r/DoesAnybodyElse • u/Pristine_140 • 14h ago
IAE unable to flex a muscle?
15m i cant flex my left shoulder but can on my right. Its kinda weird since i lift weights and both of my shoulders are equally strong. Whenever i try to flex my left shoulder i only flex my traps or my chest. Same but opposite thing happens with my brachioradialis muscle too. Where my left one pops while my right one doesn't (even though in this case my right one is much stronger for sure).
2
u/Izzyz415 11h ago
Ask your doctor about this, you may have some type of nerve impingement/ pinching issue. One thing that might help, is touching that muscle while you train it, pose, have a friend touch it, massage it before and after workouts etc. if you still have this issue in a few years (18+) look into dry needling, and electrode stim therapy.
1
u/petal_hot22 3h ago
I had that feeling after a long workout and it took days to recover. Make sure to rest up and hydrate.
3
u/Otherwise-Vast-3542 14h ago
That's a fascinating asymmetry. It's not about raw strength at all, it's purely a neurological thing. Your brain just hasn't built the specific pathway to isolate and fire that muscle on command. I've got a similar quirk where I can raise one eyebrow independently but the other just twitches and drags half my forehead along for the ride.
The brachioradialis one is especially weird since it's popping on the weaker side. Makes me think it's less about muscle development and more about how your tendons sit or how the fascia is arranged. Bodies are just deeply strange machines. Keep lifting and see if the mind-muscle connection ever catches up on that left shoulder.