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When it comes to movements that aggravate my shoulder, its mainly just chest pressing movements.

Here are the ones that dont hurt...

Side laterals
front raises
cable crossovers (sometimes)
Cable rows
upright rows (sometimes)

Thats about it

Shoulder presses dont hurt all that bad but there is a pinch every now and then. But its mainly just chest movements that really aggravate it. Weird thing is my shoulder feels just fine doing bench and different things. But immediately post workout it would kill me. Range of motion isnt limited too bad.

I have bands and have used those for years when I played baseball. Will work with those again along with my sled work. Still using cissus with little results. Getting glucosamine and MSM from my orange triad multi.

I will be perfoming another sled workout tomorrow. Will take it easier with lighter weight and more controlled movements.

Do partial range movements or static holds work?

One viable strategy may be to combine lower intensity, full range total tonnage workouts with heavier static holds/partials. These would be separate workouts alternated on different days.


EXAMPLE: Full range movements, lower % of 1RM intensity, total tonnage approach

Bench Press/Cable rows

Set of bench with 150lbs supersetted with cable rows (say 185lbs). Five sets of 10 reps for each completed in 20 minutes start to finish yields an average intensity of:

837.50 pounds per minute. (16,750lbs/20 min)

The next session, you arrange the workout to perform either more weight, more reps, shorter rest periods or some combination of all 3 in order to beat that number.

EXAMPLE: Strong range partial or static hold close grip bench press, top 1-2 inches of the movement.

Since you have chains, best way to do this is suspend the bar from the chains inside a power rack. Simply move the safety bars up, loop the chains around them and insert the bar.

This is MUCH preferred to just setting the safety pins up high and pressing the bar from them. Why? Because the chains allow you to sway the bar back and forth allowing for a more natural range/starting point.

When you start from the safety pins, it's always a crapshoot as to your best leverage point/pain free zone. The chains will also allow you to make smaller incremental start points vs. the standard 2" hole placing for the safey pins. As you'll discover, 2" makes a WORLD of difference when working with strong range partials/static holds.

If performing partials, 2-3 sets of 4-6 reps works well. If performing static holds, an even heavier weight can be used and held just under lockout for 5-10 seconds. 2 holds is all it takes.

You will find your weights jumping HUGE amounts with static holds from workout to workout.

Thanks for the info. Can you outline what a week of training would look like?

Sure can man..

Sorry I've been away as my flight from Dallas was cancelled and just got back tonight. I'll have this for you tomorrow..

Feeling any better/any better range of motion?

Range of motion has been good but pressing movements still hurt. But throwing snowballs today has really done a number on my shoulder. I live near Dallas and first time we had this much snow. Couldnt help myself.

Ok, good to know. When designing a weeks worth of training, are all pressing movements out?

I dont mind giving them a shot in moderation and light weight. I attempted a push up the other day and afrer 4 I felt a large pinch in my shoulder causing me to collapse. If it will help my rehab then throw pressing movements in.

OK here we go:

MONDAY

Close grip bench press: 50% of your 1RM or whatever you can manage for a set of 10 reps then immediately into a vertical pulling movement such as chins/pullups or pulldowns for 10 reps

TIP: I hate gloves but if so inclined, use these or a towel wrapped around the bar/foam padding works too. The greater surface area can make all the difference with respect to pain radiating into the shoulder. I know during week 3 of 90%+ work, it makes a big difference for me.


Rest 3-5 minutes

Close grip incline press: 50% of your 1RM for a set of 10 reps then immediately into a horizontal pulling movement such as 1 arm dumbell rows for a set of 10 reps

Rest 3-5 minutes

Close grip decline bench press with 50% of your 1RM for a set of 10 reps then immediately into either a seated row OR a 45 degree T-bar row for a set of 10 reps

The above may be performed with either barbells or dumbells.

What I'm doing here is rotating the shoulder axis across 3 different planes and providing balance insofar as front, medium and rear delt development. Expect some of these movements to feel good, some to elicit pain and some to fall somewhere in between. This too, is by design and will tell me/you where the problem lies. The different movements will also help the healing process and challenge the brain to strengthen motor units that otherwise may have laid dormant.


TUESDAY

Sled dragging 6 trips of 100 feet each with a moderate load. A balance of forward drags, backward drags should be maintained (i.e. 3 of each). For the forward drags, suggest startig with a bench like movement, 2nd trip should be palms down front raises and final trip should mimic a dumbell flye. Obviously, you'll need to lower the weight on some of these.

For the backward dragging suggest first trip be an up right rowing motion, 2nd be a "low" pull almost like a seated row and for the final trip suggest trying to duplicate a side lateral type movement.

WEDNESDAY

Should be dedicated solely to soft tissue work such as massage, heat lamps, trigger point work etc.. A quality practitioner can really benefit you.

THURSDAY

Repeat of Tuesday's sled work. However, this time you're going to select an even lighter load and drag for 10-12 trips.

FRIDAY

Provided your shoulder feels up to it, I'd like you to explore static holds in your strong range of motion for the following exercises:

Close grip press (select the movement that caused you the LEAST amount of discomfort on Monday).

Perform 2 static holds with a heavy enough weight to hold comfortably in the strongest range (1-2 inches from lockout) for 10-20 seconds.

Same drill on rowing movements. Select the movement that caused the LEAST amount of pain and perform 2 sets as specified above.

SATURDAY

Perform one sled workout (either Tuesdays or Thursdays), whichever one you found MOST difficult. May not be fun but will likely tell us what you need to work on.

SUNDAY

This day should be dedicated to external/internal rotation band work and/or massage-heat therapy as I note above. Nothing drastic and nothing you find onerous. A simple 10-15 minute session focusing on a balance (pushing/pulling motions) is more than adequate.

The use of DMSO, Cissus, anti-inflammatories etc. should be used throughout or as needed. There are no "off" days or bed rest listed here. I'm not into laying around. I am into active recovery/blood flow recognizing that these are restorative measures in and of themselves.

We'll address total tonnage, etc.. at a later date. Give this a shot for a week and let us know how it goes. In large part, I'm trying to build a catalog here of sorts as to what causes pain, what doesn't and what % of 1RM threshold we have to work with.

It will take some time, but we'll get you through it and on to bigger and better things. I'd also like you to attempt a 1RM squat at some point in the coming 7-10 days, because while that shoulder is healing we're going to get new PR's rolling in other areas.

No surrender, no retreat. Playing defense sucks.

We're going on the offensive on another front!

Thats my training motto. With that rehab schedule how would I throw in training other body parts and cardio? Sample schedule or anything would be very appreciated. I am very outline oriented so that helps me the most.

I would add legs, arms or other body parts at the end of your Monday/Friday sessions. I like to separate cardio on off days (Tues-Thursday and/or Sat-Sunday). The latest research supports this..

Both workouts for the upper body should only take around 20-25 minutes so there's ample time to tack on work.

For arms/other body parts I'd elect to perform 1 EDT PR zone focusing on smaller movements as your compounds will already be taken care of.
PR ZONE - 15 minutes

Standing barbell curls, alternated with
Overhead DB tricep extensions

If either of these bother your shoulder, consider the following substitute movements

Incline dumbell curls, alternated with
Lying tricep extension with the EZ curl bar

KEY POINTS

- Alternate antagonistic muscle exercises in jump set fahion
- Staley's generally uses 15-20 minutes, (called a PR Zones).
- Your target weight is one that you can do 10 clean reps with.
- You will begin with alternating sets of 5 or 6 reps.
- As you tire, you may reduce set reps to 4 then 2 and end with singles.
- Your goal is to do as many reps with good form as possible in the PR
Zone.
- Do not work to, or near failure in the early sets.
- You may reach failure at the end as you try to beat your previous
record.
- Once able to do 20% more reps than your prior workout, increase load
5% and begin again.

Further reading at: https://www.staleytrainingprograms.com/

The key with EDT is gradually force feeding more work per unit of time. You can do this by lifting more weight, performing more reps or doing the same amount of work in less time. The real beauty is that you can use any combination of the 3.

For legs, let's focus on getting your SQ 1RM down and running the German Loading Pattern #1 6 session plan. That'll give you a new PR on the SQ pronto to keep the motivation going. To balance out the quad development, consider adding Dimel deadlifts (2 sets of 20reps) AFTER the squats have been completed. This will keep your lower back, glutes, hams and abs/core strength in line with the quads, particularly if you're using the hip belt squat. If performing the regular squat, 1 set of Dimel deadlifts should be adequate. The load is typically 40-50% of your 1RM DL.

MONDAY- Chest and Arms as you have described. Abs at the end of session

TUESDAY- Sled Dragging as you have decribed with conditioning at the end of the session

WEDNESDAY- Sled dragging for legs with moderate weight to help with speed and exposiveness? Or some kind of sprints and speed training? Massage and other rehab techinques

THURSDAY- Sled Dragging as decribed

FRIDAY- Static hold and legs as described. abs at the end of the session.

SATURDAY- Sled Dragging as decribed with a little leg sled dragging thown in to help with recovery

SUNDAY- Rehab external internal rotations and conditioning

Please critique and fill in anything I am missing.

Also how do I go about the german loading pattern?

The Wed sled dragging is "lighter" for rehab purposes only. This is blood flow for the shoulders. You'll get some wind/VO2 max out of it but again, mostly for the shoulders.

On the German Loading Pattern #1, I'd suggest a Monday - Friday approach after establishing your 1RM.

Twice a week is probably optimal. If that doesn't fit your schedule let me know and we can re-arrange..

How exactly does the german loading pattern work?

Would that be legs twice a week?

German loading pattern is 6 total workouts, generally 6 sets and is a straight de-load. Twice a week is optimal for a total of 3 weeks. Refer to The Blueprint Periodic - For Strength in The Blueprint for all the details.

It has an incredibly high success rate, is very forgiving (you'll miss some reps here and there but STILL hit your new 1RM).