Finding Out that the Iron Never Lies

[bustermonkey2]

July 27, 2017

Squats @ 425 lbs-3,3,3,3,3,3 Set/4 minutes. Not Bad, maybe RPE 8.5-9.


July 31, 2017
Bodywt 235 lbs.

I took an extra couple days off and did 3 days of Ibuprofen in an attempt to fix my shoulder issue but some pain still persists. Although bench is slightly affected, it's really pressing that is causing the pain. I don't know if it's inpingement, tendonitis or something else. I'm going to do Starr rehab on the press and see if that helps at all.

Bench @ 325 lbs-8 singles, single/minute. Rpe 8.
Bench @ 225 lbs-20 reps. Pretty quick.

Press @ 45 lbs-25,25,25. Some pain, especially on 1st set. I hope that this shoulder issue resolves itself soon.

[bustermonkey2]

August 2, 2017
Bodywt 234 lbs. Need to start eating more.

Deadlifts @ 435 lbs-3,3,3,3,3,3 Rep 8. Set/3-4 minutes. Rest time varied after 1st 3 sets due to helping my daughter. She's planning on doing the fall strengthlifting meet and then a NASA meet in Topeka a few weeks later.

My left shoulder continues to be a bit achey. My regular gym is closed from Aug 3-5 so I'll just take those days off to see if it gets better.

[bustermonkey2]

August 6, 2017

Bench, paused @ 325 lbs-9 singles, set/minute. Rpe 8 Left shoulder just a bit sore.

Press @ 55 lbs-20,20,20 Shoulder was sore on 1st set and by third set was only a bit sore. I'm going to do starr rehab on it and press as many days as I can. I don't know if it's a muscle tear or a tendon issue. It's really starting to annoy me.


August 7, 2017
Bodywt 235 lbs

Squats @ 430 lbs-3,2,2,2,2,2 Rpe 9 Set/4 minutes.

Press @ 65 lbs-20,20,20 Left shoulder a little sore but felt ok by last set.

[Róbert Kovács]

Sorry to hear about your shoulder malady, I'm in similar shoes currently myself. A few observations, tips. Some of them might be useful for your situation as well:
Be careful with chins, control the negative, as they flared up my shoulder pain worse than anything else a few weeks ago, it might have been that I haven't been very strict with my form during lowering myself.
Low rep presses sometimes irritate my shoulder as well these days, but doing a high rep set, like myoreps even after low rep heavy work seemed to make them feel better.
When pressing, I get much less irritation if I deliberately keep my elbows slightly in front of the bar in the start position, and try to keep my elbows closer together, CUE: like I want to pinch and hold something in my armpits.
Bench is usually painless, but the closer my grip is, the less irritation occurs.
Strict rear delt rows (high rep) really seems to help with the shoulder tightness/pain. Also regular barbell rows give me no issues at all.
Pullups for my shoulder situation are the worst though, just hanging from the bar is painful sometimes.

[bustermonkey2]

Seti- Thanks for the advice. This shoulder thing seems to be getting a bit better with the starr rehab, albeit slower than I'd like. For me right now chins are painless, bench is mostly painless and press hurts a bit, although the pain is less pronounced than it was a week ago.

August 8, 2017
Press @ 75 lbs-20,20,20 Little painful but was better by 3rd set.

Aug 9, 2017
Bench, paused @ 325 lbs-10 singles. Rep/minute. Rpe 8.5
Bench @ 225 lbs-15. I did these a bit more slowly and didn't push it.
Press @ 85 lbs-20,20,20 Shoulder a bit painful.

August 10, 2017
Bodywt 234 lbs
Deadlifts @ 445 lbs-3,2,2,2,2,2 Rpe 9. Set/3 minutes.
Press @ 95 lbs-20,20,20. Shoulder still painful on a few reps, but definitely improving.

[bustermonkey2]

Seti- Thanks for the advice. This shoulder thing seems to be getting a bit better with the starr rehab, albeit slower than I'd like. For me right now chins are painless, bench is mostly painless and press hurts a bit, although the pain is less pronounced than it was a week ago.

August 8, 2017
Press @ 75 lbs-20,20,20 Little painful but was better by 3rd set.

Aug 9, 2017
Bench, paused @ 325 lbs-10 singles. Rep/minute. Rpe 8.5
Bench @ 225 lbs-15. I did these a bit more slowly and didn't push it.
Press @ 85 lbs-20,20,20 Shoulder a bit painful.

August 10, 2017
Bodywt 234 lbs
Deadlifts @ 445 lbs-3,2,2,2,2,2 Rpe 9. Set/3 minutes.
Press @ 95 lbs-20,20,20. Shoulder still painful on a few reps, but definitely improving.

[bustermonkey2]

August 12, 2017
Bodywt 235 lbs

Left shoulder hurting again before I even started session. Frustrating as it seemed to be improving.

Bench @ 335 lbs-6 singles. Single/ 2 minutes. Rpe 8.5. Moderate left shoulder pain.
Bench @ 225 lbs-15. Slower due to shoulder pain.

Press @ 105 lbs-10,10,10 Slower because of shoulder pain. Had to take ibuprofen following session as I had continued shoulder pain.


August 13, 2017
Shoulder feels quite a bit better, maybe the best it's felt in about a month.

Squats @ 430 lbs-3,3,2,2,2,2 Set/4 minutes. Rpe 9, maybe even a bit easier.

Press @ 115 lbs-10,10,10. Almost no shoulder pain at all. Just a couple of mild twinges on a couple of reps.

Chins-10,10,10.

[bustermonkey2]

August 15, 2017
Bodywt 237 lbs
Left shoulder feels significantly better. Almost no pain at all when I move it without any weight and even with weight only in a narrow part of the range of motion.

Bench, paused @ 335 lbs-7 singles. Single/minute. Rpe 8.5-9. Pretty much pain free.
Bench @ 225 lbs-20.

Press @ 125 lbs-10,10,10,10. Only a bit of an ache on a couple of reps.



August 16, 2017
Shoulder doesn't feel as good as yesterday but still much better than 4-5 days ago.

Deadlifts @ 445 lbs-3,3,2,2,2,2 Rpe 8. Rest time between sets was all over the place (3-5 minutes) because I was spotting my daughter on bench.

Press @ 135 lbs-10,10,10. Some pain at the bottom for all sets but definitely better than a few days ago.

[bustermonkey2]

Aug 19, 2017

Bench, paused @ 335-8 singles. Single/minute. Rpe 9. Some left shoulder pain.
Bench @ 225 lbs-20. Pretty quick.

Press @ 145 lbs-10,7,7. Moderate shoulder pain. Crap. This shoulder thing isn't going away.


August 20, 2017
Squats @ 430 lbs-3,3,3,2,2,2 Rest times all over the place beacuse a former powerlifter kept talking with me.

Press @ 155 lbs-2. Fairly painful so stopped. I'm going to have to rethink my approach to this shoulder issue. At this point, I suspect shoulder tendonitis, possibly caused by overuse. It doesn't really hurt unless I've got some weight in a narrow range of motion while pressing. Occasionally it hurts if I sleep on it, but it's generally pain free except while lifting. Clearly nothing has a full tear, although I suppose a partial tear is possible. I don't want to see doctor about it because I'm concerned I will get just referred to orthopod who will recommend surgery even if it could heal without it. The whole if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail issue that some orthopods have. I think I will take a full week off bench and press. After that I will go with bench and press just one time a week with reduced press weights and see if that works. I won't lose much off my bench or press doing it once a week, I just won't progress either. Right now, I want to fix it before it gets worse. When I first did LP, I developed pretty bad knee tendonitis, and simply reducing the frequency of squats fixed the situation, although it did take several months.

[bustermonkey2]

Aug 24, 2017
Bodywt 234 lbs

Deadlifts @ 445 lbs-3,3,3,2,2,2 Rpe 9. Approx 3 min/set