Injured Shoulder

**ColdFX** · July 14th, 2007, 10:06 PM

Hi everyone,

At the end of June I was doing some benching and curling one day and I noticed that my shoulder was starting to hurt.
Then a day later I tried to benchpress again, and my shoulder wouldnt allow me to.

I initially took 1 week off, but then I re-injured my shoulder again by trying to bench a bit too early.
I have currently not benched for more than a week and my shoulder, and my shoulder still wont allow me to bench. (I didnt try curling yet)

The pain occurs near the front portion of my shoulder, and it only occurs when the bar comes down to my chest area when I am benching.

Anyways did anyone ever have a pain like this before?
And are there any ways to help speed up recovery?

P.S- I tried benching today but I only did 2 reps on a low weight just to see if my shoulder was still injured (which it is)

Thanks alot!
-ColdFx

yakko75 · July 29th, 2007, 01:24 AM

The shoulder is a very complex joint and you should see your doctor who will put you through some resistance tests to determine exactly what's wrong.

Pain in the front part of the shoulder associating with curling and pressing could have resulted from straining the interior branch of the biceps or perhaps the coracobrachialis (or both). These originate in the front of the shoulder and run along the humerus to their respective insertions further down. The coracobrachialis is primarily an adductor and would possibly be irritated by eccentric motion (letting the curl out or the press down). The interior bicep would also be irritated by eccentric motion, but could also be inhibiting your concentric movement in either lift.

If it turns out to be merely strained tissue, you need to ice the joint for twenty minutes several times every day and use an anti-inflammatory until you can move the joint freely without pain. Don't lift until then, and then let the newly formed tissue get used to gradually greater stress. If you start lifting too much too soon, you make the uninjured muscle compensate for the untrained new tissue. You'll end up with bad form and the new tissue won't get properly trained. Patience is a virtue. If you do it right, you could end up with a much stronger joint than what you injured.

But you really should let your doctor make the call. If there was something more than a strain, you'll develop scarring that will inhibit the joint as long as it is in there. Your doctor may be able to refer you to an ART (active release technique) practitioner who can work the scar tissue out without surgery. It hurts like crazy, but you'll have full recovery in a very short time.

Hope that helps.

**wildstang** · August 2nd, 2007, 04:59 PM

hey yakko75 you have some great info.......you sound as if your in the medical field....or you definiletly done your research....nice to have the extra knowledge here. now getting to the point of why im posting behind you. what you describe as scar tissue in the joint region i do believe i have that condition now and have lived with it for some time now. im not sure but it may also be contributed to the fact when i was younger i was always able to pop my shoulders out (dislocate) like houdini. i thought it was cool as a kid doing it and amazed others when they would see me do it but as i got older it became more painfull to do. so i dont do it anymore. but i am still capable of doing it and it does sometimes interfere in my bench so i step away work past the grinding sound i have always had in the shoulder with just movement of the joint and retry and im somehow able to continue. as a result of my "double jointedness" as ive refered to it all my life not totally sure exactly what it is called technically, but i would appreciate some more info on active release techniques if you know of any, if not the next time im to see my doctor i shall bring that subject up to him. ive always wondered my i had so much grinding noise in the joint way before i ever lifted weights. on the other hand it hasn't interfered in my capabilitys to lift, and my training wich used to be powerlifting before being broken up. i still currently bench 350 but if im not carefull and do good warm ups i feel as if i can rip something in it badly. sometimes i have to stop as i said and do my thing as i refer to it and then im able to continue. maybe its got something to do with my extremely high pain threshold i dont know but i have always experienced what youve described. thanks for any info you post on the subject.

blast7 · September 23rd, 2007, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ColdFX

Hi everyone,

At the end of June I was doing some benching and curling one day and I noticed that my shoulder was starting to hurt.
Then a day later I tried to benchpress again, and my shoulder wouldnt allow me to.

I initially took 1 week off, but then I re-injured my shoulder again by trying to bench a bit too early.
I have currently not benched for more than a week and my shoulder, and my shoulder still wont allow me to bench. (I didnt try curling yet)

The pain occurs near the front portion of my shoulder, and it only occurs when the bar comes down to my chest area when I am benching.

Anyways did anyone ever have a pain like this before?
And are there any ways to help speed up recovery?

P.S- I tried benching today but I only did 2 reps on a low weight just to see if my shoulder was still injured (which it is)

Thanks alot!
-ColdFx

How much pulling work do you do. Very commonly you will see forward and internally rotated shoulders in weight lifters as they tend to do lots of shoulder and chest work. This predisposes one for anterior shoulder injuries. As mentioned above you can get it checked out by the doc but always look at the way you are training as well.

**cujo-1** · September 24th, 2007, 04:50 PM

i just recently injured (strained) i do believe my shoulder also. mine resulted from benching. ive got no swelling or anything like that. i can still lift but with discomfort is all. i decided to go light for a week and see if it pulls out of it and start supplementing with cissus to see if that might help. i did notice this morning after waking up on the shoulder it being slept on my fingers were numb! but quickly returned to normal after moving them. dont know if that was just from sleeping on the shoulder or if it stems from my overstrain?

gelly · November 7th, 2007, 04:54 PM

Hi I have a similar problem with my shoulder I am waiting for an mri scan over a year now I have got help from phyiso's but they dont do much

Does anyone have a step by step guide they can post up that will help repair damaged rotator cuffs

I dont care if it takes a year to get back to where I was, at this stage I just want to be able to train again

**ColdFX** · November 7th, 2007, 05:04 PM

I just had another similar injury, but I dont exactly know what was wrong. When I would bring the bar down to my chest (when benching) I would feel pain in the front of my left shoulder facing the ceiling. Sometimes it would be accompanied by a slight grinding noise.
I initally took a week off, and iced it twice a day. Then I slowly started to bench again with an extremely light weight (i.e 10lbs on each side) just to help adjust my shoulder to benching.
Each day I would slow add a bit more weight until I was back until where I was...the adjusting period probably lasted 2 weeks until I was back to my original weight.

Just take it easy and dont rush it. If you rush it, your just going to stay injured longer, and then STILL have to recover.

Goodluck!