Tendonitis

[GenericMind]

I'm pretty sure I've developed minor tendinitis in my left deltoid from bench pressing. The pain is manageable, but the more I read the more discouraged I'm getting because all the sources indicate that there's no way to heal it without resting(ie not working out) and, even worse, that you have to rest it for several weeks.

Has anyone had tendinitis from any kind of exercise/lifting and if so, how long did it take to heal? I'm really hoping they're just being cautious suggesting resting it that long. Then again, I don't want to risk damaging the tendon even more so I need some feedback.

 

[euphoria]

My friend had tendonitis in her knee (she was a long distance runner at the time) and had to stay off it for a few months until she noticed it gone. Like, completely off it. Bad news I know, but maybe you can focus on other muscle groups for the time being?

 

[GenericMind]

.

 

[MikeOekiM]

i had tendinitis in my shoulder and i kept working out through the pain anyway hoping it would go away on its own but it obivously it just got worse. it took like a month without working out to go away for me.

 

[blue waffle]

just lay off it for a bit, i got tendonitis in my heel when i was younger and my bitch of a gym teacher made me do a 1800 meter run on the thing when it was already in a bad state from walking on it too much.. after that I ended up getting crutches because the pain was unbearable. even after it "healed" i still got pains for the next year when doing strenous exercise involving the feet, such as hiking..
as euphoria said, try focusing on other muscles, cus right now, if you rest, itll take less time to heal than it will if you keep going at er.

 

[GenericMind]

I ended up taking a week off from any lifting at all(since last Monday). I'm going to lower my bench and incline bench weight a little and work out like I normally would tonight. Hopefully my arm doesn't fall off.

 

[thujone]

Don't exaggerate the range of motion either. If your elbows pass the plane of your chest, you're going too far. People do this so much at the gym -_-

 

[GenericMind]

Yeah I always used to do that and after reading it's a bad idea am going to try and adjust. Another thing to try I've read is to bring your elbows closer to your body so your body and them make more of an arrow shape, instead of them being perpendicular. Apparently that takes pressure off the shoulders and distributes it elsewhere.

 

[thujone]

Yeah I usually do it like that, it beefs up the muscle by the nipples more than the standard bench which gives the chest more of a barrel shape

 

[GenericMind]

I think the weights were just too heavy for me. I could get my sets and reps in, but I don't think the ancillary muscles were ready for that much weight. It just sucks. It's hard not to increase your weight when you know you can lift more than you are.

 

[thujone]

I usually don't have a spotter with me so I know what you mean about wanting to go for more and being bitten. Two techniques I've found really helpful are dropsetting and also doing exercises that isolate a few muscle groups before doing a compound exercise that involves all of them. There are a couple more techniques out there geared for spotter-less training but those are the ones I've found most helpful to my routine and abilities. Isolating muscles is excellent because it automatically corrects form by forcing you to think about ways to control the weight with just the muscle you're targetting.

 

[SirTophamHat]

Megadoses of fish oil can help fight inflammation. Try supplementing with some if you aren't already.

 

[Shimmer.Fade]

I've found it to be sort of a balancing act to keep inflamed tendons away. Like you have found out you shouldn't do too much. On the other hand by using your muscles you strengthen not only your muscles, but also the your tendons, ligaments, and bones. Finding the sweet spot can be tough, and sometimes impossible. In the future if it starts hurting just stop what you are doing for a few days, and the down time will be much less than if you push it and get some really bad inflammation going on.

I'm personally really glad that I am more or less over this hump for my chosen form of exercise. I had to be careful with my wrists during mountain biking for awhile until I developed the overall strength of the system to deal with the forces I put on it. Now it only really rarely hurts if I pick some very rooty, rocky lines without having enough energy left to properly deal with them.