Lat injury?

[SS2016]

I've been back in the gym for the last 2 weeks following a 2ish week hiatus due to studying (literally 0 physical activity at all - 13hrs + a day sitting down studying -> led to pretty bad muscular atrophy).

In the last week, my right lat has been bothering me and has flared up in the last 2 days. The pain is constant and is exacerbated when I rest my right arm on a table then take my arm off the table. The pain isnt localised, it is pretty much throughout my entire lat. I've been digging my fingers into my lat to find any tender points but cant find anything. I have no pain in my left lat.

There was no trauma to my shoulder at all. My sleeping position hasnt changed. Since coming back to the gym from studying, I've been deadlifting every session but still am using very light weight (130kgx5 yesterday) which is still lighter than my best pull before my hiatus, which is still light anyway (147.5kgx5). I've also been doing chins every session since returning but the volume is still less than what I was doing before my hiatus (did 3 sets of 7 yesterday but have done 3 sets of 9 before my hiatus).

My right shoulder (and lat) have pretty much escaped injury my entire life (my left shoulder and scapular area is mangled) so I dont get where this injury has come from considering I'm lifting light weight and have not been in a car accident. Is it a nerve injury? Could I have just pulled my lat from chins (I relax completely at the bottom of each rep btw)?

Any thoughts?

[SS2016]

Update:
I went to bed about 30 mins after my initial post and the pain was excruciating when in bed. I always sleep on my sides but I couldn't manage that due to the pain so I had to sleep on my back for the first time in years. When I got up this morning (about an hour ago), the pain was even worse. It was exacerbated just from looking down at my feet. Putting on my socks was a nightmare. I stretched it out a little bit by bending at my knees, holding onto my door handle and pulling back. This slightly alleviated the pain. From being up and moving around for the last hour, the pain has subsided to a significant degree relative to when I got up, but it is still pretty painful. I'm icing it at the moment and have just taken 2 Ibuprofen tablets. I'm assuming this is completely pointless since I can't appreciate any bruising or swelling which leads me to believe that this is a nerve injury, not a tear.

Any thoughts on what the diagnosis is and how to rehab it? I'm heading into college in 10 minutes so I wont be able to ice it nor stretch until later this evening. If the injury is only a pulled lat, would the Starr rehab protocol be effective or is that specifically for muscle belly tears? I'm really at an odds as to what's going on and I badly need this injury sorted as I have exams coming up in college that involve me moving my body around so I'm fucked if this hasn't resolved in the next week.

[carson]

I wanted to let you know that your issue is not being ignored. It's just that I've not only never experienced this but have never heard of it. If this continues for a few days go see a Doctor is all I can think of.

[SS2016]

I wanted to let you know that your issue is not being ignored. It's just that I've not only never experienced this but have never heard of it. If this continues for a few days go see a Doctor is all I can think of.

Thanks for the response. It's been about 7ish hours since ive got up and the pain has almost completely dissipated. I genuinely can't understand this. I was planning on going to the gym today but even the thought of picking up my gym bag this morning was too painful to contemplate so I decided to leave my bag at home, skip the gym and rest. But now after 7 hours of sitting down studying and taking some very weak anti inflammatory drugs, I feel perfectly fine to go to the gym to squat, press, deadlift and do chins. Since the pain peaked at night and in the morning, I'll be extra careful with my movement throughout the rest of the day and update on how I'm doing after tomorrow morning.

Can anyone explain how one can go from wanting to give up on life as even breathing is too painful to having the ability to deadlift over the course of a few hours?

Edit -> poor phrasing

[Culican]

Can anyone explain how one can go from being in pretty bad pain just from breathing to having the ability to deadlift over the course of a few hours?

Can't explain it but Saturday I had a pain in my upper back right around the right shoulder blade. I have no idea what caused it. When I tightened up to unrack the bar for squats it was very painful. When I would try to take a drink of water and tilt my head back, it was just as painful.

This morning, all gone.

So if anyone can explain this type of thing I am curious too.

[chrisd]

I'd guess at a trapped nerve. Comes on suddenly, restricts movement, can just go again.

[SS2016]

2nd update:
Last night there was no pain. This morning when I woke up, there was some pain but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. The pain has completely subsided now.

I think a nerve injury is the most likely diagnosis. There's no swelling, bleeding or bruising in my lat. No tender points either. I have restriction in turning my head to the right, there's pain also. When looking straight ahead, and trying to touch my right shoulder with my right ear, there's restricted movement with pain. None of the above present on the left side. This could explain why I'm getting pain in my right lat only. Maybe I have a protruding disc at like C7/T1 that is impinging on the nerves that innervate the right lat (long scapular nerve)? I sleep with 2 pillows and my head is probably protruding more forward than it should when I sleep (like my chin is try to touch my sternum) which may displace the disc which could impinge on the nerves which could suggest why I get the pain when I wake up? But Ive always slept like that so I dont get why the injury is so acute...

Does any of that make sense?