Shoulder Pain related to powerlifting

[cpinaire]

I currently use a modified version of Westside methods. Obviously Max Effort legs and Chest along with dynamic legs and chest. My partner and I on DE chest do shoulder work such as rack press, overhead, front etc. Recently my shoulders feel like they are locking up and are pretty painful and thus my strength has gone down. We right down our rep maxes and try to go heavier with lower reps each week. My question is am I doing too much shoulder work. I'm wondering how you typically do when doing a power lifting routine.

 

[PillarofBalance]

Shoulder Pain and powerlifting

I currently use a modified version of Westside methods. Obviously Max Effort legs and Chest along with dynamic legs and chest. My partner and I on DE chest do shoulder work such as rack press, overhead, front etc. Recently my shoulders feel like they are locking up and are pretty painful and thus my strength has gone down. We right down our rep maxes and try to go heavier with lower reps each week. My question is am I doing too much shoulder work. I'm wondering how you typically do when doing a power lifting routine.

Westside's dynamic work destroyed my elbows and put significant stress on my shoulders. All the plyometrics from the band work is terrible. I can't get thru a chest day now without it being cut short from the pain in my left bicep tendon.

By "lock up" it sounds like you may have an imbalance between your chest and front delts and rhomboids. Do some face pulls and stick stretches before and after chest work.

 

[cpinaire]

We really don't stretch at all. Do you think I'm over training by doing heavy shoulder presses?

 

[porky little keg]

Westside is great, but most guys try to follow it and end up doing way too much work.

Your body is only capable of so much work, granted you can increase this capacity, but everyone has some limit. So, when the weights get heavier the volume has to drop, or the weights for auxiliaries.

Do you just go heavier every week or do you wave at all? Most successful guys I've talked to do 2 or 3 week waves. So, for bench for example, week one would be heavy bench with light auxiliaries. Week two would be heavy auxiliaries and bench for reps. Week three would be lighter bench and high rep auxiliaries to get you primed for the following week's heavy session.

Other than that you might just need more upper back and rear delt work. There was a picture from a few years back that I believe was a cover shot for PLUSA - the picture had Scot MEndelson and Ryan Kenelly staring each other down. Both guys are mid to upper 1000 pound benchers and both are fucking enormous. Take a closer look at how developed their rear delts are. Every 800+ bencher I know has monster rear delts and upper backs.

 

[cpinaire]

I've thought maybe we were doing too much. We only Wave on DE days. We have a specific back day always with pullups both wide and narrow and then other supplimentals. We do nothing for front delt only side and back delt. Is shoulder press even necessary?

 

[porky little keg]

That might be the problem...... once you start training for powerlifting it's time to ditch the body part split that all the bodybuilders do..... there is no back day. There is auxiliary work for the deadlift and auxiliary work for the bench....

I still do rows, chins, and high-pulls. These are all done after bench on my bench day. Same with overhead presses and what little arm work I do.

You could also try replacing overhead pressing with the Savickas press. Sit on the floor, unsupported, and press a barbell overhead. It works the stabilizers way harder and the weights end up being lighter so it may help take the strain off of your shoulder. Or, take a few weeks off of overhead pressing and do 10 sets of band pull-aparts ( hold for 30 sec.)

The big thing though, is that after your main lift for the training session, pick 2-3 auxiliary lifts and shut it down. If you try to do everything, as heavy as possible, every week you'll get fried.

 

[BrotherIron]

You're saying your shoulder is feeling "frozen". That's a term that's sometimes given for an impingement. I would work some shoulder rehab and prehab movements. I have several in my training log. I'd give them a try. I had a severe impingement in my shoulder but these rehab movements fixed the issue. I continue to do them so the problem doesn't come back.

 

[cpinaire]

First off thanks for the replies.
So a typical ME chest day would be board press up to a 1 rep max trying to beat the previous weeks lift. We only do an exercise 2-3 weeks in a row. We would then do a rep max on flat, incline, decline or dumbells. We follow that up with triceps either weighted or not and then try to beat our previous reps. Possibly some other gay lift like pushdowns, or flys.

 

[mugzy]

Some good info here - http://www.theironden.com/threads/9...or-shoulder-impingement?highlight=Impingement

Do you use a bench shirt in training? Are you using chains or bands and are you doing floor presses?

 

[cpinaire]

Yes we do floor press basically all the Westside lifts. We use bands of different strengths haven't invested in chains yet. Legs are doing great although my dead lift feels a bit behind my squat. 430 bench 630 squat 605 DL. All raw. Squat is with a belt and wraps. I just got briefs and a Inzer Champion suit but can't get the suit on yet

 

[marx]

Some good info here - http://www.theironden.com/threads/9...or-shoulder-impingement?highlight=Impingement

Thanks, Boss, I forget about those...