By ADAM DRIGGERS
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
work SSB GMs Cambered bar Box
Squats in briefs Shirted Bench
600x1 Light suited Pulls
500x1, 3 sets Suited Squat 850x1
Rev Band 900x1
(opener) Suited Squat 900x1
Rev Band 950x1 Light Bench acc.
work Heavy Pin Pulls Cambered bar Box
Squats in briefs Shirted bench
650x1 Suited Pull 700x1
(second attempt) Suited Squat 925x1 Rev Band 975x1 Light Bench acc.
work SSB GMs
Light Pin Pulls SSB in briefs
Last shirt 675x1
to a half-board Light Suited Pull 550x1
off a 1-board Light Suited Pull 500x1
lET ME EXPlAIN Why ThIS WORKS.
Remember that this is designed for those of us who are beat up by age, years of lifting, or both. What this program does is offer an adequate amount of time for a lifter’s shoulders and elbows to heal between lifts.
My specific issue was my elbows. Shoulders were secondary. Squatting with a straight bar kills my elbows—
it literally makes it impossible to bench heavy. Notice what this program does.
This program utilizes specialty bars to give your elbows adequate recovery time while allowing you to maintain heavy- to moderate-squat training. Using this program, you will squat with a straight bar followed by a very light bench session two days later. That shouldn’t be an issue. The following squat day, which is a week later, is performed with a specialty bar that will take the elbows completely out of the lift. On the following bench day, which is exactly nine days after your last heavy straight bar squat, is your heavy shirted bench day. If you have done everything correctly, your elbows and shoulders should be completely recovered and ready for the carnage of a heavy shirted day.
Let me address back day here. A straight bar shouldn’t be on your shoulders at all for any work done on your back day. All good mornings are done with specialty bars. Pulling tractions the elbows, and personally makes mine feel better, so that shouldn’t cause an issue.
After your heavy shirted bench day, you have four (plus) days of recovery before you squat heavy with a straight bar again. For me, that is plenty of recovery. The squat is what really does work on my elbows, so I usually come out of my bench sessions feeling okay. This is especially true after this program kicked in. In the past, I had elbow pain constantly. Now I rarely have it.
SOME NOTES:
I did not add accessory work to this program. Your accessory work should target your weak areas. Those are impossible for me to know and address here.
Arm Training! This is extremely important. If you are experiencing pain in your shoulders and elbows, start training your arms lightly but with tons of volume. You will find that, in a short period of time, you can begin adding weight and cutting volume. However, while you are hurting, stay light and utilize quantity. This type of work moves blood, and blood brings healing. Flush those joints. Once the pain is retreating, add weight so that you can strengthen the areas that have become weak. Believe me, they are weak since you have backed off due to pain.
I truly hope this program helps you like it has helped me. For two years I was on the edge of retiring. Currently, I feel like I have several years of competitive lifting left in me. What a relief, considering my desire to compete is still as strong as ever.
Good luck.
Powerlifting is a brutal sport.
You push your body to the limits each and every workout.
And when all of your time and energy is focused on getting stronger, sometimes little things like mobility, flexibility and joint health become after-thoughts.
While I’m not the strongest guy you’re ever going to meet, I’ve worked with, evaluated, and coached the strongest of the strong. The freakazoids that routinely squat, bench press, and deadlift more than most mere mortals can comprehend.
Why do they come to me? Or why would they ask someone such as myself for advice?
Because I know that if I can find that little weakness or limitation that’s holding them back, I can effortlessly help them add pounds to their total.
I have a very specific belief:
You already know how to get strong. If you follow time-honored and proven principles, we can all get far stronger than we’ve ever imagined.
If we can stay healthy.
My goal with this article is simple: To give you some basic tools to help you preserve the ball-and-socket joints in your body—namely, your hips and shoulders.
These ball and-socket-joints are vital for your long-term health, mobility, and quality of life.
If you can keep these four joints moving and shaking well, you’ll not only be rewarded by less pain, but bigger totals to boot.
Let’s do this!
A Brief Overview of the Ball-and-Socket Joints
In the first anatomy class I ever took, the professor took a fair amount of time covering the different types of joints in the body.
Regardless, I think even as a young buck I realized that ball-and-socket joints were pretty cool!
Your hips and shoulders are unique, not only in their structure, but also in their function. Ball-and-socket joints have incredible ranges of motion and mobility. For instance, while you have large ranges of motion around the knee or elbow joints, you only have that motion in one direction.
In contrast, the hips and shoulders have a fair degree of movement in all planes of motion.