Stumped with this Shoulder pain:

[avik]

Just when I thought I was out...it pulls me back in!

TMS never fails to amaze me with its creativity and discipline. I wish I worked as hard with my company/career as TMS does at being a pain in my a$$. I'd be a billionaire.

Anywho-

I got "diagnosed" with a "small rotator cuff tear" on my right shoulder about a year back. I took time off, did PT (cuz I didnt know any better) and it "healed".

4 months ago I get the same pain in my left shoulder.
Thinking its the exact same thing and, being that I am a bodybuilder...I change my routine around in order to give it some rest.
3 months go by and no improvement.
So, 4 weeks ago, I decide to cut out ALL pushing movements in the gym, and cut everything out that could possibly bother it...as a test.

No improvement.

I am 99.9% sure its TMS.

Heres the problem though: it doesnt bother me AT ALL, other than when I am in the gym-doing a "pushing" movement.
All of my other TMS equivs would pop up and drive me nuts at any given time but this only hurts when I am using that muscle.
So I'm left with thinking: "this particular muscle really is damaged" or, "TMS is sneakier than I thought and its messing with one of my loves, bodybuilding".

Assuming its the latter, do I just "lift-through" the pain and power through?

Mind you, the pain is excruciating when I try to lift with it, which I tried doing at one point for a couple of days straight but stopped out of fear of making it worse.

 

[Susan1111]

Just when I thought I was out...it pulls me back in!

TMS never fails to amaze me with its creativity and discipline. I wish I worked as hard with my company/career as TMS does at being a pain in my a$$. I'd be a billionaire.

Anywho-

I got "diagnosed" with a "small rotator cuff tear" on my right shoulder about a year back. I took time off, did PT (cuz I didnt know any better) and it "healed".

4 months ago I get the same pain in my left shoulder.
Thinking its the exact same thing and, being that I am a bodybuilder...I change my routine around in order to give it some rest.
3 months go by and no improvement.
So, 4 weeks ago, I decide to cut out ALL pushing movements in the gym, and cut everything out that could possibly bother it...as a test.

No improvement.

I am 99.9% sure its TMS.

Heres the problem though: it doesnt bother me AT ALL, other than when I am in the gym-doing a "pushing" movement.
All of my other TMS equivs would pop up and drive me nuts at any given time but this only hurts when I am using that muscle.
So I'm left with thinking: "this particular muscle really is damaged" or, "TMS is sneakier than I thought and its messing with one of my loves, bodybuilding".

Assuming its the latter, do I just "lift-through" the pain and power through?

Mind you, the pain is excruciating when I try to lift with it, which I tried doing at one point for a couple of days straight but stopped out of fear of making it worse.

I don't know that the word is damaged but it is possible you have an injury. Since several months have gone by and the only time it hurts is during a certain movement if it was me I would have it medically checked out. Just saying it's TMS is a guess until you rule out a medical reason for the pain.

 

[Forest]

I'd go visit Dr. Gwodz in NJ. Just because so many things have been TMS for you before doesn't mean that everything is. Seeing a good TMS doctor can only help your recovery.

If it truly is 100% TMS, I can see two approaches you can take. One approach would be to push through the pain and the other would be to not give it that much attention.

With the classic "push through the pain" apprach, you want to show the TMS who is boss - perhaps we could call it the alpha-male approach. Sometimes it can work well. I've had success with this when my hands have started hurting after 10 minutes and I decided to keep typing for an hour. Even if the pain doesn't subside, at least you lose your fear of it. I'm sure you've done this approach before.

Sometimes I take a different approach and try to not make the pain into a big deal. Like a bully, a rebellious child or someone with Behavioral Personality Disorder, TMS feeds off of your attention. With this approach, you don't have any doubt that the symptoms are just TMS, but rather than making a big fuss, you just sidestep them and get on with your life. Often I find that the more I ignore the symptoms and the more comfortable I feel, the more my TMS shrinks. I think I used this approach in the relapse I describe in the following video: http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/forests-relapse.232/ (warning, it's a bit long).

The important thing is to be aware of how you feel as you lift and try to do the thing that is kindest to yourself, bearing in mind that it is just TMS (assuming it is).