Goal Check II

Well Saturday I finished 5 ladders of 1,2,3,4,5 of pressing w/16kg kettlebell and pullups with bodyweight. It went very well and I can tell my right shoulder is coming along. Still a little weak, but coming back.

It seems its the first 1/4 of the press that I still geta little pain. It seem to be classic impingement, judging on where I feel the pain.

I'm going to schedule a couple A.R.T. treatments with my good friend Steve Wittemann of Pro-Release. If you have never had A.R.T. done it is amazing stuff. It isn't comfortable, but it seems to do me wonders. Plus Steve has over 15 years of experience as an Athletic Trainer so dealing with injured shoulders is nothing new for him.

A few things I have added back into my "warm ups" (things I never should have stopped doing).

1. Foam rolling, specifically my lats, IT band and periformis.

2. The "stick up" exercise against a wall. This is great for re-teaching your body to recruit the lower traps and helps build scapular stability. Many times shoulder issues stem from bad scapular control and/or stability.

3. I'm also realizing the times my shoulder felt the best was when I went totally OCD with joint mobility, often doing it multiple times a day for certian areas.

Adding those few items the last week or so have really made a difference. So-much-so I decided the test my pressing last night to see where I stood.

Some background, in the past I worked up to a solid Bulldog Press on each arm (when my left arm was the weak arm). Since then training goals have changed, I'm 20 pounds lighter, but determined to be able to press the Bulldog on demand.

Last night I pressed my 36kg bell easily with my left, and got about 1/4 of the way up. Tension isn't a problem, my shoulder just shuts down from my injury.

Pressed a double on the left with a 32kg and 2 singles on the right. This is a big improvement. Before sucking it up and reducing my pressing poundage to he 16 kg, just racking the 32kg would cause pain in my right shoulder. So, I'm happy with that.

Afterwards I banged out 5 sets of snatches w/32kg 10, 8, 6, 5, 5 R/L

So where to from here?

I'm going to stay the course with pressing and pullups and move up to the 20kg bell and add 15lbs to my pullups.

In addition, more TGUs. The last time I worked up to a Bulldog press, I did very little pressing but did a lot of TGUs. Arm Bars will also be on the agenda.

'til next time.