Achille's Shoulders

Apparently my achille's heel is actually my shoulder.

Whenever I used to do weight training (yeah, I need to get back into that), I found that my shoulders were always super weak. In BodyPump class, everyone else had a lightly weighted bar or 2 kg in each hand...but I was struggling to keep up with the routine with NOTHING in my hands. (Here's the part where you phone me up and leave a message on my machine saying "wimpy arms, wimpy arms.")

So, I haven't been doing the weights for a while (ask me later where I always am on Friday mornings), but I HAVE been getting in some serious racquetball. Much to my dismay, I'm officially overdoing it! I played on Monday morning and WON! Then I had an emergency opportunity to make-up a missed league match that afternoon (twice in one day = risky) but I toughed it out and won again!! Then, although I didn't do any swingin' on Tuesday, I played again on Wednesday morning and am now SORE and STIFF! (And I barely barely won.) My butt (and arm) are kicked.

Although my racquetball pain is in my right arm, my left shoulder worries me too. Lately (and why is it my left shoulder?) the tendons sort-of "pop" over the muscle in a funny way and suddenly I can't raise my arm more than 50 degrees to the front! I can't do arm circles either...until I decide to just force my arm up over the top, and "snap!" the pain is gone and the motion is back.

My massage therapist friend told me I'll have to be really careful to keep things in place, but I'm not sure WHAT to do to keep a tendon in place. Apparently playing ball with the OTHER shoulder causes no harm, so I'll keep up as soon as I can recover. I think I'm being punished for not strength training anymore. (Notice I said strength training, not weight training...while doing shoulder exercises, I'm going to have to build up to put any weights in these wimpy hands.)