Shoulder soreness and tricep BURN!!!

[butterflygurl]

Hi all,

I am new to forums, so I apologize if this is the wrong place for this question.

I did Gym Style Chest and Triceps Wednesday morning. The front part of my shoulders are a bit sore. Is that unusual? Am I not focusing on my chest enough?

Also, my triceps (especially my right) have been extremely sore (pain). x( This morning I got up to do GS Back, Shoulder and Biceps and I could barely move my right arm at the elbow. I skipped the workout and up a heating pad on it for about an hour. That did not help until I started to massage the area where the pain is. Now I just regular soreness. Is this normal? Should I do the GS Back Shoulder and Biceps this evening? Any suggestions to decrease the pain? I did less weight than Cathe and the gang and I thought my form was good. Maybe it was because it was my first time doing this dvd. I am not sure and any input would be very helpful.

Thanks!!

 

[LauraMax]

OK, disclaimer before I finish this post: I've never done GS chest & tris.

With that out of the way--chest exercises, especially presses, do engage your front deltoids, which is why your shoulders are sore. This is especially true if, while you're doing presses, your elbows go below your body (i.e. if your upper arms aren't perpendicular to your body). So when you do your presses, try to keep your lowest range with your arms perpendicular to your chest--they should be L-shaped at the low range.

I would suggest skipping the shoulder workout tonight & giving your delts a 48 hour rest.

As far as the triceps go--yes, part of the pain is probably b/c it's the first time you did the workout, but I'm guessing it's also partly due to your using too much weight. I don't know what weight you're using, but try reducing it 2.5 to 5 lbs next time you do the workout & see how you feel.

 

[butterflygurl]

LauraMax,

You are a genius!! :7 After I read your e-mail, I remembered having trouble with the side that is experiencing the pain while I was working out. The weight was fine on the other side but a bit much for the side that is now experiencing pain. I will alternate using the same and a little lower weight so one side can catch up to the other. Thanks!!!

 

[GreenEyedLefty]

Before looking into this thread, I wondered which workout you did. My shoulders and tris were fried after doing Power Hour the first time. I had DOMS in my triceps that lasted for days, and even though I've been doing PH once a week for the last several weeks, I still get DOMS in my triceps. Those lying French presses are tough, and I haven't a clue how Cathe can make it look so easy with 25 lbs. when I struggle with an empty 10 lb. bar!

The best advice I can give you when doing tricep exercises is NEVER lock out your elbows. Don't use heat - ice the elbow. Take it easy for today, maybe take an Advil and see how you feel tomorrow.

 

[kathryn]

Definitely DON"T do the back/shoulder/bicep workout. As LauraMAx stated, the shoulders are used as agonists (helping muscles) during chest work, and they also work during back exercises (mostly the posterior delt), so doing Chest/triceps and BSB back-to-back will not give enough shoulder recovery time (especially if you are very sore from C/T). When I did a GS rotation, I split the workouts up like this:
Day 1: C/T
Day 3: Legs
Day 5: B/S/B

This gives you 2-3 days between working shoulders, which is a good recovery time.

The elbow pain could be a tendonitis (inflammation of the tendon) from overuse or bad form (locking elbows, as others have mentioned). Just doing too much too soon could be the culprit.

 

[butterflygurl]

GreeneyedLefty mentioned not locking the elbow too and I will definitely watch that from now on. My arm feels fine today. After I rubbed out the kinks yesterday it has been much better. I am still not sure if it was bad form, locking elbow or too much weight, but I WILL be making adjustments for this week coming up. I will also take Kathryn's suggestion of putting legs in b/w C/T and B/S/B. Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions. I am a newbie and it is good to know I have such a wonderful support network!! I have a long way to go but feel I have support to getting there! Thanks all.

 

[catwoman]

Butterflygirl:

If this was your first time doing this DVD, you would have been sore even if you'd used 3 pounders for the whole workout. Well, maybe that's stretching it a bit, but the point is: This is a tough workout and it hits the muscles HARD! I'd been working out for months, but I STILL got sore the first time I did this DVD. Heck, I still get sore NOW, even though I regularly add this DVD into my workout regimen.

The front of your shoulders being sore with this workout isn't unusual. There's a muscle (sorry, I don't know the name) that attaches your pectorals to your deltoids, and this workout will work that muscle and make it sore. I usually feel soreness along the front of my shoulder, too, but its more down toward my armpits. I've always felt soreness in this area after doing a chest workout.

Regarding your tricep soreness: I've always felt I targeted my triceps pretty well in the past, but after I did this workout the first time, I could barely move my arms! Wow!!!! GS: Chest/Tris is probably the best workout I've ever done for my triceps!

I wouldn't put GS CH/T on back-to-back days with GS B/S/B, though. That's just too much intense upper body work in too short a time. Let your arms recover from one before you do the other. Three days should be good for the first few times, but after your body has adjusted, a 48-hour break should suffice.

 

[butterflygurl]

Catwoman,

Thanks for the adivice. I have put GS Legs in b/w the two. That way I only have to deal with the lower body tenderness when I go back to doing upper body.


I have another question for all. I think I expect too much from myself. When I did GS Legs, I was only able to do the Standing leg work the first time. I was not completely fried but felt that I should stop there. That was Wednesday, I still feel DOMS today, Friday. I was going to try to do the floor work later that day but thought better of it. Opinions??