Shoulder Pain - Inflamed Supraspinatus?

[razzleultra]

Hey mate,

Sounds like we share alot of the same interests! I'm a climber and a pianist also. Though I found the best thing was for me to climb before my piano exams (guess it's finger memory and I play better once they relax post workout).
I think you meant Abduction not adduction?
The mechanism of injury doesn't make much sense because you just woke up with it... but yea your symptoms do sounds like a bursitis or supraspinatus tendonitis, though there are some things in there that would make me consider other pathologies and I'd need to examine it to differentiate.

With the inflammation of bursa or rotator cuff you'll find that the scapula-humeral rhythm is affected... this means you don't co-ordinate the movement correctly and everytime you feel that pain it's because you are pinching the tendon or bursa against the acromion - which will only inflamme it further. Hense you need to avoid aggrivating factors, utilise ice and NSAID's to reduce the swelling and then undertake a gentle and graded strengthening program to strengthen the Rotator cuff and correct any co-ordination issues.

What this means is that you really aught to visit a physio... I say this because although you may be right... shoulders are tricky - and in black and white they can give symptoms for one condition when really it's actually something else. You need a physical examination of the shoulder to get a correct diagnosis and appropriate exercises.

Have a good one.
Pudding

Hi there, thanks for the advice! Yes, I should have said abduction, that'll teach me to try and use the right words Shoulder is feeling quite a bit better today, but I'm going to try and sort out a physio referral from my doctor today (time willing ).

I'm currently on 150mg/day of diclofenac for knee bursitis (yes, I know, I'm a wreck), so hopefully that will meet my anti-inflammatory needs for the shoulder as well.

I've got a good set of rotator cuff exercises, that until this year, I had been doing quite regularly. Probably serves me right for stopping, but I plan on bringing them back in, without weights in the next few weeks before trying to build up the strength.

The shoulder does feel a lot better today, and I'm now able to abduct to horizontal without any weakness, just with slight pain in the joint. I've no plans to jump into the gym and start maxing out on shoulder press yet though!

Hi There,
If you've just woken up with this one day with no prior issues and fit and healthy i would also suggest you get your lower neck checked out on the same side as the sore arm. What you describe could be a result of a facet joint irritation (wry neck - from sleeping in an awkward position, stress etc) and could be irritating the nerve path from neck to elbow (hence why doing the movement with 90 degrees elbow flexion is more painful even though lever-arm is shorter and therefore should require less shoulder muscle effort than straight arm).

Gist of this is...get your lower cervical facet joints assessed and see if that's a limitation to your shoulder movements and referred pain as i find this is quite common with many physios and medicos forgetting to clear the neck as a source of symptoms in the arm and shoulder.

Let us know how you go.

Cheers,
msk101

Thanks for the extra info! I'll mention this to the doc when I go. I think you may have hit the nail on the head, as I was totally confused as to how this could happen in my sleep when I hadn't stressed my muscles / joints properly in weeks!