Thread: Front Dumbell Raises= Mysterious Shoulder Pain

I tore my shoulder up water skiing 2 summers ago. A physical therapist I know had me do some exercises and believed it to be my rotator cuff. Very nasty place to injure. I rested for a few weeks and never had it checked out. Now I only have pain on occasion (usually when going heavy on front raises). The smart thing would be to do what I didnt...get it checked out.

Uthinkso -- Do this......relax your sore arm.....with free hand....reach over and feel around your shoulder caps and rear delts for tightness. My guess is you over trained your muscle and it's tense.

If this is the case and you feel knots or tightness....let me know and I'll walk you through the steps to fix it.

A good practise to get into is this........get a set of bands.

I tore my rotator cuff and bands help me recover rather quickly. You can use them for front shoulder raises. There are many ways to use the bands also.

No knots or tightness excet for the front of the shoulder.

what are these bands that you speak of??

sudden , sharp pain doesn't sound like knots to me.

Sounds like a 2nd degree muscle tear to me.
Is there any swelling?

Rest and apply some ice.

No swelling at all, and when I woke up today I fealt 100%.

I guess that movement just doesn't agree with me, or perhaps I should try lighter weight. I was only using 20lb dumbells though, and its strange that one arm would hurt while the other doesn't.

That happened to me after doing arnold presses one time, I couldn't lift my right arm hardly at all. Now I just do side raises, but it still kinda bothers me. I've added RC exercises too, b/c I play tennis and I think this may have something to do wiht it.

If you had sudden, acute pain like that and the muscle was failed and then it recovered that quickly then my suggestion is you pinched a nerve somehow.

If is was your rotator cuff you still wouldn't be able to move your arm. Trust me, I speak from experience.

Originally posted by vanity
sudden , sharp pain doesn't sound like knots to me.

Sounds like a 2nd degree muscle tear to me.
Is there any swelling?

Rest and apply some ice.

Vanity -- I hate to break it to ya bud....but, this happens to me alllllll the time and that's the reasoning......tight muscles plus knots.


I wouldn't recommend ice. Massage the area lightly and do some stretching.

Pony -- I too had a torn RC so I know where you're coming from.

Uthinkso -- you say the right front of your shoulder is tight. I bet you have a little knot in there. Which could irritate your shoulder and give you sudden pain. This pain...how long did it last and was it a burning dull pain?

Burnng pain for sure, but it only lasted as long as I was active. Once I was done with my cardio the sharp pain calmed down to a dull pain.

Today I have been great though. Training again tommorow so we will see.

Temp. burning pain is a sign of having a knot. If you're interested I can walk you through on how to get rid of it.

Is there a lot of stress in your life

Life=Stress ......I suppose that is the best way to put it. working out is a big stress release for me as well as the physical benefits.

How can I rid myself of this knot next time around, if it should happen again?

Thanks In Advance Babsie

I know in general life is stress...however, do you have added stress?

I agree. I release a lot of stress when training........Feel like a new person when I leave the gym.


I would like to say there is no sure way to avoid getting a knot. Chances are, you still have it or it has lossened up quite a bit and will come back when you train shoulders again.

Do you have someone that trains with you or do you train all by your lonesome?

I don't have any more stress than the normal cat. i am geting married in August , so there is some added stress with planning that thing, but thats about it.


I train alone. j/k

you'd be more stressed if you were getting divorced.

I NEVER do front raises for the same reason. It has always bothered my shoulders even before my injury last winter. I absolutely hate them. I do overhead presses for front delts so that is enough. Side and rear laterals I have no problem with but just don't do the front raises and stick to overhead presses.

Originally posted by BabsieGirl
A good practise to get into is this........get a set of bands.

I tore my rotator cuff and bands help me recover rather quickly. You can use them for front shoulder raises. There are many ways to use the bands also.

This is good advice. I have RC problems and the bands have helped me.

Originally posted by firestorm
I NEVER do front raises for the same reason. It has always bothered my shoulders even before my injury last winter. I absolutely hate them. I do overhead presses for front delts so that is enough. Side and rear laterals I have no problem with but just don't do the front raises and stick to overhead presses.

I agree with Fire on this. Military presses are enough for your front delts. Unless your working on isolating more the front delt in which case I'd go with lower weights and higher reps.

I usually do overhead dumbell presses instead of using the bar. Is this just as good, seems like the same movement to me.

Originally posted by Pepper
This is good advice. I have RC problems and the bands have helped me.

Thanks Pepper. I love using bands. Using these bands works both the positive and negative motions while using free weights. Keeps tension through out.

Originally posted by Uthinkso
I usually do overhead dumbell presses instead of using the bar. Is this just as good, seems like the same movement to me.

I believe in a way it is preference. But personnally and others may not agree,,,, I think Dumbells are better because you get a better range of motion and you also have free movement which also tends to make you work harder controlling those DBs. Look at my journal and you would see that in the past month I MAY have done straight bar once and DBs every other workout. Heck I may not have even done a S.Bar once but I'm giving the benifit of doubt.