btd23

When I got my road bike and started riding a lot more in 2015, I'd always get upper body pain on long rides and I always chalked it up to being new at the sport. By the fall of 2016, the pain was coming on sooner and sooner until a ride in April of 2017 when I only made it about half an hour when the pain set in pretty terribly. I set out trying to solve the problem all throughout 2017 without much luck. After 4 physical therapists, 3 doctors, multiple X-rays/MRIs, and several bike fittings in which I was put on short, medium, and long stems at differing heights, I cannot get relief. The latest diagnosis is shoulder impingement with some signs of arthritis (this makes the most sense to me since it's primarily one sided and starts as a tingling on that side before the pain sets in).

Has anyone had similar problems? I went from 3,000mi in 2016 to about 1,500mi in 2017 and I can't take another summer like this. Prescription NSAID and prednisone have both been ineffective, as well as massage therapy. I did get some relief from dry needling, but that didn't seem to last even though I kept going weekly. I wanted to try a cortisone shot but was turned down since I wasn't exhibiting symptoms in the office right then that day.

I'm starting to lose hope as it's beginning to seem like it's not worth the investment to keep trying new treatment. Sorry for the rambling post - any advice would be appreciated...

KraneXL

All of the above. Except halve the PT and double the doctors. Sorry, but no useful advice as I'm still searching and hoping for relief. I threw my hands up at the medical industry a while ago and have been trying to rehabilitate on my own. My back/shoulder still hurts daily, but frankly I'm doing a better job than all of the doctors combined. Are we up the creek without a you know what?

McBTC

NSAIDs work but the therapeutic dose will fry your kidneys if not burn a hole in your intestines. Fortunately, the fix is very easy... so much written about it all you have to do is Google--e.g., Dr. Kirsch, hanging, shoulder impingement

He literally wrote the book: https://www.amazon.com/Shoulder-Pain.../dp/B003ICWIUM

canklecat

I have chronic neck and shoulder pain from a car wreck several years ago that left the C2 vertebrae permanently damaged.

Best I can do is limit my continuous rides on the road bike to 20-40 miles, depending on how I feel that day. Anything longer I either need a break or switch to my hybrid with more upright posture. I've had to cut short some planned rides when I couldn't hold my head up any longer to see the road. I did one full century last autumn and won't do another. I can just about manage a few metric centuries a year, but not the full 100 miles anymore.

So I switched my efforts to getting faster and better on climbs over shorter distances.

My breakfast is coffee and 2-3 ibuprofen. I probably go through two or three bottles of 500 ibuprofen a year. Not much alternative. Nothing else without a prescription works. I take the prescription pain meds only when it's unbearable. Lots of stretching, ice/heat, soaking in hot baths with Epsom salts, etc.

I'll probably try local anti-inflammatory injections next. But frankly the current trend in "pain management" is almost as annoying as the pain itself. Doctors are so paranoid of losing their licenses they've stopped prescribing anything stronger than Tylenol for more than a week. And they seem to be milking insurance by requiring multiple appointments for alternative treatments: (1) an appointment to talk about a local anti-inflammatory injection or nerve block; (2) another appointment to be evaluated for same; (3) a third appointment to actually do the injection or nerve block. They stretch it out for weeks or months. When we first started with the pain management clinic they'd do everything in the same day. But something changed and it's an idiotic bureaucratic mess now.

Carbonfiberboy 

Here ya go:
https://www.amazon.com/Shoulder-Pain.../dp/B003ICWIUM

Fixed me and my doctor right up. We both had shoulder impingement. I first got a prescription to a PT, but he did absolutely nothing for me. This book is the real thing, so I told my doc about it.

rivers

I had/have a shoulder impingement and tendinosis from a motorbike accident I was in last year. A combination of physical therapy and a cortisone injection sorted it to the point of where I can function. I still have pain, and some days quite a lot of pain. But, I still continue with physio on my own, and can manage with the amount of pain I am in for long rides.

btd23

Two recommendations for the same book - I'll give it a shot! Currently sold out on Amazon...maybe I'll get the Kindle version. It sounds like the general idea is to hang from a pull up bar a few times each day? Interesting.

denvertrout

Have you had your neck looked at? Pretty easy to mimick those same symptoms due to the position of cycling. You don't mention your age, or if there are other aggravating positions or causes? Should be pretty easy to isolate if it is your shoulder causing the problem vs your neck.

btd23

Sorry - that would've been helpful to add. I'm 27, 5'10", and ride a 56cm Specialized Roubaix. I unfortunately work a desk job and get some of the same symptoms while sitting and driving, but nothing as bad as while I'm on my bike.

I had an Xray and an MRI of my neck, and I was told both look excellent. The shoulder Xray I had is what revealed some signs of arthritis and the doctor noted differences in movement between each shoulder during his evaluation. I do get pain into the neck, but the evidence seems to be pointing toward the shoulder as the culprit.

denvertrout

I would advise looking further into the neck. Sounds like position (posture) affects your symptoms quite a bit. Website to find a good PT. https://www.mckenzieinstituteusa.org/ . Did none of the 4 PT's work on your neck? 3 years and assuming 3 years of shoulder exercises and no change, time to look at other areas

Feel free to PM me and we can get more detailed.

Carbonfiberboy 

That's all it is. I got the Kindle version. One only needs read it once. It takes a couple weeks to do the job and then continue for maintenance. I hang for 2 - 1' hangs, twice a week is all. More would probably be better. It's good for the forearms, too.

The theory is that our species evolved from folks who brachiated, i.e. moved by hanging from their hands. Kids still instinctively do this, hence the monkey bars which used to be fixtures in every school playground. Unfortunately the modern quest for complete safety in every activity has lead to their removal, so we'll see a lot more shoulder impingements in the future.

JohnnyCyclist

No medical training here, so take this with a grain of salt...

If I can read my doctor's scribble correctly, I suffer from 'posterior impingement'. This jives with what I found on the internet: "posterior shoulder pain when the athlete places the humerus in extreme external rotation and abduction as in the cocking phase of pitching or throwing". I can't throw a ball (except under-hand). I can't swing a tennis racket, golf club, whatever (except half-a-swing).

As it applies to cycling, I cannot reach into my jersey pockets (the extreme angle of the shoulder and reaching behind just KILLS me - luckily only one shoulder is bad, so I just use the other hand) - but I can ride just fine, which makes sense. Riding position is not a throw-the-ball or swing-the-racket type activity. The only shoulder pain I get while riding is if I hit a bump 'just right', and even that is minimal.

That doesn't solve your problem, but it would seem your shoulder impingement is different than mine, FWIW.

KraneXL

Its not, as the dozen doctors I've seen exist as testament to that. Anyway, its all connected so pain in your shoulder could be caused by impingement in the neck or back, or the other way around.

McBTC

You'd have to be an ape to curl your lip at a surgeon who tells you--e.g., “It cures 99 percent of shoulder pain.” ~Dr. Kirsch

You don't even have to read his book. There's so much written about hanging on the web (the fancy word is brachiating) -- even YouTube demonstrations -- it'd be debunked by now if it all was a big sham... The fun part is finding something convenient around the house to hang from (palms forward, shoulder width apart or closer, easy at first if it's tender but... pain is part of the process and you can't really hurt yourself, about a minute a day and work up to a minutes twice a day).

Hellgate

Simple, get it fixed. A pill and PT isn't going to fix impingement. Your bones are physically too close to one another. Get the bones shaved and move on.

McBTC

Following the advice of Dr. Kirsch, you don't need surgery, you can remodel the bones yourself, noninvasively by simply doing what your arms were designed for 300,000 years ago...

PaulRivers

I did not have exactly the same problem, but one of the smaller problems I was having was my shoulder starting to sieze up.

I know someone who got surgery to fix their "frozen shoulder" and that worked for them.
My dad had the same thing start to happen to him, he just went to the gym and started doing the lat pulldown machine. He said it felt terrible at first but after a few weeks it sorta worked itself out and went away. I know he was definitely not trying to max out his weight or anything, just enough weight to feel like you're working.

Personally I incidentally solved my shoulder problem by fixing problems in my hips and core. When my shoulder was no longer constantly bearing weight because other parts of the body better suited for that started doing their job, my shoulder seems to have fixed itself.

I think I went to 2 PT's and 4 massage places before I found a "massage" place that really really knew what they were doing and did "massage" that was really rather uncomfortable but had excellent results for me. If you live in Minnesota I could tell you which place it is. If you don't I'm not sure how to suggest finding one other than doing what I did - look at reviews online and try different places until you find one that works.

KraneXL

Its not quit that simple. I don't know about the TS, but for me any movement (even very slight) beyond the limit can result in excruciating pain that does not subside. Anytime I embark on any level of PT, I have to prepare myself the painful aftermath that will result. It working but baby steps. So its not going to improve overnight.

Hellgate

You've never been kept awake from spiking pain, you've never had your spouse hear your shoulder creak in the morning. There is no such thing as bone remodeling. Dr. Kirsch is a quack. Have fun with it.

McBTC

It's not that hard to understand. Maybe it doesn't work for everyone-- 99% is not 100%... there's so much written about it (below, by Carol Robbins) iin easily accessible information on the web by countless numbers of persons who have zero to gain that I think the bigger the problem a person has the more likely that are, not less likely, to give it a try because, they obviously have nothing to lose.

edit: btw, when I mentioned '300,000 years' above, I don't mean to add to any unnecessary confusion here-- you can read these quotes all over the web and sometimes the figure is 30,000 but the original statement probably was 3 million.

Carbonfiberboy 

Yes, I have, and it's gone, thanks to the good doctor.

I should point out that yes, in fact bone remodeling is a real thing and happens to all adults at about 10%/year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_remodeling

Every see a real cowboy? That's bone remodeling.

KraneXL

That would have been last night. And the night before that, and the night before that...

McBTC

I thought this was interesting...

Why Chimpanzees Don?t Get Shoulder Pain? | CHASINGSTRENGTH.COM

KraneXL

You need to cool off.

Elvir

I went through the same crap with my shoulder. Spent more money than a brand new car with no results, Therapy, Xray, MRI, more therapy. bla bla bla. ONE thing that has helped me tremendously is using a pull up bar and just hanging on it for as long as you can. Shoot for a minute, two, and up to five minutes. Its essentially a great stretch and will realign your shoulders. Its a number one thing Calisthenics athletes talk about when it comes to shoulder health. I did It and honestly feel like my overall shoulder health has improved in matter of a week.