Shoulder Problems

[HDeuce7]

For the past few months I have been developing a problem in my left shoulder. When I do any type of bench press my shoulder starts to hurt pretty bad. It's not my muscles hurting, it feels deeper, somewhere in my rotator cup. It actual feels like there is something in my shoulder that is preventing it from rotating smoothly. When I rotate my arm around I get this "snap, crackle, pop" sound. The cracking sound has been going on for a while now. The pain is just started to get worse and actually continues hurting after I am through lifting. I am going to go to the doctor next week and see what he says. Has anybody have this happen to them?

 

[CRUNCH]

I'll ask my standard question for shoulder or rotator cuff pain: do you sleep with your arm over your head at night??

Also, how much pulling (upper back) do you do in relation to pushing (chest/shoulders)??

 

[HDeuce7]

When I sleep on my back my arms are on my chest. When I sleep on my stomach my arms are under my pillow and above my head. I do an equal amount of pulling in relation to pushing.

 

[CRUNCH]

You're doing well on the pulling and pushing then. Try to keep your arm from going over your head when you sleep, that position pinches and aggrevates the supraspinatus, one of the four rotator cuff muscle.

You may have to lay off the pressing for a while also. If it really is your rotator cuff, think of it as a kind of tendonitis. Everytime you feel any pain there, your aggrevating it again and prolonging the healing.

Good luck

 

[HDeuce7]

Thanks Crunch! It feels as though there is a rough spot in my shoulder that cause it to stick and crack when I move it above my head. I have laid of pressing for about two weeks now. I am going to start back tomorrow and see what happens.

 

[CRUNCH]

I'm not sure bro. Usually rotator cuff pain will not necessarily have the noises you describe. Could also be a torn piece of cartilage? There are a lot of things that can go wrong with the shoulder joint and shoulder girdle.

Do you remember doing anything specific to it? Or did it just start hurting one day?

My best advice, if it keeps up, go see a physical therapist. Hope it gets better for ya.

 

[HDeuce7]

I was a paratrooper in the army and took a lot of hard hits when I would land on the ground. My shoulder usually impacted pretty hard. I think that might have something to do with it.

 

[HDeuce7]

Crunch, when I wake up in the morning after sleeping on my shoulder, I have a dull pain in it. What do you think could be causing that?

 

[CRUNCH]

Possibly the fact that you're sleeping on it.

You mentioned the shoulder impacts from paratrooping. That could have caused a shoulder seperation. The little boney point on top of your shoulders is a joint called the acromiolclavicular joint (AC joint). It's where your scapular meets your collar bone. A shoulder seperation is when your upper arm bone gets kind of jammed into the socket, and can push that joint apart to varying degrees. Maybe the repeated smashing of the shoulder with the ground has gotten you some chronic problems in that AC joint??

For sure stop sleeping on the shoulder, as it is robably putting pressure on that already weakened joint.

 

[HDeuce7]

Thanks Crunch! I am going to try different things and see what happens.

 

[CRUNCH]

Thanks Crunch! I am going to try different things and see what happens.

Keep us posted on what's working and what isn't.

 

[az2u]

Go to Testosterone Nation and look for articles written by Eric Cressey and Phil Hartman. If you look on other boards shoulder injuries are becoming a very talked about issue.

 

[TheLaw]

It could be your shoulder is partially dislocated from all those hard landings. Both my shoulders have made a similar popping/cracking sound since I was about 13. Back then my family doctor told me it was because both of them were partially dislocated, and my left a little more, so it could possibly be that.

With benching, the same thing will happen to me from time to time. It will hurt real bad, sometimes in the middle of a set and I have to just quit for the day. Even when I do Bi's / Tri's a day or so later my left shoulder will still hurt.

I dont know about you, but for me, it would only happen on the flat bench using a bar. When I switched to dumbells for a couple weeks it seemed to take the strain off that part of my shoulder. Im not sure if it strengthened it a bit as well or not, but when I went back to the bar the pain was gone. Also there was this little goofy shoulder excercise a guy at the gym showed me, not sure if that did anything, but he swore by it for shoulder pain like that (I forget what, it was like a year ago, so I guess that was kind of useless to bring up). Hopefully that helps a little.