Shoulder Pain from Pulling?

[Joey Burnett]

Hello,

I have been training to be able to do a front lever and one arm chin-ups for a bit now. As such, I have been doing front lever raises with bent knees and negative 1 arm chin-ups for a while usually both twice a week (Tuesday/Thursday). However, the past couple weeks I have decided to replace one day of x3 negative one arm chins with weighted pullups. It wasn't long after this switch that I noticed some internal shoulder pain when doing my weighted pullups. I initially dismissed it as it was minor, but as I continued on this routine it gradually became more noticeable, even when doing lever raises and finally now I starting to notice it very slightly in some everyday movements.

Most of the time I don't notice the pain and do not notice it with any other moves, but if I do any horizontal or vertical pulling motion with that arm I feel it. I feel it most if I am just standing and attempt to reach the arm behind my back immediately after it moves from parallel to behind my body. Also, I only have discomfort initially for maybe the first set or so of a pulling exercise before it subsides until the next day.

Has anyone had anything similar or know why possibly this pain would arise or how to help it recover? I definitely wouldn't expect my shoulder to get hurt from pulling exercises.

I decided to at least take half a week off now and see how it feels before going back to any workout. I'd like to try pushing exercises again later in the week and wait a bit more if it still hurts before adding pulling exercises back in, but I'm not really sure if this is the best way to handle this. Hope you can offer some advice

Thanks,
Joey

Edited October 11, 2016 by Joey Burnett

[Alessandro Mainente]

Hi Joey this is a typical sign of your body that is telling you that you are not ready for this type of work. personally until :

-F4completion

-and solid 24-25 normal pullup are demonstrated 

I do not suggest the one arm work.

You should stop and consult an expert, then come back and completely revisit your schedule and goal.

[Joey Burnett]

Hey Alessandro,

Thanks for the reply. I have actually been doing the one arm chinup negatives for a longer period of time before starting front lever training variations. I can do 20 full range of motion pullups without kipping pausing slightly at the top/bottom, but nevertheless, that does still fall short of your expectation. Although, I'd agree that I am not quite ready, because the reason I started to re-incorporate weighted pullups instead of just negative work was because I was not seeing any progress in duration of the negative from practicing a few sets of them twice a week instead of other variations. (I have been stuck at only getting ~3 second negatives for a few sets)

However, what is strange to me is that I only started noticing the pain when I started doing weighted pullups again with just 40lbs extra for 3 sets of 8. Despite feeling like trying new moves such as front lever raises & one arm negatives were really putting more strain on my shoulder than I've experienced before, it seems like if I had to put the blame on one move it would be the switch to weighted pullups, unless for some reason the other moves were causing too much strain to my shoulder which was only finally brought out by the weighted pullups somehow.

I definitely think it is wise to disregard one arm work for the time being with the lack of progress and unnecessary extra strain while I could still continue to build strength towards it with other weighted back variations that will induce less strain.

I understand there is no way to really diagnose something like this over the internet with such limited information, but do you have advice for recovery and/or when to go back to which moves? For example, I've had shoulder pain on the other side before just in a different range of motion and I was able to go back to training after a week off despite still having slight discomfort which still subsided on its own despite continuing training. Also, since it only hurts for pulling, should I still attempt to do regular training for moves that do not seem to aggravate it for pushing type moves? It is my thought that the shoulder will be involved regardless of it is inducing pain so I should at least try to give it a little break, but if it is not being aggravated it seems like I should be able to continue with other moves still?

Thanks,

Joey

 

[Suzanna McGee]

Everything that Alessandro said… plus, your lats are maybe really tight, creating imbalances in your shoulders, showing as the pain described. Try to stretch and roll the lats and see if your shoulders move better. And check with with a physio as Alessandro suggested. 

[Coach Sommer]

Hi Joey,

Sorry, GB doesn't comment on outside routines for this very reason.  I have very strong personal opinions on the correct order of progressions and the programming implemented.

More than happy to assist in the public forum with single exercise performance, but not with routine construction as I have already provided my best recommendations in the GB courses.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Joey Burnett]

Thanks Suzanna,

I will try some lat mobility/stretches to help aid in the recovery and prevent future problems. I will see if I can find a professional to take a look and offer more personal advice.

Coach Sommer,

I completely understand. I was really just looking for more insight as to how to handle the injury or if it was common and what to expect from it hoping that my routine may give insight into how it might be damaged. I am just a weightlifter who has become been very interested in different calisthenics movements recently. I have been seeing a lot of overlap between the cool things I would like to achieve with calisthenics and gymnastics so I thought here would be a good place to learn from. It seems there is a lot for me to learn from here. Seeking proper instruction from the gymnastic approach seems like the best option to safely and efficiently learn the capabilities I hope to accomplish. I may consider your routines as a starting point as I continue down this path in the near future.

Thanks,

Joey