Rips Shoulder

[halbritt]

On the occasions when I can actually sleep, it makes me happy that my shoulders do not wake me up.

This makes me sad, because I seem to be headed in a similar direction. I introduced a friend to SS recently and he's making great progress. He's also over 40 and happily manages to sleep 10 hours a night any night he pleases. At some point, I think I may stab him out of envy.

[zephed56]

I am not sure. I have been in the same shoulder pain position (presses fine, dips and benchs hurt, push-ups not as bad) but have kept trying to do benchs--short limited comebacks followed by pain.

Simply cutting it out on the one hand seems like it makes great sense and I can stop the madness. On the other hand--am I giving in to something I should continue to try to work through? At 54 (almost 55) am I allowing age to beat me (well, it eventually beats us all, but as far as we know--also beats the heck out of the known alternatives).

So--I might be both happy and sad.

Have you tried dips and pushups separately from the bench press (and also each other), and still had pain? Maybe next time you decide to try training a horizontal press, you skip bench and try pushups first (since they are the least stressful lift, and less likely to give you pain/injury). If pushups have been worked in adequately long without pain, then try dips (progress slowly).

[Mark Rippetoe]

Thanks for the perspective--I have no visions of power lifting. So--bench's are gone! I know presses also work the chest--any other exercises that are relatively pain free for impacted shoulders?

Chins.

[gape]

If I were dealing with a younger person or an athlete that needed strength in that direction, I'd do something to work them back in. But I personally don't miss the bench press. I wish I could do dips, because that makes my press stronger, and it has been a problem in my attempt to get the press up to 220.

Have you tried push presses to assist your press training? People have said it has helped them break through plateaus on the press. For beginners like me, just pressing and benching is plenty of tricep work already. But push presses may help someone like you who are unable to bench or do dips.

[Mark Rippetoe]

They really bother my quad tendinitis. Haven't been able to do them in quite a while.

[cjangelo]

They really bother my quad tendinitis. Haven't been able to do them in quite a while.

Good grief Rip, you're a wreck.

Seriously though, I'm curious how often you perform the lifts that you're able to perform. I was just reading about squatting and deadlifting on alternate weeks for, uh, master's level lifters. I'm willing to bet you're more aggressive with the frequency of the lifts, but I'd like to know what your training schedule looks like, if you don't mind sharing.

My understanding is that, as guys accumulate years of training experience, they begin to use intensity as the driver of progress, decreasing volume and frequency of the lift. For example, performing a lift once a week, working up to an all-out effort on a rep max.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Recently I have been training heavy 3x/week with singles. Hitting 375-405 SQ, 195-202 PR, 465 DL/455 x 4 HDL/515 RP. Seems to be working.

[halbritt]

Speaking of old guys, you once mentioned a modification to the SS program for old guys having them squat only twice a week. I'm wondering if you meant that they should just have two workouts per week or have three and just omit the squat for one of them.

[hamburgerfan]

Rip, I hope never, ever to become as injured as you are. But if I ever am, I hope to be that strong as well.

[macetini]

Hitting 375-405 SQ, 195-202 PR, 465 DL/455 x 4 HDL/515 RP

Not too shabby for a 50something. There are injury virgins in their 20s dreaming of this numbers.