Injured Shoulders with Front Raises (shoot me)

[Oatmeal12]

Hey everybody. Dec. 1st did shoulder exercises, Front raises and shrugs. Almost immediately after finishing, I felt a tenderness in my left shoulder and realized I probably messed it up. There was cracking going on in both of my shoulders, but I ignored it because there wasn't any pain.

I've been getting tingling, numbness, and slight pain traveling up and down my arm and even through to my fingertips. Shoulder impingement? pinched nerve? My right rotator cuff is slightly sore, and today I experienced tingling in my right ring finger and right pinky. It went away though, so I'm kind of happy about that. There's also cracking in my left arm when I move it. Btw this was also the first I've done the exercises within the span of 9-12 months. Here's some background info on my that might help:

-eye surgery July and Aug 2013, restricted physical movement for 8 months, not allowed to lift
-netflix, laying down, sitting, some walking for the whole 8 months
-got ok to lift, followed stronglifts 5x5 until September, been doing bodyweight exercises
-ever since recovery, stress and deep breathing produces a "crack" in my thoracic area

And here I am now. Injured and possibly going to be out of the gym for a couple months, but I'm patient so any advice is really appreciated. Thanks.

[Oatmeal12]

bump

[Ermahgerdd]

do side laterals and **** the front raises, if you **** with your shoulders at 20 you'll have the problems the rest of your life

[LuWellness]

Hey everybody. Dec. 1st did shoulder exercises, Front raises and shrugs. Almost immediately after finishing, I felt a tenderness in my left shoulder and realized I probably messed it up. There was cracking going on in both of my shoulders, but I ignored it because there wasn't any pain.

I've been getting tingling, numbness, and slight pain traveling up and down my arm and even through to my fingertips. Shoulder impingement? pinched nerve? My right rotator cuff is slightly sore, and today I experienced tingling in my right ring finger and right pinky. It went away though, so I'm kind of happy about that. There's also cracking in my left arm when I move it. Btw this was also the first I've done the exercises within the span of 9-12 months. Here's some background info on my that might help:

-eye surgery July and Aug 2013, restricted physical movement for 8 months, not allowed to lift
-netflix, laying down, sitting, some walking for the whole 8 months
-got ok to lift, followed stronglifts 5x5 until September, been doing bodyweight exercises
-ever since recovery, stress and deep breathing produces a "crack" in my thoracic area

And here I am now. Injured and possibly going to be out of the gym for a couple months, but I'm patient so any advice is really appreciated. Thanks.

You're still young - you'll heal up fast. From the symptoms you described, it sounds like an impingement in the shoulder. Front raises (especially above a certain degree) can harm the joint if done correctly, and in this case, you probably pushed a little too hard. There are several structures located in the shoulder (nerves, bursa, tendons, etc) and when things become impinged, you get symptoms such as numbness, pain, weakness and sometimes electrical pain.

What you should do is:

1) stretch the anterior shoulder muscles (pectoralis major, subscapularis, long head of biceps)
2) strengthen the posterior shoulder muscles (teres minor, infraspinatus, lower trapezius)

Let this be a learning experience, this is a very low-key injury and I hope you learn to listen your body when it comes to lifting. I'm actually going to be creating a YouTube video in a few days to address this specific injury (since everybody on BB forums is suffering from it!). I'll let you know when it's up and running.

[Oatmeal12]

You're still young - you'll heal up fast. From the symptoms you described, it sounds like an impingement in the shoulder. Front raises (especially above a certain degree) can harm the joint if done correctly, and in this case, you probably pushed a little too hard. There are several structures located in the shoulder (nerves, bursa, tendons, etc) and when things become impinged, you get symptoms such as numbness, pain, weakness and sometimes electrical pain.

What you should do is:

1) stretch the anterior shoulder muscles (pectoralis major, subscapularis, long head of biceps)
2) strengthen the posterior shoulder muscles (teres minor, infraspinatus, lower trapezius)

Let this be a learning experience, this is a very low-key injury and I hope you learn to listen your body when it comes to lifting. I'm actually going to be creating a YouTube video in a few days to address this specific injury (since everybody on BB forums is suffering from it!). I'll let you know when it's up and running.

Hey thanks alot Lu. Any idea on how to prevent it from ever happening again? Btw I feel a bit of pain in my thoracic and cervical spine. I think this problem is the product of the bad posture I sunk into during recovery

[LuWellness]

Hey thanks alot Lu. Any idea on how to prevent it from ever happening again? Btw I feel a bit of pain in my thoracic and cervical spine. I think this problem is the product of the bad posture I sunk into during recovery

Can't give you a ETA on recovery time, but it shouldn't be too long. And you're right - it's most likely poor posture that lead to the injury. If you look at the anatomy of the shoulder, there is not a lot of space between the bones. As your shoulders round forward (from poor posture, excessive bench press/bicep curls, etc), it decreases the space in the shoulder, thus leading to impingement of different structures of the shoulder.

So yeah, you can do all the shoulder stretches/exercises you want, but if you don't fix the root problem (in this case, it could be rounded shoulders), then you'll continue to experience SYMPTOMS of the root cause.

[StitchT]

Google idoportal's scapula routine, only a few sessions of this done in a fashion of just listening to my body and adjusting, I'm learning how to reuse my scapula and my thoracic and cervical spine feel much better aswell as shoulder, chest, back. I had the cracking when breathing problem too. Muscles function is different ways when on active or inactive state, your body likely has to relearn how to use it's muscles correctly. I currently have to adjust/tighten my rhomboid to produce even some scapulae retraction, but it's getting better and better.

[Ausaric]

Perform this exercise and report back. Do 20 reps, holding for 5 seconds each time.



Does it cause you any tingling or numbness or pain? Does the pain increase or decrease as you do more reps?

Tell me what you feel.


I suspect you may have cervical involvement, but what everyone else said in this thread is definitely worth doing and makes sense.

[Oatmeal12]

Perform this exercise and report back. Do 20 reps, holding for 5 seconds each time.

Does it cause you any tingling or numbness or pain? Does the pain increase or decrease as you do more reps?

Tell me what you feel.


I suspect you may have cervical involvement, but what everyone else said in this thread is definitely worth doing and makes sense.

What I felt was a bit of pain/discomfort in my upper middle back. The pain I described in the last couple posts has gone away, but I'm still reluctant to go back to full workouts right away.

[Ausaric]

What I felt was a bit of pain/discomfort in my upper middle back. The pain I described in the last couple posts has gone away, but I'm still reluctant to go back to full workouts right away.

That is normal as long as it decreases as you go.

Continue the Chin Tucks. Do them often, and as long as the pain decreases as you go, continue.

Don't go back to full workouts until you feel like your pan is under control.