Pain in right shoulder while doing push-ups

[N1x]

Hi all,


I feel pain somewhere between "deltoid muscle" and "long head of biceps" of my right shoulder while doing pushups. I'd like to mention that I'm 21 and never did exercise earlier, so thought its because I'm a beginner and kept on doing pushups. I've been doing push-ups for 1 month now, doing 5-6 rounds of 5 push ups everyday. The pain doesn't seem to reduce and I kind of collapse after 5 push-ups, then take rest and start again. Any suggestions to improve the condition?

[N1x]

No reply?

[__r]

Do you squeeze your shoulder blades when you do push-ups? If you don't, the exercises can be harmful for your shoulders and cause the shoulder pain you describe in your post.

Other than that, do additional back exercises like body weight rows or pull-ups/chin-ups to avoid a chest/back imbalance, which can also cause shoulder pain.

[missiontomuscle]

Stop doing pushups. Five or six rounds a day of five is excessive, even for healthy shoulders. This is like doing bench press every day. Think of pushups as an upside-down bench press. You wouldn't do bench press every day, so why pushups? At your stage (beginner), "collapsing" after five, this qualifies as heavy lifting. You'll get no real results lifting heavy the same muscle group every day.

So stay off the pushups to let your shoulder recover. Sounds like tendonitis. If it was only a muscle injury, it would have healed by now. Keep working through tendonitis and you could damage it permanently. If you want to strengthen and build your chest/arms, see how your shoulder feels doing a seated chest press (if you have access to a gym).

I'd be cautious about bench pressing, because usually, if pushups hurt, then a bench press will hurt. Another option is a lying dumbbell press.

Start out with light weights and see if your shoulder hurts. If it still hurts with light weights, you'll have to go even lighter, and if it STILL hurts, you'll have to stop all chest exercise until it completely heals. This may take several months (tendons take forever to heal).

It's not uncommon for beginners to do too much too soon, then destroy a tendon. If you don't have access to a gym, you could buy tension bands and work with those at home (lots of youtube demos). There's something about tension bands that makes it easier on tendons. As your shoulder improves, you could buy a bench and some dumbbells for dumbbell presses.

Bottom line: Avoid anything that causes the pain. I also recommend getting checked out by a sports med doc. Sounds like either shoulder impingement, injured rotator cuff or biceps tendonitis (which can result from a pushup, believe it or not).

[N1x]

Hi Friends, thanks a lot for replying

@___r, I do squeeze my shoulder blades while doing push-ups, but the pain seems to be there.

@Missiontomuscle, I shall stop doing push-ups from today onwards. I would like to notify that I had this pain even when I was child and first attempted to do push-ups, though I am certain that its not because of me pushing myself to limits or doing excessive exercise. I would like to describe the pain, its like a needle being shoved into "long head of biceps"; more like some nerve hurts there and its in front side. Whereas the counterpart, my left shoulder feels absolutely fine.

Also, I have dumbbells and will try them today along with Bench press. Please guide if there's something else I should do.

[RainNStorm94]

I think you screwed up your rotator cuff
Just do them every second day and do rotator cuff exercises before and after
you can check them on youtube

[N1x]

Alright, I shall do that and update this thread on improvement. Also, I'm planning to see a physiotherapist soon. Thanks @ all

[tjwoody]

i get this too. Sounds like biceps tendonitis which originates in front or shoulder. Theres a tendon or ligament that attaches bi to shoulder area.

rest and id also take some ibuprophen and ice the front delt for a few days. let the swelling come down.

then get a massage into that area. i like using a lacrosse ball but ur fingers pressed in there hard will do same thing. when u feel a tender area really work into it.

going forward look into some shoulder stretches, scapula work, proper shoulder warmups. youtube them.

[N1x]

Thanks TJwoody, I don't have swelling over there but I guess this trick will do. Lemme add it to my todo list