With rotator cuff issues, I wouldn't do barbell much. I do most all dumbells. When things start to go wrong I can always dump the dumbells. With a barbell you better hope your spotter isn't checking out some hot ass. And I do all high rep lifts 15 reps 4 sets. You will still get massive on high reps.
Hi, goin on 4t! That's great advice! I've copied and pasted it to a MS Word doc. Dumbells are much better cos like you said u don't need a spotter, u can just drop the dumbell.
Also, I'm glad your "golfer's elbow" is almost 100% better, too! I had a similar injury to my left elbow. I called it a "tennis elbow" injury. But it's the same thing just another name for it. I injured left elbow doin heavy e-z bar preacher curls. My experience with dbol is that it adds lots of strength and makes u very, very hungry...Also, if you add creatine tabs before workout and pre-workout Animal-Pak energy vitamins which are loaded with Milk Thistle to the mix, then you'll get AMAZINGLY STRONG ON TRAINING DAYS AT THE GYM!
I got an elbow wrap for my left elbow. Two IFBB pro's, Markus Ruhl and his training buddy, Pit Trenz, wear elbow pads. I don't care how weird or maybe weak-looking it may appear on me, cos it keeps the elbow warm during heavy duty training & thus help prevents elbow strains. ***Plus, as long as I look good outside the gym, I don't care what kind of "old-geezer-looking" or dorky gym equipment/body support I wear inside the gym.
Well-known IFBB pro--Mark Dugdale from WA, and my friend from Palm Springs who was The "2010 Mr. California 50 year old division state champ," Carlos Ariss, both believe that you can still get huge and increase muscle mass on higher reps--as long as you go to failure.
Mark wrote me via a Facebook comment that a recent study showed there's not much of a difference between moderate weight high rep and heavy weight low rep training for building mass and muscle definition. Mark owns his own business and isn't a heavy volume trainer. I think he does like 3 sets sometimes, 2 sets cos of his very busy food business schedule.
Joe Weider (the father of pro bodybuilding) who trained all the famous champs has always written since the late 1970's/early '80's, that 8-12 is a good range.
There are no hard and fast rules, but certainly at the ages of late 30's early 40's, it shouldn't anymore be thought of wimpy or only for getting "cuts" to do 12-15 reps and maybe also iso-metrically squeeze the muscle right after each set.
There's a small chance that you might not make huge advances because you'll be progressively adding weight at a more slower pace, but if you get an injury, that's a big bummer that isn't worth it...and destroys all that heavy training low rep work that a person did.
Those who train at higher reps will definitely be in the bodybuilding game in the long run with better joint and tendon health. (versus those who train real heavy, hurl heavy weight up and might get massive real fast, but who inevitably get injuries like pec-tears and can't train hardly enough anymore).