Barbell Lifts Question for Those with 20+ Years Experience

Hi, Antiquity. You’ll want to continue barbell exercises for as long as possible. Reason being that results are extremely slow and if you stop them too quickly you’ll have nothing to show for it. In my case, for example, 35 years ago 95 pounds was my absolute max bench press. Today I can bench 135 for 5 reps before hitting failure. That averages out to about 1 pound per year on your lifts. So just keep with it. Good luck!

Im not that much of a lifter - but I am pretty banged up
from college sport and work
I have had manual job for my entire life.

shoulders and elbows both flare up -its compounded by work.

It turns out much of the damage to shoulders and elbows
( aside from sports trauma)
is time under tension.

when I train - I squat frequently- those sets under the bar add up.
front squats- not much better- loading the ‘rack’ position isn’t great on the elbows either.
an SSB bar might help with that.
pull ups chins both really crush my elbows- and for years I did them in volume- lots and lots of volume
other favorites like hanging leg raises or Over head squats
where you are loading the elbows- really take a toll.

other culprits- a long term diet of cleans.
power cleans made up the bulk of weight training thru college.
and those take toll .

all these lifts - seem ok-
cleans
pull ups
Halging leg raises-
OH squats -
and having your elbow loaded up in the front or back squat-
do seem ok but they take a toll.

longwinded 2c

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I think my elbow flare up was caused by all the climbing I did at the commercial gym. It was fun as hell but took a toll. I don’t do front squats at all any more. The rack position hits a weird bump on my collar bone. OH squats f’d my shoulder a few years ago so I don’t go near them any more. I love my SSB though.

Do you find a lot of band work helps your joints?

Compounds get a bad rap for wearing joints down because of the heavy weight ppl use with those exercises, it’s not the exercises themselves, it’s the weight. Just my opinion and I don’t have 20 yrs experience lifting… I don’t think. Use too much weight, joints will suffer, improper form because of too much weight, joints will suffer.

Supplementing with glucosamine, warming up with a light set or two to get the blood pumping in and around your joints before your working sets might help too, it won’t hurt to incorporate anyways. Happy Lifting!

YES band work helps indeed.
I do alot of mobility/activation
and doing simple things like band tricep extensions
BPA’s are low hanging fruit

I turn to this guy for more advanced work with bands

its an excellent youtube channel

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