Clavicle resection - incline bench?

[madmaxaus]

Rip,

Thanks for the program. Briefly, I'm 22 years old, 6'7, and roughly 100kg which I think is 220lbs roughly.

I injured my Ac joint about 15 months ago, had several cortisone injections, lots of rest but in the end I had a distal clavicle resection. The surgery went well I was told with 9mm being removed from the end of the clavicle. This was an arthroscopic procedure.

It has been nearly 5 months since the surgery, I want to start the program again properly to regain my former strength, however bench still causes aching in the shoulder afterwards, I'm wondering as someone who has experience with this injury, would you suggest doing incline bench as substitute? I don't train strength for athletic performance so I'm not worried about competing in lifting or anything.

I searched the board and found some info on this, but nothing about incline over flat bench.

Any other info you have on your experience with the surgery would be appreciated too.

Thanks again

[Mark Rippetoe]

I have not done an incline bench in about 25 years. They have always hurt my shoulders, even before they were actually injured. We'll ask the board.

[madmaxaus]

Thanks for the response, also where I said 'I don't train strength for athletic performance' I actually meant the exact opposite, I just meant I don't have aspirations to compete. I'm an mma fighter I just want to be strong.

Also how long after your surgery before you felt 100%? Or close to? I am chinning and pressing regularly and am
Making progress, but I still don't feel confident returning to contact training.

[Kent Berry]

Apologies for the slight hijack and possible stupid question, but as another sufferer of arthritic AC joints I have an interest in the topic. My understanding has always been that the Mumford procedure is a fix. If the offending joint has been eliminated, what still hurts?

[Calvo]

I separated my AC joint about a year ago. It was pretty mild, but I couldn't do a regular flat bench without pain for about 6 months. Inclines were OK-ish, but reverse grip flat benches were better, at least in terms of shoulder pain. I believe Jim Steel has a video about these. Dumbbell inclines were also good, although I don't know if you can LP those.

[Walter Palmer]

I had shoulder surgery about 18 months ago and clavicle resection was part of the deal along with several spurs, repair of the subscapularis tear, and a biceps tendonesis. The AC joint was the last thing to clear up and I have to be constantly mindful of form. For instance, I was still sore in the AC joint as much as 9 months after surgery.

When they do the resection, you lose a disc that cushions the joint and, as my ortho explained it, a new one forms that will be maybe 75% as effective as the original. So, you can end up with AC joint tenderness as you heal. My situation was complicated by my shoulders tending to roll forward a bit and lack of ROM. I fixed the forwardness of the shoulders by strengthening the lats and serratus and fixed the ROM through stretching.

I'm now benching the most weight I have ever benched but have to be religious about keeping my shoulders back throughout the entire movement and making sure I do not let my elbows flare.

As to your question about incline vs. flat, I'm with Rip on this issue. They always gave my shoulders more trouble than flat benching so I haven't done them in a long time. But, overhead presses have not bothered me one bit through the entire recovery period. I would suggest you consider your form on the bench relative to shoulder and arm position, make sure you are doin lots of overhead pressing to strengthen the musculature as recommended numerous places on the board, and you'll have to decide if the incline works for you or not.

[jeremyw]

I had this procedure done. Pain persisted for about a year. Once I was cleared for lifting I started out with the bar for 3 sets of ten. I added 5 pounds every workout until I felt pain that seemed excessive. I backed off from that weight and trained until the pain decreased and then began adding weight. Once the pain dissappeared I progressed normally with sets of 5 until I began having persistant pec strains at sets of 225 (100 kg). I don't know if this was related to the surgery. My shoulder seems to be in a different position than it used to be so who knows. I backed off the weight, progressed slowly, had some soft tissue work, etc. I am now progressing again. Throughout this process I prioritzied the press and have relegated the bench press to a secondary excercise. Lately as my bench press has recovered my press has gone up well. The trick with recovery is to never give up.

[strong_over_matter]

Madmaxaus,

I had a DCR at the end of 2009. It took about a year before my shoulder started to feel 100% normal / no pain. The trauma of the clavicle being cut takes time to heal as it was explained to me. I eventually recovered 100% and have now achieved strength levels surpassing pre-injury / surgery.

My experience has been that incline bench is not a good choice. I think the flat bench is easier to maintain a good position (keeping your shoulders back against the bench being key). I did not start out with close grip benching, but if I did it over I'd take about a 16"-18" grip and work on building that up. That will take your shoulders out of the bench even more and build some nice tricep strength to carry over to the press.

Lastly, as long as you are cleared to lift and the post op x-ray looked good, I'd just push through minor pain. I started pushing within 2 months post op and I think that was important to achieving a fast recovery and good mobility, but if I had listened to the pain only I may have not done this.

[Mark Rippetoe]

My experience: I still can't bench. But this is not surprising since I haven't benched in about 20 years anyway. They just don't feel good, and nowadays even DBs hurt. So I just press and chin.

[madmaxaus]

Apologies for the slight hijack and possible stupid question, but as another sufferer of arthritic AC joints I have an interest in the topic. My understanding has always been that the Mumford procedure is a fix. If the offending joint has been eliminated, what still hurts?

In the procedure, the end of the clavicle is removed, so effectively you have no AC joint. Over time scar tissue forms in the place of bone and cartilidge, and provides cushioning. So during this process, there is pain. Make no mistake though, before the surgery I couldn't do a single chinup, now I do 3 sets of 8 BW 5 months post op so it was a success.