Best Damn Strength, Vertical Pull Alternative?

Hello CT,

I was wondering if you could possibly provide an alternative to the vertical pulls found in day 6 of this program. I have an issue where I cannot do any vertical pulls (huge pain in my scapula when attempted) but I’d love to give this program a go.

Hopefully this program can be reasonably modified while maintaining its integrity if not I appreciate you letting me know.

Regards,

Jamesliftsheavy

Why can’t you do vertical pulling? The answer to your question is to figure out your problem and treat it.

That being said…

I suggest angled rows/pull downs. You can sit on the ground and use a cable machine. You can position the cable or your body in different positions to hit different angles. Find angles that don’t hurt and do those.

Don’t get stuck with horizontal or vertical pulling; there are a lot of angles you can work on between those two.

Tip: you might have to do single arm when seated on the floor since you don’t have an anchor point. Double arm will just pull you off the ground.

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While I appreciate your response this question can only really be answered by CT. I’ve read his work and forums for many years and I know he sometimes feels thats even small modifcations to his programs can render them less effective and he often recommends people do something else in that case.

I have a scapular fracture that I’ve been rehabbing for some time now which was caused by doing some heavy block pulls where my upperback lost tightness.

I am aware of how to work around this injury however my question pertains to CT’s opinion on whether or not this program should be done if day 6 would need to be modified significantly and how it should be done.

If you do just horizontal pulling it won’t change much. The spirit of the program is what is important. I did it for three months the second time, while having for a month splints (carpal tunnel surgeries on both wrist) and guess what I lost a bit of chest and shoulders because I couldn’t do coumpound for these bodyparts but the rest progressed.