Attention GABECAMP AH! Shoulder Injury. need advice please friends.

[mhoward147]

I recently hit 100 pounds over my body weight on the bench(285 for one rep weighing 182 6'2"). As you can imagine this is putting major stress on my shoulders. I am having pain when I do reps and or move my arm (shoulder) in any way or direction. I have taken 9 days off from any lifting except food trays at work (serve tables), and been taking motrin about 200 mg whenever it acts up. I thought this would do the trick but I went back to lifting today. I did a real easy lift but went heavy on one or two sets. Biceps and triceps. Little pain in shoulder with tricep exstensions on cables with a rope grip but nothing serious. I decided to try repping the bar alone (45 pounds) to see if my shoulder would hurt at all. Even with the insanely light weight my shoulder gave the all to familiar sting I've grown to know all to well. I am guessing the pain is coming from inflamation, hence the motrin. Why hasn't this corrected itself during my rest time?! I'm losing muscle mass and gaining fat. I ook like shit and am starting to notice some signs of depression (happens when I don't lift). I need to lift but I'm scared I'll get seriously hurt if I push it. I haven't been running because if I go to the gym I will be too tempted to lift anyway. If anyone has answers for me or suggestions as to how I can speed up my recovery I would be trilled! Thank you all in advance :) Oh and Idk if it means anything, I'm eighteen. Seems like that always matters.:confused:

[gabecamp]

Man I have been there done that my friend. I hurt my shoulder very bad when I first started lifting 9years ago. I did it the exact same way you did. I tried to ignore it but the pain just got worse. Eventualy I discoverd that barbell bench press was almost out of the question, So I started doing dumbell benchpress flat and incline. It did still hurt a little when I did dumbell bench press but after just a little time the pain seemed to stop. I didn't do barbell bench press for at least a year and it was the best thing I ever did. Now I'm not saying this will work for you but it is worth a try. I have always preferred dumbells to barbells cause you feel it in your chest and not your shoulders. If this doesn't help try a joint supp. Also, if the pain and your mobillity don't start to subside I would realy consider going to a DR. just incase something is torn. My shoulder still nags me every now and then, but I am just use to it. Once you injure something like your shoulder the injury will always be there. Don't let that discourage you though, I rep 315 for 10 reps on behind the neck shoulder press's and never went to the DR.. Just don't push it to hard and you will be fine. Good luck my friend!!!!!!

[atomant]

The same thing happened to me while benching heavy with barbell for awhile. I agree that it felt better with dumbbells, but not as good as I would like it to. I changed my chest workouts so that I no longer do any benching, instead I do lots of pushups, flyes and cable crossovers. I'm still getting nice results this way and my shoulder has been much better. If the pain persists I would go to a doctor for examination because a friend of mine was benching over 400 then found out he had practically no cartilage left in his shoulder and needed major surgery, so it's not something I would screw around with.

[mhoward147]

both awesome responses. Thank you guys. I am happy to say that I worked out my chest very light today. Reps of 6 with my body weight on the bar (185). The pain in my shoulder was virtually gone while on incline. Decline I noticed a sting or two but nothing too bad. And when I got to flat I noticed the same sting. I decided to bring my grip in about one inch in hopes to relieve tension from my shoulder. OH BABY! No pain at all. I didn't go any heavier yet though. Still too scared. I usually use dumbells on every other chest workout so this transtion away from bar shouldn't be too bad. I am still going to lift barbell just be very careful. Thanks again for all the help, your guys are great! :)

[MooreMass]

Where exactly in your shoulder are you experiencing pain? I myself strained my AC joint (acromioclavicular, the very top of the shoulder where the collar bone meets the end of the scapula) and I can tell you that it takes a long time to resolve even a moderate injury in this particular joint. It probably happened because you have a muscle imbalance; especially if you can visually tell that one side of your body in that area is more muscled. I had an imbalance, the deficiency being on my left side and thus my left AC injury.

Make sure not to bring your shoulders any lower than parallel with the floor. That's the best way to prevent this kind of blowout. As a fellow tall guy I can understand thinking that the further down you go, the more you'll grow but fact is your shoulders become more strained than those with shorter limbs when you do such a thing - simple physics. DB chest presses are a good way to correct chest and shoulder imbalance/deficiency because you cannot compensate for the weaker side with the stronger. Use a weight you can handle on both sides, and don't think that the 1RM barbell bench press is the be-all, end-all test of your strength.