I October of this past year I injured my left shoulder. I saw a doctor and he gave me an x-ray and tested my range of motion. He said he "thinks" that it could be a minor labrum tear. The thing is, I don't want to know what he thinks I wanna know for sure. This is stopping and even taking back any kind of progress I've made in the gym. Just wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts of what it could be. I really only get pain in the top of my shoulder and some of my bicep when I elevate it above my head. Also, any type of pushing exercise irritates it (push-up, military press, bench press, etc.) BUT..... When I wake up in the morning my arm feels stuck in place. To relieve that feeling I'll bend my arm behind my back and reach for my shoulder blades. This causes a decent amount of pain. Though, eventually I'll get a pop sound and the locked feeling is gone. Any thoughts?????

Hi Scott,

You described my exact symptoms!

I went through the same test with similar "thoughts" however only when MRI was done SLAP (labrum tear) was diagnosed, when they went in for surgery condition was much worse than MRI showed including small tear on supraspinatus and fraying at rear of labrum however not detached.

I am constantly pulling my arm across my body to make my shoulder "pop" to relieve the pressure. I have a posterior labrum tear. I would suggest getting an arthogram MRI that can detect exactly where the tear is and how large the tear is.

They will inject dye into your shoulder socket and by releasing the dye they can tell whether or not a tear is in your labrum. Beware the MRI hurts quite a bit.

esiegel wrote:


I have had 2 MRI's with arthogram done and the discomfort was very very minimal. It really depends on the individual.

My advice is to get a really good physical therapist. It seams to me that you like me have some kind of slap tear but it's not that bad.

My doctor said physical therapy won't work. I am not yet 100 %. But my physical therapist believe I will become. And so do I.

I go twice a week and get new, more difficult excercices each time.

It depends on your person whether the mri will help. Your physical therapist will probably be able to help you even if you don't do one. For me the mri was a nightmare, and what the doctor had to say about the outcome even worse... Now I have slowly regained confidence. To me it's not so important to know exactly what is wrong. It is more important to keep believing that I can and will improve. But this imight be different for you.

I also think that you do need to slow down I bit, make sure you don't push it if you feel that it's not good for your shoulder. You look quite strong So I'm sure you will be able to build up enough mussles to keep your shoulder healthy!

Accourding to the mri my shoulder is really quite a mess. But thanks to me taking it a bit easy and physical therapy it is really getting a lot better. Even if my doctor adviced that the only think that might really fix it is surgery. (Take not of the might.. it might only get a lot worse...)

Take care!