So I'm about 95% sure I have some sort of shoulder impingement on the anterior section of my left shoulder as there is a very specific pain and weakness. It's been a problem for a couple months now and I've been trying to baby it but unfortunately it doesn't appear to be getting better on it's own this way.

Google suggests taking an anti-inflammatory and stretching daily (already doing the stretching.)

What I was wondering is if it would be wiser to completely stop any shoulder use for about a month (meaning literally any use of shoulder such as pull-ups, dips, ect) or only cut out my major overhead presses and shoulder work to try to get it to heal completely. First method seems obviously more thorough, but I would hate to be completely out for a month.

i dont know why people think its common sense to load up an injured muscle... if youre shoulder hurts then stop perfoming strenuous shoulder work for at least 2 weeks

My question is basically how strenuous non direct shoulder exercises are on your shoulder to know if I would be hindering it's healing but ty for reaffirming it is bad to stress injured muscles.

hard to tell whitout knowing exactly what you have

Yeah.. suppose it's always better safe than sorry with joints. Just really unsure of the actual load on the shoulders in a lot of random exercises that incorporate shoulders.

if you experience pain during/after, avoid those exercises, if not you can keep doing them imo, theyre probably not too stressful on whatever the problem is

i think stuff like pullups should be ok, just avoid anything that causes pain

if you have to take your shoulder to end ROM or internally/externally rotate it, you probably shouldnt do it

anything that requires moderate force generation by the shoulder complex can reinjure, even if its just stabilization

Damn, was really hoping that wasn't the case, but exactly what I was worried about. Looks like legs and cardio are going to get some extra love for awhile lol.

After years of football and weight training I had shoulder problems too. I swear by swimming and stretching. My shoulder hasn't bothered me since I've been swimming.

I'm even able to do exercises that would destroy my shoulder before, for example I couldn't do dips because it would pinch my shoulder, now I can do weighted dips.

2-3 weeks aint shit. dont start loading the joint again once it stops hurting after a week, wait 2 weeks at least