cbloom's log - Rippetoe & Frozen Shoulder

[cbloom]

I'm gonna try to maintain a log. I'm in a different situation than all the fatties trying to drop weight, thought it might be interesting to see the difference.

Background :

I've always been pretty fit and worked out hard. About 6 months ago I crashed my bicycle and separated my shoulder. It's healed, but I still have lingering frozen shoulder. It's just recently gotten to the point where I can work out again, but I've lost a lot of strength. So, my goal is to get back in shape now. I want to get my cardio & overall fitness back & also restore strength / add muscle.

Current stats : 6'1" , 185 lbs. Desired weight is 190 lbs, but at a lower body fat %.

I've never done Rippetoe's program before so I thought I'd try that as my initial phase for quickly adding muscle. My schedule looks like this :

M,W,F : Rippetoe A/B workouts
T,Th,S : Physical Therapy for my shoulder and other little workouts (abs, cardio)
Sun : rest

For my diet, I'm just eating pretty normally, but trying to eliminate any empty calories (things like chocolate) and just eat as much lean protein as I can stand to help add muscle. I do a protein shake immediately after the workout.

[cbloom]

Here are some links on the Rippetoe program :

The main link :

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=998224
Guide to Novice Barbell Training, aka the Official Rippetoe-Starting Strength FAQ - Bodybuilding.com Forums

More junk :

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=712752
Writeup for Rippetoe's program - Bodybuilding.com Forums

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=841628
14 weeks of Rippetoe's Starting Strength - Bodybuilding.com Forums

One problem I have is that with the frozen shoulder I still can't do a normal squat and I can't do a military press. At the moment I'm doing Hack Squats instead of normal squats. Hopefully I'll be able to do a normal squat soon.

This is a good article on hack squats & front squats, but anyone who can should just do a normal squat.

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459865
Testosterone Nation - Forgotten Squats

Instead of military presses I'm doing incline bench with as much of an incline as I can manage, about 45 degrees. I'm just going to keep making that steeper as I get more range of motion in my shoulder.

[skunkworks]

cbloom, nice on the Rippetoe. Do you not have enough flexibility in your shoulder joint to hold the bar properly?

Edit: Also, I'd move your third link up to the first position since it's the "authoritative" thread. The other one is somewhat misleading.

[cbloom]

[ QUOTE ]
cbloom, nice on the Rippetoe. Do you not have enough flexibility in your shoulder joint to hold the bar properly?


[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I can't get my hand behind the bar to stabilize it. When it was separated I had my arm in an immobilizer so I didn't user it at all. When I first got it out, almost any movement was painful, but I could do things directly in front of me (like typing). The physical therapy is to stretch the shoulder capsule and increase range of motion. Now I can hold my arms straight out at my side, but can't lift it over my head very far or go back behind my back. I can just barely do a bench press and get the bar down to my chest.

I'm pretty close to being able to do a proper squat, so hopefully I'll switch to that in a few weeks and won't be held back by grip any more. People said a hack squat was really natural but I find it really tough to keep good form, I really want to arch my back and it's awkward the way the bar hits the back of your leg on the way up.

[thirddan]

i got my copy of starting strength the other day...reading the squat section now...its great...

[skunkworks]

thirddan, best book ever. After you've read that over a couple times, get his other book on Amazon. It's called Practical Programming, and it goes hand-in-hand with Starting Strength.

cbloom, I'm guessing front squats don't work either with the shoulder?

[cbloom]

This is what I did in the last workouts : (the weight is the amount on each side, and not counting the bar, so the real weight is X2 and + the bar weight, which is around 45 lbs)

Rippetoe A :
Bench 45
Hack Squat 60
Dead Lift 70

Rippetoe B :
Hack Squat 65
Pendlay Row 30
Incline Bench 40


At the moment I'm limited by wierd things; my squats & dead lifts are giving out because of grip strength and my bench really bothers my shoulder so I'm not doing nearly as much weight as I could. I'm doing the reps pretty slow and trying to use really good control and form to make sure I don't hurt myself during recovery.

My goal is to add about 5 lbs each week. BTW the physical therapy is 100X harder than the workout. Ugh it sucks so bad.