ExRx.net

A while ago I posted about having trouble with pressing and raises especially. Since that I started getting some bad left shoulder trouble which I believe to have stemd from an imbalance from breaking my collar bone years ago. It has been bothering me slightly for years. Now it has got so bad it crunches when it moves and I find it hard to even get my top off its that sore. I'm booked in for an MRI scan on it this week but I can't train and havn't been able to for some time. I'm loosing weight and it is super frustrating considering the time it took to gain the muscle. I am really worried that I'l never be able to train and challenge myself again as it is the only sport and hobbie I have. My predicament is that it's my left shoulder ( The side which is already miles weaker.) So I don't want to go and just train my right side which is already stronger although I know it would help me maintain muscle on both sides of my body as the body balances itself out I'v even heard of cases were the side that is not being worked grows bigger! I just dont want to make worse imbalances!

Any one else been through something similar or has any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Matthew.

One negative consequence is that we tend to redesign ourselves by all these extra training we give ourselves as long as it alter our body structure. My advice for you is though it might be difficult to accept. Try to stop all these when you fully recover and perhaps just give yourself little training for maintenance and fitness purpose only.
Thanks

Matthew,
I think the most important thing right now is to find the problem. Go to a doctor, or physiotherapist. When you actually know what the problem is, then you can start the rehab.
Until then, do stuff that doesn't make your shoulders hurt, use bloody light weights. If you can't do any shoulder work, then you wont do any. The important thing is healing and rehab, not muscle size. If you try to ignore the pain, you'll stay like this, small shoulders and battling with imbalances through your life. If you treat it right, you'll be back training cand getting huuuuuge in realtively short period of time.

In the mean time, do stuff you can, and do stuff you should have been doing more before. Be creative and challenge yourself in other manners than just shoulders. Take Ben Bruno as an example. That guy had a knee surgery a while back. In the workouts he blasted tens or even hundreds of pull-ups, variety of weird presses and hell-of-alot of unilateral work.

But some of the guys here can tell you quite a lot from shoulder-issue. Ken is struggling with them as we speak, and making great recovery. Check other shoulder related threads on this forum. They could help also.

_________________
Prove the impossible!

What Dub said....

However, it's quite simple to work around an injury. "If it hurts, don't do it" - this is a yes or no question. If it kinda hurts, it still hurts, so don't do it. Therefore, you can still train if you find a whole bunch of exercises that don't hurt. For example, with shoulder issues, a lot of row variations are normally pain free. You can become a middle and upper back specialist for a while, which can never hurt. Quite often going overhead will be sore, although not all the time. Most will manage pull ups but in some cases these will even hurt, depending on the problem. However, that one question, "does it hurt" should be your guide.

Remember you still have a whole "core", and 2 legs.

Also, holding heavy things in your hand is a great way to train your rotator cuff without pi$$ing it off. Deadlifts with good form are a great option, plus farmers walks and one arm farmers walks. Doing single leg stuff holding DB's, too. Holding heavy things lights up your rotator cuff which will no doubt help you out. It's probably the least provocative way to activate your rotator cuff and you can do it whilst avoiding the things that hurt and training the things that don't.

KPj

_________________
Thanks TimD

Thanks guys but I cant actually do anything at all at the moment with my left side it's even sore to raise my arm. What I was really pointin at is what your opinions were about workin my good side maybe once a week an I could do some legs, abs and core work once or twice. I just can't get over not being able to work my upper body while I wait months on referals and more than likely surgery.

If you can't do anything without pain then you'll just need to not do anything and prioritise getting it diagnosed.

I am a fan of training the non injured side, btw.

Also, why just do legs/core/abs "once or twice"? Do them more. You may be shocked and feel a decrease in pain after training your legs... Not definite but also no unusual. Again just to emphasise - hold things on the injured side...if you can.

Also, I often take this for granted because i've had to experience it many times myself but, don't beat yourself up about lost strength or muscle mass. It comes back rapidly in most cases. Don't let this get you down. It's easy to beat yourself up over this and just end up not doing anything - be a pro-active patient. Seek the professional help that you need but do what you can without making things worse and try and not think about anything you're "losing" right now. Think about years ahead vs months ahead. A few or even several months without doing certain exercises or movements has very little significance over the course of several years and more of lifting in general. In the long run this is a positive situation you are in because the injury will be a result of accumulative trauma and would be holding you back one way or another. At least now you can get to the bottom of it and ensure years of progress going forward without falling down at the same hurdle over and over again.

It's up to you to decide whether the glass is half full or half empty

KPj

_________________
Thanks TimD

KPj, I wish I could be as positive as you! I would only train these areas once or twice a week because to be honest I don't enjoy training them. I do train them equally because I know the importance of doing it but those days are a chore for me wereas I love training upper body. I am going to try train them though because the worst thing about the situation is I'm starting to become super lazy ( If only I enjoyed cardio! ) I just pray I'l make a recovery. It's good to hear from people who have been lifting for years and have been through similar problems so thanks!

Matthew.

I'm only really so positive about it because it's happened to me several times and you just get better at dealing with it. Eventually you see things like this as just a little bump on the road. However, a lot of people just quit all together in the face of injury so I like to try and show that it's not all bad.

One of the best things that happened to me is pretty much what's happening to you. When I injured my shoulder properly I would got a lot of pain just reaching, never mind holding, a cup of coffee. I didn't handle it particularly well and, all in, I spent 9 months doing nothing, and at the very most it should of been about 3. Even then, I still had the rest of my body that I could of trained but never.

When I eventually got my act together I still had that same injury (i kept re injuring it, hence the time frame) but I was able to train some parts of my upper body, "core" and my legs. This is when I first learned about dead lifts. Before this I HATED training legs and grudgingly done it once per week but I was obsessed with pressing, especially bench pressing. However I ended up training them 2-3 times per week. I fell in love with deadlifts as so many people do and trained all the stuff I hated (squats, anything on one leg), I took the time to do it right and progress. I learned to love everything that I hated before. You get the love for them when you progress significantly on them, normally the hatred comes from just being bad at it. Getting good at stuff your bad at is crucial.

By the time I was able to actually bench press again, I didn't care about bench pressing and I loved training my legs and still do. Legs are now prioritised over upper body i.e. I do an upper/lower split, 2 days of each per week. If I need to cut training day it's always an upper body day that gets the chop. It's a complete U-Turn in thinking and attitude and, bizarrely, it would never of happened if I never hurt my left shoulder so bad...

Also with me, and i'm sure it could be the same with you, the "cause" of the shoulder pain - bad posture, technique, general imbalances, compounded with being an idiot - was actually the main thing holding EVERYTHING back (not just my pressing, pecs, and delts). So, by working around the injury and getting good at what I was bad at, not only was I getting pain free but I was setting the wheels in motion for long term, consistent progress...

Lastly - I've helped quite a lot of people in real life realise the same thing, now. Stay positive and be as proactive as you can and, trust me, good things will happen. Ask anything you like, too.

KPj

_________________
Thanks TimD