Injured rotator cuff. Can't Squat, Bench, or Press...

[manis5]

So about two weeks ago I injured my rotator cuff during a heavy set of squats or presses (I can't pinpoint exactly when/how it happened). I've since took a break from benching or pressing but continued squatting, deadlifting, and cleaning. The past 2 sessions, it has hurt too badly during squats as well and I keep re-tweaking it so I think it's time to start taking care of this shoulder more seriously until it heals.

I guess my options are to use the safety squat bar and continue deadlift and clean while doing exercises with bands and such for my shoulder until it is healed. It surprisingly doesn't hurt during cleans but that may be because the weight is still light on those. What do you guys think? As far as the safety squat bar, how should I scale my working weight to accommodate the different bar. My last heavy session before the injury was 240x5x3. I guess I'm just going to have to accept losing a ton of progress on the bench and press for the time being? Any other help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[manis5]

Right, I had that in mind as well. How does the rest of my plan sound?

[manis5]

bumpin to see if anyone is willing to chime in.

[Greg Esres]

bumpin to see if anyone is willing to chime in.

You might have just developed a trigger point in one of the rotator cuff muscles that massaging with a lacrosse ball or Theracane would take care of. A massage session before workout and between sets might be enough to get back to work immediately, but it might take a few weeks of daily massages before the pain goes away entirely.

[Brodie Butland]

How do you know it's a rotator cuff injury?

[ColoWayno]

How much do you emphasize keeping your shoulder blades pulled together in your lifts?

If you find something that makes it hurt, try that thing really emphasizing this cue and see if it doesn't hurt a lot less.

[manis5]

How do you know it's a rotator cuff injury?

Just my humble assessment. It hurts during any movement the rotator cuff is responsible for. I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder during a heavy set of squats but it didn't particularly concern me at the time. Afterwards, on my second set of presses I felt a major impingement about halfway up and had to stop the set. I actually tried to do my last set and it didn't hurt until about the 3rd rep when I felt the impingement again. Now for the past 2 weeks it has felt painful and weak. I can press and bench light weight but I could probably only reach about 50% of my working weight until it just feels too painful.

How much do you emphasize keeping your shoulder blades pulled together in your lifts?

If you find something that makes it hurt, try that thing really emphasizing this cue and see if it doesn't hurt a lot less.

I've always emphasized it although I made a thread about 3 weeks ago about how my right shoulder blade kept becoming un-retracted during the bench press which might have been a mechanism for this injury.

[ColoWayno]

Just my humble assessment. It hurts during any movement the rotator cuff is responsible for. I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder during a heavy set of squats but it didn't particularly concern me at the time. Afterwards, on my second set of presses I felt a major impingement about halfway up and had to stop the set. I actually tried to do my last set and it didn't hurt until about the 3rd rep when I felt the impingement again. Now for the past 2 weeks it has felt painful and weak. I can press and bench light weight but I could probably only reach about 50% of my working weight until it just feels too painful.

I've always emphasized it although I made a thread about 3 weeks ago about how my right shoulder blade kept becoming un-retracted during the bench press which might have been a mechanism for this injury.

Just so you know, if you have an impingement the Starr Protocol will do naught but make it worse. You probably have inflammation, figure out what aggravates it and fix that in your form. Once you have that figured out start with light sets.

Just a suggestion, get a light resistance band and figure out what motion makes it hurt, then see if any of the familiar cues (especially them there shoulder blades) improve the pain.

[Meshuggah]

I tore the supraspinatus muscle in my left shoulder almost a year ago (9-25-13) doing close grip benches with 245.
I still cant do flat benches, but I can do overhead pressing and I have started some light inclines.
It was about 6 or 7 months before I could squat with a straight bar, luckily I have a safety squat bar (yoke bar)
Best of luck with your injury

[manis5]

I tore the supraspinatus muscle in my left shoulder almost a year ago (9-25-13) doing close grip benches with 245.
I still cant do flat benches, but I can do overhead pressing and I have started some light inclines.
It was about 6 or 7 months before I could squat with a straight bar, luckily I have a safety squat bar (yoke bar)
Best of luck with your injury

Well that's depressing lol.