Tag: shoulder pain

Getting worse, not better

I am not talking about my shoulder or piriformis.

Positivity rate in my zip: 11.7. Neighboring zip codes: 17, 18, 9.4

Not good. What is good is that the university is vaccinating faculty and students.

I get shot no. 2 in about 10 days.

As far as my piriformis: ache toward the end. felt good initially. shoulder: it seems to hurt the most when I re-rack the weights on shoulder press. That is how I hurt it initially. I wonder if I should try to lift off my shoulder presses the way I do bench presses (from high).

Walk: 14:28 pace on wet streets..it was rainy but I yearned to be outside.

pull ups: singles and sets of 5..not great (50 reps)

bench press: 10 x 114, 10 x 134 (sloppy..) 5 x 134 (touched), 10 x 134 (touched 9 reps)

rows: 3 sets of 10 x 134

shoulder presses: 3 sets of 10 x 94..some pain the first time I reracked.

curls: 10 x 54

Hmm…delayed soreness?

My shoulders were a bit tender later; ok during.

Pull ups: 4 sets of 10, 2 of 5..reasonable.

usual rotator cuff/hip hikes plus

deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 188, 10 x 229 (all reasonable)

note: my max in August, 2019, was less than 225 with “down handles”.

shoulder presses: 10 x 94, 10 x 99, 10 x 104 (again, ok)

curls: 3 sets of 10: 54 this time.

rows: 3 sets of 10 x 134

bench press (flat) 10 x 94, 10 x 114, and yes, 10 x 134 (actually touched the chest on a few reps)

That shoulder…

The minor injuries that are hardest to heal up from..for me, are those that aren’t super painful but can be made worse with overuse. My piriformis and shoulder are like that.

I was going to lift on the porch today; it turns out that my shoulder is not ready for “workout level” shoulder presses with dumbbells; getting them from the racked position to overhead is just too painful.

pull ups: singles, set of 10, lots of sets of 5 (50 reps); ok

incline presses: 10 x 116, 7 x 126, 2 sets of 5 x 134 (actually went ok)

rows: 3 sets of 10 x 134

Supported shoulder presses: 10 x 94, 7 x 104, 10 x 94

curls: 3 sets of 10: 50, 52, 52.

This took a while as I moved weights back and forth.

I won’t make the team lifting like this..

Yes, I know…just more workout stuff. I have some work stuff on my mind that i’ll take care of prior to the women’s NCAA title game.

Today: deadlift plus walk; shoulder still somewhat tender..glute a bit wonky.

Deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 3 x 224

work sets: low: 3 x 265, 3 x 265, 3 x 265, 3 x 270, 3 x 270 (maybe a bounced rep in the last set?)

high: 3 x 285, 3 x 285

the low handle work sets were HARD for me. I was disappointed, but I have to remember that this was a minor improvement over last week where it was 1 set with 260, 2 with 265, 2 with 270.

Then my walk (5K, West Peoria, 14:4x pace.)

COVID: Peoria is spiking a bit and local positivity rates are about 10 percent. And many are NOT taking it seriously.

Going on 1 year at home

I saw a “post 1 year ago” on Facebook and realize that I’ve been doing the home gym thing for well over 1 year; that explains, in part, why incline presses are such a struggle. I went a year without doing them! Also, I’ve gotten soft on the standing overhead presses due to my using the “bench with back support” so much.

Yesterday: ok walk; sped up at the end.

I did a “lot of laps” to take advantage of low traffic and good footing; some mild ache.

Today: took some of it outside; shoulder is certainly tender (have to watch “re-racking” the weights)

lots of rotator cuff

pull ups: 50 reps; 10 single, 2 sets of 10, then 5, 5, 7, 3 (last 3 were chins); spent recoveries taking weights out.

incline presses: 10 x 44, 10 x 114, 10 x 125, 5 x 135, 5 x 135 (this was work)

rows: 3 sets of 10 x 134

shoulder presses: this was all over the place; one shoulder tweak on getting the weight out; learning to use a “push” to get the first rep started:
3 x 87, 5 x 81, 6 x 81, 5 x 81, 5 x 81, 5 x 81

curls: 3 sets of 10: 50, 50, 52

Overall, this took a while (30 min. extra for bringing weights in and out..but now I know what I need and what to do)

Achy April

Heartache, shoulder ache, piriformis ache.

Heartache: last walk with Lynn for a while; I forgot how much I had missed her.

Shoulder ache: it is taking a while…it is like that.

Piriformis ache: not that bad but…

the walk: 2 miles at 19:30 mpm or so. Photos below. First pace was a bit quick for Lynn, right now.

Then weights: pull ups were tough as it was 30 F or so. I skipped the bench:

pull ups: 50 reps; included 2 sets of 10

deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 229 (yes, that is a recent record)

rotator cuff and hip hikes:

incline press: 3 sets of 10 x 114 trying to get depth.

rows: 3 sets of 10 x 134

shoulder press: 3 sets of 10 x 94 ..minor tweak on a sloppy rerack

curls: 3 sets of 10 x 50 (time to up it a bit)

COVID vaccine and working out

I got Moderna (shot 1) on Tuesday…a week ago. Side effects: somewhat subtle; sore to the touch arm, “allergy eyes”; slightly elevated temperature (kind of a warm rush) and my old injuries: felt all of them somewhat…that seems to happen every time I get a bug). I also had slightly diminished energy.

I still walked; a training walk yesterday and a social one this morning (5K, 2 miles respectively) and also lifted today.

As usual, Lynn was good company (masks, social distance)

The walk: it did ache early yesterday; today: slight.

Shoulder: some tenderness…I did cut the bench press short as my shoulder is not ready to be challenged in that position, yet.

The weights:

pull ups: 10 singles, 10, 10 singles, 6, 6, 5, 2, 3 (2 were chin grip..these might be ok)

rotator cuff (lots) and hip hikes

bench: 10 x 94, 10 x 114, 5 x 134, 3 x 145 (cut short..wrong kind of pain on rep 3), 5 x 134

rows: 3 sets of 10 x 134

shoulder press: adjusted the spotter arms up: 10 x 99, 10 x 99, 10 x 105

curls: 3 sets of 10 x 50 (?)

shoulder will take a while.

Moving forward

I had pain in my left foot (top, near the big toe; toward the outside) for 2 of the previous 3 nights, but not last night. But still, I rested; no walking.

I did lift:

pull ups: singles, 1 set of 10, 3 sets of 5..enough for 50 reps

rotator cuff and hip hikes (in between other things)

bench: not quite ready, but 10 x 94, and 3 sets of 5 with 134, trying to touch that chest.

incline: (takes about 6 minutes to set up)
2 sets of 10 x 116; felt it a bit

rows: 3 sets of 10 x 134

shoulder: 2 sets of 10, 1 set of 8 with 99, 99 and 105 respectively

curls: 3 sets of 10 x 50 (about to move up here)

note: I need to give myself time to improve on the incline; I think that my personal bench is a bit steeper than some.

Day 2

Yesterday, I had a bit of brain fog, fatigue, and slight muscle aches. Today: after sleeping a long time, not much.

Walk with Lynn and then light weights on my own:

5K walk (very slowly; modest piriformis ache)

weights: rotator cuff stuff:

pull ups: 50 reps; a couple of sets of 10 singles, lots of sets of 5, then 5 singles (decent quality)

bench: 10 x 94, 10 x 114, 10 x 114, 4 x 134, 5 x 134 …maybe ready to progress?

deadlift: 10 x 134, 10 x 189 (22 lb and 5.5 lb plates), 10 x 224 (not that bad)

shoulder: 10 x 99, 10 x 99, 10 x 99 (trying for decent range of motion)

That was enough for today.

Made up some exams…thinking about Bessel functions for tomorrow..