Shoulder Pain - Powerlifting II

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
1

Dear Coaches,

First of all I’d like to thank BBM for the pain management resources. I have been dealing with shoulder pain/injury on my left shoulder for the last 3-4 weeks and BBM’s approach towards pain has given me a lot of confidence in managing it on my own and continuing to train around it. I am back to regular training this week with some discomfort and had a few questions.

For context - I ran PB1 and PB2 last year, followed by a 3 week vacation around Christmas, then jumped into Powerlifting II at the start of this year. I developed some shoulder discomfort while doing floor presses on W2D2, which became more severe while doing overload bench (reverse band) on W2D4. On W3D1, I could barely bench press an empty bar. Current 1@8 is 190lbs for context. I tried all sorts of pressing variations with barbells, dumbbells, and push up variations but everything hurt except triceps pushdown. For the rest of week 3 and week 4, I did some TnG bench with 45-65 lbs for random number of reps and sets, and did some machine flyes which were more tolerable. During week 5, I managed to build up to tng bench with 95lbs for sets of 15 and ended the week with triples at 135 and a single at 165. All with tolerable discomfort/pain. Now I’m in week 6 and am able to follow the program. There is still some discomfort and I have reduced RPE across the board on all pressing movements by 1.5-2 points.

My questions are about path forward. I don’t have a competition or meet any time soon.

  1. Should I take a low stress week on week 7, or continue building some momentum by repeating week 6 for pressing movements? I can continue following the program for squat, deadlift and GPP.
  2. Should I follow the second block with more specificity toward bench or keep the overhead pressing movements - basically repeat block I?
  3. As someone with long arms, are floor presses a good option for me? The rep ends before it even begins, and I have to add a lot of weight to get to RPE 8/9. The weight for 6@9 is more than my competition 1@8.
  4. Looking back, considering that I was detrained, and not used to this much bench volume in the first place, should I have repeated week 1 of the template or maybe added a week between week 1 and 2 to build up volume more gradually?

Thanks.

2

  1. I don’t think a low stress week is necessary unless you feel like you need one to dissipate accumulated fatigue. However, I would keep the RPEs adjusted down as you are doing, and consider bumping up the rep targets a bit for a bit longer.

  2. I would keep overhead pressing movements in for a bit more variety in the rehab process (and potentially even longer).

  3. I can’t say with confidence whether or not it’s worthwhile for you as an individual. Feel free to substitute them out for something else.

  4. Probably.

3

VK,

Thanks for the post. I’m sure the shoulder discomfort during training is frustrating!

  1. Since all of your upper body programming needs to change, I would make this decision based on your lower body training progress. If your lower body stuff is still chugging along nicely, I’d keep it as is. For upper body, I’d be looking at rep ranges of 10-15, tempo work, using ROM and implements you can push to RPE 8-9 without pain.
  2. Doubtful as again, all of your upper body stuff needs to change unless you can train upper body normally. It doesn’t seem like you can from an RPE standpoint due to pain, which I’d address more directly. Check our shoulder template out for that. I’d do at least 4 weeks of that prior to returning to the PL II template.
  3. I have very long arms and floor press is a fine choice for me. It’s supposed to be an overload movement after you get used to it so this doesn’t seem like a deal breaker to me.
  4. I don’t know that you’re having pain due to being detrained or just having bad luck. Sounds like your training background was decent going into PL II, though I think being more conservative with load selection after 3 weeks off would work.

-Jordan

4

Thanks Jordan and Austin! This gives me a good roadmap for the next few weeks. I’m going to continue the template for squats and deadlifts as written, and modify pressing movements per your recommendations.

Considering that I am weak at the bottom of the bench and struggle to move the bar back towards the rack, I don’t think floor presses are worth my time. I’ll try them in the future, but I think 2-3ct pause bench will target my weakness better.

In the future I think I won’t take sets to RPE 9 for a couple of weeks after a long vacation.

Thanks again for your time!