Hello all, I’m new here. I’ve been listening to the Barbell Medicine podcast for some time now. That’s how I found the forum.
I’ve been recently diagnosed with cervical osteoarthritis (C4 to C7).
Lately I have been experiencing quite some pain during training. My right shoulder, armpit, triceps and elbow hurt when I lift.
I think the main causes are the barbell position during low bar squats (bar a little to high?) and the arching during bench press.
I had been struggling with the bar position for some time. I got some elbow pain during a period of high volume squats. Putting the bar just a little higher on my back helped. But now that I train with higher intensity this bar-position is far less optimal. I think the problems arose when I tried some walk-outs (confidence builders) with very heavy weights (relative to my strength ) and the bar in that higher position.
Also my arching technique isn’t optimal. I can arch quite well, but I push my head into the bench quite hard. I don’t know how to relax and still keep a good position.
At the moment the pain is so severe (mostly during training) that I can hardly lift. During and the hours after training are the worst. The next day I have much less pain. But it is still quite easy to trigger it.
Do you have any tips that could help? (where not to place the barbell in my situation, how to prevent me from pushing the head so hard into the bench, …)
Any help is much appreciated.
I’m not convinced that the symptoms you are experiencing are actually due to cervical osteoarthritis.
I understand your concern that the high bar position is less optimal for lifting the heaviest weights, but not squatting at all due to pain is far less optimal than squatting slightly less weight with a high bar position. I would use that for now.
And you must figure out how to not drive your head back into the bench. This is not a complicated thing to do. If you must, think about keeping your hair, but not your head, in contact with the bench (i.e., imagine it “hovering” 1 mm off the bench). We don’t coach people to keep their heads off the bench, but you may need to use this as an “over-cue” to stop doing what you’re doing.
I’m 41.
A very recent CT scan shows the osteoarthritis. Not severe but clearly visible.
I tried squatting with high bar position but I can’t get the bar past a higher low bar position. That’s how I squatted for the last few months. Any higher and the bar touches the vertebrae in my neck.
Before I had the bar a little lower and apart from the elbow pain, that felt much better. (overal squat form was better and I could lift more weight)
I’ll try lifting my head a little next time. Maybe that will be just enough to keep it on the bench but not pushed into the bench. (I want to compete in the IPF, so the head needs to stay on the bench)
Do you think it’s safe to train with this kind of pain? I fill quite some discomfort in my right shoulder and arm during training. There some loss of strength also, but not too much.
I understand that the CT shows the osteoarthritis. I’m saying I can’t be sure that the radiographic osteoarthritis is what’s causing your symptoms, because probably over 50% of individuals have some evidence of this by your age, without any symptoms at all. So you may be experiencing symptoms from something else entirely – we don’t know.
If you have true loss of strength in the arm (i.e., not just effort-limited due to pain), you need further evaluation. If not, I’d find a way to squat below parallel that doesn’t exacerbate your symptoms (whether low bar, high bar, or SSB). I can’t give you any more specific advice than that, or tell you whether it’s “safe” or not (what does that actually mean?).
In the meantime I got the complete report from the CT scan.
It’s in Dutch so I’m not going to completely translate it (I would make too many mistakes).
In the conclusion it says that there’s some constriction in the right foramen C6-C7 with possible compression on the C7 nerve-root.
This would be more likely to be the cause of my pain, I guess.
The loss of strength may indeed be from the pain. I’m not 100% sure.
I’m planning on doing barbell belt squats for some time. Also a SSB is on the wishlist, but it’s sold out at the shop where I get my home-gym equipment from.
I was able to DL yesterday. In fact I felt a reduction in pain during some sets. So that’s encouraging.
I’ll try some squats this weekend. Start really light and work my way op to some weight that doesn’t hurt too much.
The fysio didn’t think that the CT shows anything that can be directly related to the pain I feel. He gave me some tips to get a bit more shoulder mobility. This might help getting under the bar for squats better.
These last days I only feel pain during training and right after. So it’s getting much better.
The irritation under the right arm-pit was still there during the BP set-up and during the squat. But is was less severe.
I’ve started The Bridge yesterday.
I paid quite some attention to not pushing the head into the bench during CGBP. I managed to keep the head a few mm above the bench for all the reps.
I hope I can do the same during the regular BP.
) and the bar in that higher position.