pull-ups are fine. Always have been. Chins on OTOH own my shoulders. I think it is probably from weak lats, which cause my shoulders to "roll" over near the top of the ROM, getting themselves involved and hurt in the process, where as with pull-ups its my biceps that take over when my lats give up
/bro rant

Bench was fine, but still a little niggly, I did my last set neutral grip which felt a lot better, any reason not to stick with that?

Thanks for the compliment. Squats have kept me going to the gym while my shoulder has been so Fed up.

That makes sense. Off the top of my head, I think neutral grip chins are the easiest on the shoulders, followed by reverse grip.

The weak lats might have something to do with what's going on, but I also think you probably have some muscle imbalances in your small shoulder muscles - like some are too short & tight, while others are stretched out & weak. This is why I think you need to do a lot more shoulder rehab type stuff - working the small muscles that support the scapulas. When you do these types of exercises, the weights need to be very light so the big muscles dont take over and so you dont injure the small muscles.

Neutral grip for DB bench presses is good imo. Dr. Buchberger suggests doing them like you are "hugging a tree" not "punching the sky".

3-5 scoops, not 3-5 shakes, lol.

23 June

Front Squat
3x100x5 (220lb.)

Interesting. Had a bit of pain in my right shoulder (not my injured one) after the first two sets. Noticed that my right clavicle wasn't hurting but my left was, so made sure to get the bar way back into my throat on the third set, especially on my right. End of third set = sore clavicle but shoulder was fine. There was, however, some definite form breakdown in the last two reps.

two questions wrt fs:
- Im currently doing front squat (and power clean) in only a singlet, with the idea that skin on bar will toughen my clavicles, shoulders etc etc so that come heavier weight it wont hurt as much. Is this stupid? (fwiw I do the rest of my workouts with a second layer)

- wrt to PPAN programming: Am I meant to be doing LIGHT front squats i.e. a % which is < my true 3x5RM, or does the mere fact that they are front squats mean they are light enough? Basically should I be trying to do a % of my 3x5RM or trying to hit my 3x5RM each week?

Power Clean ss with Tennis ball-rolling my right butt cheek
5x65x3 (143lb.)

So loleasy but need to be careful with my shoulder. I will try to tape these and get some feedback. Maybe once I get the technique dialled in I will be able to increase the weight without impacting my shoulder negatively.

Deadlift
160x5 (352lb.)

easy enough.

24 June

Shoulder rehab

tbh I cant be bothered posting what I did. Just the same **** as last time. yawn.

The big news is that Im done with uni for the semester!!! I think im going to try going to the gym mon-fri in the morning in order to try to maintain some semblance of a routine. I think if I dont my diet will start to suffer (Im a chronic midnight snacker)

The light shoulder rehab stuff can be done every day for as many as 30 reps. Just dont use too much weight. Under 5 lbs is best for most of it.

25 June

Squat
3x150x5 (330lb.)

New PR. Had a conversation with the squat Gods on the last rep last set. They deemed fit to grant me the last rep at the cost of my shorts, which got ripped in the process. Im not too happy with the form so I think I will probably repeat the weight next week.

Neutral grip pull-ups
2, 1

Shoulder got impinged on the 2nd rep and didnt want to push it. Oh well, Will stick to pull-ups in the future.

on the advanced novice program (which seriously could just be skipped) you would do either front squats at "heavy" loads or the same squat at medium loads.

not sure why this bugs me, but if you ever end up doing some other programming, the way you format your sets/reps will become confusing. with 3x5 and 5x3 it's easy to figure out, but you're relying on people knowing your programming to figure out what you're actually doing.

I thought I was following the sets/reps layout as per the faq? Whats the "proper" method?

Edit: had another look. so it would be something like: weight: set X reps?

SetxRepsxWeight

3x5x150 kg

= 3 sets of 5 reps each

reps go next to the weight used, sets next to the reps. 3x5x150 or 150x5x3 is the same thing.

29 June

Squat
1x5x150kg (330lb.)
1x5x140kg (308lb.)

Real fail here. Will extrapolate at the end of this post.

DB rows
3x5x42.5kg (93lb.)

T-bar shoulder press
3x5x20kg (44lb.)

Hard to describe. Got this exercise from Cha. I think for progression I will increase the reps instead of the weight in the hope that it will be less painful on my shoulder.

pull-ups ss w/ prone holds
7,6,5 / 45s, 30s, 30s

Did another all-nighter followed by a massive sleep straight into workout combo. ate doritos and crap followed by nothing. meh, refeed I guess. Still losing weight but my workout suffered as a consequence.

30 June

shoulder rehab

Did a whole crapload of exercises including pallof press, push-up plus, banded push-ups, heaps of cable and band rotator-cuff exercises, some swiss ball stuff! followed by some golf-ball rolling.

for these shoulder rehab workouts im currently doing 3x12 for everything. Should I be looking to increase or lower the reps?

*** JUNE WRAP-UP***

Total workouts = 14 (4 shoulder rehab session)

Well I hit all my goals for June. Wasnt really too bothered about lift numbers although my squat did go up a beastly 5 pounds! Dont think Ive lost any strength yet from dieting.

Lost 10 pounds dieting this month, maybe more. will aim for somewhere between a further 6-10 pounds this month. Im going to get down to 95kg and see how I feel, if Im still not liking it Ill try to get down to 90kg.

Goals for July:
MAINTAIN!!! (lift numbers that is)
lose 6-10lb.

For the light weight, small muscle shoulder exercises, Dr Buchberger (see below) recommends going up to 30 reps before increasing the resistance.

This is a good program for shoulder rehab imo:
http://www.rotatorcuff.net/shop/item.asp?itemid=10

I was doing all 12 of the exercises in that program about 4 days a week for a while and it definitely helped. My chiro, who recommended that program to me, says you can do all 12 every day.

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately Im too poor to afford that but I'll see what I can do.

Also should mention now that although I thought I got that T-bar shoulder press exercise directly or indirectly from cha, this is not the case. Sorry.

4 July Happy blow sh*t up day you crazy americans!

Front Squat
3x5x102.5kg (225lb.)

My form keeps deteriorating on the last two reps of each set. Should I lower the weight or switch to 3x3 and keep the same intensity? Really don't want to mess my knees up doing this exercise.

power-cleans
5x3x70kg (154lb)

ridic easy. No shoulder issues whatsoever. PROGRESS!!

Deadlift
1x5x160kg (352lb)

Ok this was a lot harder, especially considering I wasnt focussing enough come the last rep, which was ugly.

Im updating my july goals: sort my F diet out. Have to stop binging, not only does it make this stupid diet last longer, it f*cks with my workouts.

7 July

Squat
3x3x150kg (330lb.)

Yep, the diet is starting to take its toll.

DB neutral-grip bench
3x7x35kg (77lb.)

Pendlay rows
3x5x80kg (176lb)

need to increase the weight on this

Pull-ups
bw+10kgx3,3,3,3
bw+5kgx2x2x2x2
bw+2.5kgx2,2,2,2,2,1
bwx3

Some weird gtg style training, pretty fun. Reallyy showed me how weak I am at the top end of the ROM

Push-ups, elbows at 45 degrees
3x12xbw

Farmers carry (20kg plate in each hand) with retracted/shrugged shoulders
5 min

This was a lot of fun. I think I will incorporate more GPP into my workouts as they feel like fun new games (for now)

overhead carry (20kg plate)
haha this was fun. Done with a team of 4 guys. single file, walking around the gym, 3 of them would have a 20 kg plate overhead and the 4th is resting. When a person can longer hold the weight overhead with straight arms the yhand the weight over to the person at the back of the line. We did this for about 7 minutes. Kinda weird exercise but it was pretty funny, basically it got to the point where you would hand off your weight and there would immedietly be someone handing off to you so you ended up getting like 3 seconds rest.

9 July

Front Squat
4x2x100kg (220lb.)

Was messing around with bar position as it has been bothering me. When I try what I think is the "Olympic" style with three fingers and a thumb under the bar and the pinky free I end up with the bar resting in one of two places:
1 - directly on the bone of my right shoulder
2 - if I try to rotate my elbow up and in it now rests on the deltoid which is much better but when doing the reps my anterior deltoid hurts like ****. Anyone know how to fix this?

So i tried doing the "cross my heart" style front squats and although it felt more comfortable on my shoulder it felt much less controlled and sketchy. If I could get around the shoulder pain I would much prefer using the "olympic style"

Power Clean
5x3x75kg (165lb.)

Still easy but getting harder. The biggest issue now is that I cant just dump the weight, so I have to "drop" it to my thighs, then the floor which owns my lower back. I'm gonna see if I can convinve the PTs to let me dump it. Was trying to only rest 2-3 min in between sets as it usually takes me far too long to get these done.

T-bar single-arm shoulder press
12x20kg (44lb)
2x12x22.5kg (50lb)

Kroc rows
rx13,lx13@42.5kg (93lb.)
lx16,rx13@37.5kg (82lb.)
rx16,lx16@32.5kg (71lb)

First time trying kroc rows and Im pretty sure I did them wrong. Next time I think Ill start with 35kg or 37.5kg and stay there instead of dropping weight. Interesting to note that my left side is much stronger than my right.

Wide-grip lat pull-downs
3x10x35kg (77lb.)

I think while I am on this diet (for at least the next two months) I am going to change my training for a bit:
- 1-2 main, heavy (compound) lifts (ie FS and PC today)
- 2-4 accessory lifts aimed at hypertrophy
- possible inclusion of GPP and HIIT although this is not a priority.

I figure that its depressing banging my head against a wall aattempting to get stronger while on a deficit so I may as well try to look beautiful while losing weight :P It's also nice to throw in some new fun exercises, if only for the muscle confusion!

Any thoughts/disagreements/flames?

re: front squat grip

I used to struggle with my rack position and wrist flexibility so I eventually just switched to using straps and that has made everything so much easier. I have no plans to compete in olympic lifting so if I can do something to take a little of the strain off my wrists/elbows/shoulders then I'm fine with doing so even if it means I potentially lose some carryover benefits to cleans.



It might seem like using straps would be less secure than using a clean grip but I've actually found the opposite to be true because I can now get my elbows up higher and the bar up closer to my throat.

Thanks for the reply. I orginally started doing FS with straps. I guess I could switch back but the issue I had with it was that I would subconcsiously be pulling up and back on the straps and letting my elbows drop. Basically after doing them my shoulders would be just as tired as by legs. But I'll give them another shot - anything is better than that cross my heart style imo.

12 July
Back to uni! yay.....

Squat
3x5x150 (330lb.)

Ok I have no idea whats going on. I didn't want to go to the gym today. Had **** sleep because of that stupid world cup final and was feeling hungry the whole time yet these felt really easy. I didn't even plan on doing 5 reps until halfway through my first set. I guess I'll increase the weight next time? Also did a couple fron squats with 60kg with the straps - felt ok so ill give them a second chance.

P.S Soulman pls dont hate me.

Neutral Grip DB bench
9,7,4x(35x2) (77lbx2)

Dunno if that formatting makes anyone's eyes bleed. Oh well. Went to failure on every set. No shoulder discomfort.

Pull-up negatives
some amount.

13 July

Shoulder rehab day:
pallof press
swiss ball push-up things
CG bench 3x10x60kg super easy not too hard on shoulder
normal grip push-ups - wont be doing these again - ****ing hurt.
face-pulls
heaps of small rotator cuff exercises - small weight heaps of rep

14 July

Front Squat
5x3x100kg (220lb.) Tried straps again and didnt like them one but so decided to stay with the olympic bar position thingy. Managed to find a spot where its not too much on my bone and my delt doesnt hurt. Will increase the weight next time. Also enjoying 5x3 a lot over 3x5 which was recommended to me by a guy that needs to get laid.

Power Cleans
3x3x75kg (165lb.)

Shoulder wasnt feeling to up to it although this may have been because of the front squats. Either way I stopped at 3 sets. Will do one more workout at 75kg and depending on how that goes I will likely increase the weight.

Deadlift
1x5x160kg (352lb) Ok this felt a lot easier than next week. Will try to increase next time.

Good workout imo.

Anyone have any thoughts on suitcase deadlifts?

on the "normal grip" push ups, are you keeping your elbows tucked? or did you mean to say pull ups?

Push ups are healthy for shoulders if you tuck your elbows.

Ah Ive made a mistake. I was describing elbows tucked as "close grip" and elbows untucked as "normal grip" which = shoulder width and not paying attention to elbow tuckage. Will give shoulder width, elbows tucked press-ups a try tomorrow.

also,

15 July

GPP/core day

KB swings
3x20x16kg (2 pd right?)

single-arm KB push press ss w/ farmers walk/carry w/ retracted shoulder blades
3x8x16kg/3x132 strides w/ 16kg KB in one hand, 20kg plate in other, swapping at halfway

KB push press ss w/ OH walk/carry
3x8x16kg/3x66 strides

handstand holds, prone holds

I think im in love. MEssing around with the KBs was so much fun. Im sure my form is aids but I'll do some more research/ bug KPC and get my form in order. No shoulder pain either. Decided not to push my luck by opting not to do strict KB press.