I use Crossover Symmetry bands for my shoulders (it’s what they have at my gym). I really doubt they would break and if they did, they are encapsulated in an outer covering. My shoulders have gotten so much better since I started using them, along with a lot of shoulder stretching, hangs, and famers carries. I have previously had PT on both shoulders from different bike wrecks and my gym work is now way better than anything I got at PT.
I dropped a five pound plate on my foot yesterday. Nothing broke, but it is a little swollen.
Still not as bad as banging my shin on a bar.
That’s very impressive, but I’m going to challenge you to do controlled full range reps at say, 205 pounds. How many reps can you get? And how good is that pump?
This is an oddly specific flex. 
My point is that you will typically get better results if you don’t struggle through an assisted maximum lift but instead actually focus on the stretch and contraction of the muscle. So while it is certainly impressive to move 235 pounds, it is arguably more impressive to dial the weight back and grind out a set of 10-15 reps.
I hear ya.
But sometimes you want to shoot to climb Mt. Ventoux, not 10-15 local hill sprints.
You are correct, of course.
We often finish with volume sets at a way lower weight. The other day I did 17 reps at 135, full-range, as our last set.
I just like testing my one-rep max.
Nice! You are a lot stronger than me, and I outweigh you by about 45 pounds.
I hear ya. It’s immensely satisfying! (Although if I can razz you a little: if it was an assisted rep, and it wasn’t full range, it wasn’t really your 1 rep max)
I try to keep my heavy sets at 3-5 reps. I’ve strained too many muscles/tendons/ligaments to ever be comfortable trying a max lift anymore.
Razz away!
Yeah, I know. I hope to get to a real, full rep at that weight.
Training for strength and training for growth are 2 different modalities. Being stronger doesn’t necessarily get you bigger. Strength involves progressing the number on the bar, growth is about getting that muscle nearly to failure (but not quite) in about 15 sets per week.
So say you have an incline bench and a flat bench, there’s 6 sets for the pecs and triceps on just one day. Do that for another day and you’re already at 12. Adjust the weight so that the first set gets you within 4 reps of failure. The second and third set will be fewer reps to get close to failure since you’re fatigued, but they’re still doing their job.
When you progress to where 12 reps on the first set feels easy, even if the final set can’t reach 12, you progress the weight upward anyway. Then start the cycle again. Your rep count might look like 8, 6, 4 initially, then when you’re ready to progress it’ll be like 12, 10, 8. That’s when you progress, don’t wait for 12, 12, 12.
Check online references for more information about that, but strength and hypertrophy are different goals that need different strategies. It sounds like you’ve been getting stronger but not bigger.
The two are not independent variables? At a 1 RM of 235 he would probably bench 205 about five times.
I live bands ! But i exercise at home, by myself, with minimal equipment. Bands can be tossed into my box-o-exercise-stuff when I’m done with them.
I’ve had a ten year old band snap when i experimentally tugged at it. I’ve never had a nice-looking band snap while exercising.
Anyway, my comment isn’t entirely on-topic, but this feels like as good a place as any to post. I’m doing PT for a quirky shoulder problem. “Signs, symptoms, and subjective findings consistent with rotator cuff dysfunction, right triceps strain, and ulnar nerve mobility deficit”. And the full round only takes 20-25 minutes, but i find it really hard to get through. It’s uncomfortable and achingly dull. Any advise? I had a steroid shot which was incredibly helpful, but i still have pain, I’m still guarded about using the arm, and steroid benefit often wears off. I’d love to use this relatively pain-free internal to beat this problem.
And if he progressed to doing 205 ten times his 1RM probably is up to over 270.
@puzzlegal your advice should really come from your PT.
I just threw out 205 as just an example of a lighter weight. Maybe try 185 then?
I was just trying to emphasize the difference between a set where your muscles are under tension for 30 seconds or more versus the short strain of doing just a few reps.
I, too, will do both.
But in terms of engorging the muscles, I find that I have more success from the longer sets.
(Incidentally, I fully accept your estimate of 5 reps @205 based on a 1 rep max of 230, but I’ve read that there is a variation of this sort of muscle power depending on whether a person has more slow twitch or fast twitch fibers. More fast twitch means more explosive strength but less endurance, so somebody like that is not going to be able to do as many reps as they back off their 1 rep max as somebody with more slow twitch. Fast twitch, as I understand it, has the potential to be bigger)
I don’t think she can help me with “this is incredible dull”. 
To be clear, i don’t think it’s more uncomfortable than it’s supposed to be. Last week, it started to hurt after two sets, so i stopped, and she said that had been the right thing to do. She also dropped the “nerve flossing”, which i think aggravated everything else. This week it isn’t hurting. It’s just… DULL.
That is to say, I’m not here looking for “how to do my pt”. Yes, I’ll trust my physical therapist on that. I’m looking for some moral support, maybe some encouragement.
Ah. I was focusing on uncomfortable. I’d still go back to her for some suggestions of more fun variety.
I hear the steel mace is used for shoulder rehab and its requiring some skill building may make it more fun. But ask what she thinks.
There should be more fun ways!
@Moriarty thanks for the article. Yeah the classic tables and calculators seem to have some standard of error.
Curious to see if the same variation applies to bench as to squat I found this:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26913865/
It doesn’t do the correlating the variation with fiber type (although that makes sense) but does find that for moderately trained men anyway prediction of 1RM from weight able to be lifted a specific number of reps was a standard of error of roughly 3 kg.
Well, i did add one item to my “home” list because it was the least boring of the ones i did with her. I used a large ball and “wrote letters” with it on the wall. My personal trainer (not my physical therapist) suggested i could do that with a much smaller rubber ball i have at home, so i messaged my pt to ask about it, and she said, “sure” and added it to my list.
(I didn’t ask her to remove anything. Honestly, having one item that’s not breathtakingly dull helps.)
Yeah. I’m not training to get jacked. I’m training to be able to get out of bed when I’m 80.
If you switch to a brush and some paint, you could parlay that into a side gig.
“Signs by puzzlegal”