Shoulder cramping

[Mulgere Hircum]

It looks like delt cramping may be an obstacle for my bench press, oddly enough. I had a left rear delt cramp a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday I felt like my right upper delt wanted to while unracking. What's odd about this is that it clearly isn't from the level of effort, since the medial delt really shouldn't have a great role in unracking a bench press, of all things. It's almost like the trouble happens in the antagonists, which puzzles me.

Anyway, I was curious if there is some common wisdom about avoiding cramps that I don't know.

[LimieJosh]

In my experience, cramps are more a reaction to unfamiliar movement patterns than nutritional deficiencies. As such, the rear delt could be an artifact of the intense scapula retraction, especially if you're not used to doing that under a load and/or you're new to low bar squat (assuming bench comes after sqt).

[ColoWayno]

Ask for a lift off the rack. Good luck.

[MazdaMatt]

You may want to google "defranco" for his shoulder warmup and general warmup.

edit - I actually should take my own advice so I can handle my own shoulder issue better.

[Mulgere Hircum]

In my experience, cramps are more a reaction to unfamiliar movement patterns than nutritional deficiencies. As such, the rear delt could be an artifact of the intense scapula retraction, especially if you're not used to doing that under a load and/or you're new to low bar squat (assuming bench comes after sqt).

I agree that those are the two things leading to the cramp--the low-bar squat position as described in SS definitely involves some shoulder stretching, and I can feel the rear delt and rotators contract as the front stretches. And unless I'm carrying the directions too far, when I move on to bench press (the next lift, of course), I have my weight resting on fully contracted rear shoulder/scapula muscles, and that's definitely what cramped before.

But I don't see how that's a big deal for the medial head, and in any event if there is anything else contributing I'd like to fix it. The BP is progressing up again, but I'm concerned that avoiding cramps is going to be the limiting factor and not chest strength as it is supposed to be. OTOH it may go away soon enough and not be an issue, I just don't have the experience to know if I have a real problem or just a bit of adaptation to get through. The latter is fine, the former would limit my ability to do the program.

It's fine to just tell me to get over the hypochondria--I'm older and more injury averse now than when I was a kid.

[LimieJosh]

If you're join date is reflective of how long you've been on the program I would suspect it's merely a matter of adaptation. Luckily, in my experience that sort of thing happens a very quickly. As for the medial head being involved, it's not really distinct from the rear head so it's easy for involvement in the latter to spill over into the former.

There's a viedo somewhere of Dave Tate explaining some exercises to teach the bench, which includes exercises to teach how to properly retract the scapulae. Maybe if you can find that and go through that drill every day for a week or so, it should be all over by the time you do your next benching session.

[Mulgere Hircum]

If you're join date is reflective of how long you've been on the program I would suspect it's merely a matter of adaptation.

...

There's a viedo somewhere of Dave Tate explaining some exercises to teach the bench, which includes exercises to teach how to properly retract the scapulae. Maybe if you can find that and go through that drill every day for a week or so, it should be all over by the time you do your next benching session.

I have Rip's video, the bench I'm doing is from the video and book. It's hard to imagine something more detailed than that.

It likely is adaptation as you say, since I benched entirely differently before. I've been working it at light weight for more than a week (all last week I did Rip's (Starr's?) muscle rehab program) so I don't expect it to resolve that quickly. The fact that I was feeling it wanting to cramp again makes me think the light work didn't entirely condition it, and the obvious plan is to just move up slower than I planned. I was fishing for additional ideas. I'd thought of diet issues, so if that's not a productive line of inquiry it helps to not bother with that.

Matt's suggestion reminds me that I had some adductor issues with squats that I think were partly because they were untrained (I'd never squatted deep enough or wide enough to involve them) and partly because they were tight enough that the abductors were having to work against them and hold them in a stretched position. It might help to spend some time with light dynamic stretching of the shoulder as well as the hip. I didn't think of them as the same problem, but the same solution might well help (at least in terms of making the position demand less work from the rear delt and rotator cuff).

I suppose the easiest thing to do is do some shoulder stretches for a few days and then repeat the previous weight. I try to remember that I'm supposed to be old enough to be patient and not rush things along.

[bamzi]

Try upping your magnesium intake. It stopped me from getting cramp. I had muscle twitching too, which is gone now.

As Bill Starr mentions in his training in the heat article, popping a magnesium supplement before going to bed seems to help give me vivid dreams - very cool!

More info here: http://www.easy-immune-health.com/magnesium-dosage.html

[Mulgere Hircum]

It just occured to me that this might be a good time to get a foam roller and learn to use it. Seems like a good thing for muscles that want to cramp.

[MazdaMatt]

The deFranco videos have extensive use of foam rollers if i recall correctly... I have one and it is highly recommended.