Morning y’all,
I am currently running the Strength I template for the second time. I responded fairly well to the template the first time around, albeit with some elbow/tricep tendinopathy that held back my bench, and what I would characterize as “light strain” or a sort of pressurized feeling in my low back when attempting maximal deadlifts (switching from conventional to sumo alleviated this feeling). Despite the stars not aligning for a triple PR, I felt pretty great at the end of the template and decided to run it again after a week of Bodybuilding I. While my squat feels solid, my elbow/tricep tendinopathy still tends to flair up the closer I get to maximal effort bench–same goes for the deadlift “problem.”
Lowering the weight, adjusting tempo, modifying the range of motion certainly help for each of these issues, but I was wondering how much I could reasonably add to/modify the template in terms of volume/frequency of each lift. In other words, if I lower the weight/intensity considerably for bench, how should I adjust the sets/reps/frequency of that lift each week? Would it be advisable to add more accessory work in addition to the GPP (e.g. more tricep pushdowns, etc.)?
Thank you!
There are a few factors at play here. I would not lean towards adding in additional volume for S/B/D given your reporting of symptoms. For most tendinopathy it is a combination of putting in some specific tissue work for the aggravated area, scaling back the overall volume and intensity for aggravating lifts to let symptoms calm, and using variations that feel good for any additional training. If it is your triceps, I would likely start the session with some specific, tempo, triceps work looking for the most tolerable variation to load. You can start with 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps at 3-0-3 tempo and RPE 8. This tends to serve as a warm up, but also give some of the tissue specific stimulus we need in this adaptation. It may also initially take some weight off the bar for bench and deadlifts but your main priority right now should be on mitigating symptoms, not hitting last week’s weight. If you feel that the stimulus is too low with comp iterations, you can supplement with any exercise that isn’t increasing symptoms. For bench, it may be throwing in some seated chest press or deadlift some machine RDLs. I would also abstain from heavy singles at the moment and focus more on a rep scheme more in the 3-4 sets of 5-8 range at RPE 7/8 with symptoms heavily influencing RPE ratings for the comp lifts.
Loud and clear. Thanks so much for the response, Derek. One more thing, if you don’t mind! The tendinopathy presents as soreness/achiness on the lateral aspect of both arms, sometimes directly at the elbow, but also half way up the humerus and can be recreated by internally rotating against resistance. I took it to mean tennis elbow or tricep tendinopathy, but would you be of a different opinion? Just trying to pin down the most helpful/applicable accessory movement. Thanks again!