Injury

[TheSnake]

Back in October of 2004 I sustained some sort of injury to my left shoulder thats been preventing me from lifting weights and training in the martial arts correctly. I just recently took a trip to and orthopedic dr., and to a chiropractor as well. I got an MRI and it showed no tears, however the doctor diagnosed me with a "shoulder impingement" and sent me on to physical therapy. The physical therapists have been treating me for "tendonitis" and ive done a good deal of research on this issue. Since it hasnt gotten better in nearly two years, I was wondering if anyone here has any advice on recovering from shoulder tendonitis and becomming strong once more.
Im considering buying a laser therapy treatment device but I dont know if it will help to heal my injury or not. Does anyone have any advice?

[shaolin6r]

I've had a similar situation. My right shoulder was always easily aggravated. I couldn't do push ups without making it very tender the next day and then it took quite a while to recover. Some throws caused problems too. Like you, I had an MRI done and saw a chiropractor. The MRI showed no tears. The chiropractor felt, after reviewing x-rays, that my shoulder joint is just inherently tweaked. The bones in my shoulder are more likely (when compared to a typical person) to cause impingement with the muscle tissue. When that happens it causes the tissue to swell and then more impingement. I had to stop doing just about everything to get it back to 'normal' i.e. not sore and swollen.
Once I reached that point (which took several months) I slowly started adding weight training/physical therapy in. I haven't done any martial arts training against resistance in 9 months. It sucks. My shoulder is a lot stronger now, though. There are certain movements that I just can never do again without re-injuring myself. For example, push ups (but oddly enough bench press is ok just not with an incline bench) and side raises with a dumbell.
You're going to have determine for yourself what movements and activities cause problems for you. Then you have to accept that you can never do those again....

[TheSnake]

Thats fair enough. I really appreciate your input, however I refuse to accept something like tendonitis as a permanent dissability. They can actually perform different surgeries to do whatever they need to do in order to fix the problem, but if I can avoid surgery, Id definetly like to. Like I said, I pulled something way back in October of 04 and my shoulder has been extremely weak and irratated ever since. Now you say that you stopped doing everything for a few months to get your shoulder stronger. What exactly do you mean by everything? Did you literally just sit at home and do nothing, or what? I cant really take months off from my job, although I wish that I could.

[stubbs]

Few questions:

Where exactly do you get the pain and swelling?

What sort of pain is it? (dull/sharp/consistent or only comes on during movement).

Do you ice it when it gets aggrevated?

Do you have wide shoulders?

Look in the mirror very closely - does the tape of your neck (upper traps) look more or less developed on one side to the other? Is one side thicker to the other?

Can you touch your hands behind your back? (on over the top one below). Is one side more felxible than the other? Is so, where does it feel like the range of movement is being stopped - where is it pulling?

What sort of training do you do for them? There's loads of things to look into here like how you bench - don't flare your elbows out...what sort of shoulder exercises you do - for instance if you do upright rows at the moment - stop doing them!

There's so many things to look at and the shoulder joint is so complex that even experienced specialists can find it hard to diagnose shoulder problems specifically.

[kwaichang]

Often an AC joint will cause an instability od the shoulder also bone spurs beneath the acromion will mimic tendonitis as it continues to be inflamed if this helps let mre know and I will send you more info KC

[TenTigers]

what area are you in? If you are near a Chinatown, find a good dit-da Doctor -one who does hands on body work, and. acupuncturist Many people for bone spurs have taken two tbs apple cider vinegar, some honey and water in a glass three tinmes a day and found relief in a few weeks. It is supposed to allow the body toreabsorb the calcium deposits.
Worth a shot.

[shaolin6r]

When I say I stopped everything what I'm referring to is martial arts and weight training. I took time off from those activities. When I resumed I started very slowly and paid close attention to how various moves and activities made my shoulder feel.

[TheSnake]

Hey stubbs, I would like to really thank you for your help here...

I dont really feel too much swelling, however its possible that my shoulder swells up without me knowing it. I usually get the pain on the inside between my front shoulder muscle and my pectoral muscle. I rarely feel a sharp stinging pain anymore because I dont really lift anything heavy with my left arm. I feel mostly weak, and I mean WEAK. I feel so incredibly weak I feel like such a wuss and I hate that feeling. Even the lightest stuff like a 4 pound pan will feel awkward. Not necessarly real painful, but the lift just reminds me how weak my shoulder feels. I try to ice the shoulder when it gets aggravated. My shoulders are not very wide. I dont really see anything weird about my neck, however, its possible that my left side could be a little more developed. My left shoulder definetly feels less flexible. I dont even workout anymore because I dont want to permanently injure my shoulder. All I do for my workout is balancing excersize, stance training, kicking a heavy bag, crunches, flexibility, and I do some physical therapy to stengthin up my lats.

[TheSnake]

Im really not sure about the bone spur thing and I hope I dont have any because I know they usually have to be surgically severed off. How do bone spurs actually come about? And how can you get tested for them? Ive already had an MRI done AND an xray at a chiropractors office..