Stupidly, I had the bench too far away from the bar when I was benching last week. So to get the bar off the rack I had to lift the bar up practically over my forehead and then move it down to my chest.
Well, while doing so, I hurt something in my right shoulder. It feels like a sharp pain that goes from the top of my bicep through my shoulder into the top of my chest.
Is there anything I can do to heal this faster? I can’t bench more than 95lbs or so without serious pain. Should I stop benching? Just do pushups? Ice? Stretches? What the heck did I hurt?
Impossible to properly diagnose over the net. Best case is a really bad strain/sprain. Worst case is something is torn. Possible suspects are biceps tendon, labrum, rotator cuff, pec major/minor. It needs to be checked sooner rather than later and I would shut down my lifting until it’s been cleared.
Absolutely. Resist the “I tore/sprained/broke my…” anecdotes that always pop up in these threads. Medical advice on the Internet is a bad idea on many levels.
I didn’t put this in the OP but I guess I should admit that I’ve been lifting after the initial injury , even full weight benching just “sucking up the pain” but on Monday I couldn’t even finish my warm up set and I knew something was wrong.
I’m assuming deadlifts, overhead presses, and rows (all of which do not hurt what so ever) are out of the question?
I mean, can I even do squats? I’m finally seeing results and good progress, Id hate to stop now!
I once separated my shoulder while bench pressing; this injury set me back 6 months.
As others have said, see an orthopedic dr as soon as you can. We all try to tough it out, but continuing to lift with an injury may cause it to get worse.
Brother, I say this out of love. That mindset pays my bills and funds my Form 1 and 4s.
I would shut down anything that involves my upper extremity, including holding a barbell for squats, until cleared. Better to lose a week or two and find out, than further injure something and miss months.
Toughing through foot problems has sidelined my running for coming up on a year now and seriously affected my climbing as well. My foot needs serious work before I can run again. If I would have given it some time to heel initially it would have been a month tops.
The Marine attitude that you poses is great for fighting for your life but not so much for every day task. Learn to shut it off when necessary.
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I had a similar thing happen to my tendon in my right arm. Felt like tennis elbow but I had not played tennis in years. Pain brought on by too many upward rows done with too much weight…too fast.
I also tried to “power through” the pain but I would up stopping certain lifts that really caused me great pain in the elbow, like hammer curls, tricep kickbacks and the upward rows done with an ez curl bar.
After 2 months of working around those lifts…I can now do them again with almost no pain at all.
Seriously…find something else to do for a while…then get back to it slowly and at a later date.
Trying to “power through” my injuries just made them last longer and hurt more.
Get a proper diagnosis from a qualified medical professional, proceed from there. Anything said here is nothing but a WAG and can potentially cause more harm than good.
Went to the doctor and it was a delt strain. Not a rotator cuff injury
She said I shouldn’t do any upper body for another 3 weeks!. She said that squats should be okay, as I’m just holding the barbell and I no longer have any pain but she said I shouldn’t even do that because “from what you’re telling me, if you get into the gym and start doing squats you will start doing upper body work.”
I weighed myself at her office. I normally weigh myself before eating, after my Friday morning workout. Last weigh-in was 206lbs. This morning after breakfast I weighed 198lbs. I’m the only guy who stops going to the gym and loses weight.
Don’t worry about the weight. When you get back to lifting it will come back quick.
I’m guessing you don’t take much time off? I never took time off from the gym when I first started lifting. Got a hernia and had to take time off after the surgery. When I was able to lift again it didn’t take long to get my strength and weight back. The best thing is that my strength then went through the roof and I put another 10lbs on over where I was before the layoff. I was sold on taking time off from lifting after that. Your body needs rest whether it is a week off every 4,5,6,8 weeks or a couple weeks.
Gaining muscle and strength is a marathon not a sprint. Be consistent and injury free.
What can I say, my A&P college professor was good lookin’. I hung on every word :happy:
Glad you got it checked out. Yeah bet it will be hard to stay off it for three weeks. Never easy being down when you’re use to going. Don’t cheat yourself out of recovery though. You don’t want that problem to linger. When you come back your body will be fresh and it’ll respond very well when you hit it again.
I’m not so much worried about losing the weight and having to start all over, but quitting entirely. I finally got into a routine where I wanted to go to the gym. I went to bed the night before excited to get under the squat rack the next morning. I want to make sure that doesn’t turn into “Well, I had a late night. I’ll work extra hard Friday”
I recall hearing somewhere that it takes 200 repetition for something to become a habit. I hadn’t gone to the gym 200 times yet.
absolutely, could be anything from inflammation to a torn pectoral muscle (which I personally have experienced). Get a doc to look at it and get an MRI
So I’m back in the gym, getting the weight up again on both military presses and bench presses and now my left shoulder feels sore. It feels less like a sharp, extreme pain, and just like a dull ache on the top of my shoulder directly under my deltoid. My form isn’t terrible, but I’m not an expert. I start out with my elbows in front of me and then push up until my arms are behind my ears and my body is locked. Does that sound right? Bench is vertical across the nipples.
Are there stretches or exercises I can do to better prepare my body for heavy barbell lifts? This is annoying as ****. I’m actually glad I made this thread because at first I thought it was the same shoulder and it was going to be permanently screwed up. My right shoulder feels excellent.