Post: #26

A good pair of wrist wraps take care of most if not all wrist issues. Apart from equipped benchers, I've never heard of any serious wrist issue in powerlifting.

Quote:The main problem is it falling on people and killing/injuring them.

I've only ever heard of one case (Russian powerlifter) which is an equipped bench, the rack had no safeties (Russian meets are dodgy) and the spotters were not trained.

In an equipped bench, the bar can suddenly pop out of groove and fall towards your face or your belly.

A raw bench just doesn't fail like that, ever. You won't have an out of control bar falling on you.

I'd say the vast majority if not all bad bench accidents you see on Youtube would be equipped benching.

Post: #27

Thanks for the advice gents. Over the weekend I massaged both of my arms with a tennis ball. Today I did a movement to warm up my shoulders by moving a long stick from the front of me to behind me.

I also had a trainer friend of mine watch my form. No issues there as well.

Sure enough, did my routine and no pain. I'm going to chalk this up to weak tendons adjusting to the weight.

Post: #28

Tendons and ligaments do adapt slower than muscles, and some progressions might be too fast for this reason. Could be your body telling you to back off slightly or slow down for a bit. Drop down to a slightly lower weight and increase the reps/volume you do.

i.e. Assuming you are at 200 lb. for 3x5 work sets. Drop down to 190 or 185 and do 5x5 or 3x8 for a while, or you could do 2x5 followed by an AMRAP set.

Also, if you are bulking some high volume work could be good. Look up the Wendler 5/3/1 Boring But Big protocol. After your 3-5 heavy bench sets, drop the weight down to 50% of your 1RM and then do 3 to 5 sets of 10. Forces some blood into the area.

Are you doing overhead presses? You should be doing them as often or more often than you bench. Also chin-ups and rows. And do shoulder dislocations (the stretch you do with a broom handle) in between sets.

Post: #29

Yup my routine is a mix of the overhead press, deadlift, squat, and bench. I also have some supporting moves in there such as pull ups, DB bent over rows, incline DB press, and some tricep pull overs.

Probably progressed too quickly. The weekend rest with the massaging and stretching did the trick as well.

Post: #30

Also, if your gym doesn't have them, get some micro-plates to use on your presses. 1.25lb plates or smaller. This way you don't jump up too fast.

Post: #31

(08-24-2015 01:42 PM)RexImperator Wrote:  Also, if your gym doesn't have them, get some micro-plates to use on your presses. 1.25lb plates or smaller. This way you don't jump up too fast.

After finding out how expensive these micro plates are (comparatively), I decided to make my own. I ordered up a set of 8 industrial washers totaling $15 with shipping, and jb welded 2 sets of 2 together. After a bit of sanding just spray paint and you're good. You can use the washers as is, but I wanted to finish them up.

The pair of washers on each side weighs in at 2.3lbs.

Post: #32

Follow up on this topic. I injured my forearm benching my 1rm about five months ago, the initial symptoms were the same as the OP. Burning pain In forearms as I released my grip off the heavy bar (240lb was my max).

For a few weeks I thought It was a muscle pulled, after that I read on here and suspected it was a stretched ligament. After 4 months later I still could not use my wrist properly when lifting things at odd angles without pain, so I went to a physio therapist. He diagnosed it as a TFCC tear in my wrist, and after much reading in the internet I am sure he is right.
I've started ultrasound and electrical pulse treatment, and am getting a special TFCC wrist brace.

From the sounds of it the recovery will be slow and long, particularly since I stupidly waited 4 months to seek treatment, and continued to lift weights through the pain the whole time.

It's nearly impossible to do any real lifting without putting tension or compression on you wrists. I'm pretty much stuck doing machine leg exercises, pec flys with the weight against my forearms instead of my hands, and sit ups. It fucking blows.

Turns out it was all due to bad form. I self assessed the situation and realised my grip was too narrow, as a result my arms were tilted inward towards my torso, instead of being vertical, at the down position of the bench. This caused increased tension on the outside of the wrist while pushing the bar up, and lead to the tear.

I guess the only good thing that came from it is that I didn't hurt both wrists (just my dominant arm). In the future I will not be doing 1rm anymore at all, and i will cautiously stop any activity that is causing pain whatsoever.

Post: #33

(11-17-2015 07:09 PM)christpuncher Wrote:  Follow up on this topic. I injured my forearm benching my 1rm about five months ago, the initial symptoms were the same as the OP. Burning pain In forearms as I released my grip off the heavy bar (240lb was my max).

For a few weeks I thought It was a muscle pulled, after that I read on here and suspected it was a stretched ligament. After 4 months later I still could not use my wrist properly when lifting things at odd angles without pain, so I went to a physio therapist. He diagnosed it as a TFCC tear in my wrist, and after much reading in the internet I am sure he is right.
I've started ultrasound and electrical pulse treatment, and am getting a special TFCC wrist brace.

From the sounds of it the recovery will be slow and long, particularly since I stupidly waited 4 months to seek treatment, and continued to lift weights through the pain the whole time.

It's nearly impossible to do any real lifting without putting tension or compression on you wrists. I'm pretty much stuck doing machine leg exercises, pec flys with the weight against my forearms instead of my hands, and sit ups. It fucking blows.

Turns out it was all due to bad form. I self assessed the situation and realised my grip was too narrow, as a result my arms were tilted inward towards my torso, instead of being vertical, at the down position of the bench. This caused increased tension on the outside of the wrist while pushing the bar up, and lead to the tear.

I guess the only good thing that came from it is that I didn't hurt both wrists (just my dominant arm). In the future I will not be doing 1rm anymore at all, and i will cautiously stop any activity that is causing pain whatsoever.

Burning isn't the correct pain I was experiencing. It was more sharp and electric than a burn. It slowly dissipated after de-loading weight from the bar. I've experienced this pain before from moving up weights too quickly without letting my tendons get used to the weight i'm moving.

Nowadays, i'm more concerned about tendon strength than muscle strength. My muscles can move a lot, those damn tendons not so much.

Post: #34

(11-17-2015 07:09 PM)christpuncher Wrote:  Follow up on this topic. I injured my forearm benching my 1rm about five months ago, the initial symptoms were the same as the OP. Burning pain In forearms as I released my grip off the heavy bar (240lb was my max).

For a few weeks I thought It was a muscle pulled, after that I read on here and suspected it was a stretched ligament. After 4 months later I still could not use my wrist properly when lifting things at odd angles without pain, so I went to a physio therapist. He diagnosed it as a TFCC tear in my wrist, and after much reading in the internet I am sure he is right.
I've started ultrasound and electrical pulse treatment, and am getting a special TFCC wrist brace.

From the sounds of it the recovery will be slow and long, particularly since I stupidly waited 4 months to seek treatment, and continued to lift weights through the pain the whole time.

My brother had this. He ended up having to have surgery on it and it was never the same again.

Post: #35

I've learned boron does wonders for joints. Its concentrated in joints and boric acid is a very unique lubricant, its lubrication ability increases with pressure and is a motor oil additive. Fluroide seems to be antagonistic to joints and boron. Anyways when I read one study treating fluorosis in china with borax, and that the number one symptom the patients were having was shoulder pain. It almost exactly matched my own symptoms so I started hitting the boron hard at 30 mg/day(maybe too aggressive). 3 days later the pain was 90% reduced. Shortly thereafter I could bench with no pain again.

Also when talking about collagen for tendons, silicon is essential for improving the quality of your collagen, and vit c for the quantity. Most people do not get enough silicon.

Post: #36

Slimjim what's your experience supplementing those two? Any recommendations?

Post: #37

(08-22-2015 10:20 AM)scorpion Wrote:  Stop benching. It's a totally unnecessary lift that's responsible for more serious injuries than all other lifts combined. The biomechanics of doing a heavy bench press are very unnatural for the human body. Unless you are specifically training to compete in powerlifting, there's zero reason to bench. You can build a tremendous upper body (both in appearance and strength) without any benching whatsoever (focus on the overhead press for pure strength and HIT slow reps on a pec dec followed by cable flies to build the pectorals).

Honestly, it's ridiculous how many injuries I've seen guys get over the years from benching. Wrist problems. elbow problems, tons of shoulder issues, pec tears, even catastrophic head/neck injuries and deaths from dropping the bar. It's a stupid fucking lift that 99% of guys (i.e. everyone who is not a competing powerlifter) just do for ego reasons and because they think they have to in order to "get big". But you really don't. Focus on the other main compound lifts - squat, deadlift and press - and supplement with other good upper body compound lifts like barbell rows, weighted dips and pullups. Your physique and strength levels will suffer nothing from not benching, and you will drastically reduce your risk of injury over time, ensuring that you can continue to enjoy the benefits of lifting for decades.

Yes! Bench press is a shoulder-wrecker, it squashes your shoulder blades into an unnatural movement. No reason to do it unless you're competing in bench press - you can get immense pressing strength without it.

Good alternatives:

-Pseudo-planche pushups (yes, they will be hard enough with just bodyweight)
-Overhead barbell press
-Dips, if they suit you