8 Ways to Stop Shoulder Pain From Ruining Your Strength Training Workouts

It’s time on your favourite power class, and also you’re pumped for it. First transfer on the docket? Overhead presses. You’ve received this, you inform your self. But as quickly as you raise your dumbbells skyward, a pointy twinge shoots via your shoulder, stopping you in your tracks.

Though definitely disagreeable, having shoulder ache or discomfort whereas lifting weights is pretty widespread, bodily therapist Maria Borg, PT, CSCS, supervisor at UCHealth Sports Physical Therapy in Colorado, tells SELF. And there are a number of explanation why this could occur.

But backside line? Experiencing shoulder ache throughout train doesn’t imply it’s good to hand over power coaching altogether. In reality, there are many small issues you are able to do to make weight lifting extra fulfilling for delicate shoulders—and we’ve received all that necessary intel proper right here.

Ahead, all the pieces it’s good to find out about shoulder ache and weight lifting, in addition to what you are able to do to maintain it at bay.

What causes shoulder ache whereas weight lifting?

There are a number of causes chances are you’ll really feel shoulder ache or discomfort whereas power coaching. But maybe two of the most typical culprits are instability and weak spot in your shoulder and surrounding areas, Kellen Scantlebury, DPT, CSCS, founding father of Fit Club NY, tells SELF.

First, a quick anatomy refresher: Your shoulder is a ball and socket joint, and the muscular tissues of your shoulder are surrounded by tendons (which connect the muscular tissues to bone), and bursae (fluid-filled sacs that assist cut back friction, kind of like your physique’s personal private lube). Bursae are discovered on all the main joint junctions—hips and knees, too.

The shoulder joint is essentially the most cellular one in your physique. “So with that comes inherent instability,” which may result in ache, explains Scantlebury.

Weakness, significantly within the rotator cuff, can play a job as effectively—and never only for baseball pitchers, who typically injure this space with the repetitive throwing movement. The rotator cuff is made up of 4 completely different muscular tissues that perform to maintain the shoulder in its correct place. If these muscular tissues aren’t sturdy sufficient, then your shoulder could also be sitting in less-than-ideal placement. Then, once you transfer your shoulder, significantly overhead, you may expertise discomfort, says Scantlebury.

Borg explains it this fashion: The shoulder is a ball and socket joint that’s alleged to roll and glide as you progress your arm to shoulder top, above your head, or whereas lifting your arm away out of your physique. But when you’ve rotator cuff syndrome (principally, any damage or situation that impacts the rotator cuff), the rotator cuff muscular tissues aren’t doing their job to maintain the ball within the socket. Instead of the shoulder rolling and gliding once you elevate your arm, the ball of the joint will press the smooth tissues of the rotator cuff tendons and bursae between the ball and the highest of the shoulder blade. That, in flip, can create ache and discomfort.

Issues stabilizing your scapula, or your shoulder blade, can even contribute to shoulder ache because the stabilizing muscular tissues on the bottom of your shoulder help with correct positioning of the joint. When these stabilizers aren’t functioning optimally, you may have greater threat of points like shoulder impingement (widespread in swimmers, when the highest of your shoulder blade rubs in opposition to your rotator cuff), tendinitis (when your tendons get infected or irritated), and bursitis (when your bursae will get infected or irritated)—all of which may result in shoulder ache.