Arkk's Weight Lifting / Fitness Thread

Work on your back as well. Gives you a better platform for your bench. Then again, what the fuck do I know? I'm certainly not benching anywhere close to 410.

Elurin_sl said:

Work on your back as well. Gives you a better platform for your bench. Then again, what the fuck do I know? I'm certainly not benching anywhere close to 410.

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Yeah, my back workout is pretty complete.

Dabamf_sl said:

You may be hitting the ceiling of your potential. Agree with Dashel though, are you pressing?

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I really think this is it. That and age is catching up. I definitely don't have the mass I did when I was 28 (I'm 42). And I am no where near as strong.

Dashel_sl said:

Work on your press, eat more. That's all I can think of. How are your other lifts?

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No idea what press is. I'm already 275. I'm now at 25% fat. That aint good. What foods are people eating before lifting? Just curious.

Itlan_sl said:

Negatives?

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Problem with Negs is that I need competent spotters at that weight. I have only been able to get 1 negative rotation in, in like a month. There are a couple peeps at my gym that are fine, but our schedules don't match often.

Trainer at the gym says take a MONTH off. That seems a bit extreme for recoup, but at this point why not.

Dude you're benching 400 at age 42? Jesus fucking christ. You're my idol.

Brahma_sl said:

No idea what press is. I'm already 275. I'm now at 25% fat. That aint good. What foods are people eating before lifting? Just curious.

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Press like overhead/military/shoulder press.

According to this you're at "elite" status at 275 with your bench:http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLi...Standards.html
So you simply may have maxed out and progress will be sloooow from here.

Related article:http://www.jimwendler.com/2012/05/st...e-bench-press/

So perpetually injured Dabamf here. I've been getting shoulder pain that's gotten quite a bit worse lately. I've always gotten minor pain in my shoulders from benching, but now it seems to have spiraled out of hand. The worst pain is if I hold my arm at my side, tight against my body, and move it in a diagonal across my body and up, like I'm doing a heil hitler. The angle at which I move the humerus during bench has also gotten extremely limited. As in the "groove" or path you put the bar in when you bench, if I stray from that by like a centimeter, I get excruciating pain that also feels like I lose most mechanical function, as if a ligament is getting stuck or something.

The heil hitler movement pain is not a localized pain or feels like any specific structural defect. But the pain when my bench movement is less than perfect IS localized.

Any ideas? Also, exercise ideas? Bench definitely makes it worse. Press seems to, also. My gym just got 2 of those wheels that looks like it's for shoulder rehab. Are those actually effective?

I don't know what I'll do if I can't heil

Bicep or pectoral tendonitis or tear, would be my guess. With the amount of pain you're getting, I'd say tear. It's also possible you've got some issues with your rotator cuff.

Dabamf_sl said:

So perpetually injured Dabamf here. I've been getting shoulder pain that's gotten quite a bit worse lately. I've always gotten minor pain in my shoulders from benching, but now it seems to have spiraled out of hand. The worst pain is if I hold my arm at my side, tight against my body, and move it in a diagonal across my body and up, like I'm doing a heil hitler. The angle at which I move the humerus during bench has also gotten extremely limited. As in the "groove" or path you put the bar in when you bench, if I stray from that by like a centimeter, I get excruciating pain that also feels like I lose most mechanical function, as if a ligament is getting stuck or something.

The heil hitler movement pain is not a localized pain or feels like any specific structural defect. But the pain when my bench movement is less than perfect IS localized.

Any ideas? Also, exercise ideas? Bench definitely makes it worse. Press seems to, also. My gym just got 2 of those wheels that looks like it's for shoulder rehab. Are those actually effective?

I don't know what I'll do if I can't heil

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Go lighter, with less intensity. I've been going at 70% of what my work sets would be for the last two weeks, and my joints are healing. Both of my joint problems (wrist and shoulder) were caused by doing exercises I should not have been doing (close grip bench press and behind the neck press). I've kept doing the close grips, but altered my grip as to not have so much pressure directly on my wrists.

I'll start upping the intensity when all of the pain is gone. 'Cause ignoring the pain isn't working.

If I was a woman I'd be elite as fuck. Intermediate though, which for my length of training is prolly right where I should be.

Dabamf_sl said:

So perpetually injured Dabamf here. I've been getting shoulder pain that's gotten quite a bit worse lately. I've always gotten minor pain in my shoulders from benching, but now it seems to have spiraled out of hand. The worst pain is if I hold my arm at my side, tight against my body, and move it in a diagonal across my body and up, like I'm doing a heil hitler. The angle at which I move the humerus during bench has also gotten extremely limited. As in the "groove" or path you put the bar in when you bench, if I stray from that by like a centimeter, I get excruciating pain that also feels like I lose most mechanical function, as if a ligament is getting stuck or something.

The heil hitler movement pain is not a localized pain or feels like any specific structural defect. But the pain when my bench movement is less than perfect IS localized.

Any ideas? Also, exercise ideas? Bench definitely makes it worse. Press seems to, also. My gym just got 2 of those wheels that looks like it's for shoulder rehab. Are those actually effective?

I don't know what I'll do if I can't heil

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Shoulder impingement.

With whatever is wrong with that and your knee, you need to take time off. It isn't going to kill you, do cardio, use it as time to clean up your diet and drop bodyfat, but if you keep pushing shit something is going to give, literally.

Then you'll be just had surgery Dabamf.

Tuco_sl said:

bro let's see some vids

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You've never seen anyone do reps with 500, or are you thinking I can't? I used to do more than that, but I'm not risking injury with that weight range anymore.

*insert extra muscle comment*

Lyrical_sl said:

Go lighter, with less intensity. I've been going at 70% of what my work sets would be for the last two weeks, and my joints are healing. Both of my joint problems (wrist and shoulder) were caused by doing exercises I should not have been doing (close grip bench press and behind the neck press). I've kept doing the close grips, but altered my grip as to not have so much pressure directly on my wrists.

I'll start upping the intensity when all of the pain is gone. 'Cause ignoring the pain isn't working.

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Erm, with his problem, he should not go lighter...he should just overall rest. He needs ice, heat, and antiinflammatories.

He's not ignoring the pain by not doing anything, he's acknowledging the pain.

Kuriin_sl said:

Erm, with his problem, he should not go lighter...he should just overall rest. He needs ice, heat, and antiinflammatories.

He's not ignoring the pain by not doing anything, he's acknowledging the pain.

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I've always found that going lighter helped my joints in his situation. I'm not going to take off too long, I'd rather be going lighter until I heal.

That's perfectly fine, but there comes a point where you have to rest some before you can actually go light. For example, say you have a surgery...are you going to immediately work out if you had an arthroscopic knee surgery? Or are you going to rest for 1-2 weeks before doing PT?

I'm confused by your recommendation for anti-inflammatories. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of lifting? You're impeding the body's abilities to heal whatever parts you've worked out.

Your muscle adapt to the trauma caused by lifting by healing. It heals by sending blood to the area. Anti-inflammatories inhibit that process. Therefore don't anti-inflammatories end up hurting your ability to recover?

Sure, they make pain go away...but we're not trying to get rid of pain here.

Kuriin_sl said:

That's perfectly fine, but there comes a point where you have to rest some before you can actually go light. For example, say you have a surgery...are you going to immediately work out if you had an arthroscopic knee surgery? Or are you going to rest for 1-2 weeks before doing PT?

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Maybe I'm just imprinting my current problem on him. My joints felt like crap, I took a week off, and came back. They still hurt. I lowered the weight, and they seem to be getting better (as in less pain). I'm not ever going to take off more than a week, I'm going to do something. They are only hurting on bench press, chins and squats, there's no pain on the other exercises.

Probably the best advice given is to slow down, whether it's a percent of intensity, or all the way down to just the treadmill. We agree on that.

My whole point for NSAIDs is that the person does not experience pain throughout their day-to-day life. I still would suggest resting for a few days before lifting again and then, as Lyrical said, start light.

Thanks for the recommendations. Minor to moderate pain only started up about 2 weeks ago (minor pain has been present off and on for years). This intense pain only came yesterday after my workout and has lasted through today. The workout itself felt fine.

It doesn't feel like an acute injury. There was no painful event during the workout, no trauma, etc. I think I will definitely take at least a week completely off bench/press movements. I'm gonna see about cleans in 3-4 days when they're scheduled. I'm hoping I can still do those.

So from what I've read, it looks like ark is right about impingement, and that is from an inflamed or damaged tendon or inflamed bursa..? So the question is, is complete rest for x amount of weeks best, or temporary rest followed by very light exercise and a gradual increase in intensity. The other question is, is the problem an indication of a form problem in my bench or press? Good standing press form is hard to come by, because your arms want to move back and out when it gets difficult, but I've focused a ton of effort recently trying to get it good. I put a lot of care into proper form, so it seems like an unlikely reason. Can these injuries just happen despite doing everything right?

As for the knee, it is much better now. I was squatting 200 5x3 when it hurt. I'm doing an intermediate routine now with 165 5x5 monday, 165 5x3 Wed (same weight because it's light), and 115 dynamic effort 2x10 on Friday for power. Monday is still stressful on the joint, which I'm torn about whether to push through (because my knees are always whiny whether or not something is actually wrong) or taking it super easy. I swapped to an intermediate routine simply because it gives extra rest with lower intensities. And I figured, if I have to go light, I might as well work on my power (DE sets) while I rest because my power has always been really bad (my squats come up reeeally slow). Maybe I should go back to SS (5x3) and just go light? I dunno

P.S. That chart: Barely intermediate on everything except my shitty squat