Shoulder Problems

Ponge

I didn't have any biters in the fitness forum so I thought I'd make a new post to see if anyone can help me out with this:

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Shoulder problems:

About a month ago I was at the gym. I hadn't been going very regularly but maybe once or twice a week maximum. I was doing some stretching with my arms and my left shoulder suddenly popped out of it's socket. It went straight back in but it was bloody agony for 10 or 15 minutes afterwards (and slight ache for maybe 2/3 days after that). I left the gym immediatly and went home. I gave the gym a miss for maybe 2 weeks after that, when I decided to go again. This time I was on a machine (don't know the name, but you push the handle grips forward from a seating position) and was on my last rep (i was doing 15x30kg, 10x35kg and 5x40kg) when my left shoulder again popped out, with the full weight of the machine pushing down on it. I managed to avoid the weights crashing down but it was pretty fucking painful. Again, 20 minutes of pain, 2 or 3 days of ache.

Now I've started going back to the gym and have been taking it pretty easily. 45kg was probably way too much for me on my first day back to the gym and so have taken it down by 10kg. But still, with any real exertion my left shoulder feels incredibly dodgy.

I'm concerned that I won't be able to go onto the free weights with my shoulder in this condition. If the pop happened when I was bench pressing I could have killed myself! So my confidence has been killed a little bit.

I'm going to try and make a doctors appointment soon, I was just wondering if anyone here had any advice? Would it be possible to get some sort of shoulder harness (similair to the supports for elbows/knees) and if so would it even do any good?

I have this scary suspition that the cause might be from the way I sleep. I can really only get to sleep if I put one arm underneath the pillow I'm sleeping on, meaning both my shoulders are stretched as I sleep. I say this because once or twice when I wake up suddenly and move my arm there is a familiar ache. I've been trying recently but it's difficult for me to get to sleep in any other position.

RUNN1NGMAN

The pop is called a subluxation. It's like a mini-dislocation. It's happening because your rotator cuff is too weak to keep the ball of your shoulder joint in the capsule. The only way to fix it is to do abduction/adduction exercises, or get surgery. Fortunately, the exercises are very easy to do if your gym has a height adjustable cable machine. Your doctor can most likely refer you to an orthopedist or physical therapist who can teach you the exercises, or look at this site for examples of exercises you should do, which you can adapt to the cable machine. The exercises should be done with VERY LOW weight--the rotator cuff is made of several very small muscles. You should also be getting an x-ray/MRI to check for joint damage.

You should at least see a physical therapist once, so they can teach you the proper way to do the exercises. This is a very common injury, and the exercises are easy to do, but you should have them all demonstrated and explained so that you get the most out of them and don't hurt yourself further.

And lastly, stop doing any sort of shoulder lifting until you get checked out--if you have a rotator cuff problem, you'll just make it worse. Sleeping with your arms above your head is also very bad for your rotator cuffs.

I know all this because I used to have the same problem, eventually it led to several true dislocations which required emergency room visits, and eventually my shoulder would dislocate almost at will. I had to get surgery, which required a very painful recovery and about 2 months before I had full range of motion again. Get it checked out sooner rather than later so that you don't get as bad as I was.