Shoulder Problems
Well, something similar has happened to me in the past. About 3 years ago while benching it became very painful to complete the movement in my Right shoulder. I attempted to work through it but that was a bad idea. It was so bad that I almost dropped a stack of plates as I was putting them up in the cabinet when I hit that bad spot in my rang of motion.
it has happened again now about 3 weeks ago. I first thought it was just muscle pain so the next week I attempted to lift again and was hit with more pain. I layed off a week and then went to the Ortho/Sports Medicine Dr. He said it did not appear to be a tear in the ligaments of the rotator but instead seemed to be more cartillage related at the joint itself. He prescribed me some anti-inflamitory pills ot take for a while, and said not to bench press and not to do anything that causes it to hurt.
That week off and the begining of the pills seems to have had some positive effects on it. I have started back lifting this week and on chest day I only did incline press with the barbell, then I did some light dumbell presses and it did not hurt. I also did some pushups and was supprised that they did not hurt either although I did start feeling the pain toward the end when I was getting worn out and probably started using crappy form.
I have lifted all this week and I only skipped Shoulder Day completely. I have really watched my form and I have pulled back on some of the weight if it was going to effect that shoulder. So far the shoulder feels much better and continues to improve each day.
I think I might have been lucky. We will have to wait and see how it progresses. I am nervous about the time when I decide it is time to go heavier on certain exercises agian. I am using this time to do an end of the summer final cut before attempting to bulk again. I never previously reached my bodyfat goal and I intend to at least get a lot closer to it than I did before. But the good thing is that I will be lifting less and doing more cardio at the time when I need to be lifting less to heal up.
Hope it works out!
Todd
August 29, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Had/have similar issue. Started my workouts now with some shoulder rotations to warm up, then onto pec dec with light weight. Next is incline dumb bells only lettingmy arms come down to parallel to the floor. I move the weight up and stretch further after I warm up. Then it is onto incline bench, and finish with pec dec. That seems to be serving me well. My ortho doc told me to start with the dumb bells to strengthen the stabilizer muscles and ancillary muscles and then I could go back toward heavier weights. The little muscles were getting exhausted and the heavy weight was straining them in my left shoulder. Good luck.
August 29, 2008 at 1:15 pm
1-Warm up for at least 10 minutes before lifting. i.e. treadmill walk for 5 minutes, jog 2 min, run 1 min, walk/cooldown 2 min. Don’t lift anything until you’ve at least started sweating a little. Tedious, but VERY important EVERY time
2-NEVER go below parallel with the floor or less than 90 degree elbow bend on bench. #1 cause of shoulder injury in the gym.
3-Ice ice ice. Screw the pills. You feel pain when your body needs you to stop doing something. Listen to it. Pain sucks, but by numbing the pain you are increasing your risk of developing a more severe injury.
4- Light weights. The chest is a very small muscle group, and one better isolated than over worked. Low weight with perfect form and isolated contraction. Unless you’re trying to be a powerlifter, who gives a shit how much you bench. I’ve never put up over 190 on the bar in my life, and I even regret THAT.
5- Don’t over work your shoulders by doing workouts that will use shoulders 2 days in a row. i.e. Back, shoulder, chest, and to a lesser extent, biceps and triceps all use the shoulder joint as either a prime mover or stabilizer. Split up days that use shoulder:
Mon-chest
tues-off
wed-back
thurs-legs
fri-off
sat- shoulders
sun-abs, cardio
Just something to give your shoulders a break.