Doc says I have impingement syndrome

[rfengineer]

I crashed my bicycle in November and fractured my pelvis. I fell on my right hip and right arm. As the pelvis healed, I started realizing I was having shoulder pain. Two months ago my doctor said it was impingement syndrome. This injury is what got me to the gym to lift weights. After a few months in the gym, my shoulder pain has been getting worse on certain days. Should I just stop doing the exercises that are bothering me? I've been able to back off the weight on OHP to avoid the pain, but the bench press today was somewhat painful. How should I proceed? I don't want to quit lifting weights. I'm really starting to get into it. Thanks!
Alan

[TheIronMaster]

YES!!! Stop what is aggravating it. Heal up then proceed.

[NapalmX]

Yea I would stop doing the exercises that aggravate it and see if it can heal. I had a shoulder impingement, but I had surgery for mine back in November of 2009. I know a lot of people avoid surgery, but perhaps I was lucky because it seemed to work out for me very well and it doesn't bother me doing any movements any more.

I do know of a few stretches that helped me, but I don't know if all impingements are the same. But the "chicken wing" stretch seemed to help. The other one was to pull your arm across your chest, and with the other hand pull on your elbow to pull and stretch the shoulder even more in that direction.

But at least as far as I know, impingements are the type of injury that the more you aggravate them, the worse they'll get. It was described to me as a there being a fairly small space between two bones that a tendon has to move and slide between. If the space is small or the tendon gets damaged, then it becomes inflamed, and as a result gets larger. And that only makes the problem worse because a larger inflamed tendon will rub against the two bones even more.

[drudixon]

Follow the outlined therapy and stick to rows for the time being.

[Richie71]

Good point on the rows.
For me, the fix came by getting more rear delt strength to keep the shoulder aligned and back. Not necessarily rear laterals, but rows, pulldowns, chins, behind the next overhead presses. Full ROM on chest exercises too to keep the mobility to keep my shoulders back.

[livestrong685]

I've been battling a shoulder impingement for about two years now, and have found that what really irritates it is my elbows going below parallel on bench presses. Heavy curls can also aggravate it from time to time. As long as I stay away from those two things, everything's cool. And keep ice on it, that helps with the inflammation.

[phamine]

Fish oil daily might help with the inflammation as well.

[rfengineer]

Thanks!

[MiklaDfar]

My advice would be to not screw around with it, with the concern that you can aggravate it to the point you have to deal with it for a long time. Why not go see a doc (Ortho) and get a script for Physical Therapy? Then you can find a PT that also does BB (I assume some do) and (s)he will advise you on the the weight training you can do along with specific exercises for your condition.

Though I was not doing any training, that is what I did. The PT told me do NOTHING that caused pain and handed me a couple sheets of exercises to do. I was completely over it in 6 weeks.

[yepitsme]

My left shoulder is bothering me a little bit so I have an appointment Monday morning at a place that does sports therapy.

[snoack]

Anytime you have a serious issue like that you need to rest and recover before you move forward again. The idea may suck, but you have to get it right first because if you don't you're just looking at further damage and ultimately a longer recovery period.