Please help whenever I press or try pull ups or rows the following day I endure inflammation in my left shoulder , during the workout although my left is not as strong and coordinated as my right it does not hurt while working out but always gets inflamed the next day then goes away. If I have an ache in another joint e.g. Hip pain from deadlifts the shoulder ache just disappears. MRI shows no damage three different physiotherapists have given three different diagnoses and a heap of circus rehab exercises including lots of protraction and serratus activation etc nothing helps, how can I once and for all get rid of this ache?? Does this sound like something anyone else endures? I have trained for 20 years ever since I slightly hurt that shoulder, shoulder pressing with a warm up weight of 60 lb it’s never been the same, this was 5 years ago. I’m 36 years old. Please help.
Hey, sorry to hear about the shoulder issue. This has been going on for 5 years? What have you been told is the issue? What have you been doing to address the issue outside of the exercises recommended by the physiotherapists?
Hi Michael thanks for the response. Yes it’s been 5 years as in each time I take a lay off 2-10 weeks and I come back start training very very light it flares up. I slowly build the weights up and it just continues to flare up. I try to just do upper body weights once every 3-4 days to not aggravate it too much e.g. Bench press Monday and press Wednesday would be too much so I do all pressing Monday then again Friday. And usually just pick one press exercise. I have been told the issue is winged scapula and my serratus is not strong enough by one Physio, another one told me my left shoulder does not activate or turn on as quickly as my right and it works better when my shoulder is slightly shrugged higher so I need to work on shrugging movements and another Physio told me my rhomboids are too weak which contradicts the first Physio who said rhomboids are too strong and serratus is too weak. MRI showed no issues at all but a 3 years ago ultrasound showed a slightly thickened bursa but the doc told me half the population would have this and they would never feel a thing. I’m really confused I don’t know how to fix this?
Sorry to answer your other question, I have tried a wide variety of different press options at different range of motions at different intensity and volume and sadly any combo I try get the same ache. 5 push ups will aggravate it even. Swimming breaststroke once aggravated it. Rest 24-48 hours and it’s completely gone.
Although it may seem intuitive to take time off for this issue (sounds like tendinopathy) – time off usually presents as you are describing. Tendons like and need to be loaded. They adapt to forces we do and don’t place on them. Likely taking time off leaves you in a deconditioned state and then when you go to load the area, things don’t feel as you’d expect because the adaptation has been to not loading.
Sorry to hear about the narratives you’ve been supplied thus far. Most likely these are explanations at an attempt to explain pain but this is a complex issue. Barring an acute trauma or underlying neurological disease it is extremely unlikely you have a winged scapula as this would entail an insult to the long thoracic nerve. Muscles turning on and off is a myth, again barring acute trauma to a nerve or underlying neurological disease. Muscles innately “activate” based on movement demands, this isn’t something that requires conscious thought (luckily as that would be quite draining). The too weak narrative, although an easy one which intuitively seems logical on the surface level also isn’t supported as strength is expressed on a spectrum and specific to task demands. The better question would be are you strong enough to do the tasks you are attempting based on prior completed tasks.
You would likely benefit from a consult so we can address some of these narratives more in-depth and find a tolerable dosage of loading in training that can help you adapt and move forward towards your goals while decreasing symptoms. Contact Us | Barbell Medicine
Thank you for responding, your response has given me a lot of confidence as I always kind of feel these physiotherapists are selling me a bit of bullshit. What’s really interesting is that I have had some success after a lay off, I come back and first it easily gets inflamed but after a few sessions it gets better at which point I start increasing weight every workout and eventually it gets worse. So I’m thinking your right it’s tendonopathy and I think my issue is I go up in weight too quickly. I think first I’ll try mastering a certain weight over 2-3 sessions before making the smallest increment and over those 2-3 sessions I’ll try overload by slowing the movement down before increasing weight again. If I fail again I will be booking a consult for sure.