Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to open this post... if I can hold your attention for a little longer I'd greatly appreciate it and appreciate it even further if anyone can please give me some advice.

I'm a 26 year old healthy male. I'm 6 2" and quite sporty. For 7 years I've been suffering terribly with my left shoulder which has been something that I've been able to work around until now. Here's my story... sorry if it turns out to be an essay.

When i was 19 years old I used to body build. I injured my left shoulder while on a peck deck and foolishly continued to train on and off for years. The nature of the injury resulted in me being unable to do any exercise that involved pushing or pulling above shoulder height, I was also unable to bench press. If I did carry out any of the above exercises my shoulder becomes sore and tender on the outside of my shoulder to the point where I’d have to stop exercising completely for weeks sometimes months. Even now, If I ever carry out any repetitive task or exercise involving shoulder movement then my shoulder becomes more and more tender and sore. The area which is sore (and only when sore) feels bumpy and undeveloped/unstable/weak to touch as well, unlike my right shoulder which feels solid and firm/well developed around the joint (this isn’t a great description but this is hard to explain).

I went to see my GP who referred me to an NHS physio. The NHS physio said it the problem was due to my posture as I’m slightly hunched forward naturally. He gave me some posture improving exercises but this never made any difference. I simply avoided certain exercises in gym and also certain sports such as swimming (I can breast stroke ok but front crawl causes a repeat of the injury). I tried kick boxing but this also caused problems. I can’t play golf either. It even greatly affects intimate areas of my life with my wife that I won’t go into in detail.

After seeing 4 different NHS GP’s who were all equally uninterested I decided to bite the bullet and pay up for a physio. The physio I saw was great and very honest and straight forward with me. He started by doing deep hard massages on my shoulder to break up the muscle fibres (sorry if I get this wrong but this is just what I remember of what he told me) that had healed incorrectly. Then each week I would have another massage and then he’d give me exercises to carry out at home with very light weights and low reps to build up my shoulder strength. Exercises like side lat raises with 1 kg and front raises as well. But after a few weeks my shoulder just became very sore again. This wasn’t really a surprise to me as this has been the reoccurring pattern for years. He was really honest and told me that he didn’t know what the problem was and perhaps I should purchase a body tone type device that sends electronic pulses into my shoulder to cause muscle contractions and exercise the area, but only on a low gentle setting. In all honesty I never tried this as it seemed a little strange and I found no other instance of this when looking on the internet.

So, basically I’ve been able to get by with this injury… until now. I’ve recently achieved a computer networking qualification that has lead to a new dream job. The problem I have is there’s a lot of lifting servers, UPS systems and various other very heavy equipment weighing up to 50 kgs and my bad shoulder is back with vengeance. It’s starting to show at work and I’m desperate to make a good impression and pull my weight. I’ve been taking very strong pain killers which have just about been getting me through the days but I need to do something about getting rid of my bad shoulder forever as I can’t keep taking numerous pain killers every day for the rest of my working life.

Can anyone suggest what I should do? The NHS are simply not interested. I’ve not got large amounts of money to spend on going private but I’m open to suggestions of additional physiotherapy or additional methods that you professionals may spot my previous physio didn’t try. Perhaps acupuncture? I’m basically desperate … any help would be greatly appreciated. I’m willing to give anything a go. Has anyone else had a similar problem? Thanks greatly in advance to anyone who’s taken the time to read through this.

Thank you.

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