Troubles...
I have been struggling with getting the weight up on my squats. But it isn't because of issues with weak legs and back.... I carry the bar low on my back and as I go up in weight the pain in my arms running from elbows to my wrists is so bad I can barely hold the bar on my back to squat. I can get up to three wheels and and after that the pain is so bad I can't even concetrate on doing the lift much less hold the bar on my back. I can get two or three reps in before I have to put the weight up. It is getting very frustrating for me because I can squat way more than that but for my arms of all things. Anyone have any suggestions? Besides skipping the squats...lol..
I am considering that the issue is a possible training issue with shoulders and that I am missing something as far as training shoulders ......
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How do your elbows and shoulders feel on bench?
I had to research a similar issue and it turns out both my bench and my squats were connected. In a nutshell it all boiled down to form and technique. For squats I had to start squatting with the bar high up on my shoulders and being my arms and elbows in. So on heavy squats where i used to put my arms out wide and my hands on the plates I had to get used to the uncomfortable position I hands closer to shoulders and bar higher on my back/shoulders. This allowed for much more weight then previously.
generally speaking they feel pretty good .. there are occassions when I have some pain but it usually goes away with a decent warm up ... I've played around a lot with my form on bench due to the elbow /wrist pain and finally got it to go away .. I was able to drop the wrist wraps and haven't used them in quite some time. I was using high bar but switched to low bar it was more comfortable for me but maybe there is an adjustment up that will work .. I generally didn't have a choice about keeping my arms in close to my shoulders as the rack I was using was fairly narrow and anything too wide I was smashing my hands
Decrease the weight, until u have no pain. The weight you are doing now is 315? Is that 3 wheels? Once you decrease the weight, focus on time under tension. Can u try holding the bar in front of you, along with the new weight change? If decreasing weight doesnt help, or if u cant and want to keep same weight, try using a TENS unit to block pain receptors. Also, when i was squatting heavy weight, i used a foam kneeling pad. I got it at walmart for $15. I ended up using a thick rolled up towel fixed together with small yellow bungee cords, later.
anything over 315 causes too much pain in my shoulders, elbows, wrists ... you are suggesting front squats? I ve already dropped the weight and while that's good for the pain I m trying to increase the weight ;)
TENS unit and ice, then....those bars GearHead posted a link too is a good intervention....front squats is a choice, but u will probably need back support, or something to keep ur body more straight, since u normally carry bar low...
thank you ;-)
Yes ma'am it's an unnatural position for your shoulders to hold the bar that far behind your neck and even lower on the traps. The pain you are experiencing is common. So common that they even make specialty barbells to work around it.
Take a look at the Buffalo squat bar in this link.
https://www.t-nation.com/training/specialty-bars-for-strength-and-size
BTW, I have made the investment over the years in buying bars for the gym that initially I needed for my training and the gym wasn't going to buy. It's amazing how popular they became with the general membership. So the owners finally caved and with the receipts I had at least extended my membership fees out for so many free years to sort of pay me back.
any way to keep the tendonitis from popping up prior to working up to the heavier weights?
Only things I know of are compression sleeves for the elbows and wrist wraps. Then there are plain old cortisone shots which I like maybe once or twice a year.
thats interesting that you say that because I had done that at one of the local 24 hour gyms as the bars they had were basic and pretty much only good for benching .. .... and pretty cool for you that they paid you back
Pretty cool....thanks
that's pretty interesting ... I tried widening my grip to relieve the pressure but the rack that I was using limited me in that it wasn't wide enough .. ..
any ideas on anything to strengthen the shoulders ?
Seated overhead presses in the power cage where you bring the bench into the cage adjusted it so it's like a seat with a huge back support - adjust the pins in the rack so when the bar is on the pins it is not too low a press for you shoulders and press. You duck under the bar to get into the seat and the pins are like a little below ear level with the bar across it. You can roll the loaded bar right in front of your face on the power cage pins. The whole idea of this is to avoid doing a seated front shoulder press starting with a heavy bar resting on your chest under your chin. Terrible strain on the shoulders to press that dead weight like that. Follow this by standing military presses in the power rack with the hooks adjusted again so your not stretching your shoulders when you grab the bar.
Plain lateral dumbbell raises for side delts. Hammer dumbbell raises for front delts and I usually use the chest fly machine for rear delts by sitting in the opposite direction on the machine and grabbing both bars and moving the weight with my rear delts.
Play with your grip, and I know your not trying to hear it because I wouldn't either, but front squat until the pain is gone...
at this point I m willing to try just about anything ... the pain was so bad it was starting to interfere with benching and deadlifting ... and then not even getting a decent amount of reps with what I did have on my back was just as frustrating ...
I had a partial tear in an elbow ligament from squatting a while back. Had to completely drop squatting for a pretty long period now I'm back stronger than ever. Grip was the problem then. I was gripping too wide and torqued one of my arms under a warmup weight. Cried to my girl because squatting was one of my favorite things and I thought my career in squatting was over :*(. Now I squat with a much closer grip and it adds a great amount of upper back stability as well as being much more comfortable on my joints. Just experiment before deciding if you need to shy away from back squats for a while
I haven't squatted in about six months... I had made attempts to adjust my grip at that point but A. I waited too long and the pain was already significant and B the squat rack was too narrow and my ability to make changes was very limited without smashing my hands. It got so bad that I hit the third rep and racked the weight because I knew I was going to drop it if I continued.... I want to start squatting again but can't and don't want to deal with that kind of pain .. it affected my dead lifting and bench ... so I want to try see if there is anything I can do to prevent it .... every once in a while I can feel the twinge run down my arm and I think that if it hurts now what's it going to be like when I try to start stacking the weight on again .. on the bonus side I m training at a different gym that has proper squat bars and racks
Have you tried any foam rolling to relax muscle and release tension on ligaments and joints. Foam roll chest and back, and maybe use a tennis ball for the shoulders, find that point where it's sore and work it out real good. You'll be suprised how much that tension affects other areas.
no I haven't even thought about it ...
I have a tennis ball i carry in my food cooler at work. For shoulders I just face a wall and place the ball on AC joint and press shoulder into the ball until I find the sore spot and just hold a push for a few minutes, then I roll the ball around with my shoulder and work out the soreness and tension. After a few days of this I have no problems extending my arms and shoulders back and placing heavy weight. Opens up a good range of motion.
interesting because as I have added muscle mass my ability to move has greatly diminished... I can't even put my hands behind my back and lift my arms anymore ;( and believe me I try ..
Maybe some kind of warps? Wrist wraps, elbow wraps or sleeves? Mark bell has some sick wraps that could help. Other than that idk
last cycle I let it go too far and the only thing I could do was to drop the weight and just do high volume .. this cycle I m just starting out and can feel twinges of the old issue again and want to avoid it before it gets bad ... possibly elbow wraps might be necessary at some point
TENS unit will help...and 7 minute ice massage...
my dad has one ...lol.. I grab his
I have used mine, and when i thought it wasnt.going to work, it did. I am amazed at what a difference it can do. I go thru all the settings, and i increase intensity until i cant stand it. I think they are awesome.
Have you experimented with different grip widths? I prefer low bar back squats too. One thing that helped me get up in weight is pushing the bar with my arms and shoulders at the same time as my legs push, almost like an impossible behind the neck press during your squat.
I don't know if pushing with my arms at this point will help the pain is so bad when I go up in weight holding it on my back is a major issue... I won't bother with putting it higher up towards my neck .. but maybe widening my grip will help