Hi, I've done my right shoulder a mischief in training and I wondered if anyone on here could give me some advice. I'm not sure what I did, but I do a lot of muscle-ups, headstand pushups and skin the cats - maybe too many. Anyway, I had really bad pain over the whole area of my upper humerus, and neck problems too. That has mostly receded but the whole area is still extremely tight. Any advice about this would be greatly appreciated but I still haven't got to my question yet. I started reading up on what I might have done and decided to do some external rotation stuff. Lo and behold: I can't externally rotate my right arm. I can barely move it past the midline. I can barely offer any resistance, the passive range of motion is still there but the active ROM is just non-existent and I have trouble turning my scapular retractors on too. Not sure what I did, but I'd be very happy with any advice, so thanks to anyone who answers.
Sounds like you did something serious enough to get looked at and sent to physical therapy. It's one thing to have painful movement, another entirely to not be able to move at all (assuming you're not using hyperbole for pain felt with external rotation).
Hi, thanks to everyone who answered. Ero-Sennin, I'm not being hyperbolic: I don't have any real pain right now, just persistent discomfort. but until yesterday, when I said, 'Go!' the arm said 'No!' Holyheadjch, by 'midline' I just meant my arm, level from the elbow and held out directly in front of me - as if I was shaking hands, but with my elbow touching my own ribs. I could't abduct any further out than that. I have got some function back now by doing lots of scapular retraction exercises and passive external rotations but the situation is still highly unsatisfactory. I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday. Again, thanks everyone.
Try doing it against gravity. So lift your arm out to the side level with your shoulder, bend your elbow 90deg so it's parallel with the floor and try to rotate upwards. What's your internal rotation like?
Good luck man! Hopefully it's just a crap ton of swelling or something and something wasn't popped or torn really bad. Let us know how it goes.
HolyheadJCH, my internal rotation is just fine. If I had to guess I'd say perhaps too good in relative terms. In my reading on the subject I came across some information saying that basically everything I do - pull-ups, muscleups, handstand pushups and pushups, pull-overs and front levers - all privileges internal rotation. So I think I may have trained my way to injury. Ho hum. The bad arm will internally rotate with no difficulty against (guessing) about 3 or 4 kilos; neither arm will externally rotate against that, but the good arm will externally rotate against maybe a kilo to a kilo and a half. The bad arm won't move at all, and the scapula is out of position, with winging, a slightly protruding bottom point meaning the whole bone is rocked forward around the acroniom and my right arm is constantly slightly more pronated than my left, with the shoulder lower and 'rounder,' appearing more sloped and further forward, and the distance between the base of the neck and the shoulder appearing less than on the left side. I think this is something that's been waiting to get me for a while, basically - I've had a bad shoulder there for at least ten years and it's oscillated between a twinge and quite painful though never as bad as it was over Christmas. Thanks for your good wishes Ero-Sennin. I wasn't able to make my doctor's appointment but when I do get to see the doc I will let you all know what happens.
Hi, I said I'd report what happened about this so here goes: I basically have a piece of my rotator cuff, the infraspinatus, which controls external rotation, so wasted that it's essentially missing. I don't know why, so I'm having an ultrasound in a couple of days. In the meantime it's responding to physiotherapy - it's still really weak and hurts and feels wrong but it moves again and it's better most days than the day before. Thanks to everyone who talked to me about this on here.
