Expert: Dr. Nekessa Remy - 12/1/2009

Question
Dear Nekessa,
I have developed a rather debilitating pain when I bench. Currently when stationary there is a very mild discomfort but no real pain in my shoulder. Also when I weight train no real pain occurs in all other exercises apart from wide arm pull ups then there is mild pain in the front part of my shoulder. However with bench press I struggle with anything above 50% of my ‘normal’ training weight.
I believe that the injury developed over the course of a week through mixing up my training programme. The first real noticeable pain came while heavy benching one day when I felt my shoulder go from discomfort to pain (I have been told that I use a rather abnormally close grip while benching). I managed to finish my workout fine and then did not weight train again for about 5 days due to a football camp.
On my return I found that I could not bench anything close to what I would consider a normal weight and found that there was a shooting pain in the front part of my right shoulder.
This happened about 3 weeks ago now and there has been no real drop in the pain while benching or gain in my strength (I have been benching but with high reps with an empty bar and low reps with a weight of about 40-50%).
My main concern is the length of time that has now passed without any real progress being made from rest. Any advice on possible cause, length of recovery or treatment would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance,


Answer
Hey Joe
You could have a tendonitis or impingement of one of your tendons of the rotator cuff muscles. If there is any inflammation surrounding these tendons this will reduce the amount of space under the AC joint where the tendons pass. This results in pain as the inflammed tendons rubs against the undersurface of the AC joint during movement (ie bench press). Rest is important as is ice. You also want to make sure that you are taking this time to correct your posture. By that I mean, working on stretching your pectoral muscles while strengthening the muscles in between your shoulder blades. This will cause your shoulder to lower and move backwards thereby increasing the space in the AC joint. with increased space there will be more room for the tendons to travel.
I would recommend chiropractic or perhaps physiotherapy to speed up the process.

best of luck