A few years ago I trapped a nerve in my right shoulder through a combination of doing my BA dissertation (slumped over a computer), having a shitty posture and arm-wrestling whilst drunk. I won, but my arm lost. It got pretty bad, resulting in my right arm going numb for quite a long time.

At that point i was new to the lifting game and was doing ghey curling shit, and that probably didn't help. But, after a looong rest, post-degree and a move, I ended up visiting a physiotherapist as it started to affect BOTH arms and shoulders. He diagnosed me pretty well with a trapped nerve, which we managed to sort out.

However, in February, after being on SS for a mighty 1 1/2 months, I found my left shoulder and arm (around the top of the tricep) ached during the squat, and instantly put it down to a trapped nerve. Nerve stretches and rests later, stil no joy. I began a rehab regime of dislocates, foam rolling and ohp'ing, which, although strengthed my shoulders and eased the pain, didn't stop the pain from returning.

I decided to see a chiropractor as the NHS waiting list for a physio was pretty tremendous. He did some nice relaxing, and some very painful stuff, including Graston-technique and that sonic-vibrator massage doodah. He basically said that I had a shit-load of scar tissue around my shoulder rear scapula, around the deltoid, infraspinatus, tricep and some on the pectorals. The Graston-technique helped wonders to restore my muscle and ROM.

But it still didn't seem to make the squat any better. Previously, I'd lurked around here and after reading some advice, widened my grip and did shoulder dislocates et al. However, I believe it was actually the widening of the grip from an already wide-grip that made matters even worse - a bar rammed into loose muscle, mashing it all up, resting not only on the back but also on the backs of the arms, sliding too low down the back and making my arms in the squat position reall loose and prone to a lot of movement.

Today I squatted with a really tight, close grip, as close as I could get it (just a hand away from shoulder) and voila, no pain whatsoever.

I thought I'd start a new thread for this as I know how many people have been suffering from a similar predicament. Of course, this grip position might not be the the only way to stop it, it might be a combination of things, and so might the cause of the pain (hence the auto-biography). But I've got a feeling that the fixture could be due to increasing my ROM in my shoulders and closing the grip, thus tightening up the top of the back. Maybe this can clear up some confusion and help people squat pain-free again.