It’s time to take your favorite strength class, and you’re already pumping it up. The first step is on the docket? Overhead press. You have this , you tell yourself. However, when you lift the dumbbell up, a sudden tingling in your shoulder makes you stop.
While certainly unpleasant, shoulder pain or discomfort while lifting weights is fairly common, physical therapist Maria Borg, PT, CSCS, director of UCHealth Sports Physical Therapy in Colorado, tells SELF. There are many reasons why this happens.
But what’s the bottom line? Having shoulder pain during exercise doesn’t mean you need to give up strength training altogether. In fact, there are a lot of little things you can do to make weightlifting more enjoyable for sensitive shoulders – we’ve got all the important intel here.
In the future, everything you need to know about shoulder pain and weightlifting, and how to avoid shoulder pain.
What causes shoulder pain when lifting weights?
There are many reasons why you may experience shoulder pain or discomfort while strength training. But perhaps the two most common culprits are instability and weakness in the shoulders and surrounding area, Kellen Scantlebury, DPT, CSCS, founder of Fit Club NY, tells SELF.
First, a brief anatomy review: Your shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint, and your shoulder muscles are held together by tendons (which connect muscles to bones) and bursae (fluid-filled The sacs, which help reduce friction, are kind of like your own body) surrounding a personal lube). Bursae appear at all major joint junctions—as do the hips and knees.
The shoulder joint is the most flexible joint in your body. “So with that comes inherent instability,” which can lead to pain, Scantlebury explained.
Weakness, especially in the rotator cuff, can also play a role, and not just because of baseball pitchers, who often injure this area with repetitive throwing motions. The rotator cuff is made up of four different muscles that work to keep the shoulders in place. If these muscles are not strong enough, your shoulders may be in a less than ideal position. Then, when you move your shoulders, especially over your head, you get discomfort, Scantlebury said.
Here’s how Borg explains it: The shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint that should roll and slide when the arm is moved to shoulder height, overhead, or lifted off the body. However, when you have rotator cuff syndrome (basically any injury or condition that affects the rotator cuff), the rotator cuff muscles are unable to keep the ball in the socket. When you lift your arm, it’s not the shoulders that roll and slide, but the ball of the joint that squeezes the soft tissue of the rotator cuff tendon and bursa between the ball and the top of the shoulder blade. This in turn can cause pain and discomfort.
Problems with stabilizing the scapula or scapula can also cause shoulder pain because the stabilizing muscles in your back shoulder help position the joint properly. When these stabilizers don’t work optimally, you may be at higher risk for things like shoulder impingement (common among swimmers, when the top of the shoulder blade rubs against the rotator cuff), tendinitis (when your tendon becomes inflamed or inflammation) and bursitis (when your bursa is inflamed or inflamed)—all of which can cause shoulder pain.
