Left Shoulder Pain?

I am having shoulder pain in my left arm. I want to continue to strength train, but not over do it and hurt my shoulder. What exercises should I do?

Aaron's Answer…

Well, the first thing you should do is focus on rest and recovery. Take a few days off, some ibuprofen, and ice and heat it.

Ideally, this will lessen the pain. If it does, consider taking more time off - it's better to take a week or two off now, rather than getting a chronic-use injury that will plague you for a long time to come.

If the resting and doctoring of your left arm doesn't make it better, take it to a doctor. Seriously, pain is usually a sign that all is not right with you. Find out what's wrong and fix it.

If you still want to do lifting for your left arm, experiment with a wide variety of arm and upper body exercises to find the one(s) that cause it the least pain. This will allow you to keep training, and might give you some info about which muscle (or muscles) are most mucked up and responsible for the pain.

I hate to say this, but play it safe. I had elbow pain that I just tried to ignore a few years ago, and it eventually led me to take an entire month off along with a lot of needless pain and visits to various doctors. Nip it in the bud now.