Pain on top of shoulder

[lstorm]

Recently I've been noticing pain on top of my shoulders on that little ball/joint in between my delt and trap. It's far more severe on my left side, so much so I can no longer sleep without waking up every 30 minutes or so because I sleep on my left side. It especially hurts after a chest workout, less so after a shoulder workout. Here's the thing though, I'm 33 and having been lifting weights since I was 13. After 2 decades of lifting I'm not doing anything radically different, and I'm far from new at this. Maybe my joints are just breaking down after years of use? I did play football, wrestled, and have done MMA for several years - grappling, jiu-jitsu, muay thai you name it I've done it. So is this something anybody else here has experienced? I've tried icy hot, but since it appears to be the bone not the muscle it doesn't seem to do anything. This is really weird, my doctor took an xray months ago but didn't find anything noteworthy, but now the pain has returned with a vengeance.

[RangerX]

Recently I've been noticing pain on top of my shoulders on that little ball/joint in between my delt and trap. It's far more severe on my left side, so much so I can no longer sleep without waking up every 30 minutes or so because I sleep on my left side. It especially hurts after a chest workout, less so after a shoulder workout. Here's the thing though, I'm 33 and having been lifting weights since I was 13. After 2 decades of lifting I'm not doing anything radically different, and I'm far from new at this. Maybe my joints are just breaking down after years of use? I did play football, wrestled, and have done MMA for several years - grappling, jiu-jitsu, muay thai you name it I've done it. So is this something anybody else here has experienced? I've tried icy hot, but since it appears to be the bone not the muscle it doesn't seem to do anything. This is really weird, my doctor took an xray months ago but didn't find anything noteworthy, but now the pain has returned with a vengeance.

Could be the tendons in your shoulder (labrum). Quite often you can damage this area without having recollection of a traumatic event. Personally I injured this part of the shoulder originally in baseball which was diagnosed as shoulder tendonitis, then re-injured it in a big air contest snowboarding. I landed hard with the arm out in the falling position... remember it was a good yank and rode away like "ouch" that hurt.... A few days later the pain seemed to disappear. Started playing ball again and couldn't throw 1/2 of what I used to.... so on and so forth... had it checked out and it was a SLAP tear.

If this is tendon related an xray won't show much... Go to a good orthopedist and have the ROM test done, and have an MRI ordered. MRI's don't lie, they will tell you everything. This is of course if you have insurance....

Good luck.

[lstorm]

Thanks for the advice, and yes I have insurance. I'll talk to my doc and have him refer me to an orthopedist.

[shawn57187]

I had the same issue, and while looking online for a possible cause found this:

What causes pain in my shoulder?
A common cause of shoulder pain is soreness of the tendon (a cord that attaches a muscle to a bone) of the rotator cuff (the part of the shoulder that helps circular motion). Another common cause is soreness of the subacromial bursa (a sac of fluid under the highest part of the shoulder). You might experience soreness after activities such as painting, lifting or playing a sport, which require you to lift your arms. Or you may not remember any specific injury.

http://familydoctor.org/online/famdo...uries/268.html

I talked to a friend of mine who works as a physical therapist and he agreed that it is most likely inflammation of the joint due to lifting weights (sometimes these things just happen). I took a week off upper body exercises, iced it for the first 48hrs, and stretched it using a roller tube three times a day. That seemed to decrease the pain significantly and I've now picked up my shoulder routine where I left off.

If it doesn't get better in a couple days, I would see a doctor about it as you might have a more serious injury.

[lstorm]

Thanks for the info Shawn I'll try the icing and stretching and maybe I'll just use next week as a conditioning week that way I can give my body a rest. In the meantime I'm gonna see my doc anyway, might as well make sure its nothing too serious.

[brandondb]

Had a similar experience with combatives...heard a popwhen Ipushed istead of pulled and the whole muscle on top of the shoulder felt so painful to touch!! Used ice stayed off of it for a while and then used low weight dumbells with higher reps for rehabilitation fo the muscle but did slow...trap raises and trap parallels!! Hope the recovery proves well bro!!

Brandon

[DanWhiteley7]

Recently I've been noticing pain on top of my shoulders on that little ball/joint in between my delt and trap. It's far more severe on my left side, so much so I can no longer sleep without waking up every 30 minutes or so because I sleep on my left side. It especially hurts after a chest workout, less so after a shoulder workout. Here's the thing though, I'm 33 and having been lifting weights since I was 13. After 2 decades of lifting I'm not doing anything radically different, and I'm far from new at this. Maybe my joints are just breaking down after years of use? I did play football, wrestled, and have done MMA for several years - grappling, jiu-jitsu, muay thai you name it I've done it. So is this something anybody else here has experienced? I've tried icy hot, but since it appears to be the bone not the muscle it doesn't seem to do anything. This is really weird, my doctor took an xray months ago but didn't find anything noteworthy, but now the pain has returned with a vengeance.

I've had the same pain recently, especially after one Chest session... I played Rugby League all my life and had the shoulder pinned about 5 years ago, started weights more seriously after I stopped playing rugby after the operation.. I've started to Ice and rest this week, so hopefully the pain will subside after a bit of R&R

[epekarik]

Wow. Im glad someone also heard that pop sound too when the pain hits. I thought it was in my head only due to the pain i suddenly experienced when did the back fly.

The funny thing is that none of muscles hurt just when touching the very top of that little ball feeling bone top of shouder that sticks out on the top. I thought there wasn't anything on the top of that bone just bone and skin. :-).

[liangyu]

Could be the tendons in your shoulder (labrum). Quite often you can damage this area without having recollection of a traumatic event. Personally I injured this part of the shoulder originally in baseball which was diagnosed as shoulder tendonitis, then re-injured it in a big air contest snowboarding. I landed hard with the arm out in the falling position... remember it was a good yank and rode away like "ouch" that hurt.... A few days later the pain seemed to disappear. Started playing ball again and couldn't throw 1/2 of what I used to.... so on and so forth... had it checked out and it was a SLAP tear.

If this is tendon related an xray won't show much... Go to a good orthopedist and have the ROM test done, and have an MRI ordered. MRI's don't lie, they will tell you everything. This is of course if you have insurance....

Good luck.

Ithink it too. because the xray may be not show somethings.

[beyond150yrsman]

[QUOTE=lstorm;205842161]Recently I've been noticing pain on top of my shoulders on that little ball/joint in between my delt ...

Hey - ouch I know it is a deal breaker (no weight lifting for that shoulder) but give it a lot of heat and give it a chance to get better then slowly re-gain the lost time on that shoulder with the weights, as an opinion.

I hurt my left shoulder by not using the tractor to move a 6 foot round bale of hay around (roughly 1800 to 2000 lbs if dry hay). We learn from our mistakes.

Take a pain pill and start taking Aspirin (4 to 6 tabs 325 mg per day) not on an empty stomic - to increase blood flow to that area, as an opinion.

Try not to hurt shoulder ever again - OK.

[kris8888]

Sorry to bring old thread alive, but if anyone else needs this the symptoms could be weight lifters shoulder

Try googleing it

[davisj3537]

The thread has already been bumped so I'll add my 2 cents for anyone reading.


I had this same pain (without the pain while sleeping, which is a telltale labrum issue.) Go to the ortho and get an arthrogram. I had a bursa issue AND 3 labral tears. Dumbest thing I ever did was continue working out through even mild pain.

[stanna]

The thread has already been bumped so I'll add my 2 cents for anyone reading.


I had this same pain (without the pain while sleeping, which is a telltale labrum issue.) Go to the ortho and get an arthrogram. I had a bursa issue AND 3 labral tears. Dumbest thing I ever did was continue working out through even mild pain.

What did you do to care for the Labral Tears? I'd love to know how you recovered from this.

[Kjetil1234]

Does the pain spread?

Please answer the questions in my signature

[reckless999]

Probably not the bone then. An x-ray doesn't show the tendons, ligaments and muscle. Get a sonogram from an orthopedic doctor.