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Thread: Work-induced recovery issues and elbow pain (tendonitis?) + other questions.

  1. #1
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    Dec 2019
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    Default Work-induced recovery issues and elbow pain (tendonitis?) + other questions.

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    Hi everyone,

    Here is some background about myself as a lifter. I've been pretty active my entire 24 years of life but never really lifted weights (beyond messing around in the gym a bit in high school) until after I through-hiked the Appalacian Trail in 2018. At that point I was a skinny5'6", 140 lbs and decided I didn't want to look so wimpy and gain some strength and muscle, but I hadn't discovered starting strength. Nevertheless, for around 6 months I made some decent gains, Bench went from around 120 to 160, Deadlift went from around 170 to 270, I didn't squat for awhile but I got to 225 for 3 sets of 5. Then I started my summer and fall trail work season and didn't really lift again until the end of october, where I started the SS NLP. During trail season I dropped from a BW of around 160 to around 150 and lost a lot of strength, so I started NLP at these numbers, and I've also posted where I am at right now.

    Squat 165 --> 235
    Deadlift 185 --> 270
    Bench Press 140 --> 180
    Press 85 --> 112.5

    I haven't really made significant progress on any of the lifts except the Deadlift for the last month, which I think is largely due to starting a new job where I move furniture around a warehouse and deliver it to peoples houses. Nothing is really very heavy but it is often awkward and tiring when carrying sofas up stairs. My grip strength seems to have gotten stronger but my hands are always kind of sore. My left elbow also hurts often at work and when I try to lift, especially when squatting and bench pressing. For this reason I haven't been able to lift more than 2 legitimate times in a week for the last three weeks or so, which has been frustrating and many of those workouts were failures due to bailing early from the elbow issue, or just not being able to complete an increase in the weight for all the work sets.

    I think I may be near the end of NLP for the pressing lifts, because they were already basically stalled before I started the furniture job, but I question if this is possible because the numbers seem really low. I have been steadily gaining weight and have gotten to around 165 from 150 after three months, and my rest time between sets is adequate, taking more time doesn't seem to help. I sleep about 8 hours a night and more on weekends so that also shouldn't be the source of the problem. As long as the elbow pain isn't too bad I seem to have no problem increasing on the squat (despite probably not that great form) and deadlift which isn't effected by the elbow. Over the last month I've worked on fixing a wrist flexion form issue with squat which seems to have gotten my awful wrist pain under control but now the elbow hurts every time.

    My questions are:

    1. What can I do to keep lifting and progressing despite obviously hampered recovery from work? I've thought about just accepting only lifting 2 days a week and making the most out of it, but I'd like to get back to 3 days.

    2. What can I do about this damn elbow pain? I don't want to make it worse as I hear tendonitis is a bitch to make go away. Squat is frustrating and painful enough I'm considering just not doing it for awhile and doing leg press or something else instead (I know this is considered sacreligious here).

    I apologize for the novel, but I am just getting really demoralized and would like any help I can get so I figured giving as much info as possible may be helpful. Let me know if theres anything else I may be missing. Thanks!

  2. #2
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  3. #3
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    I was hoping I wouldn't get the classic Rippetoe response, but alas I will take it as a rite of passage through my newb stages of lifting. I usually take about 4 minutes between sets for Bench and Press, and taking more time doesn't seem to help, and about 4-5 minutes for Squat and Deadlift, but my progression isn't really a problem so much with those. As far as weight jumps, I've been at 2.5 lb jumps for Bench and Press and 5 lbs for Deadlift. I don't know exactly how many calories I eat but I would imagine around 3000 most days, as I have a good idea what 3000 is from some tracking I did earlier when I was starting the program. I've been steadily gaining weight and have gained around 15 lbs in the last 3 months. I'm a pretty short dude at 5'6" and while I'm aware 165 isn't exactly heavy I would imagine my weight simply isn't going to go up as much as a 6'0" guy. I get 8 hours of sleep each night and more on the weekends.

  4. #4
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    Jun 2019
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    Quote Originally Posted by chickenonabun View Post
    1. What can I do to keep lifting and progressing despite obviously hampered recovery from work? I've thought about just accepting only lifting 2 days a week and making the most out of it, but I'd like to get back to 3 days.
    It's hard to say how much your job is hurting you. Humans are adaptable and made to be active. The way I see it you can quit your job to focus on lifting or you can keep your job and get your body used to the workload. I think if you tough it out you will adapt. When all else fails eat better and sleep more.

    Quote Originally Posted by chickenonabun View Post
    2. What can I do about this damn elbow pain? I don't want to make it worse as I hear tendonitis is a bitch to make go away. Squat is frustrating and painful enough I'm considering just not doing it for awhile and doing leg press or something else instead (I know this is considered sacreligious here).
    Improve your form and technique so you aren't military pressing the bar while squatting. Preventing Elbow Pain in the Squat | Nick Delgadillo
    Do the "elbow protocol" Elbow Tendonitis, Deadlift 3x/week?


    Quote Originally Posted by chickenonabun View Post
    I apologize for the novel, but I am just getting really demoralized and would like any help I can get so I figured giving as much info as possible may be helpful. Let me know if theres anything else I may be missing. Thanks!
    This is a hard program. You have a hard job. We'd all like to see you get strong as fast as possible, but on the other hand there really is no rush and no point to being frustrated. Strength training is a life-long endeavor, do what you need to do to be successful long term, just don't be lifting the same darn weights next year! If you need to modify "the program" for more recovery there are several options including going to an intermediate program early. Search around...

  5. #5
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    Dec 2019
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    Thanks for the response, I will certainly put a lot of effort into my squat form and try and get the weight off my elbows and onto my back, and I think I will try Rip's elbow -tendonitis protocol (the crap-load of chinups one), though I'm not sure how well it might work as chinups have never made my elbows hurt. I will see how I end up adapting to the job and just keep lifting as much as I can without making things worse, and if i can't get the presses moving again I will move them to more intermediate style programming. At least with the nature of my job even if I don't get to lift very much the furniture will probably prevent much detraining.

  6. #6
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    How heavy is this furniture you lift? Sets of 5?

  7. #7
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    Dec 2018
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    You need to eat.

    I started the program at 170 and after three months I weighed 205, my squat and DL had gone up over 120 lbs. Bench went up 40 lbs and press went up 50. I was 30 years old when I started.

    You're 24. Healthy enough to a have a job lifting furniture.

    #1 You need to eat. YOU CANNOT EAT TOO MUCH. You're a skinny dude. Drink a gallon of milk a day. Try to get some fish if you can afford it.
    #2 It sounds like you need to shore up your form. Read the Starting Strength and Practical Programming. Film yourself. Watch youtube videos of Starting Strength coaches with the correct model and compare to yours.
    #3 You need to eat. YOU CANNOT EAT TOO MUCH.
    #4 Simplify your life to the following: working, sleeping, training and eating. Only focus on those things and you will succeed at those things. You're 24... you don't have much more important things going on.
    #5 You need to eat. YOU CANNOT EAT TOO MUCH.

    This program works but you gotta nut up and put in the work. Eat 4500-5000 calories per day.

  8. #8
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    Dec 2019
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    Hill, you’re probably right that I need to eat more I will start doing that. Mark, my sets of 5 that I will be attempting tomorrow are 275 for deadlift, 182.5 for bench press, and 240 for squat. The heaviest furniture I lift and carry around is probably about 3-400 lbs for a couch split between two people but it’s usually kind of awkward. The lifting isn’t really difficult but the grip and isometric nature of the carrying can be tiring.

  9. #9
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    Strength training makes the furniture lighter. It doesn't work the other way.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2018
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    starting strength coach development program
    If you eat and get your form better you won’t need to go up by 2.5 lbs on bench. You’ll start going up by fives again. Promise. It’s really that simple.

    Remember: work, train, sleep, eat. Those are the most important things in your life right now. You can have other things in your life, but not at the expense of those. That is what it means to be an adult and to set your mind to something.

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