Hollow Feeling in My Shoulder

 “The Quest: for the 405lb Bench”

There is no pain. There is only a sudden sense of complete weakness in my shoulder. Likened to the aftermath of a  charlie horse your older brother gave you when you were six.

However, if you suddenly find yourself with that feeling under a 315lb bench, you are in trouble!

“Uhhhm… Yves? I think I’m done.” Said I while in the loaded 90 degree of elbow flexion posture. And, with that, Yves dead lifted the weight off my chest. Thank-you Yves.

Here are my last two chest workouts(leading up to the “incident”):

Flat Bench: 315 x 3; 315 x 4; 315 x 5; 315 x 5; 315 x 4

Incline dumbbell Row: 80 x 5 85 x 5; 85 x 5; 80 x 5; 80 x 5

Hammer Strength incline press: 270 x 5; 270 x 6; 270x 6

Scapular retraction(cable): 100 x 5; 100 x 6; 100 x 8

dumbbell Adduction: 100 x 6; 100 x 7; 100 x8

Posterior abduction(cable): 80 x 10-50 x12-15; 80 x 10-50 x12-15; 80 x 10-50 x12-15;

*finally raised the volume and threw in some other movements. duh. should have done that a while ago…

I decided that more movements was the way to go. I was in need of a change as it had been 5 weeks since the last program. So what i was gonna try was to involve the movements of the last workout and the intensity of “drop sets” where I would start heavy for 24 seconds then drop the weight to 60% and slowly try to rep out 15.

In theory it would look like this:

Flat Bench: 315 x 5-185 x12-15; 315 x 5-185 x 12-15; 315 x 5-185 x 12-15

Incline dumbbell row: 85 x 6-45 x 12-15; 85 x 6-45 x 12-15; 85 x 6-45 x 12-15;

Hammer Strength incline press: 270 x 6-180 x 12-15; 270 x 6-180 x 12-15; 270 x 6-180 x 12-15;

Scapular retraction(cable): 100 x 6-60 x 12-15; 100 x 6-60 x 12-15; 100 x 6-60 x 12-15;

Dumbbell Adduction: 100 x 6-60 x 12-15; 100 x 6-60 x 12-15; 100 x 6-60 x 12-15;

Posterior abduction(cable): 80 x 10-50 x12-15; 80 x 10-50 x12-15; 80 x 10-50 x12-15;

But theory being what it is…. I got this”

Flat Bench: 315 x 5-185 x 6; 315 x 1 and punchbuggy!

Incline dumbbell row: 85 x 6-45 x 12-15;

Yves: “That’s alright. you did it once! that’s good!”

“Thanks Yves.”

I already know what  went wrong and I’ve been treating it. In spite of my terrible ability to assess myself…

One Week Later…

Pain free still and with a week of Trigenics under my belt. I think I’m ready. And I was… Here’s how it went:

Flat Bench: 315 x 5-185 x12; 315 x 5-185 x 12; 315 x 4-185 x 10

Incline dumbbell row: 85 x 6-45 x 10; 85 x 6-40 x 10; 85 x 6-40 x 8;

Hammer Strength incline press: 270 x 6-180 x 12-15; 270 x 6-180 x 12-15;

Scapular retraction(cable): 100 x 6-60 x 12-15; 100 x 6-60 x 12-15;

Dumbbell Adduction: 100 x 6-60 x 12-15; 100 x 6-60 x 12-15;

Posterior abduction(cable): 80 x 10-50 x12-15; 80 x 10-50 x12-15;

This was hard. I’m not sure I’ll be able to repeat it. Had a bit of nausea. Initially I had planned on doing interval sprints between reciprocal muscles but I was just too tired.

All in all though… thrilled. As a side note: make sure you’re stretching and strengthening pec minor as you go along. Also, it helps to fire teres minor for balance…