tl;dr - left shoulder hurts when hand is moving backwards while elbow is moving forward
This started maybe 3-4 months ago. I believe that the cause was pushups (which I never did before or after) but don’t know for sure. It makes squatting extremely difficult, and causes mild discomfort in some assistance work such as pull-ups and face pulls. It doesn’t bother me during bench at all. During squats when I am trying to tighten up by bringing the humerus parallel to the torso it causes a lot of pain in my shoulder. I feel it generally in the front of the joint but it is difficult to describe. The pain would persist for a day or two after squatting. It doesn’t hurt from day to day activities, unless I’m trying to stretch for something behind me with that arm or if its pulled back suddenly and unexpectedly.
My first step was to drop volume a bit and warmup more but squatting was still impossible. I then took about 1.5 months off back squatting (did front squats for a bit, which was only light pain, but then dropped those), but still when I started again it was painful. Eventually I moved from low bar to high bar and started driving my elbows up (arm perpendicular to torso) and there is little to no pain depending on the day. However it isn’t a great long term solution. I always do a slow warmup of the day’s compound movement supersetted with shoulder dislocations and band pullaparts.
Any suggestions as to my next step? I suppose I should just see a PT but I’ve had bad experiences with the healthcare system here. Had to pay my doctor $200 just for a PT referral, which ended up being for a place not taking patients. Most of my PTs in life have just done a mix of manual therapy and circuit exercises at tiny weights, which has done nothing for quality of life, unlike barbell training which has done a ton. Any advice appreciated!