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Thanks for the advice. I think you could be right - it probably is just a sprain. I did go and see the doctor and have been referred to a physio. Since the visit(and 2 weeks off) I have been back in the gym and spent time just messing around with exactly what causes the most discomfort. It is by far the Bench Press. Dumbell Press still feels good, although, I do get a slight ache in the same shoulder, but deffinitly not as bad as BP.

I am going to stop bench pressing for about 3 months, and be extra catious with the rest of my workout. Not sure exactly how yet. I was either going to go on to a shaping/maintainance routine or just superset the same muscles so that I can still have an effective workout but work with lighter weights...

Also, I am going to do some rotator cuff exercises but not sure when would be the best day to add them into my routine, any ideas?
i.e. is it a good or bad idea to do rotator cuff exercises when you have finished a shoulder work out?

Thanks again

KP

I'd do any RC exercises before your workout as part of your stretching and warmup. Slap some Icy Hot on there, too. Do the ice pack right after the workout. KR

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Bio: Age 56; former NPC Masters Champion (1990); teacher; married with kids; heroes: John Grimak and Frank Zane; favorite sport: Steelers Football (worked in TV with R. Blier); hobbies: canoeing, cycling, free weight exercise.

I am actually having the same pain, I ignored it for a little while and it got worse. So now I've stopped working out my upper body completely for a week and a half and the shoulder seems to be feeling a lot better now. I would lay off on the heavy lifting for sure.

Thanks for the replies.

I was in the gym yesterday and trained my chest. Straight away with dumbells I knew I couldn't go heavy so I decided to superset therefore, I decreased the weight i was lifting by 50%. To clarify, I performed a superset on the same muscle (chest), alternating dumbell flat bench press and dumbell incline press. I was really just seeing what effect it would have training with a much lighter weight but still pushing myself.

It didn't seem to help, I still got the ache, and it is much more blatant now i.e. definitly something not right. Could the fact that using half the weight I normally use still causes the pain narrow it down to anything? For example, could you say, " ok so it can't be a ligament you have damaged because etc etc etc" - just an example..


For the record, I can generally stretch my shoulder fine, can't seem to trigger the ache without actually training. And another thing, when messing around yesterday, I performed some front raises and it really didnt feel good on my left shoulder.

Does this give anyone any more of an insight or am I still at square one? I will be seeing a physio, however, I am still waiting for my appointment to come through

Thanks

KP

I had a similiar problem once. I found a few things that made it magically go away;

1. I put pillows under my side when I slept to avoid pinching my shoulder awkwardly under too much weight.

2. I eliminated anterior deltoid exercises from my routine. Regular bench+incline+decline was more than enough for anterior delt.

3. I immediately incorperated rotator cuff and rotary cuff exercises into my routine. They only take 2 minutes.

In hindsight, I think it was inflammation of a ligament or tendon. I'm not sure what helped or if they all did. But I was pretty desperate. It took a month, but it went away gradually and never came back!

Keep the updates coming KP!

Dude,

I have had a partial tear in my left shoulder now for 6 months and am still training like an absolute champion, getting some of my best results. It started out to be a slight pain like u have now, but I ignored it and it got worst and I gradually got a partial tear in my supraspinatus tendon in my left shoulder. My pain first started about a 18 months ago.

My advice to you is this:

1. Take 2-3 weeks of complete rest from the gym. Let the problem settle down.

2. Perform rotator cuff exercises 2-3 times a week. If your shoulders are less than perfect, I strongly recommend training the rotator cuff muslces. These small muslce stabilise the shoulder joint.

3. Use the powerlifting technique for benches, or use hammer strength machines or other chest machines that take alot of load of your shoulders. Trust me, they still bring fantastic results without the painful shoulders. Perhaps better results for people with shoulder problems. I use them religiously now and haven't used free weights for benches for ages.

4. Don't do any exercises that hurt. Its not worth it. If you aggrevate and inflame your shoulder, your muscles will shut down as a natural defense mechanism and u won't get desired results.

5. Don't neglect the above advice as I did. As soon as u get a tear in a tendon within the shoulder, the tendon becomes avascular, meaning it looses its own blood supply and therefore takes a long time to heel with scar tissue which needs continuous stretching. The tendon simply heels through increased blood flow to the surrounding tendons, and that's why I have to do rotator cuff exercises until the problem resolves and alos avoid doing exercises such as dips and shoulder presses which inflame the tendon.


Good luck dude and remember, train to stimulate, don't enialate.

I have now been to sports injury in a nearby hospital through a referal from my GP.

It is my rotator cuff muscles, they are extremely weak and especially on the left side. It was very informative, learned a lot from my visit.

At the weekend (before my appointment) I trained against my better judgement and experienced the worse pain I have had to date (wth my shoulder). Didn't feel healthy at all. I ended up spending the whole work out 'experimenting' with various rotator cuff exercise, stretches etc to see what was sore and what wasn't.

If I do front raises on my left side, i experience a sharp pain throughout the "middle" part of the movement if that makes sense. This happens with just 1 and 2 kg. I was told that this will be happening because something is inflamed. I need to let it settle then start training again, light at first and also and most importantly, incorporate RC exercises.

What I was told coincides with what I have read on this forum and other sites, notabley T-Nation.

It's all a bit of a shock being honest. It was only 2-3 months ago that I started learning about rotator cuff muscles and stabilisers in general. Before then, i didn't even know they existed.... It turns out that RC injurys are 'notorious' in bodybuilding - No wonder - if no one knows what they are and why they shouldn't be neglected!

It's all a learning curve. Just glad I gave it attention before it got too far.

Thanks for all the input.

KP

Glad to hear you have a plan of action.

When I started rotator and rotary cuff cable rotations, I was doing 15 Lbs. Now I can do 50 Lbs or more. I can't imagine how weak they were! You'll see rapid progress once it settles down and you can do the exercises.

Good luck!