Weak Shoulders? Weak Arms? Help! Usual Pain

ChristaLii

Hi!

I've been going to the gym for about 2 months now. I take a "Muscle Conditioning" class once a week. One of the "moves" we do is using a barbell with weights on the end and putting it over our shoulders and do squats. I have very hard time doing it (not the squats). It hurts mt shoulders really bad. I thought maybe it was the weight or the barbell sitting on my shoulders/back. I went to a Zumba Class where we "Air Punched" the sky and I got the same pain in my "shoulders/back area". Now I'm sure that I just have a weak area that I need to work on but then I could be wrong.

Can anyone shine some light on my problem?

Thanks in advance

rileyes

Is the pain primarily on your shoulder? Could it be a rotator cuff tear? I did something to my shoulder swinging a golf club over a year ago. I have full mobility but suspect tears. If you have the pain mostly in your shoulder area there are various things you can do immediately like icing the area, taking ibuprofen and pt to strengthen surrounding muscles to assist shoulder work.

alicjakrol

Sounds very similar to pain that I was experiencing. Your are correct in saying it has to do with weak areas.
In my case, I was having pain in the area where shoulder meets the arm - usually when doing overhead things (with weights); as well as chronic pain between the shoulder blades. I went to physical therapy (i.e., PT) and the cause was weak stabilizer muscles for the shoulder. PT taught me several strength exercises which isolated all the smaller/weaker shoulder muscles. After a month of therapy, the back pain went away. To a smaller degree, the pain in the shoulder/arm joint went away to...but those muscles are still very weak.

My suggestion would be to stop the full overhead press (or modify it by bringing the bar to the top of your shoulder).
Overall, see a physical therapistl they help immensely (caveat - a good physical therapist helps!)

sofaking6

Is in one shoulder or both or in between? I would suggest finding a physical therapist and maybe a masseuse as well. When I have knots in my back I get a bad pain between the shoulder blades from those kinds of moves.

Stevie_PB

Shoulder injuries are relatively common. It's quite a complex joint and put under stress can cause pain. Start your workout warming your shoulders up, Try shoulder dislocates with a stick or band also very light weight overhead presses, side and front raises. This will help warm up the joint / muscles and increase the range of motion.