Shoulder Injury

derekjnichols

I've had a pretty chronic shoulder injury for a couple of years now due to what I think was bad form when I started lifting. I was recently playing rugby and irritated it again by a rough tackle. It's to the point where I'm taking pain reliever pretty often (not in an addictive way!). I have an appointment to see a doc soon, but it's been a week (I haven't lifted any upper body really) and I don't want to disrupt my training routine. Can I get any advice on how other people have kept working out with injury?

Thanks!

doughnutwretch

If it's hurting to the point you need painkillers, I wouldn't recommend lifting until the pain subsides and you get an 'okay' from the docs. Work lower body and cardio until then. Your training routine isn't worth risking further injury.

When you start lifting again, you need to make sure you are warming up your rotators really well before shoulder and chest days. 10-15 minutes worth of various rotator work will help keep the shoulders lubricated and limit potential re-injury. Talk with your doctor about good rotator exercises and you may even consider seeing a physical therapist at least once about them.

I've got problematic shoulders from years of volleyball and I do a 12-15 minute rotator warm-up on shoulder days with 3 to 4 various workouts and am also good about working the tennis ball and foam roller into my shoulders 1-2 times per week. This has kept me from re-injuring them and is helping me build strength and stability.

ilovedeadlifts

I'd jus wait until you see a doctor.

Do movements that don't bother it. Focus on legs. etc.

It's not worth making the injury worse just to get in an extra week of training.

chrisdavey

agree with the above.

I had a very bad AC joint injury and to work the legs I just did squats with a dip belt connected to a barbell at one end. If you go to a public gym then just use machines though.

Don't train through the pain. Trust me, it's not worth it!

baptiste565

maybe use dumbells instead of barbells. u will be able to adjust the range of motion to a less painful position. but c a doc if the pain doesnt get btr

Arleigh7

Is there anyone in your area who does bodywork? Meaning really deep tissue work. I had a chronic shoulder problem to the point the doc wanted to do surgery and my chiropractor recommended me to a person who's really good at bodywork. The sessions were incredibly painful as he got super deep into the muscle actually seperating it from where it had adhered to the bone.

But when I recovered from the session most of my pain was gone and my shoulder movement came back. I kept working out through this but changed excercises and lowered weights to where I wasn't irrating it anylonger. Now back to full strenght doing 80lb dumbell shoulder presses again.

Check out the book 4 hour body. He talks about this in one of the later chapters in his book. It's really amazing what a great practioner can do for you without resorting to surgery.

musclebuilder

If it's hurting to the point you need painkillers, I wouldn't recommend lifting until the pain subsides and you get an 'okay' from the docs. Work lower body and cardio until then. Your training routine isn't worth risking further injury.

When you start lifting again, you need to make sure you are warming up your rotators really well before shoulder and chest days. 10-15 minutes worth of various rotator work will help keep the shoulders lubricated and limit potential re-injury. Talk with your doctor about good rotator exercises and you may even consider seeing a physical therapist at least once about them.

I've got problematic shoulders from years of volleyball and I do a 12-15 minute rotator warm-up on shoulder days with 3 to 4 various workouts and am also good about working the tennis ball and foam roller into my shoulders 1-2 times per week. This has kept me from re-injuring them and is helping me build strength and stability.

adrenalinejun, with your shoulder issues from years of volleyball, do you know what the issue is? Is it internal impingement symptoms? There is plenty more that can be done to keep the shoulders healthy then just doing rotator cuff work and tissue work of the shoulder on chest and shoulder day. Not having a training day dedicated specifically to chest and shoulder exercises may be one of them.

musclebuilder

I've had a pretty chronic shoulder injury for a couple of years now due to what I think was bad form when I started lifting. I was recently playing rugby and irritated it again by a rough tackle. It's to the point where I'm taking pain reliever pretty often (not in an addictive way!). I have an appointment to see a doc soon, but it's been a week (I haven't lifted any upper body really) and I don't want to disrupt my training routine. Can I get any advice on how other people have kept working out with injury?

Thanks!

derekjnichols, agree with the others. If you can't train upper right now just focus on doing what ever you can to work around it..See whats what when you get examined. Shoulder seperation is a common injury that occurs from "rough tackles" Not saying that is what has happened to you but it is possible considering how the injury occured. Can be a partial or complete tearing of the acromioclavicular and corcoclavicular ligaments at the lateral or acromial end of the clavicle..