Sore shoulder from bent over dumbell flyes?

[Melody68]

Hi, I'm 70 and have been on TTh for 2 years. I've been lifting weights for about 1 1/2 years. I really like it, everything has been going great, so far . . .

But suddenly, last night, I woke up and my shoulder was SORE, like a really deep ache, kind of in the front at the top. It was a full day and a half after my recent weight lifting session. I got up and rubbed it with Voltaren, did nothing, then took a couple of tylenol (since I'm on blood thinners), that did nothing.

I didn't do anything out of the ordinary with my weights, so I have a hard time believing it's that. I do enjoy my side lateral flyes and bent over flyes, but I didn't exceed any of my normal weights. I didn't do any thing else physical.

What could it be, and what should I do? I'm getting paranoid that it's going to cut into my weight training for months, (gulp!). Thoughts?

 

[Mountain Man]

72 here and working out since 1967. Delayed onset muscle soreness Aka DOMS can show up around 48 hours later and a bad sleep position can bring it on. Light work work on shoulders with bands, just for a pump and blood flow with reps of around 25 can help keep your shoulders fit until it passes. Ibuprofen helps and ice three times a day, especially after workout, around 15 minutes helps a lot. Don’t stop working out. Use bands with high reps for a pump keeps you in the game. At our age working around injuries is a way of life.

 

[Melody68]

72 here and working out since 1967. Delayed onset muscle soreness Aka DOMS can show up around 48 hours later and a bad sleep position can bring it on. Light work work on shoulders with bands, just for a pump and blood flow with reps of around 25 can help keep your shoulders fit until it passes. Ibuprofen helps and ice three times a day, especially after workout, around 15 minutes helps a lot. Don’t stop working out. Use bands with high reps for a pump keeps you in the game. At our age working around injuries is a way of life.

Hey Mountain Man, it's good to hear from you, you've helped me before.

I've never heard of DOMS, but I looked it up and it strikes me as bang on with my problem. My pain started about 36 hours after my last exercise period, so I thought that had nothing to do with it. And I've slept very poorly the last week because the air conditioner broke, making me feel like I'm 10 again in a house that's 92 degrees. A lot of tossing and turning.

I've had a problem at the inside elbow because I've probably pushed my curling too hard. So I decided to drop those for a couple of weeks and focus on heavier lat pulldowns isolating my lats on the pull and tensioning my biceps to slow down the eccentric. I added an extra 20 lbs to the pulldown because I hadn't fatigued my arms, and it gave me a good workout, but maybe that put too much stress on my shoulders.

It is getting better - and I consider myself REALLY lucky. Only afterwards does one realize that at an older age any injury could put you out of the game for several months or even a year. I'm going to do some band work for a while.

Mountain man, is it unreasonable to hope that someone my age might one day have a workout that is just calisthenics, like pushups and pullups? It just seems like right now that I'm not that strong . . . I'm 6'3 and 225lbs.

 

[Guided_by_Voices]

Several ideas:
- Sleep position can absolutely stress the shoulders. When my shoulders were at their worst I went many months where I could only sleep on one side. I now use a stiff pillow so that much of my weight is on my head when I sleep on my side.
- If you have access to a chest-supported row machine, I find that using the high handles with my elbows out to the side works my rear delts in a better and safer way that bent-over flys.
- As always, DMSO, BPC patches and extra collagen.
- Lots of light mobility work several times per day with no weight or very light weight to get blood flow into the joint.
- I had a major problem with the nerve in my elbow (cubital tunnel syndrome I think) that was either caused by or certainly worsened by struggling with my grip. I now use straps any time I think my grip will be a limitation such as on pull-ups.