I need your advice!

I have a couple of (i hope) minor injuries.

- Left chest/bicep insertion - appears to be tendonitis. Hurts like fuck when I bench in any way.
- Right shoulder - pulled it doing low bar deadlifts, might be rotator cuff. Have lost a lot of mobility/flexibility in my shoulder.

Have been to a physio and he was fucking shit. I have never had a good physio experience so am reluctant to try anywhere else.

I am considering a few options:

1) Have a week off training completely. Resume training next week, but don't back squat or bench for a few more weeks. Continue to train deadlift hard and train front squat instead of back squats.

2) As above, but without the week off. Just stop training bench and squat.

3) Have 2-3 weeks off completely (least preferred option obviously).

Thoughts?

I've been going from strength to strength lately and really don't want to lose this momentum, although I think it is fairly certain that I will at least have to stop benching for a little while (that said, I did break PBs last week despite the injury...). My bench is probably my strongest lift tho, so I guess it doesn't really matter if i give it a bit of a breather...

Firstly, it appears you are letting the bench press control your workout?


I hurt my shoulder too and haven't benched in 20 years. The only thing that suffered was my Bench Press. My shoulders are good now and I prefer that.

Some people are just more robustly constructed...that or just lucky.

The other thing is- an injury is your body telling you, you are doing something wrong.
Are you sure your form is correct?
Are yor elbows out or in, are you locking your shoulders?
Get a diagnosis from someone, find out what is going on there, rest the shoulder and consider doing less volume in the exercise when you are pain free.

having been through a similar thing. i saw an osteopath 4 times in two weeks, had a week off and in my second week i just did what ever didn't hurt. today it finally feels good bench.

From my experience with shoulder problems, take a week or two off completely. 2 weeks off is nothing in the scheme of things. You will come back fresh, and hopefully smarter in the way you train.

Look up some rotator cuff exercises and do these.

I'll ask a few questions, then make a few suggestions.

Q's.
1. How long since you noticed each injury?

2. What movements specifically hurt your left shoulder? Just bench? Or other movements like overhead pressing or rotation?

3. Same as Q2. but right shoulder.

4. Do the injuries only cause you pain when you're performing the specific movement, or do they ache and produce dull pain at other times too?

Suggestions.

1. I can't give you either a specific diagnosis or specific rehab protocol unless I was to see you in person. But some general points would be:

2. Immediately stop performing any movements that cause you pain.

3. Give your shoulders at least 10 days to 2 weeks to rest from the pain-producing movements.

4. Watch these videos and try performing the exercise protocol within your pain free range after a week of rest.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuIyONH795k]YouTube - A Better way to do the YTWL Shoulder Exercise Circuit[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCp-YynBEvE]YouTube - DieselCrew.com - Ultimate Two Minute Shoulder Warm-up[/ame]

5. Try and find it in yourself to trust a professional near you to diagnose the issues specifically and treat you more effectively.

6. Spend 10 days - 2 weeks performing the shoulder rehab protocol religiously every day, before attempting any light movements that are currently causing you pain.

7. Keep doing every other hard core movement that you can that doesn't cause you pain.

Try to find an experienced sports physio who works with an AFL club or similar. They rehab lots of shoulders.

Cheers for the replies fellas.

AndyMitchell said:

Firstly, it appears you are letting the bench press control your workout? I'm not sure what you mean by this, but I don't think I am. I only train it once a week, like everything other major lift. It is proportionally my strongest lift, but that's only becuase I gave it more emphasis when I was younger.
I hurt my shoulder too and haven't benched in 20 years. The only thing that suffered was my Bench Press. My shoulders are good now and I prefer that.

Some people are just more robustly constructed...that or just lucky.

The other thing is- an injury is your body telling you, you are doing something wrong.
Are you sure your form is correct? I guess not, I've never had my form checked on any of my exercises or been taught correct form. I've only learnt stuff from forums etc. I am fairly certain my form is pretty tight on bench press tho.
Are yor elbows out or in, are you locking your shoulders? I lock my shoulders yes, elbows are where they naturally sit.
Get a diagnosis from someone, find out what is going on there, rest the shoulder and consider doing less volume in the exercise when you are pain free.

Click to expand...

Thanks mate, responses as above.

haz said:

having been through a similar thing. i saw an osteopath 4 times in two weeks, had a week off and in my second week i just did what ever didn't hurt. today it finally feels good bench.

Click to expand...

I'm going to do some googling on osteopaths in my area and see how it goes!

leachy said:

From my experience with shoulder problems, take a week or two off completely. 2 weeks off is nothing in the scheme of things. You will come back fresh, and hopefully smarter in the way you train.

Look up some rotator cuff exercises and do these.

Click to expand...

Yeah that's what I was thinking, it is only a couple of weeks. However, I can still deadlift and front squat etc with no pain, so it seems a waste not to keep training these :S

And the Ugly said:

I'll ask a few questions, then make a few suggestions.

Q's.
1. How long since you noticed each injury?
About 2.5 weeks since left chest/shoulder/bicep area and 1.5 weeks since i pulled the right shoulder squatting.
2. What movements specifically hurt your left shoulder? Just bench? Or other movements like overhead pressing or rotation?
Bench, close grip bench (not surprisingly). I think that is it. Rotation only hurts my right shoulder. The injuries are very different. The right injury feels like i pulled something, the left area feels like an overuse/inflamed issue.
3. Same as Q2. but right shoulder.
I need to keep it tight on benching, otherwise it feels fine. Feels week at the bottom of WG chins. Just generally feels weaker than it should. However the muscle insertions feel great (ie strong when benching). Flexibility is a big issue in this shoulder and is a strong suspect in causing the injury in the first place.
4. Do the injuries only cause you pain when you're performing the specific movement, or do they ache and produce dull pain at other times too?
Left chest/bicep causes me pain during any activity that puts pressure on the tendon or when changing positions (ie during sleep). I think it is more severe than the right shoulder. The right shoulder hurts whenever I try to move it in a range of motion that is painful. Otherwise it is fine.
Suggestions.

1. I can't give you either a specific diagnosis or specific rehab protocol unless I was to see you in person. But some general points would be:

2. Immediately stop performing any movements that cause you pain.
Yup, thats what I was thinking too unfortunately
3. Give your shoulders at least 10 days to 2 weeks to rest from the pain-producing movements.
So still do deadlifts, SLDL and front squats? And miscellaneous other exercises? This is what I am curious about. EDIT. Just saw point 7
4. Watch these videos and try performing the exercise protocol within your pain free range after a week of rest.
YouTube - A Better way to do the YTWL Shoulder Exercise Circuit
YouTube - DieselCrew.com - Ultimate Two Minute Shoulder Warm-up

5. Try and find it in yourself to trust a professional near you to diagnose the issues specifically and treat you more effectively.
I fucking hate physios, but might give an osteopath a go.
6. Spend 10 days - 2 weeks performing the shoulder rehab protocol religiously every day, before attempting any light movements that are currently causing you pain.

7. Keep doing every other hard core movement that you can that doesn't cause you pain.

Click to expand...

Cheers mate, responses as above

Left shoulder is most likely head of biceps, right shoulder could be a heap of things, but if you decide you aren't going to get it looked at properly, treat it as per inflamation due to impingement, secondary to rotator cuff inflexibility and weakness.
Treatment as I detailed above.
Also look into band pull-aparts (scap retraction) with a band or cable, once you're performing rehab.
Look seriously at your benching technique and your flexibility regime.
If you're straining shoulders getting under a squat, your shoulders aren't flexible enough and need attention.
Head of biceps tear suggests to me you're benching with flaired elbows and not retracting your scaps. Maybe find someone to have a look at your technique.

Good advice ugly.
Your shoulder blades should be moving, a common problem with the exercise is that it restricts movement if you are not aware of it.

Just quickly, and I could be wayyy off here, but I had a right pec tear a few months back. To me, your left 'tendonitis' issue sounds a lot like it?

Symptoms - for me, my right pec felt strained from its right side, across near the armpit, and into the bicep. Result - I couldn't bench heavy at all. Dips tore mine, but bench could just as easily do it to ya. Rest was the fix - I didn't bench or dip heavy for about 2 weeks, and didn't attempt to raise the weight on any cherst exercise until I could feel the burn/strain go away about 2 weeks later. It healed itself, but mine must have been minor.

I highly recommend osteos - he's done great work with my BB injuries, far better than any physio has.

g'luck