Shoulder Mobility/ Injury

[tresmith24]

My question here is about my shoulder mobility, and whether is is an injury or not.

I am 23yo, and pitched very competitively from ages 9-19. After that I played collegiate golf and always had flexibility issue in my shoulders.

I have recently begun working out more, and I'm not super strong by any means. But my shoulders give me the most trouble. Particularly when doing overhead excercises such as dumbell-presses. It is difficult for me to do more than a few sets of even 20lbs bells. My balance and stability is terrible.

This may be a strength issue, but it also feels like a major flexibility issue, as I even have trouble taking a barbell and putting it behind my head.

I'm wondering if I have an impingement from my pitching years, or if I have over time just gotten very inflexible in that area.

Any suggestions help.

[mjtuf1]

My question here is about my shoulder mobility, and whether is is an injury or not.

I am 23yo, and pitched very competitively from ages 9-19. After that I played collegiate golf and always had flexibility issue in my shoulders.

I have recently begun working out more, and I'm not super strong by any means. But my shoulders give me the most trouble. Particularly when doing overhead excercises such as dumbell-presses. It is difficult for me to do more than a few sets of even 20lbs bells. My balance and stability is terrible.

This may be a strength issue, but it also feels like a major flexibility issue, as I even have trouble taking a barbell and putting it behind my head.

I'm wondering if I have an impingement from my pitching years, or if I have over time just gotten very inflexible in that area.

Any suggestions help.

You mention having issues doing overhead shoulder movements, but shoulders also play a big role in other movements - are you also having mobility issue on other movements like bench press, or having trouble lifting weight with the bench press? how long have you been working out for?

I'm just trying to gauge if it's an issue of needing to build up strength or a flexibility/imbalance issue..

If you have full range of motion and just have trouble moving weight it could be an imbalance issue. I would recommend doing a lot of rear delt work and hitting the shoulder all around and not just hitting the pressing movements.

If your strength is good in other movements I would do just those for now, and skip the overhead movements that are giving you trouble with as well.. doing other movements like bench press will build up your shoulders still as well, and while also hitting the rear delts and other parts of the shoulder you will slowly build up strength and fix the imbalance over time.

How long have you been working out for?

And if you want to be able to better judge if you have an impingement or rotator cuff issue, a common symptom of that is having trouble moving your arm out to the side laterally, you will have pain / aches from the 60 degree to about 120 degree mark (google it).. meaning you'll start feeling alittle ache right before your arm is parallel to the ground out to your side, and the ache will continue past that as you go up then go away as its extended more towards the ceiling.

Hope this helps.

[sowilson]

I am 23yo, and pitched very competitively from ages 9-19. After that I played collegiate golf and always had flexibility issue in my shoulders.

You were a pitcher? You have damage, can be labrum, scapular winging, a whole host of other things. It should be fixable to a certain degree. You really need to work with a good Orthopedic Surgeon who work's with athletes to evaluate you and then determine a rehabilitation plan. I use to pitch when I was young, my son use to pitch and catch and both of us have changes in our shoulders due to being an overhead athlete (QB's, Volleyball spikers, tennis players, have similar problems). My son was part of a study by a local orthopedic group to measure shoulder degradation in athletes and the effect of corrective exercises and good arm care. Even with great arm care, extensive rehab, and solid training, if you pitch at a high level you will damage your throwing arm. The goal of the orthopedists was to delay the bulk of the issues to after your career pitching was over. Make no mistake, you pitch, you will damage your arm. If you're looking for a good Orthopedic Surgeon, look up the team doctor for your nearest professional baseball team. He/she is most likely an Orthopedic Surgeon who specializes in shoulders/arms. He/she will also be a part of a local orthopedic group and you can schedule an appointment with them. My son's Orthopedic Surgeons were a MLB team doctor and an NHL team doctor. My Orthopedic Surgeon was the same MLB team doctor. My doc worked with me to improve my shoulder health so that I could pitch batting practice and work with catchers without doing too much damage. Being older my labrum is suspect anyhow which limits my velocity, but I can work around that when I throw batting practice.

As a start you can lookup AC./RC./Scap/Labrum rehab routines that go under the name of "Throwers 10" program. It will get you started.

[tresmith24]

I have only been working out now for a month. However I did regularly during college and this was still an issue.

I have not noticed any difficulty with other lifts or excercises. As far as the test goes. There is definitely some ache once I get past the 90 degree mark.

As far as range of motion. One example, when I stick my arm straight out, and bend at the elbow. Facing my fingers towards the sky, I cannot rotate it externally(backwards) at all. The absolute farthest I can go is even with my torso. Do not know if that is normal or not.

[mjtuf1]

I have only been working out now for a month. However I did regularly during college and this was still an issue.

I have not noticed any difficulty with other lifts or excercises. As far as the test goes. There is definitely some ache once I get past the 90 degree mark.

As far as range of motion. One example, when I stick my arm straight out, and bend at the elbow. Facing my fingers towards the sky, I cannot rotate it externally(backwards) at all. The absolute farthest I can go is even with my torso. Do not know if that is normal or not.

Definitely get an MRI and see what's going on. Maybe let things calm down with the gym.

To the above poster "sowilson"" great info bro thanks for sharing really good stuff!

[mjtuf1]

I have only been working out now for a month. However I did regularly during college and this was still an issue.

I have not noticed any difficulty with other lifts or excercises. As far as the test goes. There is definitely some ache once I get past the 90 degree mark.

As far as range of motion. One example, when I stick my arm straight out, and bend at the elbow. Facing my fingers towards the sky, I cannot rotate it externally(backwards) at all. The absolute farthest I can go is even with my torso. Do not know if that is normal or not.

Definitely get an MRI and maybe take some time off from the weights until it calms down / you get a diagnosis. Could be some rotator cuff problem.

To the above poster - sowilson great info bro good stuff!