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What do the older guys on the forum think about this comment? I am 41 and have been lifting and bodybuilding since I was 16 or 17. I have done some heavy bench pressing, overhead pressing, rows, you name it in my time, especially in my early 20s. So, I was at the book store today reading the latest Muscle and Fitness mag. In the mag, there was an article talking about how older guys who have logged many hours in the gym need to take it easy and start concentrating on isolation movements and machines rather than heavy compound freeweight movements since their joints can no longer take the punishment. Thoughts on this? I just know that I can't maintain serious size without heavy compound free weights. -Rich

I would love to compete and this coming year I was hoping could be my first but another injury, this time to my right trap or a tendon off my clavicle held me back. What next? It seems to be one thing after another holding me back from a dream. I lost a ton of upper body muscle mass in the last 5 months as a result and still can't get it back due to this nagging injury. I have had to stay with light weights in all upper body movements the last 5 months and I look like a shell of my former self. I looked great last July before injury. Hopefully one of these days I can be healthy enough to compete. I am sure I will need to be at least 220 lbs in order to compete so I still have more weight to gain. I am only a tiny 205 right now.

Well, it looks like I have to just live with this pain. I have been working out hard through terrible shoulder pain, it is all in my trap. I don't care because it hasn't affected my strength, it is just pain. I take pain killers to help numb the pain. Feels like a knife going into my trap when I work out but what ya gonna do. I will have to live with it. All MRIs came back looking good so it must just be a strain I will have to live with. I move on.

So then how do you all explain that the most pec mass I have been able to develop was using the dumbell press? All I can say is this week doing the dumbell chest press, I had no pain. Yet, doing a barbell press with only 135 cause a Sharp pain in my right clavicle area. No loss of strength, just pain.

The thing with a barbell in the bench press is I get stabbing pains in my right trap just above the clavicle. I don't get that now with Dumbell presses. My shoulders are strong. I had the same experience in times past doing barbell presses. Could do DB presses with 115 lb sumbells but as soon as I even did a light warm up with the bar, I had shoulder pain, on the right side. I think going forward I will stick to Dumbells. I got the biggest and most muscular in my life, doing no barbell movements, onlt DBs, other than squats and deadlifts. My shoulders are fine, the pain is around the clavicle, like it is a tendon. My orthopedic doctor thinks it is my anatomy, just the way my tendons attach to the clavicle and I may need some prolotherapy. All my MRIs, Ultra Sounds came back great, they said my rotator cuffs look fantastic, nothing wrong anywhere. I am also not a big fan of isolating the delts becaus ethey get hammered when doing chest, and back. Plus dips hammer the shoulders as well.

Hey all, What are your thoughts on this topic? I have had some injuries with lifting and always find I have the least amount of pain or problems when using DBs, since it allows greater freedom of movement of the joints with any movement. For me personally, as I get older, I find DBs to provide less stress on my joints. I recently had a bad strain that took a while to heal. In coming back, I was able to do DB bench presses but in trying to do light bench presses, I felt pain in my shoulder. Proving at least to my own body, DB movements are better for me. Thoughts? Rich

I have had too many shoulder and wrist problems with bench pressing so I have stayed with dumbells. DBs allow more freedom of movement in the joints. Only tough part is getting into position, that first rep with heavy weight can be hell and dangerous.

Hello all! Happy Tofurkey week! I learned recently that I will be having surgery on the 8th of December. Let me explain. I hade tingling in my hand in 2007 and it was determined that my Ulnar nerve was compressed in the cubital tunnel, hence cubital tunnel syndrome. The surgery was successful and the tingling had resolved. However, within weeks to months I started to have odd wrist pain and a weird snapping in my elbow and I could swear I felt the nerve slipping back over the bone. So researched subluxing ulnar nerve and also subluxing medial triceps head. Of course the surgeon I had seen said everything was fine and this it must be something else. I moved on. Problem is, the elbow snapping did not stop and at times it got really bad, I also developed forearm, hand and elbow pain and the snapping in the elbow continued. I finally saw another hand and elbow specialist recently and after examination and an EMG test he feels the barrier created to stop the nerve from slipping had not held the nerve in place, hence my issue. Is this causing any of my pain? Are they related? Not sure yet. I am going for a second opinion. Has anyone had experience with snapping in the elbow? Ulnar nerve issues? Anything related? http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/431323_4 http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/431323_3 http://radiology.rsna.org/content/220/3/601.full http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2684704/

Hi guys, I had my diagnostic ultrasound last week which showed nothing! I had my MRI today, and should hear something soon. My Orthopedic specialist says I may have to be willing to accept that this strain or tear may always nag me and I may have to give up on heavy lifting and bodybuilding. WOW, I am crushed, I never would have thought I would be DONE at 41 years old.

Well for me, I am and have always been rather lean and spent my teens looking like a stick figure. I have always relied on lifting weights to add some weight and bulk up to feel better about my self......so it is tough for me when i lose weight. I start to look like a skeleton with clothes. There is really nothing I can do upper body that doesn't aggravate the area....the shoulder is involved in about everything I would do for upper body. I don't want to just do curls and tricep extensions, LOL. Really sucks because I became friends with some guys in the gym and we started lifting together and pushing each other. I needed that in my life at this time and it was a nice feeling to have that comradery in the gym with the rough things I have had in my life the past few years. This was my one bright spot. And then to have the rug pulled out from under me.... I'll have to find ways to deal with it... I don't like working out on any program if I can't hit all body parts equally since I like to have balance....and I have always done that. Legs? Squats and deadlifts bother the area. Any back exercises are hell on the area too...unless I use very light weight. Maybe just cardio till next year.

Thanks man, that does help. I am just not sure how I would rehab. The best I get from orthopedic specialists is to lift light and then work back into it. I had the diagnostic ultrasound today and he is considered one of the best on the world with identifying musculoskeletal. He checked everything from the rotator cuff to the brachial plexus and looked great. He said in fact, he was shocked at how clean my rotator cuff and bursa looked. Next up is the MRI next week.

Three months since my injury and still not healed. The most I can do, are light workouts. I am getting a diagnostic ultrasound tomorrow and an MRI next week. Maybe I should not touch a weight till after Thanksgiving. I miss the heavy weights and the size I had. I guess I will have to keep my shirt on all next summer as I will be embarrassed.

Really depressed tonight. I hope getting this Brachial Plexu MRI is not a waste. Maybe it is something in the shoulder with referred pain. This article scares me! http://www.livestrong.com/article/381467-collarbone-pain-from-lifting-weights/

My doc ordered an MRI of the right brachial plexus, but I am worried they could miss a pec or trap tear! I have a little pain into the upper pec now.

Thanks man for he info. To make things worse, I help my father with his landscaping business on Saturday morning to make extra money. Well today I was lifting a heavy bag of leaves into the truck and felt a sharp pain in my trap.

One final note. I have been seeing a chiropractor who performs A.R.T. and he really works on those muscles. But it has been getting worse. Then I read in an article that one should not massage the affected muscle! Yikes!

Thanks man! My doc is sending me for an ultrasound and MRI in a few weeks. If it shows nothing he said he will ask me to maybe take the rest of the year off. He also said I could go light and if I have no pain, do that for a while...starting next month. He said as long as I have no stabs of pain while working out, I am not reinjurring it.

My Orthopedic doc said the injury may never fully heal. YIKES! Scary....

You might grow more. Wish I could do shoulder presses, but years of shoulder injuries keep me from doing those. Luckily you can all the shoulder development without them.

I was checking out some natural bodybuilding sites and one highly recommends the Critical Bench program. It seems to include quite a few books and gets into supposedly a great benching routine and also talks about overtraining and ways to avoid. They also say they mention that one can drastically increase their bench even with thay have shoulder pain or problems? This I want to see/read. Anyone heard of this? Thoughts? Rich

I think I am going to take the next 6-8 weeks off. I have already lost 8 lbs since stopping weights. Maybe my body is telling me that after 40, it may be time to hang up the iron game. I think I recall a few of the guys who competed with Arnold in the 1976 Olympia were in their early 40s.

I honestly don't think there is any way around a shoulder injury other than rest and healing. I mean just about anything I do with my upper body involves the shoulder. My fear is that I do nothing for many months and then make a come back and injure myself again.

I have not done serious lifting since Early August and it is actually depressing. It is extra frustrating for me since I am 41 years old. I feel like I am running out of time to be able to enter a contest. We also lose muscle after age 40 if we are sedentary and I have been for the last few months. I did try every two weeks to lift weights again but I thikn that is why I am not healing. A friend of mine tore his Tricep muscle and his orthopedic doc told him he needs to take 6-8 weeks and not touch a weight other than maybe some light exercises that do not touch the tricep. So, if I really tore something in my trap or near the collarbone I should probably take 6-8 weeks off and stop trying to lift. I have to suck it up and wait it out. Legs and cardio it is. Mid November I might try to get back with some light weights. omgwowleet, There is no swelling at all, not really a sharp pain either....more a full ache! I might go right to the MRI or maybe just take the time off and see what happens. I was even thinking not lifting again till around Thanksgiving which would be about two months and then try light weights. Man it really sucks because at 40 years old I really hit the ground running and became more muscular than i have been in years. I think I looked better than I did when I was 22! And just as strong. I thikn i can do it again at 42 or 45 and so on....I know my way around the gym. My only fear is reinjury or another injury. How does anyone really avoid injury? All we can do is warm up, and use good form and eat right.

My friend who is a trainer and a good guy, says I should not be bodybuilding as it is unnatural and the cause of injuries. He said that is why the pros all take roids to get beyond what is natural and to help avoid injury.

My friend who is a trainer and a good guy, says I should not be bodybuilding as it is unnatural and the cause of injuries. He said that is why the pros all take roids to get beyond what is natural and to help avoid injury.