Training around a wonky shoulder

[augeleven]

My shoulder is giving me grief again. When doing the presses I've been getting a pain in the muscle right below my clavicle. Not an anatomy nerd, but it's the one that bulges (contracts?) when I raise my hand up. Most of the time it feels dull, but once in a while while I'm not lifting but doing something else, it has a sharp feeling to it.
I had this issue before last spring, and I had just spent a bunch of time and energy trying to rehab really bad golfer's elbow, so I just quit lifting for the summer to avoid messing my shoulder up, like I messed up my elbows. I started with just pressing in August and added in bench in September. The pain has been there for maybe a couple of weeks now.

I'm looking for programming advice for this/possible tips to work through this

Should I:
1)Completely stop all presses and embrace full T-rex mode training?
2)Lower volume
3)Lower intensity (I have low numbers and am sick of resetting lifts, but...)
4) Stop whining, cram Ibuprofen in my mouth and lift until something pops.

[augeleven]

Yeah I will be making an appointment with a "sportsdoc" soon. I've never had good experience with a Dr, but at least I will be able to tell people I went. I may be to get an appointment a month or two from now, my schedule is not conducive to doctors.
Meanwhile, I'm supposed to bench press today 195x5x5. I'm think I may just work up to a single, maybe that benchmark of 225. Maybe if I get that single, I can be content with either shutting down presses or dropping the weight below the threshold of irritation.

Option 4 was just me trolling myself.

[perman]

I think searching for similar movements that don't cause pain is a good defult ad-hoc solution for situations like this if the pain has escalated out of control. When I had similar issues with bench press, db presses and suspension pushups were my replacements.

If no such alternative can be found, then choosing alternative exercise with the least pain and just lowering the weight until the pain is negligible would be my course of actions.

[chromoly]

either shutting down presses or dropping the weight below the threshold of irritation.

Probably the smarter choices. Speaking from personal experience, dropping the weight below the threshold of irritation and progressing as best as possible, letting pain guide you, is the best option. Maybe you need to find a similar movement (like perman suggested above) that allows you to train without pain. Don't let the pain progress so much that you have to stop all together.

For anterior shoulder pains and twinges, I like to do face pulls and a whole lot of rows. I find these movements to be helpful for my shoulders. I like to do overhead presses also, but perhaps these might not help if the pain is when you raise your hand over your head.

[augeleven]

For anterior shoulder pains and twinges, I like to do face pulls and a whole lot of rows. I find these movements to be helpful for my shoulders. I like to do overhead presses also, but perhaps these might not help if the pain is when you raise your hand over your head.

I'm not too familiar with facepulls, when you do them do you keep your arms parallel to floor? Is that an impingement causing move?

I did some messing around with bench angle and grip width last night. Bench doesn't seem too bother it at very low weights, but overhead sucks even with no weight.

I'm googling around for a sportsmed doc in NJ. Hopefully get a call in this morning