Working through injuries

I am 46 and I love power lifting but did a lot of stupid things when I was younger and now I pay.. I permenantly damaged my rotator cuff in my right arm playing baseball when I was in my twenties and I have bursitis in both of my shoulders as well. I also was really hard on my knees from jumping around and all and I grew up with Osgoods Slaughter's Disease. I mostly work through the pain and I am a lot stronger than I ever was. Although I will never reach my max on the bench from my younger days, I have squated nearly 600 pounds. The main thing that I have learned is technique and form are very important. I remember bouncing nearly 300 pounds off of my chest in high school; I now practice form and technique and I swallow my pride and work with lower weights but I do notice that inspite of the pain from the injuries, I have gotten a lot stronger. Anyone else have any injuries that they have to work through and how did you do it?

Getting older and injuries suck! I'm having issues with sharp pain in one of my elbows when I do some tricep exercises. For some exercises I've just had to drop the weight and concentrate on form for now.

It really does suck getting old...and what I think sucks even worst is never listening to all of my elders tell me that someday I'd be sorry for doing some of the stupid things I was doing when I was a kid, lol. Oh well, you live and you learn. I've seen pictures of you Ult, you're a monster. I am a small build and was always one of those kids that was way stronger than he looked. I was always pretty stockey but I only weighed 160 pounds but I was benching 305 and squatting 400 and I'd blow everyone away but now I just feel blown away...lol

Part of me just refuses to stop the heavy stuff, but I am tighter on form than I used to be.

Arttie

I go the gym regularly and I see these young bucks doing some of the same stupid stuff that I used to do. They think that bouncing heavy weights off of their chest means that they are strong but it can also hurt you. I want to say something to them but then I remember how annoyed I got when people tried telling me how to do things. I was stubborn but now much wiser... and hurting..lol

I just ask them if they want some advice and if they will listen, I help them out. If not, I hand them my brother's business card...he's a physical therapist. LOL!

Arttie

lol...right on.

Even though you guys may not consider me old (31 years) but compared to a lot of people that come to the gym I go to, I am.
I can relate with the injuries....

I was born with scoliosis and have had minor back problems most of my life. When my dad had his 2nd back surgery, they said he had an unusually narrow spinal column. I suspect (though there's no proof because I haven't been opened up) that I have the same/similar narrow spine.

This makes squats out of the question. (well, squats with weights)
....cleans out of the question.....
....military presses out of the question....
...curling a bar with weights while standing up....
Even on the sled/leg press, I can physically do a lot of weight, but if I put more than 315lbs on the machine, my back hurts.

However, I make up for it in other ways.
I've got a mean bench and iron shoulders.
My current 3 sets are 295lbs x 10 reps (warmup), 315lbs x 10 reps, 365lbs x 5-6reps....

This is the first of about 6-7 times I've done this:

...I've managed to get two reps of that a few times, but not 3....

My incline is 275lbs x 10 reps, or the 140lb dumbbells x 8 reps
I did manage to do 5 reps of the 150lb dumbbells, but of course.... hurt my back getting both 150's off the ground and in my lap while sitting on the incline bench.

However, its nice to know that I'm not alone, and that everyone has their niche. There's a few benchers like me. A few that just do cleans/squats. Some that just do light weight high reps trying to tone. There's some that have their own injuries. Quite a few don't bench because they've messed their shoulder(s) up. I don't feel quite so bad being physically limited.

At least I'm actually AT the gym and still trying to move forward.
( ^ - ^)

Dang!!! Awesome! I was totally blown away when Dale Thompson told me how much he could bench. I have never really been that big but I am stronger than I look, er... used to be anyway. That is still pretty awesome H

I did the 150lbs again. I felt a little obligated when I was surrounded by 4 high school kids and 3 adults that "wanted to see it".

It went off well. Got only 4 reps though, but it was SLOW and full range of motion.

Surprisingly, my back didn't hurt out of the deal. ...but I'm feeling sore in places I don't normally feel sore in arms/chest/shoulders, and my hands hurt pretty bad.

Then again, even with gloves on, I'm pretty rough on my hands.

Yeah, I jacked up my rotator cuff a few years ago somehow and lifting just hasn't been the same. I had to completely drop all heavy dumbbell lifts such as military, lateral shoulder raises, and bench. Regular pull ups became a strain so I quit that for awhile as well. I was throwing up quite a bit of weight (for me) on incline bench and quit that all together - never went back to it. I worked around it with push ups, machine assisted pull ups, and worked legs harder. Still, lifting numbers are way down as well as my muscle size obviously.

But I have gone back to dumbbell bench with lower weights and done light weight lateral shoulder raises. I do this by, first re-habing my shoulder with those rubber ropes on off days. Then, when I lift, I pick up light weight and do a bunch of different warm ups for my shoulders. If you lift as you get older you almost have to warm them up, since doctors say that the shoulder area with the rotator cuff doesn't get very good blood flow as you age. Thus I do military, front raises, etc. with like 5 -10 lbs (lol).

Glad you are back at it.....as I get older the weight gets lighter, but, I am feeling Great with lower weight and higher reps and multiple sets.

I also just worked through a minor shoulder problem...thought it was rotator cuff, but, I couldn't tell with All the tests...

I use the bands, and it has helped. I use the bands in between sets to keep the shoulder loose. I also do 4 sets of 12 of various shoulder excersises, with the bands, on an off day.....so, I have a day where I just do shoulders with the bands.

Youtube has hundreds of shoulder re-hab vids....many of them with bands.

Oh, also....I only do barbell bench with decline. My incline, where my shoulder was giving the most problem, I Only do dumbell, as well as flat bench.....I mix in drop-sets and some flys, but I don't feel that I have lost anything, really.

I got hit by an SUV crossing an intersection on my bike about a year ago. My right knee hit the front grill of the vehicle. Fortunately, nothing was broken, but I suffered cartilage damage to my knee and couldn't walk very well for about two months. Nevertheless, I continued with my exercise regiment, which consists of 100 squats a day to keep my knee plyable, knowing that if I were to just lay around in recovery, it would lock up. However, my knee isn't the same anymore since the accident, with some snapping issues. But, I've been taking Osteo-Biflex to rebuild the cartilage and it seems to be helping.