My shoulder is pretty much obliterated. I love pull ups. If I do them, aside from the immediate excruciating pain after a few reps, it becomes so inflamed that I can't push or pull well for the next few days. I can do plenty of reps and I can do them with weight, but it's just the shoulder that's holding me back. It's hard to describe, but I'll try...when I go all the way down with arms fully extended, it's almost as though I go onto another plane with the shoulder. I can barely start a rep. If I do partials, when I come to a stop near the bottom of the movement, it puts a lot of stress on my shoulder. I've tried basically relaxing and letting myself fall from the top to land on my feet and jump a little to start the motion again. I can get more reps in, but I still get very sore that way. So that's why I've been doing the pull downs. It's the best option for width that he or I could think of considering the circumstances. I'll eventually get an MRI of my shoulder so I can do more specific rehab/prehab stuff, but so long as I don't do anything stupid, then I should be able to avoid hurting it before then.
As far as the rows go, I'm obviously pretty weak when it comes to rowing. Compared to thickness, I have pretty good width at this point. That explains the prioritizing. I like the pendley rows followed by db rows. I wouldn't mind something in between, but nothing else fits very well. One of the things that I'm still focusing on is creating better mind muscle connections. I still have plenty of imbalances, especially in my back. Everything is evening out nicely though. The HS rows help with that because I am doing much less weight, but honestly I don't know why they're in there. I can't remember if I asked for them or if he threw them in. Either way, when I get to the hammer strength rows, I always wonder why I'm doing them. My biceps are exhausted way more than my back at that point, so I'm limited by biceps.
As far as whether or not it's working...I don't know. I'll get back to you in a few weeks.
I have been doing more strength training in the past. I think I might be growing, but part of the reason that I'm "progressing" is because my endurance is improving. I've been at it for a week or two now. I'm past the stage of hating the program, and I like it a little bit every now and then, but I feel mostly neutral about it at this point. If it works, then I'll love it.