That's true :biglaugh:

I haven't injured myself when I wasn't already sore. So if I only press when I feel good, then I think I can manage some progress. It sounds stupid, but it might work out. The question is whether I'll be able to do a push up when I'm past 30 years old.

It is stupid. Sorry but I learned the hard way that it is stupid.

Well while you consider the "method" just ask yourself whether you need that much pressing at once or whether spreading it out could result in the same training effect over time. And also...this is a strength thing, right?

The only real reason to that many presses in one workout is to "get your delts bigger". Hell, you can get your delts bigger faster by dong laterals and front raises, lol.

I can't think of ANY legitimate reason to ever do a machine press..from the standpoint of scapular mobility alone it makes no sense. Looks like something thrown in to get more work. You could get more work while throwing in more useful things.

The machine press was an afterthought. I was being lazy...I did it for triceps work instead of doing OH tri extensions.

If I get equally sore every time I press despite the volume, wouldn't it make sense to do more volume when I have a press day? If I could spread that volume out, then I would. Maybe I'm still not understanding...?

What do you mean by sore?

There is NO way that more volume can ever equal to the same amount of stress. You can say sore, sore, sore one hundred times but more volume is more volume, and more weight is more weight, etc..if one amount of stress has a particular impact than MORE stress will have MORE impact.

My standpoint is not HOW sore I get but why the hell should I be sore every time I press? The answer is you shouldn't be and if you are there is a problem. So what I'm saying is by this philosphy you WILL continue to get sore. Maybe worse and worse and there may come a point where you no longer have the freedom of saying ..well I'm not too sore from this...instead you'll be saying, well, I can't lift my arm anymore. Or something similar.

I guess my perception is a bit skewed at this point. My AC joints have been aggravated for a while now. Every time I press, they bother me. I have a hard time remembering back to when they didn't do this. I don't want to completely take time off. I guess I should do some more research on it.

Yeah, that is always in the back of my mind when I post. I know that you just get used to this kind of thing and you get into a habit of working around it. And working around things can be a good thing but you are never going to reach you goals or potentials by constanstly taking time off from a bum shoulder even if it doesn't get worse.

Look at it this way. Just from what you brought up about doing more pressing at one time because it results in the same amount of soreness. Well one pressing session whether it's a lot or a little pressing doesn't amount to a hill of beans longterm. Anything that prevents you from progressing in a slow and steady rate long term CONSISTENTLY is never as good.

What I'm thinking of is not now, but 5 years from now, where not wanting to "take time off" turns into "not lifting" potentially.

The other misconception is that "taking time off" means no training and no training effect. This does NOT have to be the case. You can fix problems in a way that also results in not only a training effect but coming out the other end with a potential for more strength than would have ever been possible with you current way of dealing with things.

The other thing that people aren't aware of is how your body protects you from further injury. And how much you can compensate up to a point where a couple of things can happen. Either you just hit a "wall" and you can never get past it, which you can basically look at as a sort of range where your body just pulls in the reigns and says "this is the limit". Or, the compensating muscles take over for long periods of time getting more and more overworked, etc while the underactive, weak muscles get weaker and weaker. Then you have the potential for a sudden catastrophic injury that you never necessarily had some feeback about, in terms of being more sore. Especially given that is is SO easy to adapt to more and more chronic discomfort and rationalize while it staedily impacts your function more and more.

I know you KNOW all this but I don't think you BELIEVE it.

I know it, I believe it, I haven't realized it fully.

I need to talk with one of my friends at the gym. He went for a spell where he didn't flat bench press for months. I think it was up until this week that he hadn't bench pressed in several months. He pushed up a raw PR of 455 easily the day before yesterday. He had a bicep tear & a problem with one of his pecs, I think. I'm hoping he can give me some specific insight about my training since he knows as much about it as anyone & he has had to work around a different issue in a similar manner.

I'm still learning how to mitigate volume & intensity in relation to an injury. It is not at all clear cut. Especially with my shoulder, which is messed up in practically every possible way. Besides the AC joint that nags me (it's barely noticeable today), I'm more balanced/healthy than I've been in a long time. I'm not sure if I know how to train in this state, because I'm walking on thin ice. And I will be for as long as I train. It seems like I hit a speed bump at every workout.

That really is a hell of a post E, fuck man write a book, I would buy it.Make some damn money off this wealth of knowledge that you have.No ass kissin here, seriously man, you go a gift for writing this shit out so numbskulls like me understand it.Two thumbs up.

I figured I'd write today despite the fact that I didn't really work out. My knee bothered me from the start of my warm up today. I couldn't squat without pain. I mentioned it as I was getting ready to leave & Derek told me to box squat. I tried squatting the bar with him watching me & it bothered me the entire time. Even when I had "perfect" form. I tried some very wide squats too & they bothered me only because my knee was inflamed from everything else. I feel fine until I walk up/down stairs. I'll take some time off and see how wide stance squats feel later in the week. It's my ACL. I'm not too worried about it right now..just need some time off.

Conventional deadlifts
Warmup 135 to 295 (triples)
Bands, single loop (Avg/green) - 205X5, 205X3
Bands, double loop (Avg/green) - 135X3, 135X3, 185X3, 185X3
Chin ups - 6, 5, 5, 5
Curls

Fun little workout. I pulled conventional & it didn't bother my knee which is good because I didn't want to pull sumo for the third week in a row.