AC Joint Problems

[fbxdan]

A couple months ago i felt a horrendous pain in my right pec, and clavicle after benching. I didn't warm up sufficiently and slapped on too much weight and at the 4th rep I felt the worst pain in that region. I went to the doctor, and got x-rays to make sure it wasnt a really bad tear. Anyways, after that I took a week off as the doctor suggested. I contiuned lifting but avoided flat bench for awhile, because it aggravated the pain. I found out recently the pain is because I have eroded my AC joint very badly. Currently I am on anti-inflammatories and the pain has seemingly went away, but I have lost some strength in my bench since the incident. Since im back on the anti inflammatories my strength is returning and i feel good.

Is this something that I will continue to have pain from after I am done using anti-inflammatories? I talked to a couple guys at the gym and they said they have had the same injury. They go to the doc and cortisone shots every so often. I am hoping that I can overcome this and not have to go under the knife. I just would like to get some input from some of the people here at AM. It is frustrating because I want to keep progressing. However I don't want to do anything foolish and injure myself further at the age of 19. Has anyone else here suffered from this?

 

[bioman]

It likely could recur after stopping the ani-inflammatories. I would stop using those and start on a heavy dose of Cissus and Celadrin, take some time off..maybe a 7-10 days and in the meantime, look into getting some deep tissue massages, ART, or rolfing done.

Too much wear on one joint or a portion of a joint is often the result of muscle imbalance. This does not mean you look imbalanced in any way..you look great for your age or any age for that matter, but there are finely nuanced amounts of tension that muscle groups exert on the joints and if say, your pecs get very strong it may easily overpower a small group of muscles like the teres major and teres minor.

Those latter muscle groups caused me a lot of grief and shoulder pain until I got a series of massages to balance out the muscle lengths and it helped immensely. Also try very hard to include other shoulder excercieses that hit the smaller groups.

But, yes, avoid surgery as much as you can.

 

[guyfromkop2]

how do you bench? elbows flaired or pling style with elbows tucked at the bottom? how much do you bench? what are your repsxsets? and do you do any rotator work? also how much shoulder work and what kind do you do?

 

[lilkev42]

A couple months ago i felt a horrendous pain in my right pec, and clavicle after benching. I didn't warm up sufficiently and slapped on too much weight and at the 4th rep I felt the worst pain in that region. I went to the doctor, and got x-rays to make sure it wasnt a really bad tear. Anyways, after that I took a week off as the doctor suggested. I contiuned lifting but avoided flat bench for awhile, because it aggravated the pain. I found out recently the pain is because I have eroded my AC joint very badly. Currently I am on anti-inflammatories and the pain has seemingly went away, but I have lost some strength in my bench since the incident. Since im back on the anti inflammatories my strength is returning and i feel good.

Is this something that I will continue to have pain from after I am done using anti-inflammatories? I talked to a couple guys at the gym and they said they have had the same injury. They go to the doc and cortisone shots every so often. I am hoping that I can overcome this and not have to go under the knife. I just would like to get some input from some of the people here at AM. It is frustrating because I want to keep progressing. However I don't want to do anything foolish and injure myself further at the age of 19. Has anyone else here suffered from this?

Well I am also 19 and actually tore my AC Joint a year ago. I did not have to have surgery luckily since it wasnt too bad. I think it wasnt a complete tear otherwise I would have had to have surgery. But anyway when I went back to Flat Bench I was out about 2 months and lost a ton of strength. I felt an akward numb/pain??? feeling i guess to describe it. Nothing that hurt really, just felt weird. Now when I warm up(arm circles, rotating shoulder in anyway) I hear my shoulder creek, and makes noises it never did before. I use DB more now, but when I do use the bar it is just like an akward feeling in the joint. According to my friends nothing looks wrong when I bench, I guess its just mental or something. But I can still do it, my strength is back. I am considering trying Cissus just to see what effects it would have. Let me know if you try anything and how it works. But overall its just like an akward feeling, nothing to be alarmed about though.

 

[lilkev42]

Oh yeah, definitly add roatator stuff into your workouts. It will be a huge benefit, I do them in my routine now because of how weak it got.

 

[fbxdan]

how do you bench? elbows flaired or pling style with elbows tucked at the bottom? how much do you bench? what are your repsxsets? and do you do any rotator work? also how much shoulder work and what kind do you do?

When I bench I usually have the elbows flared. Squat and Deadlift have always been my two best lifts and bench isnt anywhere near those two lifts. I've always trained it bb style, never really ventured into training bench in a pling fashion. I usually do around 265 for ~ 5-8 reps, usually 4 sets on flat barbell. I don not do much rotator work, but since this injury I have been incorporating some. For shoulder work I do dumbell military presses, lateral extensions, shrugs, upright rows, etc. I do quite a bit of shoulder work.

 

[fbxdan]

It likely could recur after stopping the ani-inflammatories. I would stop using those and start on a heavy dose of Cissus and Celadrin, take some time off..maybe a 7-10 days and in the meantime, look into getting some deep tissue massages, ART, or rolfing done.

Too much wear on one joint or a portion of a joint is often the result of muscle imbalance. This does not mean you look imbalanced in any way..you look great for your age or any age for that matter, but there are finely nuanced amounts of tension that muscle groups exert on the joints and if say, your pecs get very strong it may easily overpower a small group of muscles like the teres major and teres minor.

Those latter muscle groups caused me a lot of grief and shoulder pain until I got a series of massages to balance out the muscle lengths and it helped immensely. Also try very hard to include other shoulder excercieses that hit the smaller groups.

But, yes, avoid surgery as much as you can.

Thanks for the advice. The massage sounds like quite a good idea. After I'm done with these anti-inflammatories I am going to take primaforce's elastamine and cissus.

 

[guyfromkop2]

When I bench I usually have the elbows flared. Squat and Deadlift have always been my two best lifts and bench isnt anywhere near those two lifts. I've always trained it bb style, never really ventured into training bench in a pling fashion. I usually do around 265 for ~ 5-8 reps, usually 4 sets on flat barbell. I don not do much rotator work, but since this injury I have been incorporating some. For shoulder work I do dumbell military presses, lateral extensions, shrugs, upright rows, etc. I do quite a bit of shoulder work.

i'd say cut down on the shoulder pressing movements they get hit hard when you bench anyway, maybe do 1 pressing movement a week, and cut out the upright rows, i know a lot of guys that those tear up their shoulders. also do rotator work before you bench to warm up. and you might want to start benching pling style, tucking your elbows at the bottom and then gradualling flaring out the elbows as you go up. when your elbows are flared at the bottom of the bench it puts a lot of strain on your shoulders.

 

[jmh80]

Dude - read my pics thread.
Had a really bad AC joint problem in my left shoulder.
Tried for years to "lift around it".

The only thing that worked was taking like a year and a half off.
It sucked - but I'm 26 and have been pain-free for 3 or 4 years.

Good luck.

 

[NO HYPE]

Thanks for the advice. The massage sounds like quite a good idea. After I'm done with these anti-inflammatories I am going to take primaforce's elastamine and cissus.

Take the advice already mentioned however, do yourself a favor in refference to the inflammation. Look these products up. GLC 2000, Grapeseed Extract, MSM, Chicken Sternal Collogen Type II, and Ester C. These products synergistically assist in reducing inflammation, and regenerating cartilage. GLC 2000 delivers Glucosamine in 4 different forms so it will be much more effective and quicker absorbing than anything else of it's kind. During a knee injury I took 3 capsules AM, 3 PM with great results. Good luck.

 

[Rictor33]

I have really bad AC joint problems in my left shoulder. It's due to my arm not being set properly when it was broken, my crooked arm (still as strong as the dominant arm and not noticeable) puts odd pressure due to the way I grip the barbell and has really ****ed my AC joint for years. I have been "dealing with it" but just recently I am unable to get the weight off my shoulder when it comes to incline db press, or front shoulder db press/military press. During the winter, when I am a bit heavier, the pain is not as bad and I am able to do these without a problem.. I dont know what to do, because this pain comes and goes and now that I am at a lower bodyfat the pain seems to get really bad, even when I do biceps... I warm up heavily and do rotator cuff stuff, but I am afraid of surgery, or resting... I can't take the down-time, watching all I have worked for waste away when all I have to do is clench my teeth and deal with it... The same way I always have.... However, I am not getting younger

 

[NO HYPE]

I have really bad AC joint problems in my left shoulder. It's due to my arm not being set properly when it was broken, my crooked arm (still as strong as the dominant arm and not noticeable) puts odd pressure due to the way I grip the barbell and has really ****ed my AC joint for years. I have been "dealing with it" but just recently I am unable to get the weight off my shoulder when it comes to incline db press, or front shoulder db press/military press. During the winter, when I am a bit heavier, the pain is not as bad and I am able to do these without a problem.. I dont know what to do, because this pain comes and goes and now that I am at a lower bodyfat the pain seems to get really bad, even when I do biceps... I warm up heavily and do rotator cuff stuff, but I am afraid of surgery, or resting... I can't take the down-time, watching all I have worked for waste away when all I have to do is clench my teeth and deal with it... The same way I always have.... However, I am not getting younger

I would take the above advice and do some research for yourself. Speaking for myself. I have found that a good majority of the time when problems occur in the body, either by nutritional defficiency or injury, that they can be adressed with very positive results with nutritional supplementation. I just remembered, as far as effective lubrication of the joints and muscles goes, look up hyaluronic acid and EFA's. However in reguards to regeneration of cartilage, see my above post. Good luck and let us know how things turn out for ya.

 

[jmh80]

I'd only offer this line of thinking with regard to "not resting": Is pain in everyday life (AC joints can get that bad - I got to where I couldn't write without it bothering me in early '01 before I woke up and quite doing anything weight bearing on it) worth it for an "everyday Joe" lifter???

I could understand completely if it were someone going after a pro card.
But, for the rest of us that merely do it because we love lifting? To me, it's not worth it. I didn't want to live another whatever years having trouble with it while doing menial tasks.

Just something to think about.

 

[sergeant]

Been working in medical field for a long time, specifically OR. COmmon thread to shoulder injuries....Flat Bench Barbell. Worst exercise ever created. Shoulder joint is a sliding joint, and the amount of stress placed on the shoulder from flat benching is enormous, in comparison to low inclines, or declines. You more than likely also have chnages in the bone compostion as well. Has your doctor talked about a distal clavicle resection (c in AC is clavicle) alot of times the impingement may be from the lesions on the distal clavicle. Or perhaps it may even be a labrel tear ( cartilage pad like the meniscus of the knee) or you may have just pinched the AC ligament. Anti inflamatories should help with that. I had a shoulder impingement that was aggravated by side laterals and asked an orthopod I worked about it. Told him it hurt when I did this and showed him, his reponse was ...well stop doing that. That is my advice, I never use a flat bench barbell and never have had a shoulder problem othr than the one mentioned. So I suggest find exercises that you can do and use cissus and celadrin. I think you will be better off for it in the long run.

Just my two cents

 

[ECTOmorph]

i tore mine pretty bad. separated shoulder is what its called. mine was form football

i tried to go through it w out sergury but it wasnt happening. pain/ache was felt in it everyday w th simplest things

i opted to have surgery on against my families and doctors orders. now about a year later i am very happy i went that route. even w sergury i still have that bump, and my clavicle still sets a bit higher than the other, but problem is fixed for the most part

you need to def do some stabalizer muscles work....rotator cuff, traps, ect

make sure to do light weight high reps, and ont push it too hard take a few weeks off (sounds horrible but 10000x times better than making it worse)

when you get back just do mainly DBs and try to stay awa from BBs for a month or two....then slowly ease ino BB again

Cissus has helped me 100%

any questions just ask