Chronic Shoulder Pain

Hello BBM. Before roughly 5 months, I woke up with a lot of pain in my right shoulder.

If I were to guess, the cause of it was too much intensity in the last sessions with bench that I wasn’t adapted to.

Nevertheless, since then it hasn’t gone away.

For the first month, I stopped any overhead and bench movement cause of pain and fear (not the best choice…).

I also couldn’t deadlift cause I was feeling pain when pulling my shoulders down.

In the second month of injury, I realised that it wasn’t going to leave by itself so I started introducing movement (Overhead Press only cause bench was causing pain).

After some time, deadlifts didn’t cause any pain and I felt I was on the right track.

The problem is that, since then, I wanted so bad to rush the process cause my ego was chasing the big numbers in overhead and bench press.

So, 5 months in, I haven’t gotten substantially better.

Now about the pain: It’s a weird pain, like something is pulling inside my shoulder, catching somewhere, popping and causing pain, which comes in everyday tasks (putting clothes etc.). It isn’t too bothering, but it’s there. It is placed in the front of the shoulder.

Another thing to add, sometimes when popping happens, I get some mild radiating pain in my traps (like a pinched nerve? I don’t know for sure), but nothing serious.

In training, I feel it when the bar, in concentric and eccentric part, is close to my body (above the chest when benching, above the shoulder when overhead pressing). When overhead pressing also, It popps when lowering the bar (and hurts a bit after the pop). The popping does happen only in OP, and It doesn’t happen when I use very close grip. When i try widen it, I get pops in every rep.
I had also pain when doing barbell rows, but I can tolerate it now.

Could you give me some insight about what could the problem be? (tendinopathy etc.)

Also, should I ditch bench and OP only to the range I’m comfortable to? ( I read a post about dr. Austin’s case with Alan Thrall and AC Joint problem)

I could really use some info in this.

Could I solve the problem on my own with good programming and auto-regulation?

Thanks for your time.

I recently bought the low back pain template and I can’t wait to start it !

Hey - sorry to hear about your shoulder situation. It is difficult to say what may be ongoing without a consultation. Our general advice is outlined in this article HERE. Ideally you are able to autoregulate loading to tolerance for the movements you want to be able to do but given this has been ongoing for 5 months with minimal improvement, probably time to consult with someone. We do offer remote consultations. If you are interested, please complete our intake paperwork HERE.