Last week I was doing some testing and my shoulder and elbow started bothering me on my left. I had this before so I attributed it to the elbow pain you can get from heavy squats and not that I am back at those weights again I guess it is not a huge surprise it is back. It really bothered me during bench though. This week I changed my grip on squats to take some pressure off my elbows and did not really feel too much. However today was bench day and while I was still in discomfort I felt I could lift.
What ends happening is as the weight goes up the pain in my shoulder flares up more and radiates down to my elbow. There is some tenderness in the elbow but I think the main problem is my shoulder. Once it flares up to a certain point it is painful and I lose strength in my grip. My shoulder feels weak but after a few minutes, it starts to get better until I bench again and then it flares up again. By the time I was done, I was having problems lifting my hand high enough to unlock my locker. After about an hour, everything was fine. Still some discomfort but not like before.
I really cannot remember how I fixed this last time except maybe I stopped benching but I really do not want to do that since I was again making progress. I do have an impingement on that shoulder but usually when I have issues with that, it is in the front of the shoulder not the back. Now it is pain in the back, not a sharp pain, more like a dull ache that is painful and it is runs down to my elbow or my elbow hurts at the same time. Both are sore and my elbow hurts on the back and front by bicep.
Any idea if you think I could work through this or what may be causing it.
Did the bridge, then HLM, then 3 day hypertrophy and now running it again. Before that I was doing 5/3/1. The last time I had this kind of issue was probably over a year ago when I was lifting closer to these weight.
I had an MRI several years ago and was told that is what I have. They did physical therapy and it helped to some extent with the issue I was having then but it never fully went away.
i hope it is ok if i step in since Lockups problem is related to one of mine, at least regarding the type of pain he’s having in his back of the shoulder. I thought if i step in here, by answering you might kill two birds with one stone.
I was diagnosed with "impingement (i learned from Austin that the correct diagnoses should be “rotator cuff syndrome”) about 8yrs back. Actually got sent to do an mri. The doc there said: Tissue wise its all good so the orthopadic doc concluded: “Whatever” because of muscular inbalance.
Anyway, lets call it chronic pain for whatever reason. I am at a point where i can ignore it most of the time.
I can actually bench/OHP just fine - NO pain at all WHILE exercising. But next day i feel the pain again. Sleeping on my left shoulder (sometimes i turn while sleeping) and it is worse.
I found this study:
Evaluation of an exercise concept focusing on eccentric strength training of the rotator cuff for patients with subacromial impingement syndrome
(I actually have the complete pdf but i fail to recall where i downloaded it - wasnt a pirated pdf. So somewhere you can def get the whole version to download)
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Overall, subacromial impingement syndrome is a poor choice of words given the shoulder symptoms people experience have little correlation to mechanical impingement often observed on imaging. I have a blog coming out on this topic soon. We are transitioning to the phrase subacromial pain syndrome Dierks et al published a 2014 review, Guideline for diagnosis and treatment of subacromial pain syndrome: a multidisciplinary review by the Dutch Orthopaedic Association. They define SPS as, “…all non-traumatic, usually unilateral, shoulder problems that cause pain, localized around the acromion, often worsening during or subsequent to lifting of the arm.”
The reason for the shift in terminology is because the word impingement implies tissue is being torn or shredded by a bony structure in the shoulder. This is incorrect because we have evidence of shoulder tissue alteration in asymptomatic populations (no pain or dysfunction). We also have sham (Placebo) controlled surgical trials where a group of individuals were randomized to receive shoulder decompression surgery (to relieve the impingement) and a group who received just an incision to the area but nothing else was done (sham). The outcomes are the same, which greatly contradicts this biomechanical narrative.
It’s difficult to pinpoint why some people become symptomatic vs others and hyper-focusing on this will likely detract from creating a path to resolution and accomplishing goals. With that said, my typical stance on these things: Non-traumatic musculoskeletal “injuries” are a mismanagement of load, fatigue, and/or psychosocial coping skills.
Jab, thanks for the input, links, and for sharing your experience. If you are experiencing symptoms the next day that are above your typical experience then it is likely training modifications need to be made. Happy to discuss.
In my case, I am fine in about an hour. I do not know or think this problem is related to when I had the MRI done because the pain is in a different spot. I was having problems in the front of the shoulder then and actually at one point stopped OHP for about a year because it got so bad.
Now I can OHP fine but I need to be careful as if I do not then I can snag the shoulder but overall it does not really cause me much of a problem.
This is problem is twofold. Shoulder pain (in the back) and elbow pain. The heavier the weight the worse it gets but last week I did push 295lbs on my last set of 1. I opted out of doing the 6@8 sets because I felt very weak at 235lbs. Like I said when it does flare up my grip gets weak and my shoulder feels weak. I do not know that the elbow and shoulder pain are really related other than two strains or a nerve thing going on.
I do not mind working it through it but was wondering if I should drop the weight/reps or stop benching. It’s not bad enough for me to go to a doctor yet but even if I did I’d rather ask you guys about continued lifting cause I feel I’d get a better answer. As much as it was a problem on Wed after about an hour, everything was back to normal.
In my case, I am fine in about an hour. I do not know or think this problem is related to when I had the MRI done because the pain is in a different spot. I was having problems in the front of the shoulder then and actually at one point stopped OHP for about a year because it got so bad.
