Dead shoulder/Bicep

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
1

Hey guys just looking for some advice on this.

Last Wednesday was my first time doing 4 sets of DB Lateral Raises (PB1) after having a week off from doing 3 sets previously.

The workout was fine, but the next morning I woke up with a lot of pain in my right side delt, the pain was there all day.

I sprayed on some deep heat and went into my GPP session.
I then noticed that my barbell curls were significantly weaker than last time, I noticed that I was limited by my right bicep.

On Fridays Bench and Incline DB bench my right shoulder was significantly weaker and was limiting the weight/reps.

Saturday GPP, Alternate DB curls. My right bicep felt almost non functioning, I curled 12kg on my left arm, and 4kg on my right.

Monday this week, OHP i couldnt even do 1 rep with the empty bar, its like my right shoulder/deltoid wouldnt even fire.

Even just raising my right arm is difficult. My LISS/HIIT rowing is difficult due to my inability to keep my right arm up.

Im guessing that I maybe strained my deltoid/bicep when doing lat raises last wednesday, I also did AMRAP Pendley Rows before this which might have affected my bicep.

The question is, should I just replace my barbell presses with dumbell presses while this sorts itself out?

Is it ok to use much lighter weights for my right side, and heavier weights on my left/good side, or should I balance this out based on the limits set my my weaker side?

Does it take long for these issues to sort themselves out?

Thanks

2

I’m sure you will get a post from the docs, but I am a couple of weeks out of a very similar problem. I am continuing to train. My PT/Strength coach has kept me lifting. DL and squat are unchanged, but I had to go to ramping sets of 10 on the press. Bench is better, because I can still squeeze lats together, and so my bench hasn’t been as affected. At first it felt like an ice-pick in my should every time I moved my arm. That is better, but periodically there is a sharp pain, and persistent stiffness. My P/T said 12 weeks to resolve, but at week two it’s much better. I have a great acupuncturist who works with athletes, It’s painful, but always helps. Keep moving, keep lifting. I’m also doing shoulder “stickups” and that seems to help. Good luck

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3

Thanks for the response mate.

I was speaking to my barber today who had the same symptoms a couple of years ago and was diagnosed with a rotator cuff tear. Did a bit of research on this and am wondering if thats what ive actually got. Im still waiting on an NHS physio referral but that could take up to 3 months.

Like you my Squats and Deadlifts are unaffected, but my Bench is. Ive had to decrease the weight quite a bit. I was unable to properly lock out the last rep of my RPE 9 set last night due to my shoulder giving up, I had to roll slightly to my left in order to lock out my tricep so I could rack the barbell.

If it is a tear then im slightly worried about persevering and damaging it further. But Im going to be optimistic and go with the idea thats its just a simple strain, I know some doctors dont really approve of self diagnosis.

Good to know that your making progress though bud.

Cheers

4

Is there a difference between a tear and a strain when it comes to the shoulder? I know they are the same in muscle bellies, but I’m not as familiar with the architecture of the shoulder. Good luck with the training. I’m still in about the same place I was, about three weeks in now. Lifting makes it sore, especially the press, and I have some difficulty sleeping the days I press. Hope you are doing better.

5

https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/forums/medical-q-a-with-dr-jordan-feigenbaum-and-dr-austin-baraki/74944-rotator-cuff-tear-vs-tendonitis-vs-bursitis

6

Hey guys, first it is highly unlikely that this would first in the camp of a rotator cuff tear. I’m going to first frame this as a more broad discussion around approaches to injury. From the initial post it appears this happened on 4/6/2022.

  1. There was no one rep that started this but rather you woke up the next day.
  2. Squats and deadlifts are unaffected.
  3. Presses are difficult.
  4. Going into a session with symptoms you went for a set at RPE 9 which then became a 9.9 Typically things that start the next day would not ratchet up the differential diagnosis list to needing any kind of immediate issue. If your volume went up and you threw in an extra AMRAP my completely unofficial diagnosis would likely be that you overdid it a little bit. To borrow an analogy, if I took you through an AMRAP of leg press followed by some sets of seated knee extensions odds are steps would not be that fun the next day. It would likely be the case that if you had some sets @9 programmed later in the week, the weight might be a little less here.

If squats and deadlifts are unaffected, the odds of this being an injury that warrants a full work-up are pretty low. For both athletes here, there is some overthinking going on. For the sake of discussion, I’m going to expand a little on the DOMS/strain/tear continuum. By definition, even DOMS is considered a strain, and a strain is by definition a muscle injury (re: tear), it basically comes down to how much we need to adjust load to build back up. That being said, you need to be able to adapt the the stress presented. One of the biggest traps athletes fall into in these situation is overshooting intensity because they go into a session feeling well. On the same coin that pain doesn’t equal tissue damage is also feeling great does not mean you are ready to go full bore coming back from an injury. If every session you are coming into feeling good and leaving feeling beat up, odds are you are doing too much. To turn it into a math problem, let’s say after an injury you are at 80% for strength. So long as you are below 80%, things feel great, you can train, no issues, get above that 80% though and we start having issues. So athletes get in this cycle of taking the weight down, feeling good, ramping back up, symptoms returning, going back down ad infinitum. If you have some sets at RPE 9, odds are you are significantly above the % at which you are ready to perform…especially if you anchored that @9 to the prior week’s weight. All that said, I am not surprised that presses are difficult and a 9 became a 9.9.

I would take the intensity down on your presses and I often cap athletes are RPE 7 for a little while as a 7 becoming an 8 is still a wider margin of error than a 9 becoming a 9.9. You can also do some isolation work with an emphasis on going slow in the short term. What tends to aggravate these injuries is fast and heavy. So you can go up on the weight some, so long as you go slow. As a rule across the board, it’s probably a good idea to scrap RPE 9/10 when rehabbing an injury and running a template. If there was a competition on the horizon, that may change that advice a little bit.

tl;dr-you’re very likely going to be fine, titrate down the RPE, focus on some slow isolation work.

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