a damaged bench

[mrhtbd]

Tried bench-pressing on Friday, but it went badly.
The damage in my right forearm from getting stabbed there 3 years ago somehow makes it very difficult to do the bench press. There's a lot of stress on my right elbow and just can't seem to get much use out of it. The weight was light. With the bench press, incline press, or decline press, it's most difficult at the top third of the movement, even with light weights (135#). I don't get it, although, I had serious pain in my right elbow even in the hospital following the incident while getting stitches.
I have been doing chest exercises the past three years mostly with Hammer strength machines and dumbbells, as they allow some angle so my elbow is not at a right angle to my body. The most I've done was 90lb d-bells for 16 reps on the flat bench, but that's still only 180 and trying to do that on the flat bench with a bar is extremely difficult.
One reason I'm on a 10x10 volume kick is for conditioning in hope that it can work itself out if I do enough volume.
Also, after tearing my labrum last June, the heavy weight is difficult for that side as well. In fact, I haven't gotten up to the previous weights from early last year.
So, what, I'm stuck with volume?
I don't consider it stuck. If that's what got me into the gym 24 times in the past 30 days I'm all for it.
Besides, I can still curl 50lb d-bells for 10x10, and for this 53 yr old, with my present goals, it's right on target.
Maybe bench pressing is overrated.

 

[Darkness]

You cant say that BD pressing a pair of 90s = benching 180 with a bar. It is just a totally different working of the muscle. There are many many people who gave up benching any significant weight for injury reasons in our age category. Another thing I found you can do to make the same weight work the muscle harder is change your rep cadence. For your incline DB presses, explode up, then smoothly use 4 seconds to lower it, pause a full second at the bottom, then explode up. That ever you was doing for 16, you will be lucky to get 8 or 10 reps like this. Maybe this will trigger some additional growth for you like it did for me.

 

[ozzy69]

i have to ask how did you get stabbed? i think i am opening something i dont want to know about but i have to ask

 

[mrhtbd]

I am a Teacher in an inner city school.
I was assigned extra duty as a monitor for the Accommodation Room, where they send kids caught in the hall, kicked out of class, or on in-house detention.
Was walking behind a student on his way to his assigned seat, when out of the blue, he flipped and tried to elbow me in the face.
I was carrying a metal-tipped pen and a clip-board.
I dropped the pen to get it out of my hand and raised my hand as a reflex to block the elbow.
The pen caught the fold in my shirt cuff and his elbow came down on both my wrist and the pen, driving the pen into my right forearm at a steep angle.
Then he turned around, picked up a desk-chair, and swung it over-head to smash me in the head.
I lunged in to get it mid-air.
Part of the desk hit the pen and drove it through 3 muscles and into the bone, severing an artery and hitting a nerve.
As I wrested the chair back to the ground I noticed him coming through with a left hook.
I remember grabbing the pen and pulling it out then throwing it. As I did this I remember thinking, "Fuck it, we're on now!"
I blocked the left partially, allowing him to glance my cheek with his knuckles, and saw him coming through with a right cross. I gave hime a big, fat target by exposing my left jaw. He went for it. I quickly backed out, hit his elbow with my right, causing him to come through, then I grabbed his elbow and shot my other hand into his neck while pushing my thumb under his chin.
I quickly took him down and held him for the cops to get there.
There was blood all over the floor. I lost at least a pint.
As I ran across the room to get some napkins the blood was shooting out of my forearm at 5" spurts. Crazy.
I treated myself for shock.
As I started to feel light-headed I knew it was dangerous, so I pushed down onto the desk to keep pressure on the wound and get my head below my heart.
Luckily I didn't pass out, as I'm sure I would have bled to death.
The nerve damage makes my hand shake all the time. The cut into my artery has built up scar tissue so as to make my arm throb every beat of my heart. I have limited use of the two small fingers of my right hand. I can barely stand any resistence with my right ring finger, but if I use it with the rest of my fingers it is usable without pain.
The doc said I'm going to have to live with it, because surgery would only make it worse. The district played it down, white teacher, hispanic/black student.
Par for the course I guess.
I can't sleep because the constant throbbing and or pain makes me toss and turn constantly.
That's when I started sleeping in the spare room, because my wife could never get any sleep, well, supposedly. I guess she had other plans even back then, as it turns out.
Training in the past 3 years has been on and off, with mostly experimenting to see what I could do.
Still don't sleep well, much, or at all.
One of the reasons I'm doing volume training (10x10, etc) is simply to wear myself down to get some sleep.
Doesn't help much, but at least with all the work I feel like I am working for something, even though the weights I use leave something to be desired.
One case in point: 3 weeks before getting stabbed I pulled 365 for 6 on the hammer strength lat pulldown machine. I have only been able to do 165 since. Very unfortunate, but I try to do what I can, within the confines of my present condition. At least I'm not living on the couch or have given up. Troubled, yes, endgame, not for awhile if I can help it!

 

[willi]

You cant say that BD pressing a pair of 90s = benching 180 with a bar. It is just a totally different working of the muscle. There are many many people who gave up benching any significant weight for injury reasons in our age category. Another thing I found you can do to make the same weight work the muscle harder is change your rep cadence. For your incline DB presses, explode up, then smoothly use 4 seconds to lower it, pause a full second at the bottom, then explode up. That ever you was doing for 16, you will be lucky to get 8 or 10 reps like this. Maybe this will trigger some additional growth for you like it did for me.

Darkness is right on. Those are some heavy dumbells you are using.

My bench press days are about done and Im switching to dumbells to grow. The motion of the barbell is too unatural for my joints/muscles whereas the dumbell gives the needed flexibility and natural range of motion.

 

[Chuck]

Have you ever tried going to a deep tissue massage therapist? If you have scar tissue impeding your movement it could be a part of your troubles. I see a guy from East Europe who was a neurologist there, but does deep tissue work here. His theory is "we" as a western society don't place enought thought on ways to remove scar tissue; and improve blood flow, which aids healing. I know when I ruptured my L4/L5/S1 area of my spine he rehabbed me and I'm back at it now. I'm no powerhouse, but I bench 280 for reps and squat just under 600. His massages leave ya bruised, but the range of motion has returned. My guy is at the pinacle for massage therapists, but if you find a guy from/with the same training you should get similiar input. So you might want to give that a shot??? Just throwing it out as an option??? Best of luck to you.

 

[mrhtbd]

Unfortunately, just putting my finger on the scar gives me incredible pain on the bone at point of entry. I can rub the area but just not touch that spot. Doesn't help. The scar tissue isn't the main problem, the pen had a metal tip and went in like a knife, but had a rubber grip which pulled the surrounding skin in after it, damaging a much bigger area. I think my elbow hurts so much is because the pen may have severed some fibers. Some times it feels like they rolled back, like a torn bicep does.
I'm trying to work through it, but have to admit, besides the constant limitation with grip and stuff, the constant reminder is something I could do without.

 

[BikerTrash]

I was stabbed once ,
In the face by my first Ex wife with a broken Bud Light bottle after she caught me having sex with her best friend like wild animals on the safari in africa.
When I touch the scar on my face it causes me to blurt out uncontrolable fowl language.
Also on a positve note as chuck states a good massage therapist will be able to work that area over good and bring some relief after a few visits.....
I wouldnt advise going to my massage therapists though because those asians ladies only work your penor area .......And bring relief that way as well.......
Sounds like your getting back at the gym and hitting it hard,,,,Good luck mrhtbd..you will get there again .

 

[mrhtbd]

I've heard about the "Washy Washy" Asian massage ladies.
One arm outta three doesn't sound so bad!
Maybe I'll go to the city, drop a cabbie $40 to drop me off at one. They always know the good spots, (or so I've heard).

 

[Glycomann]

I would try stretching and massage. I near tore my left arm right off. have a plate in it 6 inches long and the surgeon had to cut through all the muscle to put the plate in. the elbow was also completely dislocated and my wrist was partially dislocated as well. i did a lot of stretching and massage to get it back. it's not perfect but it works pretty good. Probably took a good 5 years to get it to 90%. it takes time and perseverance.

 

[mrhtbd]

Glycomann, thanks for you honest sharing and advice.
To think of it, stretching is a very good idea, as my wrist keeps pulling down and back, almost like someone with Muscular Dystrophy how their hands cringe back and fold.
I have always found myself trying to rub out whatever was causing this. Maube I should make a regular and conscious effort of it
Did you use any bands to work with your injury?
I have some of those from therapy but haven't used them in a while, favoring static weights lately instead.
Maybe I should incur more fluid motions as well.
Swimming was limited but by the end of the summer I felt some relief with the cramping ans such.
Thanks again for sharing about your personal injury and experience.
Maybe I should start pushing it with dbells.

 

[Glycomann]

Glycomann, thanks for you honest sharing and advice.
To think of it, stretching is a very good idea, as my wrist keeps pulling down and back, almost like someone with Muscular Dystrophy how their hands cringe back and fold.
I have always found myself trying to rub out whatever was causing this. Maube I should make a regular and conscious effort of it
Did you use any bands to work with your injury?
I have some of those from therapy but haven't used them in a while, favoring static weights lately instead.
Maybe I should incur more fluid motions as well.
Swimming was limited but by the end of the summer I felt some relief with the cramping ans such.
Thanks again for sharing about your personal injury and experience.
Maybe I should start pushing it with dbells.

i did physical therapy for 6 weeks and then just pushed it to the extremes of range of motion pretty much all day every day whenever I thought of it. also, I went back to Judo 6 months after the injury and that put it through the range of motion as well. in all it took a long while but others can't really recognize a difference. I still have loss of some of the pronation range, that's turning the palm to face down. it's pretty functional though. I still run through the ranges of motion stretching it. i stretch everything frequently. I think it has helped tremendously.

 

[arnoldwannabe]

I agree. I have always found working through my injuries to be the best method. Just resting it and not using it never really helped me.

 

[Dawgpound_Hank]

Besides, I can still curl 50lb d-bells for 10x10...

Thats one helluva feat, and I'd bet theres only a handful of bros on the board that could do that. I know I can't do it, and don't believe I could do it even when ON when my arms were over 20". To get 10 reps with that weight ALL 10 sets is some serious bicep strength. With me, I believe those reps would start droppin' down to 8, 7, 6 on those last 5 sets or so. Not to mention you say you usually rest only 30-60 seconds between sets. So if you can still get 10 on the 10th set, how many times can you do it on the 1st set if you actually went all out? 20? 25? And with that, I'd guess you can curl 80's or 90's for 10 then for 1 set eh? And here I thought you said biceps was your weak point!lol

p.s - Btw, I am assuming you meant 10 reps EACH arm as suggested, right?

 

[A.B]

Your arms have obviously been through some serious trauma but as far as your joint and elbows, are you locking out your arms each rep?

 

[mrhtbd]

The top third is where I get most of the problems with benching with a straight bar.
My elbow doesn't seem to line up the same way as before.
I get similar restriction at the top of bent rows, especially if I come straight up to the chest rather than sweeping the bar back to my belly button.
The bench definately feels like a new movement.

<<<DPH: Thats one helluva feat, and I'd bet theres only a handful of bros on the board that could do that. I know I can't do it, and don't believe I could do it even when ON when my arms were over 20". To get 10 reps with that weight ALL 10 sets is some serious bicep strength. With me, I believe those reps would start droppin' down to 8, 7, 6 on those last 5 sets or so. Not to mention you say you usually rest only 30-60 seconds between sets. So if you can still get 10 on the 10th set, how many times can you do it on the 1st set if you actually went all out? 20? 25? And with that, I'd guess you can curl 80's or 90's for 10 then for 1 set eh? And here I thought you said biceps was your weak point!lol
p.s - Btw, I am assuming you meant 10 reps EACH arm as suggested, right?>>>

Yes, 10 reps per arm. I will test myselt on this tomorrow.

 

[bufbiker]

Try wrapping the elbow with wraps. It will limit movement but will stabilize the arm enough to do the basic movements.

And while I'm sure that DPH probably can still curl 50lb d-bells for 10 reps as that is fairly light weight for the bigger boys, 10 sets of 10 reps each if you are using enough weight to stress the muscle is probably over-training. So either you are over trained and will not see the results you could see with lesser sets or you are not using enough weight.

 

[mrhtbd]

Ha Ha

Ha Ha

Today I got 10x10 seated biceps curls with a 50lb dbell in each hand.
I curled both dumbbells at the same time for all reps.
I supersetted them with 5x10 reverse tricep pressdaown, and 5x10 overhand pressdown.

I got water after every 1 or 2 supersets and was breathing hard. The last 4 sets I really pushed it at the end.
The last two sets I heaved all 10 reps.
Ol' muscle memory from years of cheat bar curling back in the day...
My shoulders are pumped just holding my arms up!