Again, another unusual situation to think about.

If you remove the shocks, and THEN find that the hinge points of the upper or lower control arms are kinda frozen or really really stiff, then you might need to deal with that. At least try to flex those components to check when you get the shocks off.

Make sure you have the car supported very solidly so it doesn't come down on your arms...

 

This same thing happened not in my Accord, but Infiniti. Shortly after I bought it, the ride became very harsh and the damn thing slammed down whenever going over a bump. My indy said everything looked good except 2 of the strut bellows were torn to shreds. This probably allowed road debris to compromise the seals. Despite this, all 4 struts still passed the "bounce" test. To be safe, I just replaced everything with Monroe Quick Struts to rule out things like mounts, bump stops, etc. The car finally regained a smooth ride.