Has anyone strength trained through shoulder tendonitis?

jroth261

I still have full ROM so hasn't gotten all that limiting yet, but since I have a physical job and don't expect it to fully go away anytime soon, I'm kind of itching to start strength training again. I've seen doing research that there are strengthening exercises recommended for the shoulder when you have tendonitis or something similar, so working it can't be all that bad. Anyone have actual experience with this?

I did see a PCP ( I have an HMO ) but she wasn't helpful on the subject. Maybe I should nag her again and push for a referral so I can get someone who knows more about the issue or switch PCPs.

canadianlbs

i dunno shoulders, and this may be totally irrelevant input.

but just going to say that i had a 'non-limiting' something in my hamstring/glute tendon and kept lifting for three or four or five months in the sincere belief that strengthening it would have to help in some way. not; in the case of tendons. it takes you from tendonitis into tendinopathy.

i am now doing something about it, finally. my own prescription is for a different body area but the same type of tissue, so maybe something will help.

1. the sports doc told me: if any movement triggers the problem, don't do that movement. period. not
"do it carefully" or "do it lightly" or whatever. just do not do it. the idea and the goal should be NO pain or symptoms, for a specified period of time. in my case, two months. and in my case the no-no move is loaded hip flexion of any kind, but yours will vary of course.

2. i was given a 'prescription' for specific rehab exercises which he (paradoxically) warned me were going to hurt. and he was right; when i started on the glute medius one in particular, the burn would kick in within a few unweighted reps. i did demand that he differentiate this prescription from what he'd said in point 1, so he gave me this guideline:

3. a movement that hurts for up to an hour 'or two' right after doing the movement is okay. so long as the pain comes on fairly simultaneously with the movement, peaks early and then recedes after that. whereas a passive-aggressive kind of pain that lurks while you do the movement itself, waits for six to twelve hours and THEN gives you hell - that's a 'bad' pain.

by the time i got an appointment with him i didn't think i could do anythin with the affected muscles that wouldn't give me that three-day hangover thing, actually. but i do find that the very specific stuff he told me to do is matching the first type of 'ow' and exempt from the second one.

4. the literature and the wisdom right now seem to be all about eccentric movement for strengthening/maintaining any muscles that are attached to bad tendons. and so far (3.5 weeks in), my own results are supporting that. whatever muscle belongs to the tendon in pain, limit concentric movement (where the muscle shortens) and emphasize eccentric (where it lengthens). again, this is pretty helpful for me so far.

the last thing i'll add was not on his list but i found it out by myself. notwithstanding the 'eccentric only' rule, i actually found that isometrically contracting the bad muscles was also helpful. so mine is in stuff around the rear plane of the hip joint, and even before my appointment came through i discovered that just sort of 'sucking' that joint more tightly together helped the symptom part of my own problem enormously.

hope something there was helpful. or at least, not totally wide of the mark. i do wnat you to remember that everything here is just my interpretation/memory of what a sports doctor told me about my own tendon issues. in other words, i am not a health professional myself

good luck with it. tendonitis sure sucks.

ninerbuff

Personally I'm dealing with an impingement right now likely brought on from bicep/tricep tendinitis. And it's been ongoing for a couple of months now. While I've got most of my range of motion back, I have to focus on actually raising my arm straight up vertically rather than just automactically do it. I likely still have another few months before I'm back full, but even after then, I'm likely done doing overhead presses (which is what triggered the impingement in the first place).
I'm able to do laterals and rear laterals, but right now more reps and lighter weights till I feel the impingement is totally gone.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

canadianlbs

^^^^ gee, i coulda just answered your question instead of giving you my wall of text. sorry^^^ here it is:

yes, as far as strengthening A muscle affected by tendonitis. mine is 'hamstring' (uh, which?) and glute med on one side.

with the glute med i've gone from not being able to complete ten unweighted hip abductions, up to 3x20 with 6.5 pounds since dec 12. mind you, that muscle was badly atrophied - tons of room for growth.

with the hamstring idk how to measure, but i was given nordic falls to do and after a few weeks of struggling to create a good equipment setup, and then just to get my head around the very idea of them, i'm getting real results from that too.

the important (to me) thing is that this growth is so far coming at minimal cost of inflammation or pain from the tendons. i do cheat every so often and can't resist trying two or three bodyweight squats, which is about as stupid as opening the oven to see if the cake's done. and then i'm back at square one for a brief time, but overall so far the progress has been consistently positive for both symptom relief and actual strength.

what i've learned from this whole thing is that the exact KIND of movement you do to strengthen a sick-tendon muscle is 2000% of the story. so if you have scope and funds to see someone who can give you guidance about that i think it could be enormously smart to do it.

sorry so wordy tonight. too many extraverts in my weekly training club.

Azdak

There are dozens of websites that will show exercises for shoulder tendinitis. Usually the ones sponsored by universities, physicians, or physical therapists are best. It’s obviously helpful to know exactly what kind of tendinitis you have (what area), but doing some general stuff can be helpful.

In general, you want to avoid overhead lifts, or chest exercises that increase the force on the glenohumeral joint. That usually means neutral grip chest presses, hammer curls, triceps kickbacks, floor chest presses, single-arm controlled ROM chest press, rows, serratus press. And, of course, anything that improves scapular stability.

As mentioned before, you want to avoid any movement that causes pain. And emphasize volume over heavy resistance.

sgt1372

The "tendonitis" that I had in both shoulders at different point in time and for different reasons turned out to have been caused by torn rotator cuff tendons that had to be repaired surgically.

So, OP, I'd recommend that you contact your PCP for an orthopedic referral to get an MRI to see if there is a torn tendon or not.

I also would NOT recommend that you do any so-called "strengthening" exercises until you get an MRI to find out if there is a tear or not because if there is a tear any "exercise" could just make it worse.