SITUATION: I have tendinitis in both elbows. It’s painful to pick-up my 12-lb cat with one arm.
I’m using higher reps and tempos, avoiding certain movements (e.g., pullups) and ROMs (e.g., lockout on bench) that aggravate my elbows.
Yesterday I alternated deadlifts with 450 to 490 lbs for 1 to 2 reps with slower-tempo reverse grip bench with only 125 lbs for 20+ reps. My god, my glutes are on [IMG2=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“src”:“https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/ta9/1.5/16/1f525.png”}[/IMG2] after bench and I’m breathing almost like I do after an Echo bike interval. (Today I feel fine as normal.)
I’m on week 12 of Powerlifting 2 and I kept bench at 5 sets as prescribed. But instead of doing 1 to 3 reps per set, I did 128 reps over 5 sets.
QUESTION: I rested much longer than usual between sets because of the high-rep benching. (Not a problem since I train at home.) Should I do fewer sets of bench if I’m using higher reps? My thought was: A 125 lbs bench probably isn’t that stressful, and if I can’t do heavier loads, I might at least get some hypertrophy or conditioning from the volume.
I think you might answer: The extra volume might have those benefits provided:
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You’re not worsening your injury.
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You can tolerate and adapt to it. (Consider gradually increasing your rehab volume and frequency and observe its impact on your rehab and recovery.)
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The extra fatigue from the rehab volume may compromise your peak strength at the program’s end. But that’s okay because rehab requires a long-term perspective.