Rotator problem - hate it!
A few weeks ago, I was feeling great at the end of a workout. Felt like I might have a bit left in me so I decided to go for it with one set of heavy inclines. Went a bit too heavy and my right arm pinched. No popping or anything, just kind of tweaked. Brushed it off, went home and the next day awoke to some nagging pain.
Did the ice, advil, heat thing for a while - and went back to doing rotator cuff exercises. Seemed to work well and loosen up my shoulder. Things were getting back on track. Still couldn’t focus on incline or decline DB’s so stuck with flat barbell pressing. Shoulder workouts later in the week went good - sticking with BB.
Now after a few days off, went back to Chest day to test the incline and developed some pain. I’m positive that this is from a rotator cuff strain - so have decided to focus on abs, cardio, and arm exercises that do not affect the area. Real bummer because it always seems when I’m about to break some barriers and make some serious gains -some stupid thing happens. Oh well, lesson learned I guess.
Plan of attack now is to focus on Rotator Exercises, stretching and rest. Will include some focus on abs/arms/legs on exercises that do not affect my right shoulder. Also plan to get some massage work done on the affected area. In two weeks, I’ll start light and evaluate my progress.
I’m also in debate on staying with the anabolic diet. I find it very effective when lifting heavy, but if I am not able to lift consistantly I don’t think the diet is the right one for me. I’m sticking with it for now, but will decide on any diet changes as I receive feedback from my shoulder.
May 8, 2008 at 11:14 am
Hey, this is a real common problem with lifters, my work out partner who has been lifting for 20 odd years suffers rotator cuff injuries often - he justs ups his dosage of glutamine and rests the area for a while, know how you feel, just when you get the big numbers - here comes injury to slow you down, try some extra gluatamine, rest shoulders and chest for a while and smile loads - says it speeds up healing!
May 8, 2008 at 11:19 am
Thanks for the advice. I think I’ve got some extra glutamine at home and will try adding some dosage.
May 8, 2008 at 11:50 am
Do anything you can to avoid surgery. I had surgery on my shoulder in January–there was a bone spur on the underside of my acromion digging into my supraspinatus tendon. Luckily there was no tendon damage, per se, minus some swelling, but it did burst the bursa sac.
The had to detach my right deltoid to get in there to grind down the spur and clean up all of the bursa fluid on the tendon. The muscle healed up fairly quickly (I was back in the gym, against doc’s orders, within 5 weeks), but I’m still having some issues with tight tendons and some pain, especially when doing flat barbell bench. It used to hurt doing upright rows and incline bench…uprights still hurt, but the incline is feeling fine. Go figure.
Anyhoo, just rest it for a couple of weeks, takes some Motrin to keep any swelling down (and keep it in your system), and see what happens. If the pain keeps nagging at you, I’d head in to see a doc…but man, MRI bills are not cheap…or surgery bills.
May 28, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Damn man, sorry to hear that… It doesn’t sound so bad though, not like a tear or anything. So hopefully this is a good thing and you will come back stronger after some rest, and more importantly smarter having to learn how to take care of your shoulder better. Good luck man!
May 28, 2008 at 9:15 pm
^^ thanks man! yeah, i’m super determined not to mess that up again. no more heavy incline db’s at the end of a workout, heh.
I get results back from MRI/Artrho later this week. Fingers crossed i’m lifting good again soon. Figures, right when I felt a good surge of gains coming. ahh, just motivates me even more now!