Shoulder pain

[troy]

1. When did the pain begin?
-About 4 weeks ago

2. What were you doing at the time? Or did the pain come on gradually over time?
-It came gradually over time, but I noticed it during seated rear lateral raises, and dumbbell rows.

3. Where, anatomically, is the pain?
http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/5968/img03801je5.jpg

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/8069/img03811bo4.jpg

i marked where it hurts..right under the anterior deltoid i believe.

4. What does the pain feel like? Sharp? Dull? Aching? Stabbing? Shooting?
-It's a dull, annoying pain. Sharper during pressing movements especially bench press.

5. Is the pain constant, or intermittent, or only on certain motions?
-Certain motions. Moving my shoulder around, especially over my head irritates it sometimes.

6. What motions make your pain worse?
-I have to raise my arm above parallel, around my head level or above. Flat barbell bench irritates it on the bottom of the motion during the press. It also hurts during incline bench at various times.

7. What, if anything, makes your pain better?
-Face pulls maybe.

8. Does your pain radiate to any other part of your body?
-No.

9. What things could you do before, that you cannot do now because of your injury?
-Nothing really. I am thinking of stopping bench pressing because I want to start competing in strongman instead of powerlifting (ive only done one raw meet)

10. What is your main concern regarding the pain and its consequences?
-I would like to be able to bench press pain free, and not worry about worsening my injury.

11. Have you ever injured that part of your body before? If so, how?
-Yeah, I had shoulder tendonitis when I used to play baseball when I was younger.

12. Is your pain getting worse over time? And if so, how much worse over what time period?
-Not sure.

ive been doing rotator cuff exercises for awhile and it actually feels like they aggravate my shoulder now. before , I was doing external rotations by sitting on a bench with one knee up, with the elbow about 2 inches below the shoulder. i eventually got up to around 30lbs for 8 reps on this. then, i would do cuban presses with a barbell.
also ive been reading on push/pull balance...i think i'm out of whack. i can bench press around 350 but only barbell row around 185 for 8 , with good form...

[UConnJulie]

You are having some impingement ... the above the head pain is called a painful arc. You are also right on target about your push/pull imbalance. Most impingements have nothing to do with direct rotator cuff strength, but actually weakness of the scapular stabilizers. I would stop all pressing movements (including any lateral raises) and work on correcting the imbalance.

If you do a search of this forum you should find some ideas ... read Robertson and Hartman's article on T-Nation about Facepulls ... Cressey and Robertson's Neanderthal No More series ...

Ask if you need more help!

[troy]

Originally Posted by UConnJulie

You are having some impingement ... the above the head pain is called a painful arc. You are also right on target about your push/pull imbalance. Most impingements have nothing to do with direct rotator cuff strength, but actually weakness of the scapular stabilizers. I would stop all pressing movements (including any lateral raises) and work on correcting the imbalance.

If you do a search of this forum you should find some ideas ... read Robertson and Hartman's article on T-Nation about Facepulls ... Cressey and Robertson's Neanderthal No More series ...

Ask if you need more help!

Would you advise that I stop all overhead work as well..? (Push press, military press, etc.)

how long do you believe that it would take to correct this imbalance do you think? how will i know when it is fixed?

Also, could you give me a list of exercises that apply specifically to my problem and that would fix it? Maybe a short routine that I could do once , or twice a week? i want to fix this problem immediately. From what I understand the problem is my scapula retractors are the problem. The only exercises I can find for this are "scapula press" and scapula rows.

thank you very much for your prompt response.

[UConnJulie]

Originally Posted by troy

Would you advise that I stop all overhead work as well..? (Push press, military press, etc.)

Yes. ALL pressing/pushing movements.

how long do you believe that it would take to correct this imbalance do you think? how will i know when it is fixed?

Depends upon how severe the imbalance is ... you will know it is better when you can press without pain. But it would be beneficial for you to ALWAYS balance your pushing/pulling (probably erring on the side of extra pulling). Also good to incorporate lots of pushup variations in as your pushing/pressing because of the scapular training that occurs with pushups. And also a good idea to always incorporate lower trap activation exercises into your warmup.

Also, could you give me a list of exercises that apply specifically to my problem and that would fix it? Maybe a short routine that I could do once , or twice a week? i want to fix this problem immediately. From what I understand the problem is my scapula retractors are the problem. The only exercises I can find for this are "scapula press" and scapula rows.

thank you very much for your prompt response.

Rear shoulder pain on incline and flat bench..
http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1426252

Read these two threads .... they should get you started ...

[troy]

excellent..thank you very much