Advice about shoulderpain

[dan77]

I´ve started doing the basic gymnast moves around 5 months ago, no rings but stuff like front/back-level,L-sits, static planche and handstand, pseudo planche pushups. Besides that I also do pullups, dips sometimes body/barbellrows and "fake" handstand pushups between chairs(where you have you feet on a chair and the butt upp in the air.) After started training after almost a two week break due to a cold I felt some pain in my left shoulder, it hurts when doing overhead work like a militarypress, also dips but regular pushups feel better but not totally pain free. Also if I have a barbell on my back on do squats I feel pain in my shoulder when holding the bar in that position, especially because I train at home and have to lift the barbell myself and lower it behind my neck due to no squat rack.

I thought to myself maybe I had created some imbalance due to doing to much push/shoulder movements and to little for the back of the shoulder and the back. It´s hard to dexcribe exactly where the pain is, if doing overhead work it feels somewhere deep in the front/middle shoulder, but with squats or pushups also somewhere in the posterior shoulder. If I do this stretch I feel some pain in the posterior shoulder, especially if holding my palm to the floor and if the arm is above my chin or higher.

I have started doing these stretches described by one member here,

I feel no pain when doing pullups or front/backlevel, mabe slight if doing heavier barbell rows, pushups I also do because I´ve heard they are good for shoulderhealth and doesn´t feel so much pain is warmed up. My questions is, should I stop doing any form of pressingwork and only concentrating on my back? I guess my main problem is to know exactly what this problem is due to and how to handle it. It´s been like this for 5 weeks now. I`m confused what to do to fix it, most articles about shoulderpain is about doing things like internal/external rotations and a bunch of different shrugs, but´s it confusing when I don´t know exactly where I need to focus and what type of exercises is helping most. I also train at home so have only access to a barbell and not a bunch of dumbells or machines. I read this article below and realized it may not be so simple to just balance pushing and pullingmovements, so I also wondering what type of exercises should you always do to keep your shoulders healthy that I may have neglected, is a bunch of different shrugs and rotations someything you should do only in rehab or also in regular training, or what is enough to do so to speak to keep your shoulder healthy.

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_art ... cd02.hydra

[FREDERIC DUPONT]

Have you seen your Doc or a good physio for a diagnostic?

It sounds like some sort of shoulder impingement where something got upset in the subacromial space (could be the supraspinatus tendon, or the bursa, or a nerve, etc...) there are a lot of things that can be compressed and inflamed with overhead movement in this small space!

Without a proper diagnostic, it is impossible to tell you what you can do safely, what you should avoid, and what you could do to correct it.

[Cole Dano]

From your description I would also put this into the catch all term of impingement. If you do a Forum Search for impingement there are a number threads that go into some ideas for rehab etc. Google will also provide some good information.

The issue you have is fairly common, and it's also very normal for the perceived location of the pain to jump around, and to hurt doing very specific movements.

As always, don't move into pain, if it means you need to lay off specific planes of motion for a while, that's not the end of the world, work the ones that are pain free. Do your rehab etc.

Of course, Fred's advice to see someone is correct.

[dan77]

I have looked at some older post and google about it, but´s it´s much to read, information overload I guess it´s the english word I feel. I guess I dont´wanna do lot´s of different stretches and exercises instead of a few that covers most of what I need. Maybe I should see a doctor but thought they may not give me any better advice or exercises that some of the experts here may know about, so I was thinking I could try to fix this myself and see if it gets better and wait awhile before contacting a doctor.. It´s not a heavy pain either, if I drop the weight to about 50% I usually use then it almost feels nothing, but still annoying to not be able to do heavier stuff. The pain is centered around posterior shoulder, or a little in the middle of the shoulder, about where the arm connects to the body.

If this only is an inflammation of some kind that needs rest, does it do more harm than good to do light overhead presses that is basically painfree, or is it important to avoid all overhead pressing and pushups? What I´ve started to do is external rotaions with light weights, cuban rotations and continue with pullups and other pulling exercises that is not causing any pain. Is there any specific stretches and different shrugmovements that also is "basic" for this type of problems, if the problem is some imbalance in the muscles around the shoulderblade that is. Overhead shrugs I have a problem with due to the pain of getting the weight up on straight arms, but if someone knows exercises for that may help that you can do with parallel bars, pullupbar and a barbell I´m greatfull. Doing a lot of different shrugs without knowing why or if really need to do them is what I want to avoid I suppose.

[Rik de Kort]

Basically pain free =/= pain free. You have to be actually, really pain free when working out.

I think a good rule of thumb is: if it does not clear up after two weeks of rest, see a physio. Try to get a good one, too, one who works with atlethes. I have a physio in my hometown, but I emailed the gymnastics club in a the town where I study to see who they used. Then I went there.