Shoulder injury for 5 years now, help!

[B18aTurbo]

I started lifting at a young age. Around 16 or so. Anyways my first sign of a shoulder problem was when I was almost 18. I was at home lifting on my new machine I bought, it had a lat tower with the pull down bar. I was doing those, and I got just a small pain, I stopped and waited a few minutes, I tried another but the pain was there. I didnt want to risk an injury. So I took some time of, when I began lifting again a month later, my shoulder was fine. I went to the gym this day, I am unsure of what the exercise is called, but its the one that works your tricep. I was doing this and I went and lowered my body, then felt some strange pain. I stopped right away and left. after a few days I would wake up and my (left) shoulder would feel fine except when I moved it I would get this sharp pain, and then on the 6-7 day it would hit like a ton of bricks where I cant even MOVE my arm at all, on serveral occasions this has happened. The movement that hurts is when I move my shoulder out to my side. Other than that I can move it forward and up, and back. Well I took 9 months off from lifting, and still had the same pain. I can lift just fine as far as benching, curling, and doing most tricep work outs, and I could do light training on my shoulder. Well now I am 21 and I still have this pain, and it has not gone away! I have read up some, and it suggests it could be Bursa, which is a sac of fluid under the high part of the shoulder. Also a rotator cuff could be torn or sprained. Help!

[B18aTurbo]

Also I have been to the doctor, he told me to just take an anti inflammatory.

[hardcoreback]

i guess.. .with ur case.. a physical therapist is a need.. u see, training shoulders depend on ur shoulder structure...  and proper form should be considered.. i once had thaat kind of pain but with daily stretching and proper exercise had long been gone.. we are at same age.. and i hope u could keep exercising since its one of the best thing we can do.. keep doing ur exercise and keep doing light on delt training... can u still train traps? without pain?

[B18aTurbo]

I am unsure on trap work outs, I know there are a couple of methods, but there was an instance when doing shrugs gave me pain in my shoulder. I had to keep the shrugs in a shorter motion. I have done light training, I did it for a few weeks and it was feeling much better, but so I didnt start lifting just yet, one morning I woke up and the pain was back. Which brings me to another point, I wake up and thats often when the pain is the strongest. I do tend to sleep on my stomach with a arm extended above me. If that has some negative effect?

I will try taking an anti inflammatory, doing stretching through out the day....you cant over do that stretching? I will do some light reps, at this point it hurts to lift my arm out to the side....I will slowly add weight. As far as vitamins anything I can take? I know flaxseed is good for joints. Also ice it or heat it? I guess other than that how long would I want to continue doing these exercises? I heard one theory on people who didnt work out back muscles once; because I always got some pain doing lat work outs, but had well defined pecs, they said it pulls your shoulders inward which can often be a cause for shoulder pain.....is this true?

[live4fitness]

I have had pai in shoulders and started doing light weight warm ups 5 pounds shoulder ex. I do them before any chest or back ex. if I don't I will have pain. also i do strech after first 2 sets of chest and back to make sure everything is nice and warm and warmed up.

Try taking fish oil to lube the joints. Ask someone at your local vit shop to help you out with that. You might want to change the way you sleep. If all of this doesn't help then I would ask your dr for a referal to an orthopedic dr.


good luck

[freakin-natural]

First of all the back muscle I think has nothing to do with the pain u r having.  Perhaps it ur sleeping position that’s causing ur pain.  You see if we tend to sleep on our sides for almost an hour, this really can cause such pain or straining.  Try to add some pillow if u r indeed sleeping on ur side.  I, too, feels like my delts had been crushed whenever I sleep on my side.  now, on vitamins, I guess any would do.  I shrug real heavy and it has not affected my delts so far.  I believe that It could even help strengthen the delt muscles.  Now, if going light will be the only way, accept it.  But gradually increase the weight as weeks go.. in that way u might not noticed it but ur progressing in ur workouts and in ur delt problem as well.  If symptoms still persists, well go see a dr. :)

[B18aTurbo]

I started icing my shoulder, stretching it and just moving my arm around. Also I hav ebeen taking an anti inflammatory. Yesterday my shoulder was feeling great and I was able to move it around, but today its back to feeling not the greatest......is this normal? Like during sleep when the shoulder isnt being used it stiffens up?

Also one thing I noticed. I was comparing my right shoulder to the left (the bad one) and I noticed the bad shoulder, when extended outward infront of me had some groove to it. I know its a typical delt look. But I did the same with my good shoulder, the right. And it wasnt like that of my other arm. It was a BIG pocket indent. Whats your take on this? (sorry its hard to explain, but it doesnt seem normal to me at all)

[live4fitness]

Yes you can get stiffness. After what you said I would go see an orthopedic dr that does shoulders. Keep us updated. If it has been going on this long and not getting better each day even with the anti's I say DR time!!

Good luck

[live4fitness]

Yes you can get stiffness. After what you said I would go see an orthopedic dr that does shoulders. Keep us updated. If it has been going on this long and not getting better each day even with the anti's I say DR time!!

Good luck