Shoulder pain advice

[bluepants27]

I’ve had some chronic shoulder pain on my left shoulder for some time that I never gave attention to. When I first started going to the gym a year ago, I still managed to do my routine as usual, but in August the pain became greater. I stopped doing bench press and overhead press, squatting also caused pain, and later deadlifts followed.

I knew it wasn’t going to away on its own, so I went to a physiatrist in September. I did some tests and I turned out having what she called “micro-avulsions” on both of my shoulders. She then prescribed physiotherapy and told me to stop any lifting that puts strain on my shoulder (I stopped going to the gym), I’ve had 20 sessions so far, I’m better but definitely not as well as I should be.

Had another appointment with her, had an MRI done which showed nothing wrong with my shoulder. She said she thinks it must be a muscle imbalance what’s causing my pain, and told me to get ten more therapy sessions, now with another therapist and a more strength focused approach. I don’t know if this might be the case since I was a pretty scrawny guy, at 130 lbs 6,0’ tall when I started lifting, (Now 180 lbs 6,1’ tall) and never paid attention to shoulder exercises, just did some arm work besides of the big three as my rutine.

Note I have full ROM, but my left shoulder clicks, feels like some things are hitting each other. Also, there is some slight discomfort while standing for long, it’s like the weight of my arm is too heavy to keep them hanging without thinking much about it.

Any advice or experience treating this type of problem could be useful. Thanks in advance.

[Michael_Ray]

@bluepants27

I’ve had some chronic shoulder pain on my left shoulder for some time that I never gave attention to. When I first started going to the gym a year ago, I still managed to do my routine as usual, but in August the pain became greater. I stopped doing bench press and overhead press, squatting also caused pain, and later deadlifts followed.

I knew it wasn’t going to away on its own, so I went to a physiatrist in September. I did some tests and I turned out having what she called “micro-avulsions” on both of my shoulders. She then prescribed physiotherapy and told me to stop any lifting that puts strain on my shoulder (I stopped going to the gym), I’ve had 20 sessions so far, I’m better but definitely not as well as I should be.

Had another appointment with her, had an MRI done which showed nothing wrong with my shoulder. She said she thinks it must be a muscle imbalance what’s causing my pain, and told me to get ten more therapy sessions, now with another therapist and a more strength focused approach. I don’t know if this might be the case since I was a pretty scrawny guy, at 130 lbs 6,0’ tall when I started lifting, (Now 180 lbs 6,1’ tall) and never paid attention to shoulder exercises, just did some arm work besides of the big three as my rutine.

Note I have full ROM, but my left shoulder clicks, feels like some things are hitting each other. Also, there is some slight discomfort while standing for long, it’s like the weight of my arm is too heavy to keep them hanging without thinking much about it.

Any advice or experience treating this type of problem could be useful. Thanks in advance.

Hey @bluepants27 , sorry to hear about the shoulder issue. Difficult to state the validity of the physiatrist’s diagnosis without consulting with you but my skepticism is quite high. How were the micro-avulsions identified?

Regarding muscle imbalances, these remains fairly unsubstantiated in the research literature as meaningful in most cases; especially as it relates to symptoms such as pain.

Where are you experiencing symptoms on your shoulder? What movements are provocative? How old are you? Have you been training at all recently? What are you doing at physiotherapy?

Have you read our articles on the shoulder? First installment is here and there are two additional articles on the blog webpage: https://www.barbellmedicine.com/scapulardyskinesis/.