I recently had to deal with some annoying shoulder pain that was hindering my workouts and becoming quite discouraging. I went to a chriopractor for a while but saw limited results. Finally a massage therapist was able to help diagnose and fix the problem and, after some recovery time, it's nearly back to normal. During this time though I learned two very valuable lesson when it comes to weight training.
1. Don't over do it - As much as I enjoy lifting, I have to remind myself that weight training 7 days a week will take a toll on my body. And, muscles aren't able to recover and GROW unless they are given time to rest. Building in rest days to your weekly workout routine is crucial to avoiding injuries and seeing maximum strength gains.
2. There is such a thing as too much pushing - Let's face it guys, we all want bigger chests and shoulders and, if not careful, we can fall into the trap of flooding our workouts with pushing exercises; bench press, shoulder press, pushups, incline/decline press, etc. These are great exercises but they need to be balanced with pulling exercises as well to maintain good posture and equal strength on both sides of your body. If you've ever seen a weight lifter whose shoulders are pulled in so far they appear about ready to touch each other in front of their body...you've seen someone who is doing a lot of pushing and not much pulling. Balancing these exercises out will also help avoid injury to areas such as your shoulders which bear a lot of the burden during the presses.
Learn these lessons and apply them to your workouts to help avoid injury and maintain a well-trained/healthy body. Good luck!
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