DOMS or DONE IN?
January 31, 2014
Hello guru.
Did an introduction to cross fit last Thursday. Tough but felt fine (no injuries) until Saturday night. Sudden and aching pain in left shoulder. This has continued, is worse at night, agony in the morning. It is now a week on.
What to do?
Thanks Tim
Tim
January 31, 2014
Morning Tim
Well, it’s not DOMS and thankfully not quite done in – but it pretty common.
Just need to know…
Where exactly in the shoulder is it painful? Front, back, side, top or slightly down the arm? Can you lie on it?
What about when you lift your arms above your head or get dressed?​
Tim Replied:
I probably could lie on it at lunch just not at night. It is more getting to the position to lie on it.
I can lift my arms above my head & get dresses. There are a few points it is worse then some points are fine (if not relieving) in the motion.
A movement that is Lifting up and out and a bit back seems to be the trickiest.
If it was the Cross Fit it may well have been the wide arm over head squat press thing that did it. The task was to keep the bar in line with heels. I was mostly failing.
The Guru Responded:
Right!
It was a toss up between your mid back getting super stiff and you cheating by poking you chin out in the gym to try to keep up with CF and so having some referred pain, or (and I think most likely) is that you’ve got a shoulder impingement.
This is where a piece of tissue is squished between 2 of the bone in the shoulder and becomes painful. Last for anything up to 2+ weeks – depending on what you do in those 2 weeks.
So take some anti inflams (if you can), rest it (i.e. don’t put it in painful positions), start doing some isometric rotator cuff rehab (Dr Google) and get your thoracic spine moving – don’t slouch at work, but don’t sit like a sgt major – lift your chest up and get taller.
Give it 48 hours and you should start to feel on the mend.
