Fakephil05

Hello, I am 37 year old, male, 6’1, 235lbs. Strength number, squat 310 (3x5), bench 190 (3x5), press 152.5 (3x5), deadlift 360 (1x5).

I am currently unable to do a body weight chin up and have been working to do so. I was able to do them a year ago but after a while had terrible elbow pain. Lasted quite a while. I decided to add them back while I was starting the NLP again and wanted to bring them back slowly. I’ve been training on using a band for chins, using a lat pull down with supine grip adding 5 lbs a workout and doing negatives. I’ve been doing this for only three weeks.. I was doing them on my off days to try to get to be able to do one bodyweight. Yesterday I did 3x3 chins with a band over the pull up bar and then 120 lbs on lat pull downs for 3x8. Today after I squated I had some pain and then when I went to do my press (155) I finished the last rep in the first set and it was in a lot of pain. Didn’t finish the workout, maybe get my deadlift in later.

I was a plumber, ditch digger, gas pipe utility working for 10 years before I got a desk job. This is where I think the damage occurred and is just lingering over the pounding and wrenching on it for those years and when I tug on my elbow it just hurts. It used to hurt when I squated but I seemed to have figured out the grip so that has subsided.

My question is, should I just give up on chins and just do rows and power cleans on my light pulling, maybe just keep some lat pull downs light every now and again just to keep the lats active? I don’t want to give up on doing them but if it hinders the rest of my training not sure the risk is worth the benefit. I appreciate any advice. Thanks for all you do.

Mark Rippetoe

Your lats are working hard in the deadlift. If you get your deadlift up to 500, you will be able to chin. You're doing fine so far.

Jason Donaldson

Something that stands out to me about your approach, Phil: doing band-assisted chins AND lat pulldowns AND negatives all at once is a lot to throw at your body. If you think of the rare examples in the SS method of using alternative movements to build up to a primary one (like leg presses to get special cases up to the squat), even these don't do multiple exercises, just one that works. Notice that Rip's advice is similar, namely get your deadlift up (single exercise) and that should get you there.

When you are at the point of bringing in chins, remember your experiences at this phase, and make sure you're progressing the full range of motion and not chasing numbers. Chins are an excellent exercise, and well worth doing - properly. It's been my experience that, when you're ready to do them, the reps pile on surprisingly quickly, and when you're not ready, there are many pitfalls.

Fakephil05

I really appreciate the advice Rip. I’m hoping to be at 500 by January as long as I don’t mess myself up by doing something dumb. I should be at 405 the first week of September. Right now I am taking 10 lbs jumps a week with two deadlift workouts a week. (5lbs per workout). Do you think it’s reasonable to start doing only 1 deadlift workout a week on Wednesday when I am doing my light squat day and going up 5 lbs a week? I’m figuring on this program change once I hit 405.

Mark Rippetoe

One deadlift workout and one power clean workout per week is the standard program.

Northswede

10-12 years ago I got something called "frozen shoulder". It disapeared in a year or so but it's never been the same. SS and lifting took away mobility problems and pain but now (when I actually have some muscle) I notice a strange imbalance. My right side is noticable underdeveloped, trap, arm, lat. And yeah, my right shoulder is my bad shoulder. I've also noticed my right side falling behind a little when struggling with the presses. This has been the case for perhaps six months and my plan has been to let the lifting even things out. But instead, the more muscular I get the worse or more obvious the imbalance gets. 51 yo, 189 cm, 102 kg

Mark Rippetoe

Depending on how you "got frozen shoulder", there may be neurological damage. Have that checked.

Northswede

"Frozen shoulder" is the term a physiotherapist used, hence the quotation marks. It happened in a Nautilus gym in some sort of reverse flies machine. The thing is I've been doing great with SS, especially presses and chins have almost fixed my shoulder. But then there's this weird size difference between left and right. And I think a small strength difference too, eventhough my numbers are going up just fine. I guess my question is if I should try to train to level the sides and if so, how? So far my plan has been sticking to the barbell and let time and effort fix it. Bad idea?

Mark Rippetoe

If there is neurological damage, the imbalance will either persist or take a very long time to correct. If there is no neuro, what you're doing will correct it.

Northswede

So if it's not neuro... No dumbells and/or extra training for the weak side?

Mark Rippetoe

No. No dumbbells for the weak side. Search Function.