working around hurt shoulder

[Flavius]

Some background and conteXt:

I’m a 33 year old male, 5.4 height, and 170 lbs weight; I’ve been doing strength training for some years now, and before that I was mostly exercising(stupid shit with weights) and some swimming, and mountain biking; I was a very skinny and very weak person (at one time I weighed about 115 lbs); A few years back started weight training, but I did not do the program as I wasn’t aware of starting strength at the time; last year I decided to be more serious about it, and started gaining weight, I went from 140 to 185(cut back down to 170) in about a year’s time; I did gain some strength, but not optimal, as I had some chronic back pain, and shoulder pain that kept me from PR-ing as often as I wished;

Anyways these are my best numbers:
Squat 3X2X330
Squat: 1X5X320
Bench: 1X5X220(curently 2x3 198)
Press: 5X1X136(curently 5X3 121)
Deadlfit: 1X5X324
Powerclean 5X1X169(now 3X5X154)

Here is the program I was doing:

Monday:
- Press 5X1
- Bench 5X5
- Incline bench 2X5
- Chins 5X5
Tuesday:
- Squat 1X5
- Powerclean 5X3
Thursday:
- Bench 1X5
- Press 5X3
- Dumbbell overhead press 3X8
- Chins 5X5
Friday:
- Squat 4X5
- Deadlift 1X5
- Rows/RDL's 3X5/3X9

I’ve started bulking up again about 2 months ago, the goal was to add 1 kg to my press and bench once every 2 weeks(one week on the press, the next on the bench) and 2,5 kg on my squat and deadlift; I would alternate on what lift to PR weekly(one upper body, one lower body per week, then switch);

Now, all was going well until I switched my grip on the squat; I was doing a very close grip (just outside shoulder with), with my thumbs around the bar, and my wrists slightly bend; also the bar position was somewhere between a low-bar and a high bar; this is what was comfortable to me on the squat; I know it’s not ideal but it worked for me;
I wanted to try the thumbless grip, with more straight wrists, and the bar lower on my back because I always seemed to lose upper back tightness on heavy squats, and I though that this would fix that; it did fix that, as I seem to keep my upper back straighter that before, but my shoulder started to hurt a lot on the squat;

I said to myself that it would pass, that I wasn’t use to this, and, in time it would get better; only it didn’t ; the pain got worse, and it started to affect my press and my bench, too (now, remember, I had crappy shoulders before I started strength training, probably because of the swimming as I did a lot of volume)

Now a few weeks ago I PR-ed on my bench, I did 1X5 with 220; and the week after, on Monday I tried 136 on my singles for the press; I did 5X1, but I could feel it wasn’t going to be good; the pain was bad, but being warmed up I didn’t feel it that bad; I continued to do my 5X5 on the bench with 198, but with a close grip, as this was better on my shoulders; then I did my chins 5X5;

I felt the pain during the workout, but it was manageable; but after the workout…during the day the pain started to hit me harder; its like a pulsating pain, on and off, sometimes like stabbing, it comes and goes; it hurts when I do simple stuff like drink from a cup, take of my shirt, brush my teeth, etc;
But the worst thing was I couldn’t sleep that night because of the pain, because I couldn’t keep a position for long before I needed to change it, so I couldn’t fall asleep; normally I have bad sleep anyways, but this time I couldn’t sleep almost at all;
The next day I had to squat and powerclean, I only squatted 286 for a set of 5, but with the bar higher on my back and with a narrow grip and thumbs around the bar, as I did before, and it was ok; instead of the powerclean I did rows 5X5 with 176; but on the rows I kind of felt some pain, but manageable;

Now, after almost a month I feel the pain on the bench more than the press, and I must use a close grip, otherwise it hurts

In has been over a month since I hurt my shoulder, and this is the program I am currently doing:

Monday:
- Press 3X5 or 5X3
- Dumbbell overhead press 3X8
- Chins 5X5
Tuesday:
- Squat 5RM
- Powerclean 5X3 OR 3X3
Thursday:
- close grip bench 3X5
- Chins 5X5
Friday:
- Squat 4X5
- Deadlift 5RM
- Rows/RDL's 3X5/3X9

This week(23.11.2020) I tried doing bench 2x3 with 198 and then press 3x5 with 110, and i felt the pain again; apparently I can’t bench and press the same workout anymore or the pain comes back
But if I don’t bench and press the same workout, the frequency is just one bench and press workout a week, which is not enough;
I was thinking about pressing heavy on Mondays(5RM), and then also press something like 2x5, or 3x3 on my lower body days for frequency and keep benching(close grip) 3x5 on Thursdays just for maintenance so I don’t have to bench and press the same day, but also get more frequency on my press

• So, about the pain, I feel it on my left shoulder(also right, but not so bad), on the front upper part of the delt
• I feel the pain during the workout, but it gets worse after, during the following days
• I don’t feel much pain if I lower the load, don’t do any singles, and don’t bench and press the same workout
• I feel the pain more on the bench rather than pressing

My recovery is decent, as I now am in a calorie surplus, I get about 170-200 g of protein, 350-450 g carbs, and about 90-110 g of fat a day depending if its training day or not; my sleep is bad, I sleep around 10-11 hours at night, but it takes a long time to fall asleep, and I wake up often, but that’s been going on all my life, so there’s that

What programming advice would you give me, given the situation?

Also, is my bench decent enough that I can start picking the press as the main lift and do bench as assistance?; I care about my press going up, I don’t really care that much about my bench

Thank you!; and sorry for the bad English,as its not my first language.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Practical Programming for Strength Training, 3rd edition – The Aasgaard Company

[Flavius]

Practical Programming for Strength Training, 3rd edition – The Aasgaard Company

I've just started reading it a few day ago actually, took a quick look at the intermediate programming, found out that I was doing some stupid shit(yet again); that;s why I asked here, so I stop doing stupid shit
I am currently at the 3 stages of adaptation syndrome, will continue to read further

Thanks, again for all the good quality content you guys put out there

PS: were can we post comments from the haters?; I've got a pretty good one, I think you'll appreciate it and find it quite funny