I used to train when I was much younger, and now on TRT at age 50 I have been training hard for 10 months. 5’10. 209lbs. Muscular but not ripped yet.

Sessions: 5x per week. 20 sets per workout split between two body parts (ex: legs and shoulders | chest and core | back and arms). 3 sets per exercise. 8-15 reps per set. Running maintenance calories or deficit for the past few months.
Status: Look way bigger and down 22lbs. Great body transformation and closing in on all of my initial goals. However, I’m developing some worrisome shoulder pain over the past month or so, and more on one side than the other.

It started when I swapped out several exercises in the same week that each included some increased shoulder load. So it’s not surprising that they started to hurt, but I stopped doing those exercises because of that and yet it still hurts a month later. The pain is mainly inside/under the bony top point of the shoulder and sometimes the bottom point where it goes into the bis and tris. I feel it most on pushing exercises, and in recovery from those exercises.

Feels like it’s strained tendons but can’t be sure. I occasionally feel something snapping over the bones when I move my shoulder, which my massage therapist wife says is an irritated tendon. I’m trying to de-load on all shoulder exercises, but aren’t your shoulders involved in all upper body exercises? How can I lay off my shoulders and still work my upper body? Will the delts atrophy? I’ve worked so hard on them…