About 9 months ago I started doing some no-gi ju jitsu training at my Muay Thai gym and I tweaked my right shoulder a bit. This has lead to a nagging pain that has never really gone away. On the bad days it severely limits my ability to reach across my body (think grabbing a seat belt). Some days I feel no pain at all. The pain has been concentrated to the front of my shoulder but seems to move around a bit.
Funny thing is that the shoulder never hurts when I roll. I have since moved on to train in the gi about 3 times a week and it never hurts during practice. The pain does not start till I get home and the next day is usually pretty bad.
About 2 weeks ago my training partner caught me in an arm bar and I felt something in my left shoulder pop a little, nothing big. The pain was instant and I knew that it was the same thing as my right shoulder. I finished up practice no problem and like usually the pain didn’t come till I got home. It has been so bad that I have to use my right hand to pick my left up to reach things.
My instructor seems to think that it is the tendon that attaches my bicep to the shoulder. He thinks it is inflamed and does not think it is a big deal. I ran this theory by my doctor and he agreed. From feeling around in my shoulder he thinks it is the connection to the bicep as well. He prescribed me some beefed up naproxen and sent me on my way.
Has anyone out there had this problem before or know of any exercises I can do to work this out?
I’m only 29 and figure that is too young to have two jacked up shoulders.
If its an inflamed tendon, Ice, Rest, and anti-inflamatorys are your best bet? Maybe check out a shoulder specialist?
I ruptured my right longhead biceps tendon. Avoid the surgery and long recovery, I will spare you the details but take the Naproxen for the inflammation, ice will reduce swelling as well and rest. I learned a lot from my physical therapist regarding stretching, shoulder, chest and rotator cuff type exercises with bands, dumbbells, etc. When you feel better take care of your shoulder rolling, especially armoplata and arm bar type stuff. The motion that took the longest for me to regain during my rehab was brining my hand behind my back (knuckles against my back) a high as I could get it. Take care of it now. A visit to a sports medicine doctor who specializes in shoulders can’t hurt if things persists, and I am a big fan of physical therapists, they really helped my recovery.
Good luck!
I’m right there with you. I think physical therapy is great. Unfortunately I just don’t have the money for it right now and my insurance is pretty horrible. I have just started working with bands and stretching it a whole lot on my own. I really don’t want to have to get it MRIed.
What gets me about it is that it never hurts when I roll. Doesn’t even enter my mind.
Thanks for the advice guys.
Well, that's kind of how things go. When I just strain things sometimes I'm like eesh should I really go roll with this? When I roll I usually don't notice whatever hurts since I'm so focused elsewhere with the training. That might be part of it, but also when you're rolling everything is loose and blood is flowing, endorphins pumping as well. When you "cool down" is when I feel most of my pain. Think like lifting weights, it doesn't hurt while you're lifting, but the next day and even day after that sometimes you can be VERY sore. It's one of those things where your body has limits and sometimes you can exceed those limits without knowing it at the time. That's one of the things you gotta watch for and make sure you are keeping yourself healthy. Sure it sucks to take time off of training, but it's better than doing some real damage and not being able to use your shoulder anymore.
I'm just going to put in my two cents here, I do alternative PT and soft-tissue mobilization at Sports Med facility and totally feel you about the money thing. I can't really give you the exact things to do because I don't have a proper assessment of your posture, soft-tissue, and/or movement. Definitely ice and rest is the best thing for now and advils, tylenols or aleve whichever works better for you or Naproxen if that's what you've been given. Bringing the inflammation down is most important and increasing the mobility of the shoulder joint is also essential so stretching pecs (major/minor), lats, rhomboids, levator scap, and upper traps should be addressed as well as building stabilization of the rotator cuff. Stabilization is best built with isometric exercises using bodyweight, light Dbs, cables or bands. No need to take it to fatigue, technique is important just like it is in jiu jitsu but make it work so it should be moderately challenging. Try and search in google or youtube for these type of exercises but make sure you get it from someone who's qualified and has had success with these type of stuff don't just go after the first thing you find, do your research. My channel is coming soon so I'll make sure this is one of the things I address.
Foam rolling should become your best-friend if you can't get any soft-tissue work done such as ART or PT because this will help break up any adhesions, restrictions or scar tissue built up from the original strain. It will be the best 18 bucks you can invest in right now, go to performbetter.com and buy it there. There's a great article on foam rolling on T-nation.com by Eric Kressey, just google benefits of foam rolling and look for the link that has T-Nation on it.
Addressing Posture is also extremely important, especially if you're physically active and your day job consists of sitting most of the day. Both of which can cause what's known as "upper cross syndrome" meaning forward head, rounded shoulders and flexion of the spine. This leads to tightness somewhere and weakness somewhere else in both dynamic movement (ex: jiu jitsu) and daily functional movements such as picking up your child or sitting to standing which may usually be the underlying cause (the why). Too much of anything is usually a bad thing so if you keep beating up the shoulder with armbars and rolling, it won't heal properly and your body will finally adapt and maintain the compensations created from the injury.
Just to summarize in case I lost you, stretch the tight guys, strengthen the weak guys, address posture during functional and dynamic movements, minimize inflammation and increase mobility of the shoulder joint. Ease off the armbars, I would still go to jiu-jitsu but to learn technique more than anything else. You won't ever feel the injury or pain the same day because of the endorphins, adrenaline and all the juices pumping through. Hope this helps.
Stay healthy and train your body don't drain it.
Best
This thread is a bit old I know, but any info on injuries could be helpful to someone later on. I suffered a SLAP tear in my right shoulder some years ago and had it fixed. The repair was done well but I'm very conscious of possible reinjury on the mat. Just as the original poster indicated I too have pain that seems to move around a bit. I don't believe mine is related to my previous SLAP tear as I have this pain in both shoulders. Same thing on the mat I never even feel it. Afterward it really depends a lot on my position and how my arm is resting. first day after training is rough, second is better. I have no idea what it is causing the pain but it seems to be located where my detoids attach near the bicep and tricep muscles. I too "think" it is a tendon issue, but that is just an unscientific wild ass guess... Nice to know I'm not alone.
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