Avoiding shoulder injuries, and fixing them - What's the best course of action?

[Nicolas Castonguay]

What I meant is the pain is more similar to the one I felt in my elbows to the one I felt when I injured my RC... I don't know if that can be any indicator. Anyways, tonight I will post pictures of my posture, this might help a lot more

[Nicolas Castonguay]

Alright I got the pictures and I circled where it hurts, and I also just realized my shoulders are very uneven (yes I was standing straight in my front picture). Could that be a factor explaining it? Also where I circled is where I feel the most pain, but it hurts pretty much in my whole shoulder. I wasn't flexing at all in the pictures, it's all relaxed. I couldn't really circle in the back picture though...

[Steven Low]

In your first post you said...

Although when I keep my shoulder blades pulled back when doing Shoulder Press, I still feel some pain, even if it's not as sharp as before.

Which, when combined with these pictures suggests most likely some sort of tendonitis with the supraspinatus (as it is in that area and the most often injured RC muscle) and when you overhead press the swelling there probably helps impinge the tendon against the acromion. (Reading back through the other thread I think this is the case as well).

Pic 3 shows poor thoracic mobility (rounded back) coupled the rounded/hunched shoulders. In addition, pic #1 you can see your scapulae are slightly protracted at rest rather than fully retracted. The thoracic mobility and rounded shoulders contribute to a lack in overhead mobility of the shoulder joint which, when exacerbate with swelling, will probably impinge the tendon against the acromion.

Treatment for that is generally massage to try to get blood flowing to the area and push the swelling away as well as ice after very light exercises (non-painful exercise). Some anti-inflammatories directly to the site.. although I don't know if you can get any. Also, work with the scapular retractors (aka rhomboids) like rows to help fix up your posture which is probably the most important part to keep it from happening again.

If you saw the youtube video in this thread like 5 posts earlier I would suggest doing that as your shoulder rehab work except eliminate any of the exercises that would hurt your shoulder. Ice after. Self massage or get someone to do it for you. Again, as much as you want to work out you can.. but don't do anything to aggravate it.

[Cal Jones]

Nicolas, do you work on a computer all day? Because I have the same issue.

[Justin Algera]

I have the same pain in the same place on my right shoulder as well... It mainly comes during presses, OHS, and HSPU, but sometimes with back squats when the weight gets heavy, or Ive done the other exercises before. With the presses it comes usually on my 3rd or 4th set of 5X5. I also have pain in the elbows (tendonitis from pull-ups being a pretty big guy) as well. Both these (althought my elbows not so much anymore) have really hampered my gains in both these exercises. Used to be able to do a few HSPU anyways, and now I can't, and cant do more than 145lbs on strict presses in my total or ME.

[Steven Low]

Seriously.. I don't know what is up with you guys and not resting or at least avoiding the exercises if you're starting to get pain. You're just hindering yourself maybe weeks if not months or more by aggravating painful stuff over and over and over again. Pain = sign that you shouldn't be doing something or that something needs fixing before you repeat it.

[Lenora Galitz-Pfeffer]

Originally Posted by Steven Low

Seriously.. I don't know what is up with you guys and not resting or at least avoiding the exercises if you're starting to get pain. You're just hindering yourself maybe weeks if not months or more by aggravating painful stuff over and over and over again. Pain = sign that you shouldn't be doing something or that something needs fixing before you repeat it.

Steven, as much as it may be a repetition of previous posts on injury threads, your message bears repeating. Thanks for posting this in plain english.

[Ian Kovtunovich]

It's sort of funny reading these injury threads...Steven Low is right; if doing something puts you in pain...stop doing it! I learned this valuable lesson from a physical therapist, unfortunately after I had surgery (see below). And any climbers out there who read Rock & Ice may have come across articles recently by Dr. Julian Saunders, who is fond of noting that if you just stop ****ing your condition off, it will usually resolve itself (typically in reference to tendonitis).

Admitting that, yes, you are injured can be hard, especially when you realize that it means scaling back or even stopping training, but continuing to do the activity that injured you in the first place will not heal you. Having rock climbed for 15 years, it has become almost routine for me to have to sit out a couple months for a finger or elbow injury, and I had to sit out almost a year after shoulder surgery (torn biceps tendon). The latter was my first (so far only) surgical injury, and it got to that point because I kept training harder and harder and ignoring first the pain, then the grinding, popping, and clicking noises coming from my shoulder.

Surgery is a lousy and expensive, but very effective, way of making you rest. Obviously, some injuries are surgical regardless of how much you rest, but many start out minor, and get aggravated from overuse, to the point that they become much more severe.

The more positive thing I've learned is that, in the context of my biceps tendon injury, muscle imbalance was a big contributing factor, and a lot of more minor nagging injuries can be held at bay by working opposing muscle groups, as opposed to, say, only working the pulling muscles and never pushing. So CrossFit can be a great way to stay out of that kind of trouble...provided you don't get hurt CrossFitting, that is!

Best of luck on staying injury-free.

[Nicolas Castonguay]

Originally Posted by Steven Low

In your first post you said...



Which, when combined with these pictures suggests most likely some sort of tendonitis with the supraspinatus (as it is in that area and the most often injured RC muscle) and when you overhead press the swelling there probably helps impinge the tendon against the acromion. (Reading back through the other thread I think this is the case as well).

Pic 3 shows poor thoracic mobility (rounded back) coupled the rounded/hunched shoulders. In addition, pic #1 you can see your scapulae are slightly protracted at rest rather than fully retracted. The thoracic mobility and rounded shoulders contribute to a lack in overhead mobility of the shoulder joint which, when exacerbate with swelling, will probably impinge the tendon against the acromion.

Treatment for that is generally massage to try to get blood flowing to the area and push the swelling away as well as ice after very light exercises (non-painful exercise). Some anti-inflammatories directly to the site.. although I don't know if you can get any. Also, work with the scapular retractors (aka rhomboids) like rows to help fix up your posture which is probably the most important part to keep it from happening again.

If you saw the youtube video in this thread like 5 posts earlier I would suggest doing that as your shoulder rehab work except eliminate any of the exercises that would hurt your shoulder. Ice after. Self massage or get someone to do it for you. Again, as much as you want to work out you can.. but don't do anything to aggravate it.

Ok thanks a lot for your post I really appreciate it. Now I just want to make sure I'll do the right course of action. What's written in bold is what I need most help with.

First of all, I can keep working out as long as I don't feel any pain. So I'll keep doing all the WODs, and stop it immediately if I feel the slightest pain (however for now I will probably skip most shoulder working WODs, or go very light, since working lightly doesn't hurt). Example today is the Filthy Fifty, I will probably do all of it, except scale down the burpees and the press movements, which last time caused me pain.

Second, I will do RC strengthening exercises that are showed on the youtube video (that do not hurt) and others that were prescribed to me on my bodybuilding.com Crossfit journal. However, how often should I do these, and when? Every day before I do my WOD? Every other day? 2-3 times a day? Any recommended amount of sets / reps? (obviously it's going to be very light weight)

Third, after every workout, I will ice/heat my shoulders (my dad was told by a physiotherapist to do a mix of ice/heat to prevent and help heal swelling, so I will do that).

Fourth, I must fix my posture. However, this is the part where I still need help. I know I need to work on my Rhomboids, but I do not know exactly what to do. What exercises other than Rows, how often, how many sets, light weight or heavy weight, etc?

Once again, thanks a lot.


And to Ian, surgery is free for me Quebec might have a lousy health system, but at least it's free of charge. Thanks for your input by the way.

[Nicolas Castonguay]

Last post I need help with please , after that I should be good to go to fix my shoulder problems.