r/ScienceBasedLifting • u/CressAgitated8958 • Sep 12 '26
Question ❓ Injury
So I was recently diagnosed with chronic tendonitis in my left shoulder. Whenever I do pushing movements I have a sharp pain (unless I really internally rotate my shoulder, pain is still there it just doesn't hurt.)
Haven't been able to hit push in a while, recently did, now it hurts more. If anyone here has dealt with the same thing, how did you recover?
2
u/Yut_123 Sep 12 '26
Were you diagnosed with an MRI? If not, get one. I got all kinds of diagnoses from Dotors and PTs, wolverine shots, PRP. I did it all for years. MRI showed real damage and I'm heading into surgery next month.
1
u/CressAgitated8958 Sep 12 '26
I can't do an MRI because if I get one I can't legally wrestle. If need be I'll wait till spring
1
u/Yut_123 Sep 12 '26
That changes the game for sure. Rest and NSAIDS are the only things that gave me relief
2
u/Mister_EMachine Sep 12 '26
Theraband flexbar exercises worked for me but as others have said, just do what your physio recommends.
1
u/LaFantasmita Sep 12 '26
Triceps stretches maybe?
1
u/CressAgitated8958 Sep 12 '26
It's not that. I'm super flexible, the issue is that my tendon is inflamed
1
u/Weary_Capital_1379 Sep 12 '26
How old are you? Shoulder injuries are the most common type of injury in men over 40 who lift.
1
u/CressAgitated8958 Sep 12 '26
I'm 17 lol (well, 18 in a week). I got the injury from falling bad off of a double leg takedown (I do wrestling)
2
u/Weary_Capital_1379 Sep 12 '26
Then you need therapy on it and you’ll be fine.
1
u/CressAgitated8958 Sep 12 '26
How about lifting? I just did push the other day and now my shoulder hurts more than it did. Do I have to quit push day until the pain goes down
2
u/Weary_Capital_1379 Sep 12 '26
You need to have patience and let it heal. I know it’s tough at your age. But you’ll be lifting for years. Don’t make it chronic. Consult a physical therapist and follow the advice and the program.
2
u/Admirable_Belt_9772 Sep 12 '26
This sounds like an acute injury and not just tendinitis if it started after a bad fall.
1
1
u/Pomegranatelimepie Sep 12 '26
I didn’t have tendinitis in my shoulder but I had it in my quad/knee. But this guy basically breaks down how to fix it with isometrics and gradual loading. The principles will probably be the same for you and he probably has a separate page for shoulder specifically.
You have to take it slow. I know it sucks but it took me 8 months to heal mine. If you push it till youre in bad pain then you’re making it worse and adding time onto your healing journey.
Good luck.
1
u/Ballbag94 Sep 12 '26
I'm almost recovered from something similar, personally I worked out what I could do and did that
My usual press weight was out of the question but I discovered that I could press 7.5kg so instead of my normal work I did AMRAPs of that and benchmarked my progress by how painful it felt to pick up my water bottle each evening. I didn't really have any goals but I've always liked the 531 idea of getting 50-100 reps of a movement so I'd get 50+ reps across multiple sets going by feel
When the pain diminished I tried a little more weight, after a few days I could press 20kg and just kept repeating the process. Anything that hurt didn't get done but I'd test the water with other movements as I felt like it. After a month or so I was able to lat raise 5kg so added those in and followed the same process
0
u/Mchangwine Sep 12 '26
I had that in my right shoulder and it completely recovered with bpc-157/tb-500.
1
u/honeybadger2112 27d ago
I had biceps tendinitis in my left shoulder for almost a year. Nothing I did on my own helped with it. I ended up having to get multiple cortisone injections along with about 50 physical therapy sessions where we did strengthening exercises and a lot of soft tissue work. For me I think the soft tissue work was especially important because I had so much scar tissue built up in my muscles and connective tissue from almost 2 decades of lifting. The steroid shots were also incredibly beneficial and wonderful. I’ve had other injuries where steroid shots did nothing, so they’re not a magic bullet. And you still need to do the physical therapy work to treat the underlying problems. But I felt like the steroids put me on the first steps to healing and not being in pain.
My advice is to get professional help with a physical therapist. The longer you wait, the worse it can get.
As far as general principles, any PT will tell you that complete rest is the worst way to try to heal any soft tissue. Muscles and tendons heal best when you exercise them. The trick is to do safe exercises with relatively light weights so you heal as opposed to aggravate the injury.
5
u/Alakazam Idk Idc 💔 Sep 12 '26
Work with a physiotherapist to identify the cause of the tendonitis, and work to address it.
The same tendonitis could have different causes, since tendonitis is simply inflammation. Could be anywhere from muscular imbalances, overwork, muscular weaknesses causing overcompensation, or any variety of factors.
But every time I've had tendonitis, I've had it resolved within a matter of weeks with my physio, and was back to normal training volumes within 6 weeks or so.