Cellophane Shoulder

[catbirdseat]

When I do pull ups my right shoulder sounds like crinkling cellophane. It doesn't hurt, but the should its extremely disconcerting. I'm planning on seeing an orthopod about it, but any of you have guesses as to what it might be? I am thinking torn cartilege.

[pink]

my shoulder does the same thing, goes away after five pullups. little worst when i do dips. i think your just getting old dude. let us know what they decide.

[catbirdseat]

To say that I am getting old is stating the obvious. I've had a shorter climbing career than many of you, so while you have been living with these sorts of problems for a long time, I'm seeing them for the first time. Thus far, knees are fine. Knock on wood.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

To say that I am getting old is stating the obvious. I've had a shorter climbing career than many of you, so while you have been living with these sorts of problems for a long time, I'm seeing them for the first time. Thus far, knees are fine. Knock on wood.

 

I have had a similar problem. At one point it affected my strength training and I went to a doctor who diagnosed it as an impinged supraspinatus muscle. I was then sent to PT to fix it. In my case, the problem was that I was overdeveloping my deltoids and not adequately exercising the small muscles of the shoulder. I just needed to add a set of exercises for the latter to my workout regimen. Since then the problem is much more reduced than before, as long as I keep up the exercises.

[PLC]

My shoulders "pop" all day long - my wife can hear the noise from twenty feet away. It tooks years for me to find a doctor who could figure out what was wrong with me - I was born with two extra, "floating", ribs which sit up in my neck/shoulders area and screw up everything.

 

For me, the answer was to increase strength training and to avoid working at my desk as much as possible.

 

Also, I've found that cutting down on my sugar/flour intake tends to reduce inflammation in all old creaky joints.

[layton]

Hey guys.

A popping or clicking shoulder can be due to several things. A non-painful click or pop is usually benign and no need to worry - just like when you roll your wrists or ankles and they click and pop. If it is a problem, it's usually due to the bone snapping over a tendon (the supraspinatus or biceps is most common and is known as "impingement") or the labrum (a like your knee's meniscus except it's in your shoulder). If it's a bad 2nd degree or 3rd degree tear or rupture, then you'll want surgery. If the labrum, surgery is an option if it's bad too. However, these structures can and do heal themselves. The thing to find out is WHY - fix the real cause of the problem. Here's a laundry list

 

Overly tight pecs, lats, upper traps, and anterior cervical muscles with weak lower traps, rhomboids, serratus anterior, deep neck flexors. An anterior head position (bad posture) will cause an over-recuitment of the tight muscles and cause the smaller weaker stabilization muscles (your rotator cuff) to take up the slack and get overworked. This is known as upper cross-syndrome. The tight muscles and anterior head also cause this over-facilitation of the overworked muscles to pull the humerous too far up, and impinge the tendons. Over time this can also tear the labrum.

The key is to re-train your scapula (shoulder blades) to maintain a retracted and depressed position during functional overhead activities (aka keep your shoulders down when you're using your arm). Stretching the tight muscles and re-training the weak ones at the same time is key. What isn't key is over-strengthening the rotator cuff (like doing external rotations and lateral raises) - they are stabilizers not prime movers. The reason people do these external rotations, etc.. is because they had surgery and the little rotator cuff muscles do need to be strengthen because they can't even perform their job at stabilization. A position of abduction and external rotation is extremely dangerous, especially at the 60-120 degree abduction angle, because that is the arm position that creates the smallest space for your tendons in your shoulder joint. That is why I do not recommend exercises such as the military press! Climbing techniques such as arm-barring while off-widthing is exactly the movement that can hurt your shoulder the most.

The other reason one could hurt their shoulder in this way is a trauma (falling on an outstretched arm), extreme overuse, and climbing movements like dynoing.

For specific exercises and stretches, you'll have to ask me directly. I'd recommend PT to retrain the muscles, a good massage therapist to get those trigger points and tight muscles (make sure they get your subscap through your arm-pit!), and a chiropractor to address the structural and biomechanical problems in your neck, spine, and shoulder/arm complex.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Overly tight pecs, lats, upper traps, and anterior cervical muscles with weak lower traps, rhomboids, serratus anterior, deep neck flexors. An anterior head position (bad posture) will cause an over-recuitment of the tight muscles and cause the smaller weaker stabilization muscles (your rotator cuff) to take up the slack and get overworked. This is known as upper cross-syndrome. The tight muscles and anterior head also cause this over-facilitation of the overworked muscles to pull the humerous too far up, and impinge the tendons. Over time this can also tear the labrum.

The key is to re-train your scapula (shoulder blades) to maintain a retracted and depressed position during functional overhead activities (aka keep your shoulders down when you're using your arm). Stretching the tight muscles and re-training the weak ones at the same time is key. What isn't key is over-strengthening the rotator cuff (like doing external rotations and lateral raises) - they are stabilizers not prime movers. The reason people do these external rotations, etc.. is because they had surgery and the little rotator cuff muscles do need to be strengthen because they can't even perform their job at stabilization. A position of abduction and external rotation is extremely dangerous, especially at the 60-120 degree abduction angle, because that is the arm position that creates the smallest space for your tendons in your shoulder joint. That is why I do not recommend exercises such as the military press! Climbing techniques such as arm-barring while off-widthing is exactly the movement that can hurt your shoulder the most.

The other reason one could hurt their shoulder in this way is a trauma (falling on an outstretched arm), extreme overuse, and climbing movements like dynoing.

For specific exercises and stretches, you'll have to ask me directly. I'd recommend PT to retrain the muscles, a good massage therapist to get those trigger points and tight muscles (make sure they get your subscap through your arm-pit!), and a chiropractor to address the structural and biomechanical problems in your neck, spine, and shoulder/arm complex.

 

This post has some excellent points... and food for thought. I've defititely been doing something wrong to my shoulder(s) and I think a lot is related to posture and overtraining of some muscles...