Shoulder hurts while lifting, What to do????????/

[MessyMarvin]

I am about to start lifting again and it has been about 1 year since I have done anything. I stopped due to a lot of things going on in my life and can not wait to start again. Problem is when I stopped my left shoulder hurt while I worked out, especially doing cable-crossovers. Anyway, it still hurts bad when I lift my arm straight forward or around in circles even with no weight. Should I see a Doctor or just suck it up and start lifting? When I stopped I was one of the strongest in my Gyn that did not juice, I think that may have had something to do with it. Benching I finished my last set with 365 for a couple reps and at the tme I weighed about 185. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[justapixel]

Personally, I would see a doctor. If you have an injury and you ignore it and aggravate it, your lifting days could be over for a long time.

Speaking as a person who has had a torn rotator cuff, you don't want that kind of pain. Plus, 10 years have passed since I injured my shoulder, and I still feel pain. Somethings don't heal well.

My advice is to go to a doctor and make sure it's nothing serious, and that it is safe before you begin to lift again.

[WBL]

I'd see a sports medicine doctor. He/she has probably seen your problem a thousand times. I also had a shoulder injury (RC 4 years ago). I just kept lifting until I could lift no more (BP 295x6, Squat 445x5). Bad choice. 3.5 years of slow rehab and teaching myself proper form plus 6 months of increasingly heavier lifting and I'm back stronger than ever. My simple rule is that no exercise should hurt or be done with any significant discomfort.

[hohandy]

I am about to start lifting again and it has been about 1 year since I have done anything. I stopped due to a lot of things going on in my life and can not wait to start again. Problem is when I stopped my left shoulder hurt while I worked out, especially doing cable-crossovers. Anyway, it still hurts bad when I lift my arm straight forward or around in circles even with no weight. Should I see a Doctor or just suck it up and start lifting? When I stopped I was one of the strongest in my Gyn that did not juice, I think that may have had something to do with it. Benching I finished my last set with 365 for a couple reps and at the tme I weighed about 185. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Definitely go see a doctor. It's probably a rotator cuff thing - start doing some rotator cuff exercises. You can also do a search in the articles area on bodybuilding.com - I've seen several articles that refer to rehabilitating injured shoulders.

[MessyMarvin]

Thanks all, looks like I will see the doctor. I hope it is not as bad as it feels.

[Dutchman]

Good advice above. I wrecked my left shoulder when I lost control doing heavy DB BPs. While taking a couple months off, I found out about Cissus RX and have taken it religeously now for about 4 months. I take 6 to 8 caps a day. The pain is 95% gone and my range of motion is excellent again. I am limited only in the amount of weight I can use in front DB raises. I am lifting heavy again and have recently set some alltime PRs like doing 10 reps on the Hammer Strength Seated Triceps Pressdowns with 10 plates ie 450 lbs. Six months ago the pain killed me and now....woopeee! Do yourself a favor and check out the Cissus RX from USPlabs. Its a godsend!

[Thomas Theama]

The movie "Spies Like Us" said it best. Doctor, Doctor, Doctor, Doctor,Doctor, Doctor,Doctor.................Go to the freakin' doctor.

[SegFault]

The movie "Spies Like Us" said it best. Doctor, Doctor, Doctor, Doctor,Doctor, Doctor,Doctor.................Go to the freakin' doctor.

Doctors are way overrated, with all their modern medicine and stuff. I think you are on the right path asking for medical advice on random internet message boards.

Have you tried applying leaches to your shoulder? I have personally run into few things that leaches couldn't fix. You need to find a nice swamp, soak in the water for a while and let the leeches do their magic. Don't forget a stick to shoo off the snakes and gators.

Or you could give that doctor thing a try.

[WBL]

Doctors are way overrated, with all their modern medicine and stuff. I think you are on the right path asking for medical advice on random internet message boards.

Have you tried applying leaches to your shoulder? I have personally run into few things that leaches couldn't fix. You need to find a nice swamp, soak in the water for a while and let the leeches do their magic. Don't forget a stick to shoo off the snakes and gators.

Or you could give that doctor thing a try.

Yeah, just go see Cliff Clavin. He's surely got some leaches.

[mr.ohlimpyah]

I'm 50 and have been lifting for 30 years since USMC days. actually more than 30 years.
anyway, I've always had a nagging shoulder.
Funny you mention cable crossovers.
I quit them except for some lightweight occassionally, like 70 lbs., and i usually do real careful cheap ones. i make sure to keep my paalms down and bring my fists together and not do much range of motion at all. it's more like a 12 in rqange of motion.
since i left the heavy cable crossovers alone, i never get shoulder trouble unless i'm doing too much heavy bench, then i just spend a few weeks working on hi rep incline press.
shoulders can be a pain in the ass.
i'm so paranoid about it that i don't do much weight or reps with side lateral dumbells.

[edvanp]

agree with the above posters, more then likely a RC. I've had surgery on my right one twice and now my left shoulder hurts if I do overhead presses, wide bench press, heavy lateral raises, etc. I've simply adjusted my lifting routine. I can do shrugs and upward rows for my shoulder without pain. I've closed my grip on the bench press and that has helped too. After going through 2 surgeries for a bad rotator cuff and the 9-12 month recovery period per surgery, I prefer to use different lifts then go under the knife again.

[Bad_Vibes]

After you do go to the doctor and spend a **** load of money and still have the pain try this. Do rows like you've done bench press. For every bench press you do, do two rows. Do them heavy. Pretend like you are becoming a power lifter and rowing is the event. Do seated rows, bent over DB rows, T-bar rows, and throw in some bent over rear delt raises. Also stretch out that front delt and pecs as much as you can. Try to restore the length and elasticity they had many years ago before everything was contracted up front there leaving your cuff mis-aligned everytime you move your shoulder now causing more iritation. It's all about flexibility and restoring the balance. And it's not overnight. After fifteen years of lifting and never missing a bench day, I thought I'd never bench again with the pain I was feeling. Two years after reading what powerlifters have to say about it and their theories on pulling for every pull you do, I feel no pain and the bench is back. Cosgrove and Tate have some awesome articles about the subject online. Just google them. Hope it helps, I know how frustrating it can be.

[Bad_Vibes]

Doctors are way overrated, with all their modern medicine and stuff. I think you are on the right path asking for medical advice on random internet message boards.

Have you tried applying leaches to your shoulder? I have personally run into few things that leaches couldn't fix. You need to find a nice swamp, soak in the water for a while and let the leeches do their magic. Don't forget a stick to shoo off the snakes and gators.

Or you could give that doctor thing a try.

lol, your blind faith in doctors is very reasurring. I know the government has funneled billions in research on rehabing bum shoulders from lifting. It's a national crisis after all. I'm glad you've had good experiences with them. You're one of the few. Prescribing medicine is one thing. Cutting a perfectly good shoulder open and hitting it with an orbitle sander is another. I guess power sanders and grinders are modern though.

There is a doctor though that a lot of athletes do swear by. Apparently is is pretty good:

http://www.dukehealth.org/physicians...ight=BASAMANIA

[coolexec]

I battled with a horrible rotator cuff for years - and was at my wits end. I found the following exercise which was devised by a guy called Dante (aka Dogcrapp). It has worked wonders for me! After a month of doing it every morning I was doing dips again .... and a month later I'm doing weighted dips. It's now about a year since I started the exercise and my shoulders are looking great. I can't claim that the right shoulder dosen't make itself known after a heavy chest workout, but it's so much better that I can do all of those heavy chest workouts!

Start out with it with a really wide grip with straight arms in front of you. With straight arms bring the stick up and overhead and then down and back to the middle of your back. STRAIGHT ARMS ALL THE WAY (this is going to be very difficult and hard the first couple times out and then will be "old hat" with time - and its going to be painful in a stretching pump kind of way). Do 50 reps each time you do this - one repetition is from in front of your face (all with straight arms) to up overhead and back, and then down all the way to the middle of your back and then back up overhead to in front of your face again (again all with straight arms).

The important part of the movement is the area overhead that is really tight Do all of this carefully/slowly - don’t just whip it over and back - if your hand is slipping off the broomstick even with the widest grip, or you cant bring your arms over straight and they start bending on you, you have some serious shoulder inflexibility and need to work this hard and get up to speed (or you could just need a longer broomstick too) - again do all of these revolutions controlled and carefully - push into the stretch as you go along toward the 50 revolutions, your chest will be pushing outward and your shoulders rolling back - your shoulders are going to blow up with so much blood its going to be incredibly painful pumpwise.

Do this once a day as many times a week as you can - every time you do it try to move your grip inward (thats the key) - its going to be very hard to do but try your best to move your grip inward for the next 2-4 weeks and your range of motion with shoulders will increase dramatically and any impingement and the majority of other problems should be gone in 2 weeks.

Also try to move your grip in as you are doing the 50 revolutions - start off with a stretching but relatively easy 10 to warm up some, then try to move your grip in even by a centimetre if you can for the next 20 revolutions and then at 30 try to move the grip in another centimetre - really try to push what you can do stretchwise once your warmed up here - trust me this sounds easy but your going to be muttering after you get to your 25th revolution.

Remember the broomstick goes overhead and all the way back to the middle of the back. Arms straight the whole way - and if you cant keep arms straight you have to widen the grip and/or get a longer broomstick (don’t be gripping the broomstick with tights fists - let it roll thru your fingers if it has to as you go up and back). I only hold onto it with my middle and pointer fingers and thumb.

Hope it helps you ... and thanks Dante.

Oh, I should mention that I'm 52.

[domineaux]

After you do go to the doctor and spend a **** load of money and still have the pain try this. Do rows like you've done bench press. For every bench press you do, do two rows. Do them heavy. Pretend like you are becoming a power lifter and rowing is the event. Do seated rows, bent over DB rows, T-bar rows, and throw in some bent over rear delt raises. Also stretch out that front delt and pecs as much as you can. Try to restore the length and elasticity they had many years ago before everything was contracted up front there leaving your cuff mis-aligned everytime you move your shoulder now causing more iritation. It's all about flexibility and restoring the balance. And it's not overnight. After fifteen years of lifting and never missing a bench day, I thought I'd never bench again with the pain I was feeling. Two years after reading what powerlifters have to say about it and their theories on pulling for every pull you do, I feel no pain and the bench is back. Cosgrove and Tate have some awesome articles about the subject online. Just google them. Hope it helps, I know how frustrating it can be.

Put a good stretch into those heavy rows= good advice

The HammerStrength row machine is great for this. The reason I mention the HS machine is because you can really lift heavy without alot of unnecessay movement of the weight before and after the exercise.

You cannot ignore the basic big compound exercises, if you want to stay injury free. It's important to develop the whole body and that means to load heavy in the big compounds. Leaving off exercises like squats, SLDL, rows,etc. leaves the body open to injury. A strong back is critical to maintaining injury free bodybuilding training, along with the other large muscle groups.

[Capt. America]

Being no stranger to RC problems and surgery, the most important thing to do id NOT DO ANY EXCERSISE THAT AGGREVATES IT!!!!!!! Next...warm up shoulders with RC exercises before doing any lifting, make them a part of EVERY workout.

[ecto-man]

Being no stranger to RC problems and surgery, the most important thing to do id NOT DO ANY EXCERSISE THAT AGGREVATES IT!!!!!!! Next...warm up shoulders with RC exercises before doing any lifting, make them a part of EVERY workout.

The excercise that kills my shoulder is the Bench Press. I really don't want to leave that out. Do you know of any Chest excercises that won't hurt my shoulder?

[Capt. America]

I do inclines, declines, fly's, DB presses, cable fly's, dips(for chest) and push ups. Push ups with the feet higher than the head really hit the chest well. When they get too easy have some one put a couple 45# plates on your back. Just try different exercises and see what don't hurt...and warm those shoulders (RC) up well...they have little blood flow compared to other parts. Rember R.I.C.E I ice my repaired RC daily. We ain't gettin' younger!

[spirit3530]

RC for sure

If you do RC movements to strength them it will help you get stronger in the press as well help prevent real injury