A few weeks I was doing lying tricep extensions (exactly what this guy is doing). I messed up my grip and the bar ended up going behind my head a little too far, overextending my shoulder slightly. It didn’t really hurt and I didn’t have any pain afterwards so I took 2 days off and then kept training, but since then I’ve felt a mild, dull ache deep in the shoulder. I took another 5 days rest but it hasn’t really changed. I think it might be a slight strain of one of the rotator cuff muscles, like the supraspinatus, but I’m no expert.
My question is: if I keep training (but avoid doing anything that involves a lot of shoulder rotation), what’s the worst case scenario here? If it will slowly get better, but just take a bit longer, then I don’t mind continuing. But would it slowly get worse? Should I be avoiding any upper-body exercises whatsoever until it’s 100% recovered?
PS. if anyone has experienced a similar thing and has an idea of what the ache might be indicating medically I’m all ears.
When I tore my rotator cuff, I had to not only stop doing martial arts, but also any strenuous activity for nearly a couple of months until it healed. If you suspect at all you’ve damaged your shoulder, don’t mess around and go see your doctor. Otherwise you may end up with permanent damage by further injuring it.
Physical therapy can be very helpful for rotator cuff injuries. They can give you specific exercises to strengthen the cuff muscles. If you continue to do workouts and stressful activities to your shoulder before it heals you can definitely make it worse. The rotator cuff makes sure your humerus rotates while it lifts to avoid inpingement of the muscles on bone. If they are damaged you will constantly be injuring it due to improper orientation of the joint during flexion and abduction. Definitely get it checked.
Concurring with everyone who says to see professional attention. I’m doing rehab for a rotator cuff injury (not a sudden one; mine is age-related and developed gradually) and one thing the PTs stress is do NOT exercise through the pain - that’s just aggravating the inflamed area. The general guidance (for me) is to gradually strengthen and stretch to JUST SHY of the amount that will cause pain.
After some months of therapy, it’s improved. At least, I can now sleep on that side and the pain is not nearly as constant. Though some activities (e.g. pulling off a pullover shirt) are still challenging. Sigh.
