I’ve been experiencing pain on and off since February. I’ve seen my primary doctor and have done physical therapy but it doesn’t seem like we’ve found the right solution.
Some backstory:
My work involves lifting my right elbow up but slightly lower then shoulder height to adjust knobs on a machine for 8 hours a day. I would say 4 periods of 10 mins of holding my arm up per hour and internally and externally rotating my shoulder. A smaller part of my work is holding an object up and internally rotating my shoulder to get it at a the correct angle with each arm. There’s not much I can do to adjust my work.
So I started getting neck/shoulder strain on both sides and lateral pec muscle soreness on the right side. I went to physical therapy and did neck stretches and some pec stretches. The neck issue is under control but then the pec issue didn’t fully go away. Afterwards, I started developing anterior shoulder pain on the right side so I went to my doctor and was diagnosed with bicep tendinitis. I stopped going to the gym, took antiinflammatory medicine, rested for 2-3 weeks, and continue my pec exercises. After that period, it didn’t help so I went back to physical therapy. The therapist changed my stretches to wall angels, rotator cuff exercises, and child’s pose to stretch my shoulder. At first it helped but the pain is back and now it’s on both anterior shoulders. I haven’t done anything different in terms of work.
I try to go to the gym 3-4 times a week and do weigh lifting. I’ve been trying to build up the weights slowly but I feel like the pain is holding me back so I can’t progress. Most of the upper body exercises (chest/shoulder/tricep) I use dumbbells ranging from 5-15lbs. One of the exercises I suspect that’s causing my shoulders to become sore are lateral pull downs but I’m not sure (because I’m raising my arms up). Another exercise that I’m concern about are cable flies because of my history of sore pec muscles. Lastly, when I do my rotator cuff exercises, especially the external one on the cable machine, I feel like it hurts my anterior shoulder even more so I don’t do any of them.
Is there anything you think that can help with my situation? Are there any stretches you can recommend? Any exercises to strengthen the area? Any exercises I should I avoid?
Thank you.