So I have been doing my own bastardized version of 5/3/1 for about a year and a half and I had always done standing military press as one of my main movements. I am a truck mechanic and six months out of the year I have to do alignments which entails turning rusty and/or seized torque arms on all of the trailers. This is very hard on the rotator cuff. I have done 4 in 2 days and had to cut short my pressing today because of pain. I have never had a problem before this.
Anyways I think the point of this post other than to complain about life is I am looking for suggestions to replaced overhead pressing that is easy on the shoulders. Pullups do not hurt and I haven’t had any problems benching at all. Maybe just add a light bench day? Open for any ideas. Thanks for your time to read my ramblings.
[quote]johngalt191 wrote:
So I have been doing my own bastardized version of 5/3/1 for about a year and a half and I had always done standing military press as one of my main movements. I am a truck mechanic and six months out of the year I have to do alignments which entails turning rusty and/or seized torque arms on all of the trailers. This is very hard on the rotator cuff. I have done 4 in 2 days and had to cut short my pressing today because of pain. I have never had a problem before this. Anyways I think the point of this post other than to complain about life is I am looking for suggestions to replaced overhead pressing that is easy on the shoulders. Pullups do not hurt and I haven’t had any problems benching at all. Maybe just add a light bench day? Open for any ideas. Thanks for your time to read my ramblings.[/quote]
What part of the press hurts? If it doesn’t hurt till it gets below the ears or chin then maybe a rack press set a little higher than the comfort zone might not be a bad idea.
That is an interesting idea but it is like the bottom half of the movement. Total rom would be like 8 inches if I did that. But I will give it a shot some time this week and see how I like it. Thanks.
[quote]MightyMouse17 wrote:
floor press[/quote]
I like your train of thought. I will try that as well.
Swiss Bar Military Press.
[quote]johngalt191 wrote:
I am looking for suggestions to replaced overhead pressing that is easy on the shoulders. .[/quote]
Where do you train at? gym, home? I have a few ideas that you may like, depending on your answer.
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
[quote]johngalt191 wrote:
I am looking for suggestions to replaced overhead pressing that is easy on the shoulders. .[/quote]
Where do you train at? gym, home? I have a few ideas that you may like, depending on your answer. [/quote]
Commercial gym mostly. Not too many specialty bars there though.
Perhaps landmine pressing would be the best option. I frequently see strength coaches especially
In the football realm advertising them purely on rotator cuff and shoulder health. I believe it was Ben Bruno who wrote some articles including the landmine press on T-Nation but I may be wrong about the author. Regardless they may be worth trying purely on mussle gains for a new variation. As well as landmine pressing I’ve seen the off balance press using an equaly weighted load on resistance bands as a warmup and/or recovery exercise as an affective shoulder rehabilitation teqnique for minor tweeks
In the shoulder.
[quote]johngalt191 wrote:
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
[quote]johngalt191 wrote:
I am looking for suggestions to replaced overhead pressing that is easy on the shoulders. .[/quote]
Where do you train at? gym, home? I have a few ideas that you may like, depending on your answer. [/quote]
Commercial gym mostly. Not too many specialty bars there though.[/quote]
FWIW, I own a EFS Swiss bar and for me, it’s much more difficult than a regular bar for OHP. Shoulder press machine were easier on my shoulder after my rebuild surgery. Light weight, lots of reps. Oh, the John Meadows “shoulder destroyer” was surprisingly good to me too despite the name.
Try an incline press or a seated DB OHP press varation. Or just take an extra week and just let it heal up and be worry free.
A chronically inflamed shoulder needs more than a week to heal. Since you don’t compete in the overhead press, drop it for a while. I’ve had bad shoulders for years, and the only thing that has helped is dropping all overhead work, including pull-ups. I can bench 2x weekly though with no issue.
Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I really do appreciate it.
I would try to limit all overhead activities until it cleared up.
Then I would schedule an appointment with a doctor to get a quick check up, and see if you are for sure dealing with a RTC problem. You may have a number of other things that may be causing the problem that a doctor can help diagnose (bursitis, AC joint malfunciton or separation, impingement, etc.).
For rusty bolts, I wouldn’t try to muscle them off. I would use a breaker bar (or throwing a piece of pipe around a ratchet and using it as a breaker bar). I would also avoid putting my shoulder in unnatural or contorted positions, and limiting overhead movements to give yourself a rest.
That being said, I would just go in the gym and be creative with what you can do. As someone previously mentioned, I have heard good things about the landmine press.
Also, try some rehab stuff. You don’t have to just give up.
I used an EliteFTS mini band for the dislocates until I could use a broom handle.
[quote]trivium wrote:
For rusty bolts, I wouldn’t try to muscle them off. I would use a breaker bar (or throwing a piece of pipe around a ratchet and using it as a breaker bar). I would also avoid putting my shoulder in unnatural or contorted positions, and limiting overhead movements to give yourself a rest.
[/quote]
That’s exactly the problem. I am using a 24" pipe wrench (and a rosebud) to turn those arms and it does put my shoulder in a weird position, only way I can complete my task. I am assuming it is my rotator due to the guy I work with had to have surgery last year to repair his. But only a doctor can actually tell and I should visit one. He was the only one to do them all last year. Since his shoulder is fucked I get stuck doing them.
But everything else you said was quality and I will have to try those with the mini bands since we do have those at my gym. Thanks.
Dumb question - but can you get a ratchet and a proper length extension so as to position yourself for better body leverage?
And definitely start doing a regular shoulder recoup routine today; consider it regular maintenance you perform on yourself.
[quote]Sea-Doo Boy wrote:
Dumb question - but can you get a ratchet and a proper length extension so as to position yourself for better body leverage?
And definitely start doing a regular shoulder recoup routine today; consider it regular maintenance you perform on yourself. [/quote]
No, it is actually a threaded tube in between 2 stationary ends that pulls the trailer axle forward. 24 in pipe wrench is the biggest I can go. I have a 36 but I can’t get underneath it with it. Should do some shoulder mobility stuff though. Good idea.
I second the idea of swiss bar or landmine.
I’ve never had your specific problem, so this is spit balling, but…
-Vincent Dizenzo swears by the swiss angle bar on elitefts.com (different from normal swiss bar)
- I believe Donnie Thomson used to like kettlebells for shoulder work.
- Heck, dumbbells might be enough just not locking your arms into a fixed distance.
- you can McGyver a tsunami bar by buying a PVC pipe and then pass a slightly narrower one through that. If you hang the weights off it with mini bands the weight you’ll be using will be so light it might address the issue. Plus you’ll be very focused on stabilizing rather than simply pressing the weight.
Just a few thoughts
oh, also forgot, something that’s helped my shoulder health is club swinging. Nothing fancy needed, a sledgehammer’s fine. Again, this helped my particular case, may not be the same as yours
EDIT: guess I can’t link off the site, but do a google or youtube search for [diesel crew club swinging] they have a couple of videos
