I went through a basic LP beginning of last year: due to some old hamstring injuries, I decided to start light (empty bar) and progress as normal, realizing it would take longer but that was fine with me. I progressed over a 6 month period (due to travel training was sporadic, but overall consistent in 1 to 2 sessions per week) up to: press: 100 pounds, squat, 275 pounds, deadlift 300 pounds, bench: 155 pounds. Once the squat had exceeded 225 pounds, I was finding a lot of discomfort of the bar against my back: in the squat position, I can feel the bar pressing on the base of my neck, almost directly on the bones, which cause me to constantly shift the bar around. I did end up buying a bar condom which eased the pain quite a bit.
Immediately prior to COVID hitting I was struck one morning with severe pain behind my shoulder blade, with the pain extending up through my shoulder, down the back of my arm, and ending in my middle finger. Pain was 9/10, and my right arm was weak…especially along the tricep (which felt slack and extremely weak). After a call to my doctor he said the symptoms sound like “C7 Cervical radiculopathy”, and he prescribed prednisone for 9 days. Pain relief was immediate (within 8 hours of the first pills), and over the course of about a month everything seemed to recover. It struck a second time about 3 months ago (with no training), and again, prednisone cured it after a few days. Over the past three months, I haven’t really had any symptoms. Unfortunately, getting an appointment for more diagnosis has been a real pain, but I intend to do that when the first appointment comes up.
Fast forward to this past week: I re-started training, with one session with the empty bar, following by 3x5 squats at 145. The pain in my neck during squatting returned, and this past morning I woke up with a tingling sensation in my right arm again, however no pain or weakness. I have no discomfort in any of the other lifts.
I feel like the back squatting is exacerbating some underlying condition. Modulo a definitive answer, I still would like to continue training, but rather than leaving out squatting maybe I can shift to front squatting?
One thing that strikes me: my upper body development lags quite a bit behind the lower body (probably after so many years of ice hockey), and I see that in squat the bar is meant to rest on the top of the delts, for which I really don’t have much musculature. I feel like the bar is sitting right on the spinal bones and I’m wondering if I’m causing a compression/irritation of the nerves in that area, mainly because when I don’t back squat I don’t have any symptoms.
Any advice?