Hello,
I have been strength training for a little over 9 years now and never had left shoulder pain before. I got my first covid Moderna shot 7/21/21, 2nd shot 8/14/21, and booster on 1/31/22. All administered in my left arm.
I experienced symptoms with all three shots. I did have a sore left arm, more of a sore medial deltoid that was there only when I overhead pressed at first. My working sets were in the 115-140lbs range. I was running 5/3/1 at the time. I got the pain when performing my working sets only.
A few months went by, I started to get pain earlier during warmups to my OHP. Then, I started getting pain during bench press and push-ups. By November 2021, I would get that medial deltoid pain with just warming up with the bar or 5 reps of bodyweight pushups. Here was where I modified my program and removed ohp and bench press for a bit to see if “rest” would make a difference. The pain was also migrating up, creeping closer to the joint. Some days felt better but it felt like the pain was not improving.
I went to a physical therapist 2 months later, with little to no improvement. No decline but there was no progression. The PT focused on more scapula-humeral stuff but there has been no change since then. The pain is no longer around the shoulder joint but at the center of my medial deltoid again.
What I have been trying to do was to recreate the pain but I just randomly feel the pain with pure abduction AROM with one rep and the next rep would feel fine. Or I reach behind my back, feel the pain, do it again, and it goes away.
Today, I just figured out if I just resistance bands with pure abduction and flexion, I would feel the pain in my medial deltoid. I can recreate the pain with that exercise.
My question is: 1. Should I just train through the pain? Technically, I could push but it just feels very strange/annoying since I know this does not feel normal and I never had anything wrong with my left shoulder before.
2. What are my options at this point? 6 months of no upper body strength training… I want to get back to training but not sure who I should see or what I can do to get back on track.