Shoulder/Bicep Thing

[Magma]

This has been limiting my lifts for months now and doesn't seem to be getting better, or worse.

It 'appeared' a couple of days after a workout and I wondered if I'd caused it whilst asleep. Maybe sleeping awkwardly.

Initially, I thought it was my bicep or my forearm. If I bend my right arm slightly and turn my palm up - I can feel it slightly somewhere in the muscle heads close to the outside joint. I hardly feel it in my shoulder most of the time.

It's a niggle. Mostly. In general it doesn't affect my life much at all.

But where it really affects me is in my squats - I cannot hold the bar on my back with my right arm any more. When I try to get into position - holding the bar with my right arm and trying to get under it - my should suddenly starts hurting like hell before I'm even close.

So I've been substituting leg press for squats.

Other than that, I can still do most other stuff. Although once I get to about 70% of my max 3x5 on bench, press or bb curl I feel it niggling my bicep or shoulder. And deadlift is fine.

I can still pull up and dip too.

But as I said, this has been going on for months now. I've tried resting it but no change. I've tried exercising it with no change. I can't find the pain point no matter how much I dig my fingers in to my shoulder or arm.

Having never had much real great experience with physios I wonder if any of you guys have any idea how I might approach this.

I was thinking of maybe getting a shoulder support or bicep support but I guess that if it only really hurts when I try to stretch it for holding the barbell for the squat position then I probably don't need one.

[Greg Esres]

I can't find the pain point no matter how much I dig my fingers in to my shoulder or arm.

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago, but I found it responded to trigger point therapy. Remember that if you have a trigger point, it's not necessarily located where you feel the pain when performing a particular activity. The location of the trigger point that worked magic for me was at the juncture of the arm and back, posterior, right above the arm pit. I still occasionally have to work on it. The best tool for that location is a Theracane. Based on what I was doing when the pain occurred, I concluded that it was the subscapularis that was at fault.

[Magma]

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago, but I found it responded to trigger point therapy. Remember that if you have a trigger point, it's not necessarily located where you feel the pain when performing a particular activity. The location of the trigger point that worked magic for me was at the juncture of the arm and back, posterior, right above the arm pit. I still occasionally have to work on it. The best tool for that location is a Theracane. Based on what I was doing when the pain occurred, I concluded that it was the subscapularis that was at fault.

Hi and thanks for posting, Greg.

I've never seen a Theracane before - that was quite educational.

Actually, you've made me rethink on the physio route. I guess that if I can't find the trigger point myself, then at least a physio might find it and I'd have something to work from rather than my current position of not knowing where the actual source of the problem is, and therefore not knowing what to do to remedy it. So thanks for your input and good sense.

[Greg Esres]

I'm not sure a physio is the best person to help you locate trigger points. When I first had my own problem, an ortho sent me to physical therapy where I spent several weeks engaged in rotator cuff and mobility exercises, which did no good at all. They never mentioned the existence of trigger points, although my therapist did suggest getting ART performed on me by a chiropractor. That didn't help either, but it might have been an important factor in my discovering trigger points through internet searching. Working on trigger points helped me get back to lifting immediately, although it initially required massages before lifting and between sessions. As the weeks went by, though, I needed fewer and fewer massages, and now it's only every few months.

Your best bet would be to find a good massage therapist who is knowledgeable in trigger point release. There is also a very good book "Trigger Point Therapy Workbook" that can give you a good idea of where to look for trigger points, based on where you feel pain and what movements you are performing.