Anterior Shoulder/Bicep Pain. No clear diagnosis
Hello there!
I'm 24. I've been dealing with constant nagging anterior shoulder pain for 4 months now, right on the long head of the biceps portion. Pain does not extend into the lower part of the bicep muscle or elbow, stays right at the front of the shoulder. The shoulder feels weak and sore through the day. Neck and back of the shoulder feel tight. The pain resembles from what I've googled: "Mouse shoulder". If I leave my arm static for a period of time and I move it upwards, I feel a small short painful pinching right in that area that quickly dissipates. I don't know if the bicep tendon that gets inflamed and starts to pinch or if I have a shoulder impingement somewhere else causing the biceps pain.
Started gradually as soreness in that location, and then progressed into full blown pain during the following weeks. I believe that the cause of the injury was an god awful form during bench pressing (pain was the worst during the concentric phase) + rapidly increasing weight. Grip was way to wide, plus not paying attention to when the pain started and kept training through it without changing my form. At a point every shoulder exercise was torture. Pain is now less than when it started (Acute phase is gone, I believe)
I have been to doctors and PT. Had 2 MRI's (normal one and an arthogram). The only injury that was found was: tendinosis of the supraspinatus. (this showed up in the normal RMI. Supposedly, in the arthogram report, the supraspinatus and the whole rotator cuff is healthy). In both MRIs, the Labrum and the long head of the bicep tendon were in impeccable condition. Healthy Acromion type 1. No tears anywhere. No alterations in the biceps-labral complex. No alterations in the AC joint. No other injury or tissue damage. Even so, during the Arthogram they externally rotated my shoulder for an specific image that helps to diagnose an possible SLAP tear, but none was found.
So, two MRIs, and thankfully there is no major injury. But the pain is still there. PT had me doing the classic rotator cuff strengthening routine for a month or so. Bands and stuff. Pain did not improve, even so, it worsened at some points. Ditched the PT. Doctor just diagnosed me as having a "Proximal biceps tendinopathy" and told me to stay away from lifting, especially anything overhead until the pain resolves with PT. In his opinion, I don't have an impingement. Did a PRP injection. Seemed to help for a while, but pain came back. Also ditched the doctor. As you see, doctors in my area are crap.
The only thing that seems to help is stretching. Pecs, biceps and the shoulder. Reduces the pain but doesn't fix it. Tried to rehab it myself (eccentric bicep preacher curls for the biceps "tendinopathy" + rotator cuff strengthening) but during some exercises the bicep tendon (I believe) gets inflamed and starts to pop out of the groove, causing pain. I have to wait a couple of days for this to calm down and the cycle repeats. This happens with face pulls or anything that resembles a throwing motion or posture.
I'm completely lost at this point. Don't know the reason of the pain and don't know how to proceed. It seems that everything I do, triggers it. Doctors did not help me at all. Resting did not work, just made my shoulder feel weaker and weaker. Stretching helping me, makes me believe that I have some kind of postural o rounded shoulder issues causing impingement, but the doctor discarded that diagnosis. I've already been out of the gym for 4 months.
The only thing left I haven't tried is to push trough the pain and do the Starr protocol with overhead presses (which causes minor pain, but I can do them).
I would appreciate a lot a bit of feedback and direction on this.
Thank you.