Need advice - 28/M, 2 shoulder surgeries

[battipjw]

Hi Mark,

I had labral repairs in my shoulders, first one about 2.5 years ago and last one about 1.5 year ago. Labral tear in both, from lifting (poor form or overtraining) and surfing. Today I feel pretty good and have mostly put this behind me; I am at about 90% and 95% in left and right shoulders respectively, with the only limitations at the moment being mental as I have been to hell and back with these surgeries.

While at risk of being "YNDTP", the book does mention that some people may opt out of power cleans due to being old, bad shoulders/wrists, etc. I am strongly considering swapping cleans for dips given some difficulty with form, reservations about my shoulder health, and with more of a goal of getting that "strength" than potentiating my power/explosiveness right now.

It is not my intention to make excuses, as I am honestly still feeling physically well overall, have youth (relatively) on my side, and probably will feel better as I progress with the program (I am a few weeks and seeing great results), but I am wondering if you think this makes sense and by leaving out cleans I'll still be able to have a holistic program with dips and maybe just sacrifice the power/explosiveness aspect. Or is that essential and I should suck it up and just learn to clean and get that form locked down.

Thanks very much, your program has helped me a lot.

John

[Mark Rippetoe]

Swapping cleans for dips is like swapping steak for undercooked brussels sprouts. They're not even remotely the same thing, and if your shoulders are fucked up, dips are the last thing you want to do to them. I suppose you have tried to clean and it hurt. Post the video.

[pstein]

If your shoulders hurt from cleans, you may be pulling with the arms. My shoulders were pretty bad as well (pressing helps a lot), but I haven't had issues since I learned to properly power clean. Now, my best PC sucks (155x3), but the point stands.

[David Kirkham]

...if your shoulders are fucked up, dips are the last thing you want to do to them.

After warming up properly I can easily press over 200. I can't do a single dip without a full on reenactment of William Wallace. I'd avoid dips like Pelosi avoids the truth.