Upper body progress non-existent

Hello,

I’ve been doing the Beginner Template since Mid July. Before the lockdowns I was persistently ill for almost the entire winter of 2019-2020, so training opportunities were very few and far between.

My legs have been developing hugely and I’ve gone from weak to average strength in DLs, squats and Leg press. While my leg strength has improved close to a 100 percent, my upper body hasn’t. I am especially struggling with bench pressing: I’ve checked all the common mistakes and paid extra attention to my left wrist which wants to slip away into an incorrect posture. Sometimes my shoulder starts twitching when the barbell is close to my chest. I’ve had a physical therapist check the form a couple of times and he has told me it’s fine apart from my wrist.

I had an ENMG done, because I had these tingling sensations in my hands, which were disturbing me when I was writing. They asked me if I had an injury and they put me on more tests. There were no signs of carpal tunnel syndrome however and I guess they are checking my muscles next.

Before BT I had a program that was non-specific (basically just the same movements every day) and I managed to develop in my chest and arms, slow as it was. I’ve added varying forearm, bicep and upper back movements on the beginner template basic program, but I wonder if I should be more specific? I don’t want to make it too complicated either because I want to be persistent and do something I can actually follow through.

Thanks!

It is difficult to predict what sort of change you need in this situation, although if you are running the beginner template and the upper body lifts are not making progress you could advance them to the next phase (which would be set up differently and involve a higher dose of training volume), OR simply add some additional training volume to the existing programmed movements in the phase you’re in (e.g., 1-2 back-off sets per movement).

With that said, this is the sort of thing that we can offer individualized advice for via our form check & consult services.

https://www.barbellmedicine.com/shop/form-checks-consults/1-hour-video-consultation/