Intense Shoulder/Arm Pain From Squatting

[NEB92]

Tom,

First of all, thank you for all the help you give in this forum.

I have gradually started to develop some pretty brutal pain in my left shoulder and arm during my squat training. I am currently running the Advanced Novice LP and the pain has gotten worse as the weight has gotten heavier. I came back from a forced break from training about a month ago and did not have this problem prior to the layoff.

I feel the pain primarily in my lateral & rear delt and along the entire length of my bicep. I only experience it on my left side. It starts right after a set and is intense - probably a 7 or 8/10 at its peak. It is usually accompanied by numbness. After about 5 minutes, it fades enough for me to be able to put the bar in position again and start my next set. It's at its worst at the end of my squat session and still hurts enough to notice for the rest of my workout, especially if I'm doing pulls afterward. For the most part, the pain is dull and nearly gone by the time I leave the gym, but sometimes returns in this dull state (only on training days) if I put my shoulder in an awkward position at some point during the day or in bed that night.

I have searched the forums and the only post I found that was similar to my condition was something Coach Rip speculated to be caused by Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, but it still didn't match my symptoms exactly. I have included a video of my most recent squats below (this was my last set so sorry it's a little ugly). Do you see anything - bar position, grip width, etc. - that could be causing this kind of pain?

[Tom Campitelli]

The bar is rolling up on you. This is probably being caused by you lifting your elbows at the bottom of the squat, which is rounding your upper back. Keep your elbows lower. Your squats are a bit troubled overall. Depth is lacking, you are not really coming out of the bottom very well, and your knees are coming in. Take 20 pounds off the bar. Get consistently deep. Keep your elbows down, especially on the ascent. Keep your chin down and drive your ass up. For your arm pain, elbows lower may help. If not play with grip width. Try wrapping your thumbs around the bar. If none of that is helping, move to high bar until your arm calms down.

[NEB92]

I can't believe I didn't consider that my elbows flaring up that dramatically could be the problem. I just put a broomstick on my back and replicated that elbow position - sure enough, there was that dull pain. It feels like I'm borderline impinging my shoulder. Not good.

Yeah, I know the squats are pretty damn ugly. I'm getting pretty close to the weight that I stalled on when I first ran the novice LP, so my form issues have really been getting exposed recently. I posted a form check to the technique forum earlier today because there are so many things wrong that I didn't even know where to start. Hopefully if I focus on keeping my elbows low and work on my other issues the pain will start to go away.

[Tom Campitelli]

I posted a form check to the technique forum earlier today because there are so many things wrong that I didn't even know where to start.

Double posting makes Wolf angry. You won't like him when he is angry.

[NEB92]

Ha, duly noted. I'll try to stay in his good graces from now on. Thanks again for pointing out the obvious.

[cfreetenor]

I have this exact same problem. What I did to help it, that has worked for the past week:

Moving my left arm out a hair, maybe even thinking a fingerwidth wider than my right hand. I tended to hold it in closer than the right hand. Knurling for reference.

Eat more.

DB bicep curls with controlled descent. I do 3x10 or whatever, really. I also noticed the small muscle above the medial deltoid was acting up when this happened (supraspinatus? It's right off the point of the collar bone) so I did some external rotations with dumbbells as well.

Make an effort to flex your wrists when you get into position.

[Tom Campitelli]

I also noticed the small muscle above the medial deltoid was acting up when this happened (supraspinatus? It's right off the point of the collar bone) so I did some external rotations with dumbbells as well.

I am afraid I don't know what you are referring to here, or even where. Above the medial deltoid? The point of the collar bone?