Preparing for a meet around injuries

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Low bar squat and bench press both give shoulder or elbow aids (working on fixing this, but it always creeps back). High bar squat and floor presses have been great alternatives that do not cause this pain and let inflammation subside. Once inflammation is subsided, I have minimal issues doing these lifts for a short period of time. So…

  1. I have tested and found that my floor press gainz seem to have transferred well to bench press gainz. However I am worried that adding that extra ROM out of no where onto the tendons/ligaments at maximal weights, seems like a possible bad idea. Agreed or no? If agreed, how many sessions would you recommend before a meet to get things accustomed?

  2. I do alot more Low Bar than High Bar. Even unpracticed, I would do more, so it’s a no brainer to do Low Bar. Any recommended minimum amount of exposure (in sets, sessions, days, weeks or whatever makes most sense) beforehand to 80/20 retraining the low bar skill before the meet?

I know there is no concrete answer to these questions, but any guidance (even if just best guesses) would be appreciated.

Thanks!

2

  1. I don’t have a specific number of sessions I’d recommend. Rather, I’d probably use pin bench presses and work the ROM down to your chest over time.

  2. In your situation, I’d probably start by aiming for one exposure per week to the competition-style low bar squat, involving a heavier single and a couple back-off sets, starting AT LEAST 5 weeks out from your meet, if possible. This assumes you cannot tolerate much more low bar squatting, of course.

3

It would be difficult to advise someone to enter a meet if they are currently dealing with a significant amount of pain that limits their ability to perform the competitive lifts.

I think getting ~6 weeks of training where you can do all the main lifts without a distracting amount of discomfort during the competition lifts is the minimum I’d recommend for a trained lifter who actually wants to compete.

1 Like
4

Understood, thank you guys!