I've been diagnosed with weight lifters shoulder or clavicle osteolysis and was wondering if anyone has any experience with this? I haven't hit any upper body in almost a month and doc said to take another month off! Any tips would help!:)

Bogdan,

I am not a doctor but osteolysis refers to bone degeneration thru loss of calcium. If a bone/joint is subjected to undue stresses, this can occur. What types of shoulder exercises and chest exercises do you do? I ask because some shoulder and chest exercises are harder on the shoulder joints than others and can lead to degeneration in those who are susceptible. These exercises are:

1) Barbell bench press with arms at 90 degrees (flared) from the body

2) Barbell incline bench press with arms at 90 degrees from the body

3) Dumbell flyes with arms straight

4) Behind the neck barbell shoulder press

5) Upright rows

You can also have issues if your shoulder muscles are not evenly developed. Many people forget to train and strengthen the rear deltoid and have too developed front and side shoulder muscles from benching and other shoulder work. Also, the rotator cuff muscles of the upper back need attention as they supply stability to the shoulder. If these aren't adequately trained and strengthened, it will lead to shoulder issues. Was the doctor and orthopedists or a sports medicine doctor? I ask because most orthopedics know nothing about weight training and just go by the X-rays and tell you to stop doing something. A Sports Medicine doctor is trained in bio-mechanics and understands how to identify the root cause and recommend a solution.

John

Hi John,

It initially start to hurt during benching so then I stopped. For a few weeks after that my chest workout would be

1- Incline dumbbell press

2- Cable flies

3- Cable crossover

4- Incline machine flies

5- Machine flies

I went to see an orthopedic and got an MRI done. He told me to take a month off but my shoulder isn't feeling much better and its been a few weeks. I read that it takes about 6 weeks for it to start to heal and its been longer than that since I've done any upper body. I was always train rear delts and rotator cuffs because I had surgery on my other shoulder so I wanted to make sure nothing would happen again. Do you think I should start lifting again lightly and just avoid those exercises you mentioned?

Bogdan,

It is a good idea but the operative word is LIGHT weights and don't do anything that causes pain. You need to keep joints mobile even when they are healing to prevent scar tissue, adhesions, and stiffness as it heals.

Another possibility is since you had surgery on your other shoulder, subconsciously your brain is overcompensating and putting more stress on your other shoulder. The brain always remembers injuries and sometimes recruits other muscles or puts inordinate stress on the opposing side of an injury to "protect" it from being injured again.

John