So my shoulders click, snap and pop when I move them around in wide circles such as in a shoulder dislocation movement with the broomstick (or in a windmill)
They certainly click, snap, and pop when I do warm up exercises such as anterior and lateral rotation with a small weight or dumbell.
It doesn't hurt but in my mind they sound sinister as, and may be a signal of worse to come. Should I be worried? And what would you do if your shoulder starts to click, snap and pop?
Here's the formula to keep in mind: Nearly all the noises you hear whilst performing normal movements is normal. However when these noises are accompanied by pain, you go from what was normal to what now has become abnormal.
Great, so what does that mean in English? It means your body is sending you a message with these words: "set me free!" That means you've been performing certain movements over and over and over again (which in and of itself is not bad, or the issue here), but it does mean that you have been locking your body/joints into following a certain pattern that they have just had enough of, and can tolerate it no longer...., time for a change!
Again, what does that mean in real life? It means if you've been doing front squats, change to back squat for a while. It means if you've been doing some barbell military press with your hands a certain distance apart, it's time to change that distance slightly. It means..... you get the picture.
I write the above based on my experience and the experience of my 9 weightlifting colleagues of yesteryears. We did thousands of those shoulder dislocation with broomsticks. And we all had our clicking and popping noises coming out of all different joints. None were considered to be an injury because none were.
So with this new awareness, some of those noises might disappear altogether. The bottom line for people like us (who train regularly), is to realise that a change of pattern; a change of the path the bar is traveling, a change of a grip, by narrowing it or by widening it a bit may be all that was ever needed in the first place.