Shoulder Injury

[Silvertide]

Yesterday I was doing the Monday workout in week 8 of madcow's 5x5. On bench, I warmed up with Barx20, 135x10, 185x3, and stretched out a bit. I went to unrack 205x3 as my first workset (which should be really light for me). I was positioned a little bit too far forward and therefore the bar was a little bit more behind my head than it should have been. I felt something in my left shoulder start to pull as I began to unrack the weight. After a minute or two of light stretching, I didn't have any significant pain, so I decided to try the set again. I had my friend help unrack the weight this time and completed the set without much problem. A few minutes later, I completed my second work set, 225x3, and although the weight wasn't that heavy, there's was some pretty significant pain on the front side of my shoulder on the third rep. I decided to skip my third work set (which would have been 245x3) to avoid further injuring my shoulder.

I took some ibuprofen and iced my shoulder once last night. I still have a full range of motion without pain. Pain is evident during weighted pressing motions and also when I stretch my arm out to the side and push it backward. There's also some pain when I pull it across my chest with my other arm. It doesn't feel like I pulled my front delt, but more like I strained a tendon or some sort of connective tissue between my chest and shoulder. Any ideas?

 

[DaPit26]

could be a RC problem. Do you hit enough lats or rear delts? that could help. maybe take an extra week off the bench, military, standing bb press, incline bb etc... try heating your shoulder for about 15 - 20 minutes BEFORE you lift and ice it after. if your shoulder is still fucked after about a week or two, i'd get it checked out early if it could be corrected the sooner the better. my shoulders fucking kill any time i go over about 315. it's just something you might have to live with.

 

[Madcow2]

Eeek. Well, give it a few days. Shoulder injuries can get bad. Many times I've seen people get a slight injury and injure it much worse pushing it again before it was ready (do not do this - not worth it). Keep on the ibuprofen, ice it a bit. See how it goes. Don't aggrivate it. See how it feels in a few. Of course, the worst case is that it doesn't get noticably better and you have to see a doc. If it takes time to get an appointment (or you have cheap insurance and don't mind going) make the appointment now. Hopefully just a light strain or some such and nothing torn. Sorry man.

 

[Ozz2001]

Hmmm been there already! Take a good weekoff i know its long but in the long run you will thank yourself for it! Inclines, shoulders and bicepts will keep making it worse. Take a 10 pound weight in each hand and do lite shoulder lifts front side maybe around if it dont hurt it to much.For a couple of days to work the little shit in shoulder.Muscles grow faster then the connectors do and thats what kills yea if you keep lifting heavy on it.Got one in forearm keeps coming back event after a week rest it suxs.You will be useless with a bad rotator cuff so let it rest.gl

 

[blut wump]

Not a good time to be doing max lifts. I hurt mine about a year ago doing upright rows and couldn't even bench the bar alone on the Smith machine for a couple of weeks without pain. I tried to concentrate on stretching and I was lucky enough that after about a month I was fine and the benching layoff acted as a great deload.

You can never really tell with RC injuries, though, so be really careful with it.

 

[Silvertide]

I don't think this is an RC injury. Typical RC motions like pulling weight across my chest or toward the outside aren't painful. I also noticed some spot tenderness today, along the line directly below my left collarbone. I'm beginning to think I just pulled the clavicular head of my left pec. Does this sound in line with the symptoms I described?

 

[DaPit26]

BE CAREFUL BRO... don't get too confident and then fuck it up more. Shoulders are very delicate and work a lot so baby it

 

[Silvertide]

Hit the gym today because the shoulder was pretty much painless. Started off with a bunch of warmup sets.

Barx20
95x12
135x10
155x6
185x5
205x3

At this point everything was still feeling great, so I decided to go ahead with my work sets.

3 sets 3x235

No pain or problems whatsoever. I'm happy this must only have been a little strain, even though it hurt like a bitch when it happened.

I also hit 305x3 on squats and 205x3 on rows, a couple PR's.

3 plates next week on squats!