Thanks for the input but I’m confused about one point. You said:
“IMO it would help if you temporarily stopped performing all tricep extension movements for a while (6-8 weeks)”
If its the bicep, why stop doing triceps work? or did you mean bicep work?
On the subject of chest training: I’d always dismissed decline chest work as unnecessary, but since adding it in for the last year or so my chest looks WAY thicker, and it was already one of my standout bodyparts.
So yeah, maybe do some decline benching. You say you’ve got a bad shoulder so that’d be perfect really (decline’s much easier on the shoulders).
[quote]Yogi wrote:
On the subject of chest training: I’d always dismissed decline chest work as unnecessary, but since adding it in for the last year or so my chest looks WAY thicker, and it was already one of my standout bodyparts.
So yeah, maybe do some decline benching. You say you’ve got a bad shoulder so that’d be perfect really (decline’s much easier on the shoulders).[/quote]
I like doing decline bench about once or twice per month. I prefer weighted dips, but those can be hard on the shoulders.
[quote]Ecchastang wrote:
[quote]Yogi wrote:
On the subject of chest training: I’d always dismissed decline chest work as unnecessary, but since adding it in for the last year or so my chest looks WAY thicker, and it was already one of my standout bodyparts.
So yeah, maybe do some decline benching. You say you’ve got a bad shoulder so that’d be perfect really (decline’s much easier on the shoulders).[/quote]
I like doing decline bench about once or twice per month. I prefer weighted dips, but those can be hard on the shoulders. [/quote]
I love it, it’s my main chest exercise
[quote]Bill Ward wrote:
Thanks for the input but I’m confused about one point. You said:
“IMO it would help if you temporarily stopped performing all tricep extension movements for a while (6-8 weeks)”
If its the bicep, why stop doing triceps work? or did you mean bicep work?
[/quote]
I didn’t mean no triceps training; I mean no triceps extensions. Close-grip pressing should be O.K… You already have an issue at the elbow; no reason to make it worse.
OK, thanks.
I’ll google it just to make sure the lift I am thinking of is what you are talking about.
With regard to decline, my gym doesn’t really have a good way to do it, so I have to use what I call a “sit-up” bench that I either have to carry the weights to or carry the bench to the dumbell rack. Kindof a pain but I’ll add them back in once my forearms/elbows get better.
[quote]Bill Ward wrote:
Awesome, dude. Thanks! I’ve just been flying by the seat of my pants. I try to read the threads but to be honest, I don’t know what most of it means. The thing I liked about the reactive pump was he explained what the lift was and how to do it. I wish there was a glossary for beginners of all the lifts and the CORRECT way to do each and what it was for (what muscles it works).
To answer your question, the shoulder is a chronic problem that I have had since high school. Not bad enough for surgery but limiting because I know what will happen if I’m not careful. It appears that my muscles can endure more than my joints. Don’t know if that is genetic or age related (48) but my current problem is that I have strained both arms at different spots near the elbow. My left one was doing what I call “lawnmower pulls” (knee and same hand on a bench, weight in other hand towards the floor and pull straight up). I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to go all the way down and strained something (I think a tendon) in my left forearm. With arm straight out and palm down, it is on the bottom about an inch from the elbow. Within a week I strained my right arm doing curls with a bent bar as a finisher after upper body and without doing any other bicep work.
Now I feel a very sharp pain when I turn my steering wheel to the left with just that hand. It even hurts to carry my Plazma bottle into the gym in that hand. I have been using straps for tennis elbow on both arms and that helps but the right one doesn’t seem to be getting better. I have been using some hooks that strap to my wrists so I can try to keep some strain off the left one for things like lat pulldowns etc. I think I’m gonna have to bite the bullet and go to an orthopedic specialist. This all happened in June. Family doc barely looked at it and said to rest it. Sorry, got on a roll and probably told you way more than anyone wants to read.
Again, I appreciate all you guys sharing your experience and advice!
Bill[/quote]
I had the exact same problems with my elbows. I am also 48yrs old. I solved it by taking a couple weeks off until the pain was gone. Then, when I re-started, I made sure to stay in the 8-12 rep range for all my lifting. Before this, I was too focused on building strength and would do sets under 5 reps. My arms just were not up to it. Now after a couple of months doing this, I still have no pain at all and I continue to grow…very slowly…
[quote]Bill Ward wrote:
I wish there was a glossary for beginners of all the lifts and the CORRECT way to do each and what it was for (what muscles it works).
[/quote]
[quote]Bill Ward wrote:
With regard to decline, my gym doesn’t really have a good way to do it, so I have to use what I call a “sit-up” bench that I either have to carry the weights to or carry the bench to the dumbell rack. Kindof a pain but I’ll add them back in once my forearms/elbows get better. [/quote]
If there’s a free standing flat bench near the dumbbell area, you can put one or two 45-pound plates under one side. It won’t be as steep an angle, obviously, but the slight decline is still different enough from flat bench to get pretty much all the benefits.
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[quote]Bill Ward wrote:
I wish there was a glossary for beginners of all the lifts and the CORRECT way to do each and what it was for (what muscles it works). [/quote]
[/quote]
This, plus picking up a good book like BlueCollar suggested, are the best bets. There are so many exercises and exercise variations, it’s simply impractical to get them all in one spot.
Read around a bit, soak up some info and get a basic understanding of what’s what, and then look up when specific things when needed. The Site Search Box at the top right of the screen would be a place to start. For example, those “lawnmower pulls” you mentioned are almost-certainly dumbbell rows. No problem.
fwiw my left shoulder has some issues, it’s not exactly impinged, but I found incline flyes seemed to aggravate it. What I started doing instead for upper chest hypertrophy were incline dumbbell presses with either neutral grip, or pronated at the bottom rotating to neutral at the top. I found a traditional pronated grip had me using a lot more deltoid than chest, but i could feel a real contraction in the chest with those two grips, especially if I pre-exhausted with machine flyes as a superset.
my left elbow is also easily aggravated, so I’ve stopped doing skullcrushers (french press) and freeweight tricep extensions (as was mentioned earlier in the thread). To hit the lateral tricep head I’ve been doing cable extensions and pushdowns with a rope attachment with low weight/high reps and that’s taken care of any nagging pain or excessive soreness. I still go heavy on my compound movements.