Well, my $ 0,02:
To my mind , the kind of pain you're refering to is abnormal. It's not something that you should expect or even accept, because it just doesn't have to be there, in the first place, like something chronic or that comes with the turff.
Check your form to the most intricate detail. Please do....Even if you think that you know everything there's to know about lifting because of your longevity in this bizz, you're in for a surprise, I promise you. For instance, the whole 'duck feet' that every mag in the world insists to teach as the proper form to squat is rubbish, for me. My knees used to ache when I reached a certain poundage squatting that way. That's when I came across a training article from Dave Palumbo, where he tells the exact same thing that I was going through with my knees, and he told that he resolved the problem using a straight ahead position for the feet when squatting, a bit wider than the hips but inside the shoulders stance, and using orthopedical inserts made up by chiropractors inside his sneakers, I applied everything to a 'T' and guess what??! It worked like a charm.
Now I have been dealing with a severe and chronic bicep tendonitis. It turned out that I discovered I have carpal tunnel syndrome, too. While I'm in pain, there's no way I can train chest, back and biceps with my usual poundages, using the same grips and exercises. Guess what??! I addapted a new , temporary format.
I read about Danny Padilla training style, in one of the recent threads, in a post made by our own Max Rep, and decided to give it a try: high volume, 6 to 8 sets per exercise, 10 to 12 reps max each one, 4 to 5 exercises per bodypart, with a maximum rest of 1 minute between sets. Guess waht??
Otherwise a very ridicuously light weight that never crossed my mind before to use on working sets turned out to be used for the majority of remaining 6 to 8 sets, with me SCREAMING to meet the required range of reps. The trick?? MINIMAL AMOUNT OF REST BETWEEN SETS.
In the end, your job is to make an otherwise light weight relatively speaking into a heavy weight, via intensifiers. At least while in the middle of a pain crisis like I am, it's the only way to keep working and aiming for results, while you are still at the same time allowing your joints the much needed rest form the humonguous poundages they need in order to recover. Give it a try, squadfather.
