Shoulder problems, suggestions wanted

[Ohiostate87]

As the title says, I've been having some shoulder problems. I took a looooong break from lifting and when I started again, everything felt great. As I got heavier and heavier in my benching, I started to get pains in my shoulders and lots of "clicking" & "popping". The pain was then present in my other exercises.

I have recently started taking Animal Flex to help my joints and have also started doing rotator cuff strengthening exercises. I know the best thing would most likely just be taking a break, but I hate doing that lol! I'm also in the middle of my 21 day cycle of Animal M-Stak. I'm kind of just wondering what exercises I should stay away from to give my shoulders a break, and which are okay to do.

I have attached some pics that kind of describe where I have the pains. Along with whats shown in the pics, I somtimes have pain around the acromion, side/top of shoulder.

I have also just read this topic: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...=bad+shoulders

That seemed to make a lot of sense to me. I have always benched by taking the bar down and touching my chest, which could explain why I have pains now and especially the heavier I go in weight. I tried benching the way described in that topic and it felt a lot better.

Basically, all I'm looking for are some suggestions on what to do, what people who have had similar problems have done, what could possibly be causing the problems, etc. This topic will probably seem repetitve since I see a lot of shoulder topics, and if so, I apologize.

[Fresch]

Do you do any work specifically for the rotator cuff??

Do you stretch the pec major and minor??

[Ohiostate87]

Do you do any work specifically for the rotator cuff??

Do you stretch the pec major and minor??

Yes and yes. I do one exercise for the external cuff, and one for the internal; 3 sets of 10-12 reps on each of those exercises.

[BigKrabbe]

read this article , it's called shoulder savers...helped me out a lot. Good luck.

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1053531

also look into cissus.

[Fresch]

Yes and yes. I do one exercise for the external cuff, and one for the internal; 3 sets of 10-12 reps on each of those exercises.

Are the internal and externals at the same strength?

What reps / sets do you use for other shoudler / chest muscles?

[BigKrabbe]

My guess would be that you probably have a type 2 acromion, most likely not a type 3 though. You have a much higher chance of rotator cuff related injuries due to pressing movements with this. I used to have shoulder problems, and went through physical therapy several times. I now have no shoulder problems, and feel that it is all from doing rotator cuff exercises 3x a week (not just on chest days, but they should be done at the minimum on chest days), also taking cissus rx, and learning how to bench properly is very important

[Ohiostate87]

Are the internal and externals at the same strength?

What reps / sets do you use for other shoudler / chest muscles?

For my RC exercises, I use the cables. For internals I do the 3rd plate down/30lbs. For the externals I can only do 20 right now, but it's kind of easy. 30 is a tad too hard to do 10-12 reps.

My reps and weight for other exercises depend mainly on the amount of pain I'm experiencing that day. Just the other day, I did:
Seated DB Shoulder Presses: 40lb. DB's 3x10
DB side raises: 15lb DB's 3x12-15
DB front raises: 20lb DB's 3x10-12
Barbell Bench: 205x12, 205x11, 225x8 (This was also using the proper form as described in the article I referred to in my original post.)
Barbell Incline Bench: 165x10, 175x9, 175x8

Is it possible that I overtrain my shoulders or that I don't train them enough? Also, like I said, I'm pretty convinced that my benching form all these years has to be what causes these problems. I'm going to start benching the way described in that article.

My guess would be that you probably have a type 2 acromion, most likely not a type 3 though. You have a much higher chance of rotator cuff related injuries due to pressing movements with this. I used to have shoulder problems, and went through physical therapy several times. I now have no shoulder problems, and feel that it is all from doing rotator cuff exercises 3x a week (not just on chest days, but they should be done at the minimum on chest days), also taking cissus rx, and learning how to bench properly is very important

What RC exercises did you do? What is your benching form like? (Down to the chest or within your shoulder's Range Of Motion?)


Also, yesterday I had a slight pain on the backside of my shoulder that extended all the way down to right above the tricep where the shoulder ends. I also woke up today with pain in my neck/trap area, but also close to the shoulder, after doing my back workout yesterday.

[Grind4Mine]

You have RC tendonitis, the clicking your hearing is the tendonous attatchments on your greater tubercle being impinged on the acromion, causing pain and some inflammation I would guess even though the inflammation is not always visible

there are a whole range of reasons from postural deficits to the list goes on

here is a sample protocol to follow and a couple modalities afterwards to reduce swelling+pain+enhance healing

standing: nothing past 90 degrees
with minimal resistance(no more then 5-10 pounds)

Shoulder flexion lead with thumb
shoulder abduction lead with thumb
external rotation with side resistance from a theraband
Internal rotation" " (hold a towel against your side with elbow to ensure proper form)

Prone:
retract your scapula, then do shoulder extension, lead with pinky
retract scap, shoulder AB lead with thumb(no resistance besides gravity)

after your done with workout, ice message....fill styrofoam cup half way with water, freeze, cut styrofoam so you have an inch of exposed ice, rub ice over area 3-5 min or until numb(probably a min and a half)

look up proper positioning of the shoulder for RC tendonitis cryotherapy(shoudler internally rotated with arm behind back) positioning is important becouse it exposes tendons

heat before bed

PM me with anymore questions I can get more in depth as to whats causing your problem

[skinny buckeye]

having just healed up about 85% from a RC issue from shoulder press / bench my advice would bt to reduce frequency of shoulder workout so that only 1x a week you work the shoulders (incl bench) , combine that with taking 800 mg ibuprofen during or after workout and icing + RC exercises, and it will get better in a month. if you keep at it, it will get worse and take alot longer to heal IMHO

[Fresch]

Your external rotators should be at elast as strong, if not a little stronger, than your internal rotators.

So for a start, you have an imbalance in your rotator strength.