Shoulder Injury

[gb99]

I read through several of the Shoulder Injury topics here - but did not see something that seemed directly related - so I am asking this question on a new topic.

I have been doing a lot of swimming over the past 4 months and recently have started some weight training. Occasionally when swimming I would feel some tenderness in my left shoulder but it wasn't anything that overly concerned me. Usually a day off from the pool and any tenderness would go away.

Initially with the weights I did not have any issues, but over the past couple of weeks I started to feel some tenderness especially when bench pressing and to a lesser extent when doing dumbell shoulder presses.

On the bench press, when lowering the bar I feel the discomfort across the top of my shoulder.

So my questions are:

(1) Is this something that I should have looked at professionally.

(2) Should I stop bench pressing for a while - instead doing something that can strengthen my shoulder (I saw some exercises on a T-Nation thread that seemed to be aimed at this).

(3) Can I work through this treating with ice and heat -- or is this just risking longer term damage to the shoulder.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks in advance.

Gary

[Law_Dawg]

Speaking from personal experience I would have it lookied at. I've had two surgeries, one on each shoulder. I had a labral tear in each one. I had the left one done in 2004 right after I returned from being deployed to the desert. I recently had the right side done and I'm still in therapy over it. An MRI and a Orthopedic Surgeon can tell you if you need surgery or not. I would not rely on a Family Practice doctor to give you a diagnosis.

Here is the thing too. My left sider hurt like hell no matter what I did. My right side and most recent did not hurt near as bad. The MRI showed everything that needed to be done and I had it taken care of. Shoulder surgery sucks, for lack of a better word. You will be strapped down for at least 4 weeks before you can even begin to think about using that arm. The recovery is anywhere from 4 to 6 months depending on you and your body's ability to recover. If you push it too hard and do things you are not supposed to do, you wil re-injure the shoulder and have to do the surgery over again. I have not had to have another surgery on either shoulder because I follow directions of my Therapist and Surgeon.

I wish you the best of luck and hopefully you will NOT need surgery and hope I have given you an idea of what might to expect or an avenue to follow up on.

Frank

[gb99]

Frank, thanks for the comments.

My physician feels it is just tendinitis and prescribed an anti inflammatory. I am going to skip the bench press and shoulder press for a couple of weeks and see how it works out.

Gary

[dazzler]

There's every chance you've managed to irritate some aspect of the rotator cuff, whether its supraspinatus or infraspinatus or teres. whatever it is, pressing will aggravate it in the short term, so your right to stop it. Try a period working on external rotation exercises to strengthen Infraspinatus and teres, hammer your rear delts to help bring them up to speed with anterior delts (they will be weaker!). Once the pain has settled-NSAIDs will help too, don't go straight back to pressing.
Try clap press ups instead of benching. it will hit serratus hard, which attaches under the scapula. As it gets stronger, it will aid correct positioning of your shoulder girdle. When you're ready for shoulder pressing, do them standing. You will use less weight, but the delts will get hammered, along with serratus. Two birds, one stone!
Keep giving rear delts the priority, train them first. Try variations in seated pulley row to hit the lower traps and rhomboids - Exrx.net is a great site, with video demo's of most exercises. T-nation is another awesome site, with regular posts by the elite in S and C.....with plenty of shoulder threads!
I train professional athletes in the uk, and have done now for 12 years, and i've had success over and over with this logic - hammer the external rotators, then the rear delts and serratus, then full training and competition. Not saying its perfect, not saying i'm a genius in the field, but it works very well

[Law_Dawg]

Gary,

Good Luck! I would never wish any kind of shoulder injury on anyone. For lack of a better analogy...IT SUCKS!

Take care,

Frank

[wildstang]

get well gb99 i can relate to what your going through not by going through it personally but by my significant other going through rotator cuff surgery on both shoulders each injury happening 8 years apart. im familiar with her rehab and the torture she went through to get it back to normal. good luck and be safe.

[Xaverious]

Yeah ..i understand what you meant

[Xaverious]

I had year ago broken arm ...really painfull.