I am continually frustrated by minor training injuries. After hitting PRs in Snatch and Clean & Jerk back in March, I’ve had a chronic shoulder pain that seems to be some tendon of bicep or shoulder that I can’t get narrowed down. It has made improvements through lighter training and doing stretches, but has not seemed to go away. I also have random knee pains and strains that seem to come from hamstring or calf tendons or sometimes PCL. Most recently I was adding a third set of back squats with an RPE 8 and a few days later my left IT band just below where the glutes attach was so painful that I had to get a shot of Toradol so that I could even sleep or squat below, parallel.
I understand that I’m 40 years old, but I have added a good 10 minute warm-up routine before my very reduced volume workouts of 2 to 3 times per week with one arm pump and jump rope day, on top of being a personal trainer, and I bicycle as a commuter about 11 miles a few days a week at a very casual pace (60-70% HRmax).
I’m just so frustrated at the near constant injuries that happen by the second or third week of an already backed off training intensity. And by that I mean, doing 60 to 70% for 2 to 3 sets of 6 to 20 at RPE 7 to 9.
At this point, my primary care just has me on pain management and I just figure there has to be a better way. I have a full home gym with barbells bumpers, dumbbells, squat rack with pull-up bar, bands, rings, parralettes, etc., but I feel at a complete loss as to how to approach a program that will just let me feel OK again. That after a month or so I can finally start pushing my training. I did a high bar back squat at CrossFit back in June of 235# for 20 unbroken reps (single set) with two or three reps left in the tank, but now I can’t do 245 for three sets of 10 without injuring myself?
Sorry to hear about your recent injury. I know that frustrating experience, unfortunately. Hope you heel up quickly!
I don’t really see a question here, but I have some concerns about your programming based on what you’re describing. If you’re looking to manage your training better to reduce injury frequency and improve results, it may be beneficial to have a professional weigh-in on your programming, progression strategy, and so on. That’s something we can do, but otherwise happy to rap about training and any specific question(s) you may have.
Sorry about that.. didn’t think about how much of it was venting and forgot to reread and look for the question or point of the post.
Which is essentially, Any idea why I keep getting injured while sticking to a mostly maintenance level training routine? The injuries are mostly connective tissue:
persistent left shoulder injury that is aggravated during any pressing movement & the range of motion on the eccentric of chest flyes
right hip adductor pain just at the groin that happened months ago when adding relatively light barbell Bulgarian split squats
And now this sudden immobilizingly bad left IT band pain, which has thankfully been significantly reduced but can still feel light tension while on Toradol.
It’s enough to make me want to try collagen… which I know won’t do anything, but it feels like it’s consistent connective tissue issue.
For context, my current routine (Basic Heavy - Light - Medium + Arm / Jump Rope Day + Running):
Mon: Medium (Power) Clean & Press 5 sets of 3 @ RPE 6-8, Front Squat 2 x 10 @ RPE 7-8, Circuit 2-4 x 10 each of Pull-ups, Feet Elevated Deficit Push-ups, Nordic Curl.
Tues: Commute cycling (HR Zone 2-3) 25 min x 2.
Wed: Light (Upper Focus) Powersnatch 6 x 2 @ RPE 6-8, Barbell Bench Press 3-4 x 6-10 @ RPE 7-9, Circuit 2-4 x 10 each of Side to Side Medicine Ball Slams, Barbell Bulgarian Split Squat, Kettlebell Windmill.
Thur: Arm Day OH Tricep Extension, DB Bicep Curl, Barbell Upright Row all 3 x 6-20 and 10-15 min Jump Rope 30/30s drills.
Fri: Heavy (Lower Focus) Barbell Back Squat 2-3 x 10 @ RPE 6-8, Circuit 2-4 x 10 each Chest Dip, Barbell Row, & Toes to Bar, Deficit Deadlift (standing on 45# bumper) 2 x 10 @ RPE 7-8.
Sat: Run, usually 5 min warm-up run plus 30/90s Sprint/Jog x 6-8 and final 5 min run focusing foot cadence and RPE 6-7.
I’m still not great at judging RPE, so I kept my weights around 70% of 1RM for everything except circuits, which are generally much lighter. I always warm-up for a good 10 minutes with movements specific to the day. I was also on week 3 of this routine and just added the 3rd set of Squat on Heavy (Lower) day. The squat weight specifically had not changed over the 3 weeks. It felt easier on week 2 and week 3 I added volume and still felt about RPE 8 or 2RIR on 3rd set. Also the weights are not really heavy (245# on the squat for example)
I do have appointments scheduled with my doctors in the next few weeks. My last visit to my PMC ended with a 3 month supply of Tizandine and Lidocane patches… wasn’t really happy about that. The upcoming appointments are with the same doctor and a new family doctor (I have VA healthcare and private insurance).
Is there anything I should bring up or ask that might help narrow down why I have had 3 separate injuries, and a few other very minor pains and problems (tennis elbow, etc.), in just a few months of training? Or would it be more worth my time to chop lifting down to bare essentials (2 days per week) and focus more on mobility and cardio for a while?
Yea, I hear you. If forced to speculate, I would push back on the notion that your programming is mostly maintenance level from a training load standpoint. Admittedly, I don’t know what you were doing previously, but I think your programming is likely the culprit from what you’ve described here.
I actually don’t think you should be training “less” or pare it down per se’. I would move away from the HLM however. I have some reservations about recommending a template due to the current injuries, which may benefit from some individualized guidance from one of our pain and rehab professionals to get you back on track.
I don’t think there’s anything medically-related to the issues you describe, as they mostly sound like overuse injuries to me.
If I had to make a recommendation for your existing program, it’d be to get rid of the circuits and sprints, instead favoring a squat, press or row, and hinge movement on most days and more z1-2 work. I also wouldn’t program front squats for sets of 10 for most folks.
If I had to make a recommendation for a template, it’d be the low fatigue general strength and conditioning program.
Training before was a olympic weightlifting 4/wk program. Really enjoyed it and made some big progress, but was kinda beat up after and kept trying new stuff every month (Crossfit & HLM) but no luck feeling better.
I grabbed the one week sample of the Low Fatigue Program. Will try this out and cut out the sprint efforts in favor of more Z1-2 efforts to try and recage.
Im not great at auto regulation and enjoy explosive (oly lifts & plyos & sprint effort) training. So youre probably right and I need to back off more than I think.
I suspect you are, or you’ll quickly become, more than adequate in gauging RPE to make it work. Training should only rarely be maximal. Instead, the majority should be hard enough to work, but easy enough so you can do a good amount of it. Exceptions are primarily isolation exercises for hypertrophy applications.
After Day 1 of LF Powerbuilding, I still think I dont have a good grasp on RPE. I do time my rests and followed recommended times, usually splitting the difference (e.g., 3-5 min rest, I will rest for 4 min). And, I use the recommended percentage for RPE 6 by the rep max (see photo) to get working weights. But, either my chart is off or my perception of effort is because I tried to jump up the 2.78% between RPE 6 to 7 and my RIR went from 4 to 1 with the last rep on 7 being a hard grind and starting to lose form (more than just a noticeable drop in bar speed). I dropped my RPE 8 back to the RPE6 weight and it felt like 2 RIR.
I searched for some tips in the forum about this and the previous advice is that the weight should go up between sets, which matches the note about ascending sets. This has been my kind of chronic problem with using RPE in that keeping the weight the same between sets still causes a drop in RIR. The only program of ascending sets where I felt I could do a top RPE 8 of higher weight was the old bill star 5x5, which had the first working set at around 60% 1RM by doing the top at 85% and dropping each set prior to it by 12.5%
Which makes me think that my calculator is off? Or maybe not appropriate for choosing the starting weight? Should I simply look for the RPE at the recommended percent for only the top set and then back off by a larger percent for the two sets leading up to it?
This provides some good insight into another potential issue. While I think calculators, e,g, our 1RM calculator and the ones included in our programs, can be useful at putting people in the right ballpark for loading, I DO NOT THINK PEOPLE SHOULD USE THEM IN ISOLATION FOR SELECTING LOADS.
Instead, I think you need to feel it out. If you went up from RPE 6 to 7 for a set of 4 and it ended up being RPE 10, both sets were loaded incorrectly. Whether that’s do to using a 1RM that’s not accurate for the day or having a different breakdown of submaximal efforts compared to a 1RM is not really important. Rather, I think you should load the bar without a specific target in mind that you’re going to load no matter what. The calculator can help ball park you, but you’d still take feedback from the performance of the set and gauge what your next steps should be. In this situation, I’d be wondering what your set at RPE 6 felt like…I’d wager it was closer to 7-8, or 2-3 RIR. If not, then I’d wonder about rest periods between the RPE 6 and 7 set or similar.
I think you should ditch the calculator and use real-time feedback during the workout to select the loads. Loading 5-10% more or less weight isn’t likely to have any effect on training outcomes other than how much fatigue you’re generating, which, if compounded over time, can alter injury risk.
Say you have a 300lb 1RM and are trying to work up to set of 4 @ RPE 8. Our calculator would predict 4 @ 8 to be ~ 250 pounds. In this scenario, I’d have you squat 225 x 4 reps and rate the RPE. If it felt like a 6, then you can add 5% to the bar, then squat another set of 4. If the set at 237.5 felt like @ 7, then it looks like 250 x 4 is likely to be an @ 8. If any of those sets feel significantly different than predicted, you’ll have to adjust as needed.
I really appreciate your time and attention on this one.
I took your advice for day three of the low fatigue power building routine, and it made a very large difference. Used the chart to kind of get a ballpark, but bounced it off of feel and kind of kept in the back of my mind that my rating of lower RPE senss may be a bit off.
So planned a working weight for the very top set, and then shaved about 5% off for the RPE6 and RPE7 working sets. Between the deadlifts and the high rep stiff leg deadlifts, my glutes are toasty.
Ironically, I was watching Weightlifting House’s video of a day in the life of Carlos Nassar’s training during the workout. And they had a segment on how he has essentially used RPE training since he was a kid and never had to change his style of programming. He doesn’t call it RPE, but it’s clearly the same concept in that if he didn’t feel up for a weight that day or particular movement was bothering him or painful at all, he would sub it out almost immediately for something that still gets the pattern in and is challenging, but wouldn’t aggravate whatever was wrong with the original movement.
Yea, I don’t think there’s a way around using some sort of subjective input for load selection. It is surprising to me that some vocal individuals vehemently oppose it. I wonder what they recommend to do when your strength performance is down? Fail? That doesn’t seem productive…
