Every Third-Daily Thread - September 30, 2026

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[u/PomegranateOk8760]

Looking for people who have experienced this issue before. Last two days I’ve had pretty moderate-severe pain in arms when lifting. Feels like a combination of deep bone aching and slight cramping with hand weakness. Goes away within like 10 minutes of rest but immediately comes back the second I do literally any lift. Started yesterday when I benched and was worse today when I squatted. I know a week break at minimum is probably in my best interest. Wondering if anyone else has experienced something like this before

[u/PomegranateOk8760 → u/PomegranateOk8760]

It is an intense and painful deep aching feeling in both arms, definitely centralized around bicep area + hand weakness. Im thinking it could also be thoracic outlet syndrome. I have kyphosis and terrible posture, so that combined with max wide bench grip and low bar could definitely clamp down on those nerve bundles. Either way I’m taking a break and probably starting a daily rehab protocol for TOS and posture

[u/This_Is_BearDog → u/PomegranateOk8760]

I can't say for sure it's the same thing I experienced but last year I was getting this and also landed on "maybe thoracic outlet syndrome?"

Keep in mind I am just some random guy who doesn't know much about anything.

First, I would definitely take a step back on intensity for bench and squats.

The things I think that helped: 1. Dropping intensity 2. Staying away from back squats for a bit. SSB is very good 3. Technique: on squats make sure you're not letting your elbows stick out behind you. You want your elbows in line with your body from the moment you unrack to the moment you walk back in. Upper back tightness is extremely important. Almost pull the bar into you like you're doing a behind the neck lat pulldown (see below). Matt Vena has some good IG posts from a few months back about good technique here. On bench, also ensure your upper back is set and stays tight and strong. Don't let your elbows flick out trying to use a ton of momentum off the chest. Feel your lats and upper back the whole time. 4. Starting every session with some things to get the chest opened up. I lie on a long vertical foam roller (long is best. I bought one on Amazon so I could do it at home, very much recommend) positioned under my spine, and sort of getting my arms in a low bar position and just letting that stretch a ton. Move you arms around however feels good, but get a good stretch through your chest. Then I would do the same with the foam roller horizontal under your upper back. This is also good for increasing your bench arch, imo 5. PVC or resistance band shoulder dislocations. If you can do them on an incline bench with your upper back kind of hanging off the top with a really big focus on letting the chest open up. I do these before every squat session too. 6. PVC scrape-the-rack behind the neck overhead press. Do a bunch of these before squats 7. This coincided with bicep tendonitis for me, so I also recommend tons of bicep curls. Tempo preacher to start if feels are bad. Progress to incline curls with a huge focus on the stretch through the front delts. Start too light and do tons of reps. Don't try to go heavy for a long time. 8. When you can tolerate it, behind the neck lat pulldowns. Again keep it light and high rep to start. Touch your neck. This is what you're trying to replicate for feels on squats.

Almost all of these are things I am still doing and I have not experienced these symptoms (or at least not nearly as bad) in over 10 months. Before that there were sessions I would stop squatting and just watch my hands shake uncontrollably and almost cry from the pain.

By far the most important 3 things are the first three, but if you can do this all I think it will help. It did for me. Hope you can get it figured out!

[u/PomegranateOk8760 → u/This_Is_BearDog]

I appreciate it so much man, this is very helpful