wow... my shoulders did not handle my first cycle well

I've always had bad shoulders. One of the reasons I was really enjoying F1 and H1 were the mobility drills. When I started at week 1 my shoulders were pain free, but clicking and popping. By week 6 my windmills were perfect, no popping. My iM work for FL1, SPL1 and HBP1 was perfect, no popping. Last week I experienced a bit of shoulder pain in the HBP and RC, so I "corkscrewed" my shoulders in like I used to do to eliminate pain. The pain went away and I kept buildiing volume.

Today I entered week 11... my shoulder popped painfully and loudly on HBP after clicking through SPL. My OTHER shoulder hurt on RC.

I'm not sure what I could have done differently.

EDIT: having thought about it for a few minutes, I guess I could have forced progress less. Meaning if I was supposed to get 15 reps and I was powering out at 12, I'd rest pause the remaining reps. Maybe I was meant to stop when the set got shaky. Maybe my joints needed a slower pace.

Also, maybe I needed more rest days. I was doing...

Mon: FL, sPL, HBP, RC

Tues: MN, SL, SLS

Wed: H1, RC

Thurs: MN, SL, SLS

Fri: FL, sPL, HBP, RC

Shoulders got hit Mon/Wed/Fri. The F1 work was never a problem, though. Twinges and pains were showing up in the SPL, HBP and RC of F1.

I've had pretty good success with having an outline of a schedule that looks like this:

Day 1: FL, sPL, HBP, RC

Day 2: MN, SL, SLS, H1

Day 3: Rest or cardio, whatever.

Repeat.

But more importantly, I'd let how I felt in terms of recovery decide whether or not to train. So, if I had I small twinge here or there, I'd just take another rest day. It works really well.

Bottom line: Always keep in mind that there's also a day tomorrow. If you push too hard and bust yourself up, you can't deliver the next day. But if you restrain yourself just slightly, you'll be ready to push on again tomorrow. In the long run, this strategy will lead to insane gains. Not being injured is pure gold.

Edit: Maybe you haven't always had bad shoulders, but perhaps you haven't been good to them?

Ravn said:

I've had pretty good success with having an outline of a schedule that looks like this:

 

Day 1: FL, sPL, HBP, RC

Day 2: MN, SL, SLS, H1

Day 3: Rest or cardio, whatever.

Repeat.

 

But more importantly, I'd let how I felt in terms of recovery decide whether or not to train. So, if I had I small twinge here or there, I'd just take another rest day. It works really well.

 

Bottom line: Always keep in mind that there's also a day tomorrow. If you push too hard and bust yourself up, you can't deliver the next day. But if you restrain yourself just slightly, you'll be ready to push on again tomorrow. In the long run, this strategy will lead to insane gains. Not being injured is pure gold.

 

Edit: Maybe you haven't always had bad shoulders, but perhaps you haven't been good to them?

I like your workout schedule because my fingers, wrists and forearms would get hit twice a week instead of once. You have no problem working your shoulders two days in a row, twice a week? (Recovery / overtraining -wise)

I've had a lot of imbalances from when I was a little kid. I was a goalie in hockey and a catcher in baseball. This was about ten years spent year-round bent over, with legs turned in and shoulders forward. Then I became a teen and went into a reclusive period. Between school and my hobbies I was always hunched over a desk. When I hit twenty these were just significant muscle imbalances, but in the last ten years they all morphed into major, major joint problems.

I'm basically trying to get strong, get all my muscles in proportion (and even firing -- some don't know how to do that) and get my joints working. I love martial arts and want to train them until I'm old and feeble.

I think I'm going to go back to week 5 and start the cycle again, but this time don't force muscle progress because I can't force joint progress with it. It was when I really started shaking and forcing out every rep that I could that my shoulders started hurting. I guess I'll go for a more gentle progression.

Well, the above training schedule is somewhat dense to begin with, so if I feel wrecked I won't have a problem just dropping in an extra rest day. Sometimes I may need two days in a row, other times I may need a rest day between the two workout days. Depends on the volume and exercises in the workouts... The key is to be as consistent and driven as possible while staying injury free. It's a balance that you learn after a while.

Jay B. said:

... Last week I experienced a bit of shoulder pain in the HBP and RC, so I "corkscrewed" my shoulders in like I used to do to eliminate pain. The pain went away and I kept buildiing volume.

 

Today I entered week 11... my shoulder popped painfully and loudly on HBP after clicking through SPL. My OTHER shoulder hurt on RC.

 

I'm not sure what I could have done differently...

- Never corkscrew the shoulders. This exacerbated the issue.

- As a beginner, always terminate sets when either tempo or quality of movement can no longer be maintained.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach Sommer said:

- Never corkscrew the shoulders. This exacerbated the issue.

- As a beginner, always terminate sets when either tempo or quality of movement can no longer be maintained.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thanks for these tips, coach. I just finished listening to the interview with Robb Wolf you did yesterday and it could not have been more bluntly spelled out for me: you've got to train the connective tissue. I wish I listened to it weeks ago.

Anyways, I'll heal up and take my time as I do it again. The first 5-6 weeks of the program were AMAZING. I was experiencing shoulder flexibility, strength, mobility and painlessness that I haven't felt in years. Then I decided to turn into a powerlifter when reps got difficult.

I found that, when the going gets tough, it's easy to slip back into bad habits and movement patterns without even realizing it. I've had to be especially careful of this.

Coach as far as 'corkscrewing' goes I understand internal rotation is definitely a no, but is some external rotation also a bad idea? I find with the HBP keeping my shoulders externally rotated and upper arms paralell with my body I feel like I am keeping my body tight and placing all the stress on my triceps rather than my elbows and shoulders.