Ongoing shoulder, bicep and tricep pain

Hi Doctors

I have been experiencing pain for about 3 months which has now become too intense to ignore. I am signed up for a meet in late September, but I am thinking of cancelling it because of the pain.

About me:
M/27/175lbs
1.5 years barbell training history
Full time work, kids, part-time university studies
No medical issues aside from mild sleep apnoea, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic anxiety and depression
No surgeries or major injuries in the pasts

PRs from May 2018 (180lbs bodyweight)
Squat 195kg
Bench 113kg
Deadlift 210kg

Where does it hurt?

  1. Right bicep, tricep, anterior shoulder and posterior shoulder

  2. Left tricep (occasionally)

  3. Localised, does not radiate anywhere else

  4. No pins and needles down the arm/hands

  5. Pain scale of 7/10 during movement and 0-3/10 at rest

  6. Normal range of movement. Although hurts my right shoulder when I make circular motions with my arm. When does it hurt?

  7. During low bar squat and high bar squat (including belted, beltless, pin, paused), sometimes on front squat

  8. During bench (including comp, slingshot, floor press, tng bench) except bench to high pins

  9. During the day: occasional dull, throbbing pain

  10. Eccentric and concentric, hurts as soon as I unrack anything except front squat What does it feel like?

  11. Sharp

  12. Burning My programming

  13. Currently not receiving any coaching

  14. 2nd run through a program from a BBM coach which produced great results the first tim Level of pain

  15. Varies by lift

  16. Bench - All variants as above hurt at least 5/10. Least painful is pin bench at 1” above chest, but this still hurts

  17. Press - Empty bar hurts 7/10

  18. Squat - Low bar most painful at 8/10 with empty bar, front squat least painful at 3/10. No access to leg press, SSB or belt squat

  19. Deadlift - no pain. Some pain on barbell rows only

Chronicity

  1. Most recent bout of pain: since early June, a week or two after I tested my 1RMs (about 10-12 weeks)
  2. It’s come back here and there over the years, for no particular reason History
  3. Pain initially felt during 10 years of baseball up to 2008 and some rugby
  4. Significant anterior shoulder pain in 2008 during baseball season. No treatment or medical consultation Form checks
  5. Spoke with a BBM coach who said my elbows were jacked up too high in the squat. I fixed this somewhat but the pain hasn’t improved (I’m guessing it’s very sensitised at the moment) Attempts to fix it
  6. I tried a few shoulder rehab exercises from Adam Meakins’ website, but I ended up getting pain in other places like my right pec. I was probably doing them wrong.
  7. I also spent a week or so doing tempo work to see if that would help a bit, but it didn’t make much difference.
  8. Ive taken anti-inflammatories (ibuprofen) as needed and also tried topical anti-inflammatory with no effect.
  9. I have not seen a physio or GP to review my condition I’m at a loose end and would love your advice. It’s really affecting my motivation to train because I expect pain and just get more frustrated as each session goes on. I’ve never considered giving up training until the past few weeks and I’d like to do something about the pain.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated, including any doctors or other health professionals who may be able to help. I am in Sydney, Australia.

Thank you!

Hey Liz,

Any acute traumas to the affected areas?
The good news is you mentioned having normal range of motion still, and it sounds as though your symptoms are predominately related to training. Is that correct?
Also sounds like you have a history with similar symptoms in similar areas?
What did you do previously when dealing with these issues?
How are you feeling over the past few days since the original post? How’s training going?

Hi Michael, thanks for your reply. 1. Not in particular. I remember it building up slowly over time but don’t recall an acute trauma
2. Seems to be. Sometimes I have shoulder/bicep pain when I lift my kids up onto my shoulders, or when I’m carrying the 1 year old for a while.
3. Yes, it seems to have come and gone over the years since 2008.
4. Last time I had this, I just pushed through the pain, but had some unrelated rib pain at the same time. I deloaded my squat significantly and worked my way up in a linear fashion (SSLP). This seemed to help with both issues.
5. I’m feeling okay. I haven’t done any comp squat this week (front squatted, paused front squat). I was able to high bar pin squat yesterday with much less pain than last week. I did some tempo benching (414 tempo) as well. It seems to feel a bit better since I wrote last, which has reassured me a bit! Not sure if that helps, but I hope it does!

Thanks

Hey Liz, thanks for the info. I understand this can be a frustrating process, especially since it seems to be intermittent over the years. The good news is it sounds like a fairly standard regression to the mean occurs (acute flare-up, likely related to loading issue/lack of recovery/daily life stressors/etc) and then goes back down when you adjust training. Glad to hear it sounds like things have improved since your original post. This is good and means things should continue to improve. With your meet in September, the key is having intelligent programming so you don’t have de-conditioning and making sure to slowly ramp back up. I typically recommend adjusting load (weight) as a first step, then range of motion if necessary, and as a last step substituting different exercises entirely. Although this process can be frustrating, I’d recommend against stopping training and try to go into training with different expectations than pain. Instead approach training with the mindset what can you accomplish today; one training session at a time. This approach will compound on itself and allow you to progress to prior levels of activity. Also, keep in mind the experience of pain does not mean tissue is damaged/injured or presents a “problem” necessitating fixing. It’s ok to experience symptoms during training (especially in recurrent/persistent pain situations) as long as the symptoms aren’t leaving you debilitated afterwards.

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Thanks very much for your reply, Michael. This is very detailed and reassuring advice. I will keep working on it!

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No problem! Keep us posted.