Shoulders are one of those annoying muscle groups that don’t seem to grow for me no matter what I do. Of course, I’ve never focused specifically on shoulders. When I see a gym buddy and he tells me that he’s got “shoulder day,” he automatically loses some credibility with me. Shoulders don’t need their own day…or so I thought. Maybe they do.
I’ve been considering going on a bro split to start off 2019 just for a fun change of pace. I know it’s not anecdotally or scientifically superior to any other split (if anything, it’s probably inferior) but it’s fun as hell to spend an entire day on chest or quads or posterior chain.
I have a different work day today and tomorrow. I get to ride with someone who does a different job for the department. I’m looking forward to it. I’m hoping to learn something that will help me in the process to get on that unit but at the very least it’ll be a break from answering 911 calls.
I feel pain and respond to it appropriately (I think). I’m just tired of this. Resting didn’t help so why bother? My pain/discomfort is probably pretty minor compared to yours.
Be careful, man. Pushing through something I thought was already as bad as it could get for too long ended my last career for me. You’ve got a physical job, too; even two years of not squatting pales in comparison to finding a new livelihood (especially if you like what you do).
Well, I was super motivated to train today so I got up at 0415 to go to the Y before work. I hate getting up early. I’m already fighting sleep.
2 LAP DYNAMIC WARM UP (6:15)
RUNNING
4 LAPS RUN THE STRAIGHAWAY, WALK THE CURVE (7:52)
DEADLIFT (85% DAY AND HEAVYYYYY)
225 x 2
275 x 1
315 x 1
365 x 1
425 x 1 x 3 sets I had about 10 hours between deadlift sessions. I felt weak/tired today so I busted out the straps. I haven’t even been taking my belt to the gym lately. I wished I had it this morning.
CLEAN PULLS
225 x 2
275 x 4, 3, 3
COMPLEX/CIRCUIT/WHATEVER YOU WANNA CALL IT Cable Upright Row
30 x 15
40 x 10 x 2 sets
Incline Bench 1.5 reps
135 x 6 x 3 sets
Crunch Machine
155 x 12 x 3 sets
And that was it. I was out of time. It took me about 21 minutes to do deadlifts and clean pulls and I even timed my rest. What little I did felt good; I just wished I could’ve done another three exercise circuit.
Fair point, but you’ll still need your body to be the department’s physical trainer. Obviously go with your own gut, but the old man in me does feel compelled to tell you “health first.”
Probably not super-enticing to you as an athlete, but I think the John Meadows stuff is terrific for lifting without getting too beat up. I always drift back to his work (Reactive Pump is on this site). You do still end up being able to lift heavy, too. The only downside is it’s hard to still get a lot of conditioning in - his workouts are long and they make you sore - but you can always dial something down or drop abs, calves, arms, that kind of thing.
@FlatsFarmer was just helping me with some really insightful stuff in my log, so maybe can help here. @TriednTrue already posts in here, too.
I was talking to a co-worker this morning about my train wreck body. I told him how my back felt AMAZING and healthy after my surgery because I wasn’t squatting or deadlifting. I wasn’t stiff or sore. I didn’t get out of alignment. It was a nice change of pace.
Now I’m constantly stiff and sore from training—mostly deadlifts. I know that I’ll actually feel better if I stop, but I just love doing them. It’s a tough pill to swallow. I could easily drop about anything since my current goals are shoulders and conditioning. I could easily drop my deadlifts and clean pulls and continue my circuit/complex training and still train my legs enough to maintain what I have. I can even do pulls in the complexes to satisfy that urge. It’s just tough to keep dropping lifts that I like.
You’ve got the sore hip. Torn cartilage/labrum shows your “femur ball” is in the wrong spot. Artrophy in your hip joint shows you the under-active tissue that isn’t working to hold your “femur ball” in place.
Your hip isn’t working properly, so when you do big moves other stuff has to make up for the lack of hip motion. That’s why you’re beat up after squats/deads. And in good alignment when you don’t do those lifts.
If you can “wake up” those atrophied muscles, or rehab that hip joint, or restore your hip function your hip will be stable and move better. Then big moves won’t mess you up so bad.
But you have to get that hip joint working again! And until then you can only do lifts that “fit” into the range of motion your hip has now. You have to stop messing yourself up and making it worse until you get your hip joint right. You have to figure out how to control it and make it work.
If you start only doing what doesn’t hurt and ignore the joint motion, you’ll keep losing hip ROM. More and more lifts will hurt until you’ve got none left! This path ends in a hip replacement.
But you can head that off with some focus on hip tilts and Glute activation.
J have you seen a PT or your surgeon to get some rehab stuff to work that hip.
Make 2019 the year to sort that shit out and meanwhile work on getting big shoulders and back.
Speaking of your shoulders, you also have a shoulder impingment! Maybe from being on crutches and having your serratus go to sleep. It’s really similar to your hip. You gotta fix that too.
I had PT post OP and all I did was hip abduction, adduction, single leg step ups, lunges, and glute bridge. I don’t feel like any on those muscles are asleep. I think I tore my hip labrum again and my body is guarding it.
And you’re right. The list of things I can do without pain continues to shrink. I went through this last year too.
In regards to my shoulder i
I’m just hoping it continues to improve. I think the biceps tendon is popping out of the groove. It doesn’t do it as much now compared to when I first hurt it, but it still moves if I’m not careful.
If it doesn’t get better then I may have to talk to the ortho guy again.
The problem with step ups and lunges and most movements is the External Focus. When you’re abd or adducting or lunging its possible to cheat. Basically to move to the limit of your hip motion, then subtly arch your back (tight QL)or move your knee or twist or shimmy to complete the movement.
You’re an athlete and have probably been living with this for a long time, so you’re great at cheating and making up for limited joint ROM with all kinds of tricks. You probably don’t even feel it anymore.
Your therapists were most likely concerned with getting you to some standard based on lunging or steping up, but not based on Degrees of Motion in your actual hip capsule. The external focus is on the performance, like doing a squat or completing a step up.
They probably didn’t focus 100 % “inside” your hip joint. You have to learn how to move your femur independant of your pelvis. If they didn’t put you on the table and cue you to hold your hips square and motionless while they moved your “femur ball” around the socket, they skipped the fundamental step. You need to make those bones “disassociate” or move independently of eachother. This is the Internal focus.
Like taking the race car in for a pit stop to fix things up (internal focus) before you get back out there to finish the race ( external focus).
Regarding the shoulder. There is a little muscle between your bicep and pec that goes across the front of your shoulder. It can get tight and be a problem. Anyway, check out this thread about shoulder impingment and serratus activation.
Today is a rest day and I’m glad. I don’t know what I’ll do tomorrow. I’m considering shutting down deadlifts. I know they aggravate my hip. I could replace the time I spend on The Daily Dose with something else like push ups and hip exercises. I could do little body weight circuits on those days to hit abs, glute bridges, lateral walks, etc. We’ll see if I actually do it…
One positive is that it’ll shorten my lifting sessions. I’ll probably still do some clean pulls and high pulls during my circuits so I’ll still get a little pulling work, but it’s been taking me 20 minutes to do deadlifts and clean pulls. Now I can just jump straight into my circuit. Hopefully I won’t have to stop short anymore. I’d prefer to do two or three mini circuits (like Alpha’s giant sets, except I don’t rest).
I don’t doubt it, but I think doing so right now would impinge on your long-term strength potential.
I just asked myself this question, and I think it’s relevant in your situation, too - what if we use our sheer stubbornness to aggressively rehab?
Instead of taking the “easy way out” and primarily training compound lifts with therapy for assistance, what would we accomplish in one or two short months by doing therapy as the primary exercise and a couple fun lifts each day as assistance (ha, emotional assistance aka motivation to power through the therapy)?
I don’t really know what I’d get out of it. I basically did that post-op but nothing was addressing my psoas. Everything attacked my glutes with abduction adduction work. The result was that I was healthy for a few months and then I relapsed…
I’m finding step one to that plan to be elusive. Step one is identifying the problem. I’m still not certain… I’ll start researching how to address a tight psoas.
