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Shoulder Impingement, please HELLLLLP!!!!


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Okay, so it has been about 9 days since my shoulder started to hurt to the point where I needed to lay off of it. It is only a minor impingement but it is irritated and inflamed to the point where I need to lay off it otherwise it will not ever heal.

 

It developed on my weaker side, right shoulder, on the front head (anterior) presumably from overexertion on trap work combined with wayyyyy too much shoulder work which made it injury prone.

 

I am hoping thagt by vv08 (7/17) it will be fully healed. As of right now, I cannot train upperback, chest, shoulders or traps AT ALL!!!!!! How horrible. I'd rather lay off to have it heals quicker than to make it worse.

Someone recommended Super Cissus Herb to me and said it really worked for him. I suppose I can blend it into my juices. Does anyone feel this is worth getting or have any insight on to what the heck it is other than just some ayurvedic herb?

 

Also exercises suggested to help the healing process? I don't know the names of the ones that the pt i hired gave me but i can describe them.

 

1) side dumbell lateral raises (i know that name)

2) moving my arm in a circular motion while fully extended

3) Arm bend backwards l-shape and cocking it back like a pitcher does, rotating.

4) Arm bend backwards l-shape just pushing the arm back while it's stiff in that position

5) Arm at side twisting a dumbell from side to side

6) Arm at side in an l-shape, towel between arm and body, rotating arm from cuff backwards.

 

I started these on sunday and have been doing them everyday since except one day i missed. Anything else to add/critiques, thoughts about the validity of that super cissus stuff?

 

Any comments are HIGHLY appreciated as I cannot train upper body really right now and while cutting, it sucks that i cannot hit these muscles to keep them maintained.....

 

thanks

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Go find an orthopedic surgeon who also runs a physical therapy clinic and who treats local athletes. S/he will be a person with knowledge, skills, and an aversion to surgery. Get a check up. Usually they will set you up with a few weeks of PT first to see if the problem heals with RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation ) and exercise. If that doesn't end it, they will do real tests that will tell them exactly what the problem is and what can be done for you. This kind of situation is like a loose thread that unravels cloth. The sooner you get into this situation the faster and cheaper you will get better. Do these things before you go the alternative medicine route.

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Oh jeez! I remember when I hurt my shoulder. It took me 3 months of babying it before it was back to normal. It has been years (and maybe more years) since it happened to me, but I remember the frustration I had.

 

Advice would be to leave it alone for 3 days. Ice it down since you know it is still inflamed. Then do the heating pad when it feels stiff and needs to get the blood circulating in the area. And by all means, REST! Rest! rest......

 

Try the herb. Never heard of it before, so I would like to know how it works out for your body. When I get an injury I go for the Bromelain (and it never fails that I crave pineapple when I get hurt! bromelain is the enzyme in pineapples) and White Willow Bark.

 

Yes, to beforewisdom's advice. If it is really bad, have it checked out! You don't want to heal it in a weird way. You might have some rotator cuff stuff going on too. I am lucky now cause we have a PT at the gym that I go to just to tell her my symptoms of my injury. She asks me questions about my injury and based on my answers she tells me if I need to be concerned and seek help with my doctor, or just wait (with the RICE prescription) and see if it gets better. She helped me out with my thoracic injury due to stiff legged deadlifts with bad form and heavy weights.

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Thanks bw and gaia. Btw Gaia, I started to read 'awakening of intelligence', pretty good read, VERY philosophic but I like.

 

I think I will get an ortho to check it out and yea, I think i'd like to try the herb also. wowowowowow that is super weird, I have been staring down pineapples for the last 2 weeks, I wonder, hmmmmmm?

 

I have some white willow bark here but that would just alleviate the inflammation temprarily not fix the prob no? It doesn't really hurt unless I activate it and like the both of you said, I am continuing to rest it completely. It's been more than 3 days Gaia, actually like 9 so far.....

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L&G, it is your health, your life and your business. Everything has its pluses and minuses. One thing alternative medicine sucks at is making an accurate diagnosis. Take my advice, get an MRI if the problem persists past a month of physical therapy. Then, if you go the alternative medicine route you will know what your problem is so you can research what does and doesn't work for it. As everyone who has had a shoulder problem ( I had major surgery 5 years ago ) shoulder problems don't quickly go away.

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ART (Active release therapy) has helped many, many people with shoulder problems to get through them and be stronger than ever, something to look into. Check out http://www.activerelease.comfor info.

 

The Shoulder Horn (as seen in many BB magazine ad sections) is also supposed to be a great device to rehab shoulder injuries. See http://www.qfac.com/gear/shoulderhorn.htmlfor more info on this thing.

 

Take care of that shoulder - shoulder injuries are one of those things that can plague you for a long time if you don't take care of them, so rest up, rehab, and get back to being stronger than ever!

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Where there is inflammation (and pain) means that something is not right. If you tore a muscle or a ligament, or even a piece of bone because the ligament was so tough and wouldn't break, then inflammation is the way the body takes care of its injuries. So as long as you have inflammation, then you are not well yet. I just use the white willow bark to make it not so painful just to do ordinary day things. Last time I used white willow bark was just to sleep! So yes it is a temporary fix just to do things without pain. Not to keep on lifting!

 

So your injury has passed the 3 day limit that I personally use for my injuries. If it goes passed 3 days, then I am off to the doctor and see what he/she can find out what is wrong. I use doctors just to confirm what I probably all ready know. I then go from there and proceed how I can try to get it back to being normal. I usually do not take the prescription pain killers, but I usually follow the rest and stretching instructions. I then proceed to take herbs to help me get better faster and fix whatever it is that I injured.

 

Good health to you in your journey towards getting back to your lifting abilities. My shoulder injury took 3 months to heal, which seems so long then, but now it seems pretty remarkably short looking back on it.

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i injured my shoulder not that long ago, just happend while i was lifting weights, i couldn't work my upper body for 4 weeks! doc said to let it rest. i don't know much about herbs, can't help there. you can still do cardio, some lower body. having an injury is no fun, hope you heal soon.

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Thanks Aura, Lena and Ryan! It really does stink b/c my upper body is just ITCHING to be hit right now. It has been getting a little better with the rehab i'm doing it. I am now able to do side lateral dumbell raises and stretch my shoulder across my chest both of which I wasnt able to do 5 days ago.

 

It is actually my medial head not the anterior. I did some tricep pressdowns today and it was ok but whe i went to single arm cable pressdowns, it started to act up so I had to stop

 

VE, I looked into ART, it look reallly good. I am going to try and book and appointment with a local therapist. I don't really have money to spare but I also don't want to spare not working out and I think it will help alot if I get worked on. Thank you so much for that link! As for the other tool, seems interesting; I may have to pick that up in the future sometime to use as a preventative measure. You da man

 

btw aura, nice avatar! Although the headless horseman look was cool and all and will be missed; it is nice to see your profile as well

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L&G,

 

I had a shoulder injury last year and can tell you what I did. My injury/pain resulted in limited range of motion.

 

I tried rest - didn't work. Ice - didn't work. Anti-inflammatories (natural and pharmaceutical) - didn't work. I could keep going on and on.

 

Many here have given you great advice. I went to a local sports medicine shoulder surgeon. A good surgeon will send you to a non-surgical sports medicine doctor first, in order to get a diagnosis. I never actually saw the surgeon since the diagnosis process ruled out surgery. My problem was never completely identified but, more importantly, we ruled out any serious problems. My pain and limited ROM were treated successfully with physical therapy. My therapist said that chasing shoulder pain is very difficult - there can be so much 'referred' pain that you cannot always pinpoint the exact problem. For me, knowing that I did not have an impingement allowed me to work through the pain of the physical therapy and recover quickly, because I knew that I was not doing any further damage. It was worth every penny and I only wish I had done it sooner.

 

Good luck with this. I know how much it sucks.

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My GF tore her rotator cuff, and despite having a very active job, she was basically handicapped from it and usually in pain for a couple years. I had told her the answer was exercise, but it wasn't until she started doing her physical therapy exercises that she began to strengthen and heal herself. Now she's rebuilt her strength and is stronger than ever, over 6 or 8 months of performing the stretches - it really hit home to me the important of stretching. The Dr. didn't see anything wrong on the X-ray, so the actual tissue was healed fine, but the pain signals and weakness from muscle imbalance often need more than tissue remodeling - it may take focused stretching and better posture (which comes naturally as more muscle is gained, as I've noticed).

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Hi VeganMaster. You've been posting a lot recently so initially thought you might be a new member, until I looked at your profile and discovered you joined last September - but I couldn't find your intro thread. Can you repost it as I know a few people here are interested in your background since you are very knowledgeable in some areas?

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VeganEssentials,

 

I have an appointment with an Active Releasre certified therapist tomorrow. I will post what he tells me. Interested and hopeful in seeing the specifics of the injury, his estimated recovery time and what else shall be doing about it. Thank you SOOOO much for advising me on this matter. If it wasn't for you, I would have just walked around in pain, not knowing how to specifically attempt to handle this situation

 

Hi VeganMaster. You've been posting a lot recently so initially thought you might be a new member, until I looked at your profile and discovered you joined last September - but I couldn't find your intro thread. Can you repost it as I know a few people here are interested in your background since you are very knowledgeable in some areas?

 

x2, i totally agree; you know your stuff veganmaster. Would be interesting to hear about your background. etc....

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Wow out of all the posts not one person suggested sports massage.

active release will probably help a lot, we do that here in Ohio as part of Medical Massage.

trigger point work will also help, which is one thing active release helps alleviate, unfortunatly rest and PT exercises are the best bet, sucks when you jones for lifting. See a Massage Therapist my friend

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Besides the medical and non-medical treatment (which is essential to get rid of the acute pain) you need to think about why this chronic injury developed.

I know a lot of athletes with should problems and they all have the following in common:

1st: the rotator cuff is not strong enough in comparison to the other shoulder muscles. Especially the deltoideus is very strong and pulls the humerus upwards and against the acromion.

2nd: they usually do a lot of overhead/behind the head exercises like shoulder presses behind the head and pull ups behind the head.

 

My advice is to strengthening your rotator cuff as soon as the acute pain is gone and stop doing the exercises mentioned above. My shoulder stopped hurting immediately after I stopped them and IMO there are a lot of alternative exercises!

 

All the best and I hope your pain and the reasons for it are gone soon!

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Thanks Flanders! It has been getting a little better here and theremaybe i am being too critical on it's soreness but I just wish it was fully healed by now. 20 days without a chest or back workout is troublesome for me and i'm not used to it.

 

I just visited a sports medicine specialist and he told me that he doesn't think anything is torn and doesn't feel the need for any xrays.

 

He classified is a a secondary shouler impingement of the rotator cuff.

 

He said that it isn't even really the weakness of the muscles even though it wouldn't hurt to strengthen the rotator cuff.

 

Said that it's just that I am so unbelievably tight that it has pushed my capsule and pronated it forward. MY lats are 'brutal' in his words in the tightness department, as well as a little bit in my cerratus and my shoulders and that is causing everything to bunch up. He pressed his thumb deep into my shoulder and i almost had a heart attack from the pain but after a minute of that and some interesting stretches he showed me for my posterior shoulder head, it felt like as if the injury was not even there anymore. 8 hours later and it still feels really good.

 

Good thing is he said certain exercises he is okay with me performing such as deadlifts, rows and chinups. He recommends that i continue to lay completely off of any chest or shoulder exercises for at least another week or so.

 

He said i needed to stretch my 'posterior capsule' out and that it's a hard thing to do. One of the stretches i am direced to do is the tennis ball against the wall and dig my pc into it. Any other suggestions in this department would be a tremendous help and are welcomed!

 

I asked how long he thought the healing process would be and he said if you stretch every day, there's no reason why you cannot be training your chest and shoulders lightly in less than two weeks which put a real smile on my face. So perhaps by the end of the month i can get really seious again. For now, I am going ot have some fun incorporating rows and deadlifts back into my routine and stretch often.

 

I am fearing the chinups will hurt but if they don't I will be very excited. Think I shall try some tomorrow....

 

Thanks for all the advice and help everyone. I want to get sports massages too but i can only spend so much on so many different things, i don't have loads of money. I will get at least one massage as i think that's the number one key to fixing this secondary to rest.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, I don't have the patience to read all these replies and stuff, but there's a recent article on T-Nation about a guy who had a shoulder injury and managed to get through it while staying lifting.

 

http://www.t-nation.com/article/performance_training/fight_the_injury_blues_keep_lifting

 

I actually had a shoulder injury last December and I didn't use my shoulders for lifting for 6 months. I just started recently and it's a lot weaker. It's still not 100% healed after 3 different weeks of not lifting at all and 4 weeks of physical therapy. It's getting better thanks to that article though (I use the stretches at the end of the first page). Those seem to help.

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