Anyone using a multi-grip / swiss bar
tomcornhole
Posts: 1,084 Member
Thinking about getting one from Rogue to ease the shoulder stress on volume work:
Either that or try some of these:
Appreciate your thoughts.
Tom
Either that or try some of these:
Appreciate your thoughts.
Tom
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Replies
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I have never used one but tagging so this shows up on my feed in case anyone has.
That ball thing looks odd and looks like it may cause additional issues with the way the fingers are spread.
What are you doing that causes stress on the shoulders and how much volume are you doing?0 -
What are you doing that causes stress on the shoulders and how much volume are you doing?
Everything causes my shoulders to hurt.
1. Back squats are he'll on my shoulders. Getting under the bar and holding it is a lesson in great pain. I use a top squat accessory on 5 day and 3 day to save my shoulders. 5/3/1 day is just the bar. I have been working on mobility for over a year and have concluded that I have none, can't get it and I a doomed to suffer always. I still hold out hope.
2. OHP. Form is good, just a great deal of crinkling in both shoulders as the bar comes down. Going up is awesome. Coming down, soething gets crossed up and grinds. Elbows in, elbows out, narrow grip, wide grip, doesn't matter. There is some sort of mechanical interference that gets very painful with volume work.
3. Bench. I seem to have gotten this in good shape with the right grip, bar path and elbow location. But put 50 reps at 50% 1RM on them and the shoulders are caput. They give out long before my chest or triceps.
4. Flies. Forget about to. Any fly work leads to disability.
As far as volume, I just do 5/3/1 with boring but big. That's it. So we're not talking body building volume. I think my shoulders need a couple months off and I am not willing to stop pushing for a couple of months. Or even a week. So I a would like to minimize the impact on them with some tools.0 -
I got bot the bar and the balls. Balls are crap. Bends the wrist in weird ways and causes pain. They're out.
The swiss bar is interesting. I don't like it for my work sets, but for the Boring But Big sets, it is nice to reduce wear on the shoulders. I thought it might be good for OHP, but no way. Getting the wide part past my chin caused unacceptable form issues.
So, I may keep the swiss bar.
Tom0 -
I have dodgy shoulders too. neutral grip db bench an option?
BTW don't neglect thoracic spine mobility. Just by what you said about the OHP, could be an issue. Eric Cressey has some good stuff on this.0 -
Thanks Chris I took a look at thoracic spine mobility and that has been an issue for me. When I was going to rehab for my shoulders, they had me focus on that a lot. That and upper back strength. I have been foam rolling, using the "peanut" (two tennis balls duct taped together) and do a lot of upper back strength work. This has gotten me to where I am in that I can actually bench and OHP without destroying my shoulders. And they no longer hurt when not lifting. So I have made great progress. But the issue still nags me.
I used to have significant knee pain from squatting. Form fixed that. Recently, I have struggled with hip pain in squat and DL and form has fixed that. Lower back pain was common after DL and form has fixed that. Wrist pain: fixed with better form. Elbow tendinitis: fixed with form. I have gotten to the point that the only pain I have is muscles and shoulders. I have not found the answer to my shoulders yet. While it's no longer debilitating and my numbers are progressing, it just never seems great.
Tom0 -
I got bot the bar and the balls. Balls are crap. Bends the wrist in weird ways and causes pain. They're out.
The swiss bar is interesting. I don't like it for my work sets, but for the Boring But Big sets, it is nice to reduce wear on the shoulders. I thought it might be good for OHP, but no way. Getting the wide part past my chin caused unacceptable form issues.
So, I may keep the swiss bar.
Tom
You can get specific bars with neutral grips for OHP. Hell, you can just use one of those strongman logs (or equivalent trainer) with the neutral grips. Like this: http://www.roguefitness.com/lb-2-rogue-8-log-bar
Or this type of bar to clear your chin easily:
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For overhead press, I recommend a narrow "false grip." Here's a colorful vidja about it.
http://youtu.be/RtRI9Fojwls 0 -
For overhead press, I recommend a narrow "false grip." Here's a colorful vidja about it.http://youtu.be/RtRI9Fojwls
Good vid. I press exactly the same way, narrow, false grip and keeping my elbows forward (internally rotated) instead of flaring. It has saved my shoulders and my wrists. My triceps are fairly strong too so I can press more too. I'm up to around 185 strict OHP without any pain (135 used to hurt in the past).0 -
I thought it might be good for OHP, but no way. Getting the wide part past my chin caused unacceptable form issues.
If you were to try using it for overhead again, I'd aim for the movement pattern of a log press rather than a barbell OHP. Or use it for partials/lockout accessory with ROM from foreahead to lockout.
OR
Drop OHP for a seated steep incline press for a bit?0
