Lifter problems
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@flannel-slut I've done a bit of everything.
I was into powerlifting for a good 8 or 9 years or so - and initially put this gym together in early 2021 during the lockdowns with the rack, a couple of barbells, and something like a combined 260kg available in plates - but decided to pack it in at the end of 2022 after further progress became too much effort, I was getting too heavy, and (with the baby on the way especially) taking 2 hours a day to work out was becoming selfish.
When the baby turned up I was looking for workouts that I could do in under an hour and spent 2023 doing calisthenics and trying to get a skill or two under my belt (unsuccessfully). I wrecked my shoulder falling out of a handstand in the middle of '23 and spent 6 months or so seeing a physiotherapist and just doing what I could in the gym without causing the shoulder to flare up.
Earlier this year while looking for ways to enhance my shoulder strength and stability I came across some macebell workouts on YouTube, so I got one of those. And that led to another (heavier) one of those, then some kettlebells, and over the weekend I filled up those three sandbags.
So my training now is some sort of hybrid between bodybuilding and functional strength. I usually do some shoulder warmups then 3-5 sets of a main compound lift like bench, pullups, ring-dips, for the first 20-30 mins, then do a circuit with the kettlebell, macebell, and (now) sandbags. It's just sort of intuitive what I'll do each day at the moment, and I really need to sit down and workout a proper regime to follow for a few months and track progress against.
So Tl;Dr: "calisthenics guy?" - I dabbled.
Take the dive...
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@EdH take a look at the Andrew Lock Big Three as a basic shoulder rehabilitation series.
He's added a fourth exercise to the sequence recently. If you've got access to Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/andrew_lock_strength/reel/C3HAYNxSzIm/
Dr Lock is a genius physiotherapist who specialises in strength athletes. I used Dani, the girl in the first video, as a PT for a while to rehabilitate my back. (She fobbed me off on her boyfriend, as she felt his training style would benefit me.)
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@EdH much respect in attempting calisthenics! similar journey as yours with the home gym during Covid lockdowns and suffered a shoulder injury as well -mine was from swinging an axe, nothing cool like trying to walk on your hands.
Sounds like your on the right path to strengthening your shoulder and like @Graeme have a video I swear by as well (incorporates a lot of the same external rotation principles tho my guy is allergic to shirts).
OP5SUF__okCw-K
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Not sure if this would be of any help @EdH but I had an interesting thing happen recently with shoulder related stuff. I’ve been working out pretty intensely for a couple years now but really ramped it up at the beginning of this year after moving from home stuff to a gym.
I started having some bad pain in my shoulder, but thankfully mobility tests indicated to me that it was more impingement or bursitis than something like a tear. It nonetheless sucked to work around.
Unrelated, I ended up with contact dermatitis in the form of a super uncomfortable rash on my arms, which my dermatologist attributed to likely detergent or something of the sort. He put me on a course of prednisone. I’ve gotta say — the shit made me feel crazy but the immunosuppressant nature of a steroid like that meant that all the inflammation in my body chilled out. I think the time on it gave my shoulder some time to rest and now it feels a million times better. So, it was a weird way to get there, but I really appreciated the unexpected side effect.
Funnily enough, a lot of the other general aches and pains in my body came right back when the medication was finished. Old man problems haha….
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@Graeme Thanks mate. My issue was I f'd up my teres muscles. My physio gave me a little routine to follow at the start of each workout, and I do that. The macebell swinging is really helping otherwise, and I haven't had a flare up in 8 months or so now.
@flannel-slut yup, I recognise those and put some of them in my routine. To hit the teres maj. and min. I also do some overhead circles against the band, trying to keep my shoulder blades flat against my back as I do so. The stepping out and then resisting the eccentric looks like a good modification to what I do now, which would require more stability than just going heavier on the concentric. Might work those in!
@popvulture Glad to hear your shoulder got accidentally sorted! Like I say, mine is hopefully fixed now, (at least until I do something else stoopid). I hear you on getting old. Funny how my fitness goals became "be able to do fun stuff at weekends" and "don't be an embarrassing dad on sports day" as soon as kiddo arrived!
Take the dive...
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@EdH haha yeah I have to watch myself on the stoopid as well. I want my experience with ‘roids (albeit of a different variety than the typical swole type) to be a one time thing
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@popvulture +1 for prednisone!! Took a prescription of that to clear some nasty poison ivy a few summers ago… I had spare energy for days!!!! The house never looked to clean
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@flannel-slut lmao RIGHT? I had to take Benadryl every single night or I couldn’t sleep. Gnarly shit!
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@flannel-slut Shhhh, or Mrs H will start sneaking it into my food!
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@EdH the theory that Andrew Lock promotes is that most injuries are down to a weakness, and it's the muscle that's working overtime that's hurting.
I'm glad that yours is on the mend. I've been struggling with back issues over the last few months, which I'd rather not have to deal with.
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@Graeme said in Lifter problems:
most injuries are down to a weakness
I believe this. I recall reading about a study that found lower incidence of back injury among powerlifters and strongmen than the general population. This seems counterintuitive - the common knowledge is that picking up heavy things can be hazardous - but it makes perfect sense when you realise that the people who have spent time picking up heavy things are going to have ironed out any weaknesses in their backs that the rest of us would leave unnoticed.
I do a sort of butterfly movement for my shoulders while lying prone, which seems like it's been developed from Lockean principles. Shown from 4:00 in the below:
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I suffer from pretty bad low back problems, and because of this, for a while I avoided core stuff and exercises like deadlifts out of fear that I’d trigger another episode. Plus, gotta admit I just hate the feeling of working my abs. That said, not too long ago I started to push aside that fear and have been trying to build more strength in that area. Doing deadlifts and barbell squats have most certainly helped, and I started working up the strength to do things like hanging leg raises for my abs and obliques, as they’re a shitload friendlier to my back than something like crunches (ugh).
It does seem counterintuitive, but it’s so true. Pushing past that initial, scary weakness has meant more protection for my back in the end. Now if I can just get rid of this layer of flab that sits on top of my abs…
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@popvulture way to get after it bud. Core exercises is great to stay on top of it, specially for those hitting past 40 -not so much in attempt for that flatter stomach (%99.9 of that is eating habits) but for exactly what you are touching on above... a strong core makes for a great foundation and contributes to so many movements.
IMOP what's better than an ab work out? Yoga... and hands down my least favorite work. Holding terrible poses for extended periods while you try to put your mind somewhere else is discouraging, specially in the beginning BUT no other post workout comes close to making the body feel as good as a yoga session -very much the equivalency of a cold plunge for me, huge mental grind while you're in it but god damn do you feel good when you're out -
@flannel-slut oh absolutely re: diet. It’s funny because I can get fairly strict and see some results as far as trimming up and getting some definition, but I’ve also accepted that if I really wanna see some good stuff, I have to totally long-haul it due to being in my 40s. Pass a certain age and that shit just wants to set up camp in your midsection, haha. I know it’s the last to go, too — so even bigger case for dedication to a tight diet.
I love yoga and need to reincorporate it back into my schedule. The best shape I’ve ever been in was when I was doing it like 3 or 4 days a week and running on the others.
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@JDelage for sure! humans are sitting waaaaay more than ever; hip mobility exercises should be pushed onto most everybody
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Do y’all ever check out the Knees Over Toes Guy on YT? He’s got some great hip/general leg stuff. His degree of mobility is pretty wild to watch.
WTB
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