Shoulder Issues

Hey guys.

I’ve been having shoulder issues for about a year now. Started off I was bench pressing one evening it felt a little funny then when I went to sleep that night I woke up with shoulder and neck pain. I was on a turbo gay army course and had zero intentions of having to do it again so I just left it/foam rolled/got mad inside everytime we had to do push ups.

It hurt to get out of a chair or do push ups or any sort of pushing away from my body at odd angles and radiated into my neck and upper back constantly. It ended up clearing up for the most part and only seemed to get aggravated by certain things like swimming, boxing, and incline press

So fast forward a few months and I wanted to get it cleared up completely and started going to physio. He was into Olympic lifting and thought it would be good for me to learn them so I started trying to learn snatches on his recommendation. My friend and co-worker said “That’s stupid”… I said “No man. He is a professional”… my friend was right. Trying to do a snatch about 10 weeks ago I tweaked my shoulder or something. The radiating pain came back and I couldn’t sleep on it/ would wake up a lot through the night.

A different physio I decided to go to said to stop everything and I started doing these dinky little band exercises targetting my serratus, scap activation, and rotator cuff, Getting needled twice a week, cupped, manipped… The whole Shabang. Six weeks of that and my shoulder from my perspective got worse. It felt like every time I did all those Y T W A exercises I flaired whatever it is up.

I asked a Chiro I go to what she thought was going on and she thought maybe it was bursitis and got me an ultrasound and x ray. That came back and my rotator cuff is fine I just have tendonitis in my long bicep tendon in my shoulder. When she told me that I stopped doing all the band exercises (2 Weeks ago) and just did mobility exercises for it and using a topical anti inflammatory called Voltaren and now the constant pain has subsided substantially.

Now with all that background jabber out of the way I’m having problems with certain movements. Bench pressing causes pain in the side/Front of my shoulder even at light weights and scaled to floor pressing… pressing the womens bar causes pain in the rear and push ups on the side but I can get through push ups if I really screw my hands into the ground. Other certain movements that are external rotationy (Pulling the sheets back from my sadist girldfriend) actually trying to do band externals and other random acts of life with my left shoulder feel really weak or send a shot of pain through my shoulder. Sleeping on it is also bothersome.

I personally don’t think it’s a strength issue like my physio does. Even benching light weights I feel my strength is still there Its just pain in my shoulder that gets sharper that stops me from continuing. I can still do 50 pushups and 15 pull ups. I can do cleans and deadlift roughly double my bodyweight. Maybe the little band exercises are good for an older individual but I don’t think strength is my issue. My shoulder mobility has gotten pretty damn good to I think.

I’m also not entirely convinced it’s an activation thing either like the trainers in my Chiros building think… To much trap instead of lower trap or something… No bands this time just air Y T W As focusing on scaps and no traps. Seems like B.S. especially when the guy telling me to do them has 40 grand of debt for a kinesiology degree and is still fat and weak.

So anyway rant over. I’m wondering what some guys who are real doctors and actually lift weights would do if you were training someone with an ultrasound that shows bicep tendonitis in the shoulder. Is weak/gets pain in external rotation, and gets sharp pain with other types of pressing that causes radiating pain after the workout.

Thanks in advance guys and sorry for the wall of text lol!

Sorry to hear about your frustrating course dealing with all these quacks.

“Weakness” does not cause pain.

“Activation” issues do not cause pain.

“Mobility” issues do not cause pain.

If you have in fact developed a proximal biceps tendinopathy, the key is the same as with any other form of tendinopathy: it needs appropriately-dosed loading to heal. Not stretching, not needling, not manipulation, and not rest. However, depending on how sensitized the area is, you may have to do quite a bit of experimentation to find tolerable movements you can train over the next few months. Tendinopathy is a chronic process that takes time to fix. So, given the complexity of your history here and not working with you in person, it’s difficult to suggest specific movements to train … but that’s pretty much what you have to figure out. What upper body movements can you tolerate for, say, 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps with a controlled tempo (like … 3-5 seconds in each direction, which serves as a built-in load limiter)? I’d experiment with various styles of benching (adjust grip width, ROM via pins, slingshot, or incline), overhead / landmine / pin presses, rows (unilateral or bilateral), etc.

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