get it checked sooner rather than later.
have a few more PT sessions where he pretty much forces you to totally isolate those muscles. work the ROM only stuff and get stronger!
You know what you need to do…
[quote]soldog wrote:
You know what you need to do…[/quote]
x2
If you have the range of motion, you can build the strength. You have to re-establish the mind-to-muscle connection. What I would do personally: check an anatomy pic of the muscle and where it is in your body in relation to all the other shoulder musculature, close your eyes and visualize your mind connecting to it, imagine it being moved, etc. (if you’ve done yoga, you’ll know what the mumbo-jumbo is about). Then, do your exercises again, remember that visualization, and focus on moving the muscle. Remember remember, think of the muscle, not the movement! Watch yourself doing it in a mirror so that you don’t cheat (use 2 mirrors if necessary). Do a lot of reps with minimum or no weight if necessary, but break it up and do a few reps throughout the day -focus on quality of reps, stop once your mind tires.
And my .02 would definitely be not to push the bench. That’s got potential disaster written all over it, because compensation, under stress, pretty much always ends badly.
^ I agree with these guys. Even if the imbalance was not due to an injury, most of my reading indicates you want to isolate and address a weakness like that. The heavier you go the more likely you are to emphasize wrong patterns to compensate.
Did I tell you I have some tendons missing or re-routed in the left hip/pelvis because of a childhood accident? I worked hard to isolate and emphasize that side and finally stopped lurching to the left on heavier squats. It would have been disastrous to continue that way, imho.
Good deadlift workout btw.
Not only would I check with my PT, but I’d get a second look done by my chiro/ART guy or girl. You know your body the best. If there is even a shadow of a doubt that something is wonky, its your responsibility to yourself to get it straightened out.
[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
What would you say if someone was asking you this question?[/quote]
I suppose it’s not surprising that my husband occasionally calls me “the patron saint of the obvious.”
[quote]JoeGood wrote:
I’d hazard a guess that you are fine pushing your Dl given the way the force of the lift is manifested on that range of muscles. [/quote]
Surprisingly, one of the main roles of the supraspinatus is to provide counter-tension against the natural downward pull of the arm. Trying to DL without that muscle doing its job puts me at risk for dislocating my shoulder.
[quote]punnyguy wrote:
You have to re-establish the mind-to-muscle connection. Remember remember, think of the muscle, not the movement! [/quote]
Ahh, such a cerebral fellow you are.
[quote]punnyguy wrote:
And my .02 would definitely be not to push the bench. That’s got potential disaster written all over it, because compensation, under stress, pretty much always ends badly.[/quote]
No one could look at my numbers these days and accuse me of pushing the bench! But I’ll heed that advice.
Thanks for chiming in everyone. I really appreciate the feedback. I actually made an appointment for a one-hour evaluation next week with the PT I used to rehab me after the surgery. And my ART guy is in the know. He’s the one who initially diagnosed the tear and told me a month or so ago that the atrophy suggested that the muscle wasn’t working properly.
Week two of the new training cycle. Which is no longer new, I suppose.
Squat
5/50
4/70
3/90
2/100
3/5/120 belt
Sumo DLs
5/115
3/5/145
I know I’m not really challenging myself with the weights here. I’ll get there.
Weighted Hypers
3/8/45
Good Girl/Bad Girl
3/8/95
Cable Pull-Thrus
8/40
8/50
8/60
8/70
8/80
First time doing these. I asked the one trainer in my gym who actually knows something to show me how to do these and check my form. I had a hard time determining where to start weight-wise.
Ball balance on all fours
3 sets for about 1 min. each
Chins
5
Haven’t chinned in forever. Use it or lose it. Plus, I was tired.
Hope things with your shoulder go well. Glad you’re taking a pause to assess. I feel awkward as can be on those cable pull-thrus. I still haven’t figured out how to do them well. Glad your shoulder issue doesn’t preclude some chins! Interesting how that works. Different ROM.
I’m the same on pull-throughs. I can’t seem to get enough load to do any good.
Good luck with the assessment, Snap.
good on you for getting the assessment. some good advice in here. at least you got the range of motion rather than having to start with getting it back… sounds like me trying to wiggle my toes…
Best of luck with the assessment. I am sure there is a path through this. Just need to find the right person to be the guide.
The human body never ceases to amaze me.
Upper body training day.
I checked my ego at the door today and decided to do most of my accessory work unilaterally with extremely strict form. In order to try to re-establish the mind/body connection and actually watch the muscles working in my wonky shoulder, as Punnyguy suggested, I trained shirtless in a sports bra. Ugh. I felt a wee bit self-conscious as I’m not a showboater type and feel like I’m trying to draw attention to myself in scant attire.
Here’s the rundown:
Flat bench . . . worked up to 8s at a very uninspiring weight. Holding steady for the time being.
Lying “L” cuff work
Seated cuff rolls
One-arm seated row
Paused seated row
One-arm tricep pushdown
One-arm overhead tricep extension
Standing straight-bar lat pulldown
Standing cable external rotation . . . even unweighted, can’t do at all in affected shoulder except for a very narrow range of motion
pecs in the pec deck
…
If you’re doing one arm exercises, can you put your right hand on the muscles in question to feel if they’re contracting?
…i feel like you’re feeling kinda down, My Snap 
I hope I’m wrong :{ And I’m sorry to hear about the injury flare ups and stuff.
you’re being brave and smart about this. I send positive vibes
^ I echo Brute here. Better to take it slow and be careful with the shoulder.
By the way, I followed your advice this morning on my bench press and broke into the triple digits with a whooping 100 pounds. BW is 112 to that’s 89% of BW. Thanks for teaching me how to set it up!
[quote]brute_fury wrote:
…i feel like you’re feeling kinda down, My Snap I hope I’m wrong :{ And I’m sorry to hear about the injury flare ups and stuff.
you’re being brave and smart about this. I send positive vibes[/quote]
X2
Snap, don’t know if you saw it on Strick’s thread, but I posted about doing some more box squats yesterday. Trying to keep in mind all the advice you’ve given, and suddenly things clicked. I was just shooting the weight right up, no matter how low my butt got. Got up to 85 lbs and just popped up. The key was getting the bar low enough on my back. Once that happened, my body just naturally leveraged itself into something like a vertical leg press machine. Needs some work, of course, but really excited. Ought to be able to build up some serious weight.
Thanks for the advice.
Havn’t read your entire log, just a few entries. I had similar injury Apr2009, kept training as best I could through to surgery Jan2010. I’m interested to hear how you’re progressing especially with chest, shoulders etc.
Have you had to reduce/modify ROM on any exercises?
i’m proud of you snap. i know it kinda sucks to do rehab stuff… i held off starting a log on t nation because i thought people might ignore me / think i was silly for having to do so much rehab stuff… and for being so weak in general. but i’ve profited so much from taking the risk and diving on in here. just think how cool this is going to be longer term when your bench goes through the roof!!!