[be]

Hello. Recently started doing the Base period in the 24w program.

I have a background in recreational powerlifting. However I also have an old shoulder problem that made me avoid training upper body strength, so I have a funny muscular imbalance. At my prime I could deadlift 200kg @ 80kg BW, but only do 5 pullups or maybe benchpress 60kg. Today, years later, I think I could probably do a 160kg deadlift. After the transition period I can do 4 pull ups (no added resistance).

Going back to the max strength program.

Box Step Ups: I did 4 sets of 4×64 kg, a 32 kg kettle bell on each arm (heaviest in my gym). I don’t really feel it in my legs. It’s heavy for my arms and shoulders mostly.
Pushups: Did 4 sets of 10 without added weight. I like it.
Box Step-down. I like this one. Nice to train balance.
Pullups: After the above 3 exercises, especially the volume pushups, I am decently tired in my arms and feel I don’t train this properly.

Would it make sense to change the program like this?

Pullups: After the core warmup, do a specific pull up program with lots of volume, static hangs, etc.
Box step-down: Follow the program
Pushups: Follow the program
Replace the box step up with maybe something like front squats (it hits my core nicely) or back squats. Or do box step ups anyway, but with just even heavier weights, or more volume?

Thoughts?

Thank you so much

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on May 9, 2018 at 8:07 am #9741

be:
If you have a chronic shoulder injury then a high volume of pull ups may not be wise. Without know a lot more about that shoulder injury or being a PT I am hesitant to recommend placing too much load or too much volume on it. If your goals are primarily mountaineering then upper body general strength exercises like the pull/push ups are of secondary importance. Taking a wild guess here I’d say that if you have good (for pull/push up) shoulder range of motion, pain free you’d do best with a low volume max strength protocol to avoid overuse injury for high reps. But this is a guess.

As for lower body: Yes, with your PL background you probably have more than adequate general lower body strength. Transferring that high level of general bipedal squat/DL strength to more specific single leg strength will be the most helpful for more athletic goals. Since we generally locomote form one foot to the next in sports as opposed to have both feet planted solidly on the ground during knee and hip flex/extension, hip stabilization is very important. So use the box step however I do recommend you use a bar bell on your shoulders for the box step ups/downs. See this https://uphillathlete.com/strength-demo-box-step-up-and-heel-touch/

I hope this helps.
Scott