Mobility issues

First, I'm 50, 6'2" and weight about 200-205lbs and gaining.

I've been on and off the nlp, for about a year, for various reasons. I started out with Mehdi's Stronglifts, which was clearly too much volume for an old guy like me. Then we had the Corona shutting down all gyms where I live and finally I moved to a condo building with improper equipment. I went out and bought my own rack, bench, bar and plates. I have now been training for about 6 weeks. Squat a little over 200lbs, DL 240lbs, bench 110lbs and press 90lbs.

So far I am getting stronger each time I hit the gym and I keep gaining weight.

My issue is mobility.

The squat is borderline parallel because of ankles. I think this is not a major problem. Since I am not planning to compete, I think one degree above or one degree below parallel does not matter. I also believe that the lifting shoes I ordered will help some.

Shoulder mobility is worse. I can get the bar in the proper low bar position, but my right shoulder hurt like hell after 3 sets. I simply do not get far enough back with my hands so some of the weight puts the shoulders in tension. I have adjusted my hand position to a wider grip, thumbs over the bar and straight wrists. This has helped somewhat. I try to do some exercises with a tennis ball and rubber bands to release the muscles and I think that if I endure also lifts will help stretch my shoulders over time.

The shoulders do completely prevent me to power clean. I just cannot rack the back as quickly as required.

I do want to learn to power clean just for the sake of it, but this will take some serious effort to improve mobility and a lot of work with the empty bar. Another achievement I would be proud of is to get strong enough to do sets of chinups and pullups.

Finally to my question.

I'm thinking about modifying the program in the following way:

A
Squat, bench, deadlift/power clean technique and racking mobility exercises

B
Squat, press, chinup prep excerises (lat pulldowns, negatives, assisted chinups)

Any suggestions or anything I have misunderstood?

That A/B split looks fine. If the low bar position is aggravating you, cycle in some low bar stretches (Low Bar Position Stretch | On the Platform - YouTube). For people where the position is just too painful, I will often have them high bar squat for a while as they do this stretch and then have them return to low bar squatting. Getting the lifters may indeed help with your depth. Also make sure your stance is wide enough (shoulder width).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hayden-William Courtland

That A/B split looks fine. If the low bar position is aggravating you, cycle in some low bar stretches (Low Bar Position Stretch | On the Platform - YouTube). For people where the position is just too painful, I will often have them high bar squat for a while as they do this stretch and then have them return to low bar squatting. Getting the lifters may indeed help with your depth. Also make sure your stance is wide enough (shoulder width).

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Thank you! Those comments are very helpful. I will do high bar squats for a while and work on the stretch exercises you recommend.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hayden-William Courtland

That A/B split looks fine. If the low bar position is aggravating you, cycle in some low bar stretches (Low Bar Position Stretch | On the Platform - YouTube). For people where the position is just too painful, I will often have them high bar squat for a while as they do this stretch and then have them return to low bar squatting. Getting the lifters may indeed help with your depth. Also make sure your stance is wide enough (shoulder width).

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Thank you for posting the video link, and for the original post. Just getting my technique and starting weights down, and getting into the low bar position has been a challenge. Thanks again!

By experimenting with different widths between the hand and thumbs either over or under the bar, I have been able to move the pain around from arms/elbows to shoulders.

It seems like a semi-wide, thumbs over the bar suits me best. However, I still get quite a bit of pain.

I'm starting to think that part of it is that my shoulders, overarms and elbows needs to adapt to lifting heavy weights.

Thus, I decided to just push thru 2-3 weeks and just endure the pain to see what happens.

I do keep doing the recommended stretch excersice recommended by Mr. Courtland and a few other that I found on the World Wide Web.