Weightlifting

[SpencerH]

Its gonna depend on the machine, but the one at my gym is designed for folks with orangutan-length arms, so I avoid it like the plague.

If you've got rotator problems all you can really do is rest it and try to alleviate the inflammation with ice and anti-inflammatorys. If its recent, you can get physio and/or cortico-steroids that will speed the recovery. If you must train, follow the old adage; "doctor, doctor, it hurts when I do this. Well dont do that." Find exercises that dont hurt at all. I had rotator problems for years. When I first started competing I weighed around 170 lbs and would bench sets of six at 275 but my max in competition was 295-305! My rotator would hurt halfway up and I'd stop lifting. That went on for years. Around 1992 or so the IPF allowed bench shirts and I trained for 6 months with the shirt and low reps. My shoulder healed up and I've never looked back.

[Solly]

I'm in a bit of a fix. I want to bulk up a bit, but will be playing football (soccer) for the next few months.

Sort of contrasting aims...

What should I do?

[SpencerH]

I'd say that 'bulking-up' would be a mistake for a footballer except for the strikers who just wander about then have a short, sharp, sprint.

[Solly]

Well, what I am clinging to is that in a few months I can't put on any more than 10lbs, and that if I make sure my fitness keeps improving I ain't got a problem. Besides, a bit of extra strength at full-back never hurt sending some skinny and pacey winger five yards in the air..

[Ted Striker]

For rotator cuff, I do exercise 4. Keep in mind you should only be using 5 to 10 pounds for it:

http://familydoctor.org/265.xml

[vlad]

Originally posted by bfg9000


So you are not concerned about doing further damage to your shoulders at this point? All you need to deal with then is the inflammation, correct? Do you take any other vitamins/supplements besides ibuprofen? (Man, if I take that I'll have to stop drinking!)

Can you go into a little more detail about your warmup prior to lifting? You said before that you stretch before and inbetween sets. I guess there are specific stretch motions related to each bodypart that I should know. As I said before, my warmup = warmup sets and no stetching. I do a series of progressively heavy warmup sets per bodypart prior to doing a series of exercises for that bodypart.

Well I broke a collarbone when I was in high school which aches all the time, ripped a trap muscle trying to be cool and lift way over my max at a powerlifting meet, and have ripped the connective tissue in both shoulders, which probably explains why the doctor says I have tendinitis now. There isn't much I can do as far as more damage, tendinitis is there pretty much for life. I don't drink so the ibuprofen is a nice easy med to take. I used to run a supplement company so I am an avid vitamin taker, but these days nothing special. For my knees I do take Glucosamine and Chondrotin, if you can afford it I would reccomend that to ant heavy lifters. Do an internet search on it and you will find mega articles. It is a cartilage repair supplement with some anti-inflammatory effects too. There is also an anabolic steroid called Deca-Durabolin which helps some of the joint and ligamnet problems, but I can't condone the use of anything illegal these days. The one thing I can add is if you feel pain lifting, don't mask it with too many meds, that is just a formula for disaster.Once you don't feel the pain you tend to aggravate it even more and when the meds wear off, well that just makes for some bad days.

As far as stretching goes make sure to warm up the body part your working that day. Get the blood flowing to it. Once you get a pump going just bend and twist it(not enough to hurt yourself) in a natural way to flex the tendons and ligaments. I like to grab a pole or piece of a machine and just rotate my arm. Again I pay extra attention to keeping my shoulders stretched so its easy to just swing my arm a bit. Legs especially,sit on the ground and stretch the legs out like the splits, then also sit indian style with bottoms of feet touching or close and just stretch. It's hard to explain it in exact science, but the better you stretch everything, the more stress you can put on it lifting. I used to have a stretching article we put in one of our supplement magazines, if I can dig it out of the archives I will PM it to you.

[vlad]

Originally posted by SpencerH
When I first started competing I weighed around 170 lbs and would bench sets of six at 275 but my max in competition was 295-305! My rotator would hurt halfway up and I'd stop lifting. That went on for years. Around 1992 or so the IPF allowed bench shirts and I trained for 6 months with the shirt and low reps. My shoulder healed up and I've never looked back.

Ahhh the benching shirts, they sure were the cats meow when they started letting people use them. I always felt like some fetish stripper putting the damn thing on, but I jumped my bench up quite a bit and definitely had less pain.

Do you still compete?

[SpencerH]

Not since moving here, but I like to dream that I have one last gasp in me as a 45+ master. I never got that much from the bench shirt, only 5-10 Kg. The IPF only allows single ply, no canvas, and I have a wide grip.

[vlad]

We all have that dream left in us Spencer, hell if we didn't we would have never powerlifted in the first place. I want to do a couple meets here in Canada after 40, just need to get to a lighter weight class than I am accustomed to.

I jumped up about 30 lbs using a shirt, I have a very narrow grip and I think I got some psychological effect from it. I maxed out at 420lbs on the bench, but at a weight of 270lbs that was not anything to brag about. I never won any meets, but I always gave 110% and thats what it was all about back then.

[lightblue]

Originally posted by Park Avenue
For triceps, cable pulldown is probably the safest and eliminates shoulders pretty much.

Here's a cardio challenge for you. Run as far as you can in twelve minutes. A good sign of how fit you are..I used to struggle to make 2km (), but am on around 2.37km at the moment.

Hmm if I run at a fairly comfortable 75% max heart rate, I run a 6:05 mile, so 12 minutes would get me about 3.15 or so.

I can run a 5:20 mile but not for 12 minutes

Another good line is how far you can do on a Concept II erg in 20 minutes. One of the selection points in our crews is that you have to be able to do 5000m+ (so sub 2:00 500m splits). First crew are more like 5200m average, the bigger guys like myself do upto 5700m.

As for your football, I'd suggest combining fat loss with muscle gain. Most people have fat they can lose/convert, and it gets you over the weight thing. As a defender I'd say torso and shoulders to be able to muscle people off the ball, some core stability stuff (abs 'n lower back) for balance. Leg power probably isn't as important, I'd work more on explosiveness in legs than brute power, so fast reps with slightly less weight.

[Ramo]

I run for about half an hour before lifting, and I streach my arms in between sets.

[Solly]

Hmm if I run at a fairly comfortable 75% max heart rate, I run a 6:05 mile, so 12 minutes would get me about 3.15 or so.

Bloody ell! 2.5km in 11 and a half minutes would give you military fitness apparently, so you're well in there.

Another good line is how far you can do on a Concept II erg in 20 minutes. One of the selection points in our crews is that you have to be able to do 5000m+ (so sub 2:00 500m splits). First crew are more like 5200m average, the bigger guys like myself do upto 5700m.

With rowers, I'm always doubtful that I'll use the correct movement..

As for your football, I'd suggest combining fat loss with muscle gain. Most people have fat they can lose/convert, and it gets you over the weight thing. As a defender I'd say torso and shoulders to be able to muscle people off the ball, some core stability stuff (abs 'n lower back) for balance. Leg power probably isn't as important, I'd work more on explosiveness in legs than brute power, so fast reps with slightly less weight.

Hmm, yeah. If I was playing over the long-term maybe I would focus more on the above for football, but I've only got 4 or 5 matches left to play this season. The standard of fitness in the league ain't great - I'm probably one of the fittest .

Wrt soreness:

The only time I've been sore from exercising in the last few months was a result of a jog I went on in Norwich on Boxing Day. I was running on concrete. I think so long as you keep yourself going three times a week, soreness should never be an issue.