Inja's shoulder - Confirmation of rotar muscle?

Hey guys, I recall having some trouble with my rotar muscles years ago when I was trying to up my bench to quickly. I stayed off it for a while then eased myself back into the sway and thus far in life I have remained relatively injury free...

Now I have something flaring up again in both shoulders (started in left). Since rotator cuff injuries are fairly common place I thought I'd post but the cause for concern and see if anyone can confirm suspicions that this is my rotators again?

The pain is at the upper most insert of my lateral deltoid, and hugs the shoulder joint, spreading only slightly under the middle of the anterior deltiod. It is aggravated by movements that activate the lateral deltiods, including taking off a shirt (no added weight). This is affecting maximum strength in pec, tricep, and shoulder workouts, and in particular I cannot perform dumbbell lateral raises.

I have included this diagram of myself to demonstrate where the pain is coming from :
(File Removed)
Comments?

Looking good

A physio told me that to test if it's rotator cuff, you should extend your arm straight out in front as if you're holding a glass of water upright perpendicular to the ground. Then twist the arm as if you're pouring the glass of water on the floor.
If you get a sharp pain it's rotator cuff.

Never had it myself

A lot of guys have traded in bench press for incline dumbell press to take pressure off the shoulders, or at least always do this first to pre exhaust the chest before benching.

Attempting now...
Some popping clicking noises in right shoulder but no pain or discomfort...

(Actual pain is worse in left shoulder remember)

Found this

www.emedicinehealth.com/rotator_cuff_inj...#Exams%20and%20Tests

There another type of test about lowering your arm whne it's 90 degrees and out stretched and if you lose control it means it's rotator cuff

Whats curious is that when I raise or lower my arm out sideways while its still strait I get no pain. But if my forearm is bent 90 degrees to my upper arm, as it is during the lateral raises movement then the pain and some clicking noises begin. This is really the only movement where I really feel it. It only affects other movements with added weight.

AC-Joint maybe? I know this is my problem. Want to go for the op.

Try The Shoulder Institute for some nice papers on everything shoulder.

www.shoulderinstitute.co.za/

sounds like ac joint and maybe bicep incertion,i had shoulder troubles the other week and i had it looked at and it was the bicep insertion and the ac joint...my pain was in pressing motions though

Inja - I have had the exact same pain in precisely the same spot as you indicated now for about 4 months. Both shoulders pain but the right is worse. Left arm sometimes goes lame during day and both while sleeping. After doing a set of incline dumbell presses and starting with flyes the pain disappears only to come back the next day.

P.S. You resemble someone that I once saw in a movie.....? :hmm .... :shooting

I have the same problem....

Ive been stretching it daily by bringing my arm accross my chest and applying pressure with my other arm accros it. Also taking my arm behind my head grabbing a towel and pulling the towel witht he other arm, seems to have improved the pain a lot but if I ever forget to do it before laterla raises, especialy cables.... ouch

North_Boy1 wrote:

P.S. You resemble someone that I once saw in a movie.....? :hmm .... :shooting

Yes! Who is that doos with the funny looking arms? :S

jackrabbit1 wrote:

North_Boy1 wrote:

P.S. You resemble someone that I once saw in a movie.....? :hmm .... :shooting

Yes! Who is that doos with the funny looking arms? :S

It's the GOVERNATOR !!! :shooting

North_Boy1 wrote:

jackrabbit1 wrote:

North_Boy1 wrote:

P.S. You resemble someone that I once saw in a movie.....? :hmm .... :shooting

Yes! Who is that doos with the funny looking arms? :S

It's the GOVERNATOR !!! :shooting

I though it was Danny Devito's twin ?

jackrabbit1 wrote:

AC-Joint maybe? I know this is my problem. Want to go for the op.

Try The Shoulder Institute for some nice papers on everything shoulder.

www.shoulderinstitute.co.za/

Thanks guys, I'll look up other injuries and see what correlates.
Karma to Rabbit

Inja wrote:

Karma to Rabbit

At last i said something useful! :laugh:

ok, there are a couple tests to give us an idea of whats happening to that shoulder, the 'glass of water' one is checking for an impingement in the shoulder...

Unfortunately the RC really consists of a number of muscle, some of which lie quite deep, and sometimes the only complete diagnostic tool is an ultrasound of the joint capsule and surrounding structures.

However, this is not always completely necessary as much noninvasive treatment for the shoulder is very much alike.

Seeing a joint specialist (any Chiro trained in SA will have the knowledge required to treat any extremity joints) would be your best bet for a complete assessment. Unfortunately shoulders are often the location of recurring and chronic injuries that never completely resolve, and because of this a fair amont of rehab may be required. A good start would be some simple exercises for strengthening the rotator cuff...

Internal and external rotation of the glenohumeral joint is your most important movement to strengthen. This can be done by taking a light weight (I said LIGHT weight) and positioning your elbow at 90 deg and upper arm by your side, moving your hand with weight towards front of body, then slowly away (rotating the shoulder)
The same exercise can be done with elbow at 90 and shoulder straight to side then turning upper arm to position hand below elbow and then above elbow....

Give it a try each day to work those weak and injured RC's and strenghten them up. Obvioucly discontinue if causing much pain. And again i say LIGHT weight.

spike wrote:

Internal and external rotation of the glenohumeral joint is your most important movement to strengthen. This can be done by taking a light weight (I said LIGHT weight) and positioning your elbow at 90 deg and upper arm by your side, moving your hand with weight towards front of body, then slowly away (rotating the shoulder)
The same exercise can be done with elbow at 90 and shoulder straight to side then turning upper arm to position hand below elbow and then above elbow....

Good exercises. I do these for warm-up on chest and shoulder days. Its also how i knew my problem was not the rotator cuff since i have absolutely zero discomfort doing these.

spike wrote:

ok, there are a couple tests to give us an idea of whats happening to that shoulder, the 'glass of water' one is checking for an impingement in the shoulder...

Unfortunately the RC really consists of a number of muscle, some of which lie quite deep, and sometimes the only complete diagnostic tool is an ultrasound of the joint capsule and surrounding structures.

However, this is not always completely necessary as much noninvasive treatment for the shoulder is very much alike.

Seeing a joint specialist (any Chiro trained in SA will have the knowledge required to treat any extremity joints) would be your best bet for a complete assessment. Unfortunately shoulders are often the location of recurring and chronic injuries that never completely resolve, and because of this a fair amont of rehab may be required. A good start would be some simple exercises for strengthening the rotator cuff...

Internal and external rotation of the glenohumeral joint is your most important movement to strengthen. This can be done by taking a light weight (I said LIGHT weight) and positioning your elbow at 90 deg and upper arm by your side, moving your hand with weight towards front of body, then slowly away (rotating the shoulder)
The same exercise can be done with elbow at 90 and shoulder straight to side then turning upper arm to position hand below elbow and then above elbow....

Give it a try each day to work those weak and injured RC's and strenghten them up. Obvioucly discontinue if causing much pain. And again i say LIGHT weight.

good answer, have some karma.

This is what spike is talking about I think, did this too but the stretching worked the best.



Stretching



Try the stretching bud, worked really well, felt a difference within a week and I had the exact same problem and same spot as well.

jackrabbit1 wrote:

Good exercises. I do these for warm-up on chest and shoulder days. Its also how i knew my problem was not the rotator cuff since i have absolutely zero discomfort doing these.

Yeah, after I strained the RC a bit I used to use these same excersices as warmups before chest and shoulders as well. Started them again a week ago. Got some occassional clicking in the joints when I do them so I am starting to worry about joint deterioration.
On the plus side I've been laying off them for two weeks with only light weight and managed to do some laterals today with no pain, slight discomfort at the end of the last set. Will keep listening to my body, see how it feels tomorrow and such..

One stage in my life I swam alot (round 2km a day) as part of pushing myself and my body to the max. This is one of the reasons I worry about joint deterioration and why I think my shoulders act up from time to time.

Should discomfort persist I'll go see a chiro Spike, not in your area though.
Thanks for the help, guess our resident chiro deserves some karma for his input

Inja, the best thing you can do is to go see and orthopedic surgeon who specialises in shoulders.

Chiro's and physios don't have x-ray vison. They can only guess at what is causing the problem.

I had a similar problem, the physio was getting me to do all these movement tests and said i had a rotator cuff tear and that i should see a specialist.

The specialist took one glance at my x-rays and said i had an impingemt on both my shoulders. Case closed. If only i'd seen him as soon as my shoulder started bothering me, it would have saved me money and valuable training time.

That grown man... Lying there... Moving so suggestingly...

Did anybody else find the RC exercise guy a little um... queer?

Stop being so judging! Ski pants are making their come back, he's just a trend setter!