this, and now am going through rotator cuff rehab because of it. Benching heavy is VERY hard on the shoulders, especially if you're raising them off the pad at the end of the movement. Try to keep your elbows at a 45 rather than a flared out 90 degree when pressing too.. It'll help. Limiting the range of movement and opting for a slight incline, or hammer strength machines for a bit, with much less weight can suffice.

The best is to lay off and rehab the problem.

Train the joint to be strong with excercises that are designed to strengthen... like side lateral raises and cuban presses.

just my two cents.

[Simco4]

Simco, most importantly you need to address why you have this problem in the first place.

Most of the time, shoulder problems result in poor form on the bench. People get it when they don't retract their scapula to take their shoulders out of the equation. I have been guilty of this, and now am going through rotator cuff rehab because of it. Benching heavy is VERY hard on the shoulders, especially if you're raising them off the pad at the end of the movement. Try to keep your elbows at a 45 rather than a flared out 90 degree when pressing too.. It'll help. Limiting the range of movement and opting for a slight incline, or hammer strength machines for a bit, with much less weight can suffice.

The best is to lay off and rehab the problem.

Train the joint to be strong with excercises that are designed to strengthen... like side lateral raises and cuban presses.

just my two cents.

Thanks for the info bry. I think you might be hitting the nail on the head. I also think declines might be part of my problem. Do you think I should lay off of shoulders and chest entirely for a week or two, or just continue to go light. No hammer strength in my current gym , but I really do miss it.