Dull Shoulder Pain - How to proceed?

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

I’ve had some kind of dull pain in my right shoulder for over 2 years now. However it only happens during training, specifically when doing chest exercises like flat bench (even more more painful when using dumbbells) and incline bench press. The pain can be felt on the descent part of the movement, specifically when the bar is near my chest. I have a bad tendency to bring the bar down really slow, so I’m wondering if that could be contributing to the pain. The funny thing is that I never experience this when doing any shoulder exercise. Lately I haven’t been adding any weight to my bench (230lbs) in fear that it’ll make things worse, so I’m wondering if it’s time to see a doctor or what to do at this point. But then again I remember that I don’t experience any of this pain on a daily basis, so I feel like I could avoid the hassle. Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks!

2

Sorry man, not really much for us to go on here. Sounds like it’s probably not anything serious. Perhaps a tendinopathy of some sort, given the chronicity and activities that exacerbate it. First step would be to get some coaching to make sure your technique looks good, then address programming, as we discussed in our podcasts on pain and injury.