Quad and anterior deltoid tightness

Two things going on I think are a response to getting used to higher volume but I thought I would check it out. I will also note this happened after taking 3 weeks off. The last time the problem with the shoulder/chest/bicep happened was with higher volume I wasn’t used to and taking time off actually made it worse. I blamed it on curls and lateral raises I hadn’t done in a long time the first time but now I think it might be sitting for two long then going to higher volume. I am also 46 so I can’t expect to recover like a teenager. :slight_smile: This seems to happen after a 3 week or more break and going back to a bit higher volume program. The knee thing is new but doesn’t hurt under weight.

  1. Press After pressing there is a lot of tightness in the front shoulder chest on the left side. The bicep feels tight up to the shoulder. I was diagnosed with a shoulder impingement on that side about 7 years ago. Had one cortisone shot did the prescribed stretching and it hasn’t bothered me too much since until a higher volume program a year ago and now (both had curls in them which I don’t usually do), I started lifting again about 4 years ago (on and on). Really started after taking 3 weeks and going on the 7 week hypertrophy program. I felt this tightness before when I tried power cleans. There is also tightness in the traps. Mobility work with a ball seems to help some but I haven’t done it often enough.

  2. Squat

I have felt some pain just above the right knee on the inside part when I squat with the bar or no weight. It goes away after a few reps and I don’t feel it at all under heavier weights. It seems to return after rest and inactivity. I noticed on the leg press if my legs are too narrow I feel the pain there. Left seems ok. I have some tightness in my adbuctors (left much worse) and have felt tightness in the left outer quad before but not recently. I am thinking it is just tight quads. The other thing that may or may not be relevant is my DL is about 20 lbs. lighter than my squat at 1 rep RPE 8. Not sure if it is a strength balance issue.

I have been training through this but the left bicep sometimes really hurts been pressing sets. I also feel it in curls but have corrected that somewhat after watching some videos on form. Can sometimes feel shoulder tightness in pushdowns. If I feel tightness with the bench it is usually more traps.

A lot going on here so I’ll try to be concise:

taking 3 weeks off

Taking time off is not our usual recommendation as it tends to detrain the individual while fatigue dissipates. In very short periods of rest (<1 week), the fatigue decay is slower than the fitness decay, but longer periods of time off tends to produce greater reductions in fitness. This ultimately sets you up for issues upon return to training.

I am also 46 so I can’t expect to recover like a teenager.

Sure, though I wouldn’t expect you to recover poorly either unless you are untrained.

  1. Press After pressing there is a lot of tightness in the front shoulder chest on the left side. The bicep feels tight up to the shoulder.

I wouldn’t worry about this unless there was a lot of pain. If not really painful, ignore.

I was diagnosed with a shoulder impingement on that side about 7 years ago. Had one cortisone shot did the prescribed stretching and it hasn’t bothered me too much since until a higher volume program a year ago and now (both had curls in them which I don’t usually do), I started lifting again about 4 years ago (on and on).

The diagnosis and treatment plan are both suspect. See:
https://www.barbellmedicine.com/shoulderimpingement/
https://www.barbellmedicine.com/the-shoulder-part-iii-internal-impingement/

Really started after taking 3 weeks and going on the 7 week hypertrophy program. I felt this tightness before when I tried power cleans. There is also tightness in the traps. Mobility work with a ball seems to help some but I haven’t done it often enough.

Again, I probably wouldn’t do anything about this and I certainly wouldn’t recommend any specific mobility work. Do you have pain? You note that you have left biceps pain on occasion, which I probably wouldn’t do anything about explicitly outside of sticking to the RPE and potentially cutting out the accessory arm work for a week if it’s more frequent than intermittent.

  1. Squat

I have felt some pain just above the right knee on the inside part when I squat with the bar or no weight. It goes away after a few reps and I don’t feel it at all under heavier weights.

I don’t think this represents something that needs to be managed and I don’t think your quads, abductors, etc. are “tight.” I would advise trying not to think about it unless it makes itself known.

Thanks. The pain can get pretty bad in the left bicep and front shoulder but after 3 to 5 minutes rest I can do another set. It does seem to be a lot in the arm. The 3 week break was not really for this problem. It wasn’t occuring before I got sick and had some work travel. It only occured after. That is the weird thing to me. You would think taking time off would make you feel better. Sometimes for me weird things that weren’t happening before start happening if I take a break. I did try some stretching that didn’t help but I noticed external rotation of the shoulder with a band kind of hurt. I went back to looking at press form. I am using a bit narrower grip and that seems to help. I think I went to the old diagnosis of impingement first but after reading this and some other articles, I am not as worried. This may be coming from the bicep tendon with the arm pain. I was concentrating more on the feeling of the shoulder probably because I had been told sometime back I had an impingement but thinking about it now while I can feel the front shoulder tighten the pain is more up and down the arm. The last time it happened it eventually went away with time and naproxen. So I shouldn’t be too worried. I am starting to even think maybe I am attributing part to the shoulder just because I was told I had an impingement. :slight_smile:

It could be a biceps tendon issue, but it might not be and it wouldn’t cause us to do anything differently- we’d still alter programming to manage symptoms.