Deltoid Injury - Help Please

[segment]

It seems that doing my front and lateral raises on my deltoids last week have injured them slightly. When I attempted to do my shoulder routine today, front raises were pretty painful and lateral raises I didn't even attempt so I scratched it for the day.

Now it's obvious I have a minor shoulder injury on each deltoid from overtraining my shoulders and putting too much strain on them in too short of a period.

My question is how long should I keep the heavy weights off of them on my shoulder days? If I attempt to stretch my arms out and up above my head with no weights in my hands, the pain is about 4/10 to 5/10 in my deltoids. The pain is also a sharp stabbing like pain that goes numb after about 1 second. The pain is unnoticable if the shoulders are not used in a specific position such as hands going above my shoulders, or lifting my body up (i.e. out of the bathtub.)

Should I be stretching these deltoids everyday or using ultra small weights for front raises and lateral raises, something like only 5 lbs?

Help please! I really don't want this injury to get worse and want them to repair as quickly as possible.

Segment

PS - I will be going to the doctor in a few days to see what he has to say.. but he's only a general practitioner. Obviously he's a doctor and I value his opinion, but hearing real BBers comments and experiences would definately be a bonus.

[Tyrbolift]

It seems that doing my front and lateral raises on my deltoids last week have injured them slightly. When I attempted to do my shoulder routine today, front raises were pretty painful and lateral raises I didn't even attempt so I scratched it for the day.

Now it's obvious I have a minor shoulder injury on each deltoid from overtraining my shoulders and putting too much strain on them in too short of a period.

My question is how long should I keep the heavy weights off of them on my shoulder days? If I attempt to stretch my arms out and up above my head with no weights in my hands, the pain is about 4/10 to 5/10 in my deltoids. The pain is also a sharp stabbing like pain that goes numb after about 1 second. The pain is unnoticable if the shoulders are not used in a specific position such as hands going above my shoulders, or lifting my body up (i.e. out of the bathtub.)

Should I be stretching these deltoids everyday or using ultra small weights for front raises and lateral raises, something like only 5 lbs?

Help please! I really don't want this injury to get worse and want them to repair as quickly as possible.

Segment

There is no pat answer for that. You let the dissipation of pain be your guide. You cant will healing. It is frustrating I know, especially when it hinders good gains you know you could be having.

To speed recovery and healing, just stop using your shoulders, and always be mindful of putting them in quirky positions that over stretches them or twists them.

But do give them very light stretches, just dont be doing crazy stuff like goofing around with friends or engaging in tests of strength.

[Uriel_da_man]

You've hardly damaged your deltoid. At best it's just a small rotator cuff strain or tendinitis. At worst could be a tear or a damaged ligament. Don't work your shoulders (shoulders as in joint, this means nothing for delts/chest/back) for a week or so and see if it goes away.

[jocularric]

For me I found going to the doctor and physical therapist the best course of action for me. Then doing high rep rotator cuff/shoulder exercise with no or ultra light weights daily. The idea being to warm up the shoulders (NO STRESS) and bathe the effected area with blood and nutrients.

[segment]

Thank you so much for your replies! Yes, as you can imagine it's very frustrating.. No chest/back/shoulders for a week? ack! But I guess you're right. If I attempt to work through the injury it could worsen and I may be looking at the entire summer off which would be really bad.

Thanks again.

Segment