Bollixed The Bridge already (upper back pain from deadlift)

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

I was on week one day three of the bridge and I noticed a pain in my upper back as I was heading towards the bench (didn’t even notice it while I was deadlifting). No problem it will be gone by the time I squat. Nope. It gradually got worse as I did my tempo squats but I finished the workout, glad to have 2 days of rest before lifting again.

It got a bit better and I thought I could lift today. Went through my warmups for the squat. 135 ok. 185, a little pain. 225, nope! Had to rack the bar before doing any reps. This was the worst it has hurt yet.

It’s a sharp pain that seems to be strongest right around the bottom of my left shoulder blade and extends to the spine. Sometimes it seems to cross to the other side of the spine as well. I was thinking a lat sprain but when I googled it, everyone I saw talking about a lat sprain said it started just behind the armpit. Also, it feels ok to do chinups. It hurts when I twist, bend backwards or extend my left arm so that the shoulder comes forward.

I’ve read lots of posts around here and some articles that Austin has linked about pain and I remember hearing to use that maximum weight throughout the rom that I can without pain. Not sure how much it applies here because none of the lifts I need to do hurt with their ROM, it just hurts to have a heavy weight on my back or hanging from my arms.

But anyway, for squats I was able to do 135 for 3 sets of 10 and rack pulls at 185 for 3 sets of 10 without much pain. Not sure if that does anything therapeutic or if I’m just lifting some light weights as opposed to none at all. Close grip bench went as normal but I added some leg presses, trying to emulate my squat stance as close as possible.

I have no idea if it’s obvious what it is from my description, or a magical voodoo non specific pain or one of those things that’s just impossible to diagnose like this. I’m just wondering if I’m on the right track. Not really sure what I should be doing here.

Thanks.

2

You gave a good history, but as you suspected, this is one of those weird things that can happen and we won’t be able to give you a specific diagnosis. The solution, also as you suspected, is to find a weight you can move without pain and work your way back up from there.

3

Thanks Austin! I guess I’ll keep doing what I am doing. I hope I can press normally. As for leg press, do you think it’s useful for maintaining muscle/squat strength in a situation like this? Even just a little?

4

Sure, just not as a complete replacement for the squat.

5

I have experienced a very similar problem. I remember 1-2 years ago before I started lifting, I had pain in what I assume to have been my left rhomboid (I’m a left handed pitcher). It went away after a little bit, but after my first workout on the bridge, that portion of my back started to tighten and hurt. When it c,a en time to do the second workout, I couldn’t bear the pain to even squat an empty bar. It feels a little bit better today (I’m able to squat an empty bar for a set at least), but I’m wondering now if I should knock out a few pull-ups for gpp day even though it’s sure to hurt a lot (but bearable at least).