Cortisone Shot Worked....or not?

[monsterbox]

I've been wrestling with some rotator cuff impingement in my left shoulder for the past year. Its never bothered me from lifting or anything ever, I can go as heavy as I want on any lift and its fine. It just clicks when I rotate my arm.

However, the other day I waxed cars all day long and it stresses out the tendons by rubbing them from the impingement. The next 2 days, I could hardly move my arm at all without feeling the tendons grind and hurt like hell from the swelling. I tried tons of advil and ice.

I went to the doc and they gave me a cortisone shot. They said cortisone is normally not a good idea, but from an impingement syndrome, its excellent because the impingement cannot heal unless the tendons are released from the imflammation. So she gave me a shot in my shoulder. She said you have to "break the cycle" of imflammation, because otherwise the pinched tendons will damage themselves much moreso if you do not take the shot. Any movement in the shoulder will begin to fray them unless its completely returned to normal size...the downside is you can't NOT move your arm for more than 3-5 days without getting "frozen shoulder" so cortisone is the only practical way out.

Today it feel BRAND NEW. 150%. Full range of motion, no pain, no stiffness.

My question is, how much damage could that one shot have caused ?
Am I going to loose mucle mass...someone told me id loose a bunch of strength, pumps, energy, and size?? WTF that pisses me off.

and Secondly, if I continue lifting like normal, and stay away from waxing cars and movemements that irritated the impingement, I shouldn't have the pain return after 6 weeks correct?

If I lift smart, and stay out of the range that I know causes irritation, like waxing a car, and work on correcting my muscular imbalance, would it be safe to continue with my cycle this summer of Test-E 500mg 12wks?

 

[deadaim]

No damage, but BE ****ING CAREFUL, your injury is still there, the inflammation and other immune responses have been shut down to make you feel better.

But pretend your in tons of pain otherwise you can do great harm to your body.

 

[monsterbox]

No damage, but BE ****ING CAREFUL, your injury is still there, the inflammation and other immune responses have been shut down to make you feel better.

But pretend your in tons of pain otherwise you can do great harm to your body.

Its really not an "injury" it was the fact that I was waxing in an awkward position that caused my ac joints to swell and press on the tendons leading to imflammation. So now that its reduced, the tendons are free and I should be able to return to lifting as long as I make sure I dont allow for the a/c joint to rub again. I will be damn carefull to maintain 10-12 rep range and perfect form.


However, I feel like my whole body is less "pumped". I have taken a week off from lifting however. But, is it true that a site injection shot can cause overall muscle loss and weakness/inhibition of gains in the body? Should I start some IGF-1?

 

[ItsHectic]

Clicking and impingement are 2 separate issues, clicking is usually rotator cuff weakness or muscle imbalance. Is your rear and front delt even in size?

I would do those DC towel exercises every day or twice a day to keep from getting frozen shoulder.

Cortisone like other NSAIDs are anti anabolic/catabolic, dont know if you would lose strength but it will inhibit gains locally, dunno if cortisone acts systematically.
Not sure about the IGF-1 question.

Its important to not push yourself any harder than you would without the cortisone because although you feel 150% better your really not and because of this cortisone always has an increased risk of injury.

Incase your doc hasnt told you already, stay away from overhead excercises, like OHP or even resting with your elbow above shoulder height.
When doing lat pulldowns have someone watch your form, your shoulder should come up when your at the top of the movement and down as you pull down, some people think the shoulder should be held down the whole time but this increases risk of impingement.

 

[monsterbox]

Clicking and impingement are 2 separate issues, clicking is usually rotator cuff weakness or muscle imbalance. Is your rear and front delt even in size?

I would do those DC towel exercises every day or twice a day to keep from getting frozen shoulder.

Cortisone like other NSAIDs are anti anabolic/catabolic, dont know if you would lose strength but it will inhibit gains locally, dunno if cortisone acts systematically.
Not sure about the IGF-1 question.

Its important to not push yourself any harder than you would without the cortisone because although you feel 150% better your really not and because of this cortisone always has an increased risk of injury.

Incase your doc hasnt told you already, stay away from overhead excercises, like OHP or even resting with your elbow above shoulder height.
When doing lat pulldowns have someone watch your form, your shoulder should come up when your at the top of the movement and down as you pull down, some people think the shoulder should be held down the whole time but this increases risk of impingement.

I have big front delts and pecs, but I also have very large traps and substantial lats. I guess my rear delts are being over powered by my front.

My left shoulder is the one that clicks the most. If I do an arm circle, I can feel my tendon "catch" under my collar bone tip/ac joint and pop under on the way around.

It will catch everytime. Its the constant catching that ends up making the tendon swell up, which them causes the impingement...which then continues the inflammation cycle.

I've tried hitting my rear delts harder. They are stronger than they used to but its just not fixing the issue. I almost just feel like my shoulders are just flat out too large for my a/c joints.


So, the cortisone is not for an injury, its simply to break that inflammation cycle from me being an idiot and clicking it too much while waxing a few cars the other day. It caused intense swelling to wear I couldn't move my arm. It never clicks during exercises.

I know that cortisone is catabolic, but if its in the joint, it should not affect my muscle gains? But then again I am experiencing minor systematic cortisol effects (redness, flushing, bp)

 

[ItsHectic]

Not sure how strong the anti anabolic effect of cortisone is but I wouldn't be surprised if you feel your shoulders give out on bench.
A physio just put me on daily shoulder rehab exercises yesterday and coincidentally my triceps are gaining fast this week so for the 1st time my shoulders are giving out rather than my triceps on bench cause of the fatigue, and this just started today, my arm shakes and I feel a burning feeling in my rear delt.

A lot of people have over developed traps, which effects shoulder position, seems you would benefit from laying off traps or atleast just decreasing to 1 or 2 sets of 5s for a while, and the same for anterior delts.