Advice: Weightlifter’s Shoulder

Exact thing happened to me. Tried various stretching to help. Ended up going to see ortho. Rotator cuff tendinitis. They gave me a steroid injection into the shoulder and said I could lifting easy in 1-2 weeks. Pain 99% gone after second day. Just starting lifting again this week.

I have had a bum shoulder for years now. One of the PPSA workouts made it really bad one day.

I self diagnosed myself with a torn labrum. I called a PT friend of mine and he gave me some good exercises. The ones that felt helped the most were the sleeper stretch and both external and internal rotations.

After a few days of the home PT I added some very light front and lateral side raises and it seems led better after a couple of weeks. I still won’t do bench press.

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Looks Like PPSA has claimed another victim.

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When I hear bench hurts my shoulder, I think bad form. I know from experience. I have forgotten but I’m pretty sure it’s a 5 part series titled “so you think you can bench” that helped me tremendously.

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Exact thing happened to me. Tried various stretching to help. Ended up going to see ortho. Rotator cuff tendinitis. They gave me a steroid injection into the shoulder and said I could lifting easy in 1-2 weeks. Pain 99% gone after second day.

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I had the same thing. Steroid shot didn’t really work for me so I did physical therapy for a few weeks. No more pain.

Irritated the AC joint?

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PPSA has more volume and frequency than is necessary which leads to overuse injuries

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tenderness and pain at the top of my right shoulder and it got progressively worse throughout the week. It’s to the point now where even benching the bar causes discomfort.

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Had this exact issue a couple of years ago. I’m back to about 99% still have a little pain doing overhead work around the house or in awkward positions but no pain in the gym.

Mine got pretty bad, it was accompanied but bicep tendinitis in my shoulder joint. Doc said surgery was an option to open up the space between the ac joint but didn’t recommend it. Glad I passed on the surgery and worked through it.

I lost a lot of my bench strength, went from 365 max down to 225. I’m back to 345 after two years.

I think what helped me the most was really focusing on tucking my elbows closer to my side during pressing motions and changed my touch point of the bar, during bench press, from nipple area to lower sternum. Also, for some reason I found that lifting explosively instead of slow and controlled gave me less pain during pressing motions. I can’t explain it and it seems counterintuitive but it sure worked.

Limit your pressing motions down to the bare necessities until the pain goes away. Try to shift that focus to building your mid-lower taps, rear delts and teres muscles

I’m curious why you believe that higher volume is necessary for progress. Dante Trudel, Dorian Yates, Paul Carter, Mike Mentzer don’t believe that, they keep volume low. They believe that progressive overload and high muscle tension are the primary drivers of muscle growth

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I’m curious why you believe that higher volume is necessary for progress. Dante Trudel, Dorian Yates, Paul Carter, Mike Mentzer don’t believe that, they keep volume low. They believe that progressive overload and high muscle tension are the primary drivers of muscle growth

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its not always, im a dante DC disciple more than anything

couple things

1) gains in strength =gains in muscle so long as calories are high or atleast no loss in muscle if dieting

2) intensity and linear progression should absolutely be used to drive progress for as long as possible. thats the beauty of DC training system, you are rotating lifts attacking weaknesses and progressing as far as possible then switching the lift out for a variant. It is similar to the westside approach in that aspect

3) mentzer wasnt really low volume, he would work his way up to a top set after like 5-6 "warm-up" sets. Yates had the ability to train harder or as hard as anyone in history


ok all that out the way...the research does show more volume at close to failure=more gains in muscle. but it also can get harder and harder to recover from.

but we also are trying to drive strength as gains in strength in certain rep ranges equals gains in muscle.

so

1) we use linear progression as long as possible to drive progress

2) once linear no longer works, you have 2 choices..manipulate the variables or rotate the lift out for a variant. in the garage gym space, we only have so many variants we can do. so many times its manipulate the variables.

3) intenisty and volume must have inverse relationship

4) if 531 has taught us anything its that consistant sub max lifting leads to big gains. simialr to Carters base building.

5)_ so we manipulate the variables...whats our options

a) manipulate volume using hlm method and weekly progression building to a 8-12 week cycle that surpasses previous PR. Think madcow or texas method.

b) add 3-5 extra sets after the main lift and dont take main lift to complete failure. think 531 BBS or BBB

c) manipulate volume using monthly progression and a TM(think ppsa and 531)

D) move to concurrent system like westside


those of us using ppsa choose option c. we did it because the programs are fun. we like them and they fit for a garage gym guys. not many here are competition lifters and i would recommend ppsa for those, but its a nice blend of heavier main lifts combined with some pump work. they are only 4 weeks long so no getting bored which leads to more consistancy.

the proof is in the pudding, tons of PRs using ppsa from guys on this board


as far as the comment about "ppsa claims anotehr" that came from ryno who hurt himself on 531. Any barbell pr exercise program can cause issues. Biggest thing is many here have to learn to start warming up and pre-habbing properly and to quit relying on the lifts at light weight to be their warm up. Once you get lots of time under the bar, you have to start doing this

also, got to learn to take a break from the barbell some. every 3-6 months, take 6 weeks away from the barbell and just do some other form of resistance training, i suggest DBs and lots of bodyweight.

its stupid to blame a program for someone getting hurt unless the program calls for dangerous lifts, requires technical skilled lifts to be done for amraps, or requires lots of technical lifting in a fatigue state

ppsa doesnt do any of those things. its very similar to 531 in many aspects.

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Thanks for that. It seems the 2 essential truths in resistance training are that strength = size and linear progression/progressive overload is the key to strength. Agree?

Then you can use to transitive principle and say that progressive overload is the key to size

In my experience, I have found it dramatically easier to progressively overload on a lower volume and higher intensity program that take sets to at or near failure, so I choose to do those programs.

I don’t believe I progressed much at all on several PPSA programs. it’s very hard to tell when following the forum and switching programs every month

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absolutely...progressive overload in some form is the key to strength and size

that can be in the form of weight, reps, total tonnage at same intensity(volume) velocity of the bar.

as far as progressive overload...key is tracking. and some respond better to lower volume, high intensity, some the opposite. Usually people respond best to the opposite of what they are doing now.


as far as progressing on ppsa...almost all the programs have bench and squat in them. if you are upping your training max 5/10 lbs every month, how is that not progress? same with deadlift.