I am a 40yr old novice powerlifter struggling to get my repaired triceps to engage during bench . I used to be able to press 270. Now I am stuck at 235. When I go above 235 my good arm engages with no issue. My repaired triceps takes a coffee break. How do I fix this issue. All help is appreciated. Thank you.
Could be simply that it isn’t strong enough. I’m a physical therapist so this answer isn’t coming out of the air. I don’t know how long you are post op, I don’t know if you had therapy post op. So this is based just on the information given.
Most likely the other movers of that movement are over compensating and moving the weight to the point you’re getting at (ant delts and pec) much more so than they would if your tricep was healthy. Again not knowing details, I’d guess the muscle has significant atrophy post op and would guess you were put on a strict weight restriction for a certain amount of time from your dr. Again I’m guessing.
So most likely the muscle is atrophied, and significantly weaker than everything else.
So I’d say most likely you’re gonna have to build some mass back on that tricep with some good old fashion volume work, and not worry about the 1rm for a while. It sounds like your non effected side is healthy and retained a lot of its strength. Also I’d say finishing your workout with some 1 armed iso work to build mind muscle connection may help as well if the issue is simply it not firing.
Hope this helps and if you can drop some more info on the injury I can look it over and give you my thoughts.
Assuming you are healthy enough to be lifting I would recommend tempo benching. Single arm push downs, extensions, and presses letting your weak tricep determine the weight you use.
I am 2 years post op. But what you say makes sense. Thanks for the information.