What is this shoulder pain and when should I resume lifting?

[Moonrays]

Hi

Last Thursday I was doing my shoulder workout at the gym, it felt great! I've had problems with my left shoulder since day one but it's gotten much better since I started working out the rotator cuff. However, last Thursday I decided to end my session with a killer rotator cuff session... and that's exactly what happened, it killed my left shoulder. In retrospective I understand it was stupid! I felt some pain during the external rotation, but nothing unbearable.

After I was done I didn't think much about it but later that night I woke up with some serious shoulder pain in my left shoulder. I didn't sleep anything that night and not the night after neither. I couldn't move my left arm, but on Saturday I gradually began feeling better. Yesterday it felt pretty good and today I feel like I'm back to normal, almost.

First of all, what is this pain? Secondly, what happened? Was that impingement gone wild or what? I've spent my entire day reading about shoulder injuries and how to deal with them. I'll start with regularly stretching the shoulders, doing LIGHT rotator cuff exercise (apparently they don't respond well to "normal training" 8-12 reps as i was doing, they should be trained with lighter weight for endurance, not strength.)

I never experience any pain during barbell bench press, barbell shoulder press, dips, pull ups or most other compound movements, the pain mostly occurs while doing side lateral raises, tricep pushdowns, pulldowns with v-bar, high cable flyes to name a few...

I'm eager to head down to the gym for todays chest workout, but maybe I should wait a bit longer? What do you think?

//Thanks!

[nvandenberge]

Shoulders are complex since they're the most mobile joint in the upper body and should be taken serious when injured/painful. If I were you I would wait a little longer. Just because it doesn't hurt, doesn't mean its completely healed. Go see a surgeon who can diagnose you and tell you exactly whats going on, then you'll know the best route for recovery and injury prevention. Shoulder surgery is a real b**** so you wanna try to avoid it at all cost.

If you decide to lift anyway, keep it very light and gradually increase.

[ChrisPalla]

Shoulders are complex since they're the most mobile joint in the upper body and should be taken serious when injured/painful. If I were you I would wait a little longer. Just because it doesn't hurt, doesn't mean its completely healed. Go see a surgeon who can diagnose you and tell you exactly whats going on, then you'll know the best route for recovery and injury prevention. Shoulder surgery is a real b**** so you wanna try to avoid it at all cost.

If you decide to lift anyway, keep it very light and gradually increase.

I used to have similar problem but I've thought it was some kind of oms because of killing workout this day

[Moonrays]

Thanks for your input! I went lifting anyway and it felt pretty good. I followed my normal chest routine which starts with RPT bench press, but I only did three sets before I backed down to a much lighter weight in order to practice on my form (which more experienced lifters said was excellent)

Atm (morning after) I feel fine, the shoulder doesn't ache, only "hurts" (more like a sore feeling) when I raise my left arm above my head, but it's almost back to normal, however having a doctor taking a look at it might be a good idea