18 Load's Recovery and Beyond Log

Training Logs
1

Hi everyone, I’ve been lurking around here for awhile, and have been through some great logs and interesting threads. I’m thrilled to say that I think I’ve found a place where people see their goals take shape one day at a time, with the support of like-minded individuals who are supportive in helping our peers reach our respective goals, be it a certain weight, getting ready for the marines, sprint training, powerlifting, etc.

I know it sounds really corny (and I guess it kind of is) but I’m looking forward to becoming more of a part of this online community. Now on to the log, in this case, it’s about a small school football player…

Stats
Age: 20
Height: 6’1" or 6’2"
Weight: 203-206 as of 3/16/09
Bodyfat: Something above 8.1%, which I was measured at using skinfold measurements in January at 195 lbs. I’m not quite as cut as I was then, but it’s probably not over 9.5%.

Bench Press: 11 reps of 225 (300 lbs) (3/2/09)
Incline BP: 4 reps of 225 (250 lbs) (3/2/09)
Squat: 360 lbs injured (3/2/09) all time best was 455 in May of 08
Power Clean: 235 lbs injured (2/2/09) all time best was 255 in May of 08
Best 40 yard dash: 4.60 in May of 08, was faster in the fall, but didn’t test 40

Recovery and Beyond: A starter in the fall?

I’ll be having my ankle scoped this weekend in order to perform a microfracture procedure in an effort to fix an OCD incurred in the second to last game of the past season. I’ll be on crutches for 4 weeks and won’t be out of a cast/walking boot for 6.

I won’t be able to perform impact activity for 3 months, or until mid/late June, giving me around 8 weeks of impact activity until camp starts in mid August.

I spent the past season (as a redshirt freshman) on the bench, as a backup safety/starting special teamer and was in a great position to work my way into the starting spot until the ankle decided it wasn’t going to heal like a normal ankle sprain.

I have the utmost confidence, however, that I’ll be better than anyone on that field in the fall if I work my ass off the way I’m capable of.

Obviously this is going to take a great amount of discipline on my part. Playing at a small division 3 school means we don’t have coaches or personal trainers breathing down at necks every minute of the day.

I’ll have to find ways to improve or at least maintain the strength, conditioning, and explosiveness in my legs until I’m able to train normally again in June, and I don’t have time to catch up or make up for being a lazy ass for 3 months.

The plan is as follows, and by all means any and all suggestions are welcome:

Post Surgery Gameplan
-Immediately begin utilizing the time off with my legs to work on building a rock solid upper body. I’d like to report at a solid 210 or more for camp, and have a lot of room to grow in my arms, chest and back.

The goal is to make significant gains in my upper body during the early period after surgery so that I’m ahead in this department, or at least prepared as far as my upper body goes, when I’m healthy again.

-As soon as I’m allowed by the doc, I’ll begin working on open chain leg movements such as leg extensions and leg curls, obviously not as much as I’d like to do, but it’ll have to do until I’m cleared for more. Ideas on what to do here are more than welcome.

-Once I’m cleared to put weight on the ankle again, doc said I could start getting on the bike and doing pool running/aqua jogging. I’ve got some specific plans here that are likely to focus on high intensity interval training in the pool, which I’m hoping will keep my fast twitch fibers at work.

-Once I’m cleared for impact activity, I plan on hitting the track/weight room harder than I ever have before, at least up until a week before camp, which will be used for active recovery.

I’m hoping to continue this log for as long as my football career lasts, I’ve got 3 years of eligibility to see what I can do with it. I’m hoping to be an All-American safety or linebacker one day, admittedly a lofty goal, but one that I believe is in reach nonetheless.

In the end, I’m doing this mostly because I have lofty goals and I feel like posting it here will keep me accountable for actions, and motivate me to shut up and lift/run/work when those hump days come around.

I know this spill was long, but I want to have it down somewhere so I can return to it once I’m back at the top of my game again, and then past that mark. Thanks for reading, and as I said before, any and all comments/suggestions/advice are greatly appreciated.

2

Personal Records Page
This page will be edited later, each time I break one my own records

LIFTS
Bench Press
Reps/225:
1RM:
Incline Bench Press
Reps/225: 8 (4/29/09)
1RM: (converted from reps) 280 (4/29/09)
Squat
1RM:
Deadlift
Trap Bar
1RM: 405 (4/26/09)
Barbell
1RM:
Power Clean
1RM: 245 (4/29/09)

DRILLS (a mix of track and combine tests)
40 Yard Dash:
100 Meter Dash:
20 Yard Shuttle:
Standing Broad Jump:
Standing Vertical Jump:

GOALS
SHORT TERM (before camp)
Bench Press
Reps/225: 17
1RM: 335
Incline Bench Press
Reps/225: 11
1RM: 300
Squat
1RM: 435
Deadlift
1RM: 450
Power Clean
1RM: 275

DRILLS (a mix of track and combine tests)
40 Yard Dash: sub 4.6
100 Meter Dash: sub 11
20 Yard Shuttle: sub 4.3
Standing Broad Jump: 9’ (never tested this before)
Standing Vertical Jump: 35" (jumped a 34 in high school)

LONG TERM (before graduation)
Gotta shoot high, I’ve got three years to try and do this
Bench Press
Reps/225: 25
1RM: 405
Incline Bench Press
Reps/225: 20
1RM: 350
Squat
1RM: 515
Deadlift
1RM: 545
Power Clean
1RM: 335

DRILLS (a mix of track and combine tests)
40 Yard Dash: sub 4.5
100 Meter Dash: sub 10.6
20 Yard Shuttle: sub 4.00
Standing Broad Jump: 10’
Standing Vertical Jump: 40"

3

MONDAY 3/16: Pre-Surgery Week
Format is as follows:
Exercise, weight in pounds x reps, reps, reps, etc.

Warmup
Lateral Raises 15x10,8
Front Raises 15x10,8

Lat Pulldowns
100x12,12 (warmup)
130x10
150x8,6
(could have done significantly more here)

Hammer Strength Seated Row Machine, Wide Grip
2 plates on each side x 10/each arm (alternating), 10/ALT
3 plates on each side x 9,8

Not sure what you call these, but you hold a plate over your head and rotate it around, changing direction when you get to the front of the movement… For now we’ll call them Overhead Plate Rotations?
45x20,20 (before NG seated rows) 20,20(after)

Neutral Grip seated rows
150x12
180x10,8,8

DB Curls (reps are for each arm)
40 x 8,8

EZ Curls
80 x 10,10

Straight Bar reverse curls
60 x 10

Plate Hammer Curls
45 x 20

Not a great workout at all, obviously I’m not as strong as I’d like to be in my lats or biceps, probably a product of never working them in high school (bench, and more bench=stupid). It wasn’t very organized but I got some decent volume in and started off the week OK. This is an area I really need to improve on.

Bumps and Bruises
One thing hampering my lat pulldowns right now, and keeping me from doing pullups, is what I think is a left pec strain. It only bothers me when I do certain movements, it’s different for pushes and pulls. Horizontal pushes will hurt significantly, but horizontal pulls are unaffected. I can also do military all I want, but vertical pulls seem to strain it if I try to complete a full range of motion. I guess I’ll have a few does of inactivity for it to rest after the surgery, for now I’m trying to see if I can get it loose and push through it. Got another workout today, adios.

4

TUESDAY 3/17: Pre-Surgery Week

Warmup
Lateral Raises 20x8,6
Front Raises 20x8,6

BB Bench Press (decided to give our prescribed offseason workout a go despite my pec strain, wanted to test it out)
135 x 10 warmup
225 x 7,7,5
245 x 3
185 x 10

Pullups (superset w/ 3 of the bench press sets)
BW x 8, 8, 8, 6

Overhead around the worlds
45 x 20, 20
Superset w/ Plate twists
45 x 20 20

Shoulder circuit:
Lateral raises
15 x 10
20 x 8, 8, 5
Front raises
15 x 10
20x 8, 8, 7
Seated DB Military Press
50 x 10
40 x 10,9,7

Notes/Bumps and Bruises:
The pec bothered me significantly today, tried to push through it but ended up not getting very good work done on the BP or pullups. Overall it was a subpar workout, I had planned on getting more chest and tricep work in, but decided to get some swimming in later on instead (see below).

Pool Work
In the pool, I like to try and do some prehab/rehab stuff along with the great cardio workout swimming gives me. I do a lot of shoulder work where I do lat/front raises and rotator cuff work in a superset to toast my shoulders, and do breastroke drills to try and loosen up my chest. Other than that I’ll swim some laps freestyle, which I’m pathetically terrible at.

5

Wednesday 3/18: went to the pool for some more swimming, but no weights.

Thursday 3/19: taking the advice from my Doc and not working out today. I’m going to get myself a giant meal tonight because I can’t have anything to eat or drink after midnight; surgery is at 12:30PM… Great.

Will update again as soon as I can on how the surgery goes.

6

Sunday 3/22

Surgery was a great success, it looks like the initial 3 month recovery time was only based on the expectations of performing a procedure that ended up not being necessary. For now, this looks like it will be a month and a half until impact activity, and only 2 to 3 weeks non weight bearing.

I’ll start attempting some light upper weights again tomorrow, but won’t push too hard if the ankle doesn’t cooperate.

7

Monday 3/23: Post-op Week 1

Went to the gym and did some light upper body work, nothing to run home about.

DB Incline BP 30x 12,12,10,10,10,10,10
Seated on incline DB Curls 30x 10,10,12,8,10
Seated DB military 30x 12,10,10

Didn’t do much but wanted to slowly get back to it. I’m not in condition to move around carrying heavy DB’s around yet, but the ankle feels a little better every day, and I’ll probably be able to walk fairly normally this time next week.

8

Although you can not do any serious loading in your post op state, i would highly recommend A LOT of Hip extension exercises. For dynamic effort you could utilize overhead medicine ball throws from the ground and from a hang. as far as resistance id suggest Cable pull thru’s, Glute/Ham Raises, and possible light Good Mornings, as well as a healthy portion of abduction that doesn’t put to much strain on your ankle, like forward and backward diagenal band walk(steping at 45 degrees with a band around your knees).

Also looking at your current lifting protocol and cant help but notice the minimal amount of horizontal rowing
it will be difficult to create a training effect only being able to do upper body with a body part split i would suggest a 3 day split possible structured like this

Monday;
1a. Close Grip Bench Press 5x5
1b. Wide Grip Pull Up 5x6-8
1c. Ab Wheel Rollout or Hand walks 5x6(10 second hold)
2a. Single arm Low Cable Row 3x8
2b. Eccentric Glute/ham raise(GHR’s) 3x8
2c. Dips 3x8
3a. Pushups 3x failure
3b. Forward Band walk 3x12
3c. Isometric squat 3x 45secs
3d. Cable External Rotation 3x12
4a. Lateral Raise 3x12
4b. Eccentric chin up 3x6(4 second hold/6 second down)
4c. Decline tricep Extension 3x8

Wednesday
1a. Good Morning 6x3
1b. Incline DB Bench 6x4
1c. Isometric Pull ups 3x30 seconds
2a. Rack Press 4x5
2b. Prone Row or DB Row with no support 4x8
2c. Hanging Leg Lifts 4x 8 -12
3a. Supinated Grip Inverted Row 3x8
3b. Single Arm DB Bench 3x 8
3c. Pallof Press 3x30 seconds
4a. Chin ups 2x failure
4b. Push ups 2x failure
4c. Bicycle Crunch 2xfailure
4d. External Rotation 2x 15
Friday
1a. Shoulder Press 5x8
1b. Glute Bridge 5x 30 secs
1c. DB Row 5x8
2a. X walk 4x15 yards
2b. Weighted Push ups 4x 8
2c. Nuetral grip Pull ups 4x8
3a. Decline Row 3x8
3b. close grip Incline bench 3 x8
3c. Glute/Ham Raise 3x10
4a. Dip 2x failure
4b. Invert Row hold 2x failure
4c. Plank 2x failure( Hips beginning to drop)

id try and keep the rest periods to a minimum, but the volume shouldn’t be an issue because your lack of ability to train your lower body with any significance. If you wanted to you could ad remedial excercises at the end such as Y raises and more external rotation and even more isometric squats…good luck

9

Wow, thanks for the suggestions, but I’m not sure I understand the format:

Using Friday as an example, do I perform sets 1a-1c each Friday, in a superset I would guess?

I’m also not familiar with some of the exercises you mentioned, but I’ll search for them here or google them and see what I can come up with. Either way, thanks a ton and I’ll be sure to look at this more when I try and put together my program (hopefully sometime this week/weekend after my follow up appointment Thursday).

10

yeah you would do 1a-1c as one super set

11

Wednesday 3/25: Post-op Week 1

2nd post op workout, didn’t do much, but got a little bit of good work done.

BP Bench Press
135x 10, 185x 10,10
CG Bench Press
185x 5,5

Neutral Grip Pullups
BWx 6,6,6

Chest supported seated rows 3 plates x 6,8,8
NG Seated Rows 190x 6, 170x 10,8,10,8

Reverse Hypers
25x 12,12,12
(was really late but I’ve never done this move before, don’t wanna work the legs too hard at this point until the doc says I can’t mess anything up doing it)

Overall I feel like I got some good volume in on bench and back, and got to break a bit of a sweat doing it. What’s weird is that my knees have been acting weird (feels a bit ilke tendonitis). I thinks it’s because of the walking boot that I’m in- it makes my left leg significantly taller than the right, but hopefully I’ll be outta the boot soon. Follow up is tomorrow, hopefully doc says all is well, ankle feels good anyway.

12

Friday 3/27: Post-op Week 1

Began working on remodeling my routine and I’m planning on working it around the WS4SB templates, adding/changing a few ideas to better fit what I think my needs are and reflecting every 3 weeks on progress then changing or maintaining with whatever is necessary.

This initial 3 week period will basically go until I’m allowed out of my little air cast walking boot contraption. I’ll be doing 3 lifts per week as follows:

Mon: ME Upper body
Wed: Whatever legs I can muster+back, shoulders, and “vanity” lifting
Fri: Repetition upper body day

I did a ME upper day today (working to a 1RM) and will do another on Monday, but instead working to a 5 or 3 rep max.

Ironically, despite the fact that I planned on substantially increasing back work with this workout, we got kicked out of them gym for being there too late on a Friday and didn’t get to finish… Here’s what I did.

ME Lift: BB Incline
Barx10
95x5
135x5
185x5

205x3

225x1
245x1 (slightly assisted at halfway point)
225x1,1

Supplemental lifts
Pullover Press (with a dumbell, hadn’t done this exercise in years and my back is actually sore despite the lack of weight)
40x10 (feeling it out)
45x10
50x10
55x10 (I’ll probably start here next time)

BB Skull Crushers (this is probably pretty rare, and stupid on my part, but I’ve never done skull crushers and I was terrible at it)
65x10 (struggled with the movement and controlling the weight)
55x10

Then we got kicked out. I was planning on continuing with another set of skull crushers and the following:

Chest supported row 4x10
Seated cable row 5x5
Face pulls w/ rope 3x10
Lat Pulldowns 3x12
30 reps of pullups in as many sets as needed
Hanging leg raises 4x15-20

13

Monday 3/30: Post-op Week 2

Had another annoying workout, this time I got a bit of a lat strain/back spasm in the middle of our mandatory morning workout. I had started another ME upper body day but ironically, yet again, despite the fact that I get to the gym with the goal of 3 to 1 pull to push, I end up only getting my incline and a little bit of back work done.

ME Upper Body
Incline BB BP
135x6
135x5
155x5
175x5
195x5
195x5
195x3

All of these were done with relative ease, didn’t want to overdue it after the ME upper Friday. Weights felt good and I was focusing on keeping my form.

Pullover Press
55x10,10,10
This is where I got the strain in my left lat/trap area where sort of next to the spine. I just pushed through it for the most part and finished the lift, then did some cable work for my shoulders and tried to work out the strain (internal and external rotation, 1 arm cable rows) I got in a couple of sets of really light close grip cable rows after that but it didn’t amount to much. Also did 5 sets of 5 pullups.

14

hey 18 just came on to say i admire ur motivation and drive, mainly because i have the same mind frame. hope u achieve ur goals on the field and in the weight room. gotta have extra-ordinary resolve to get shit done bro. go hard bro!

15

[quote]cutthoat25 wrote:
hey 18 just came on to say i admire ur motivation and drive, mainly because i have the same mind frame. hope u achieve ur goals on the field and in the weight room. gotta have extra-ordinary resolve to get shit done bro. go hard bro![/quote]

Thanks for checking in on this, man. Yeah, I finally decided I needed to put this stuff out there, now everybody knows what I want to do (even if they don’t care) and will know if I fail… I don’t intend to let that happen, haha.

If you’re not starting your own log man feel free to check in on here, and whatever you do, keep working man. This will all be worth it in the fall.

(On a sidenote, I made a call to DeFranco’s today. I’m thinking about saving up for a 4 to 6 week stay in New Jersey to see if he can work his magic on a guy like me. This all depends on summer school, a possible job schedule to work around, and finances, but if all goes well, I’ll be able to post here about my experience in New Jersey… From the perspective of a small town Texas kid, hehe).

16

Wednesday 4/1: Post-op Week 2

Bench pressed 600 lbs for the first time for a great PR! April Fools… hehe. No.

In all seriousness I had a great workout today, the numbers weren’t necessarily all that impressive but it felt great nonetheless.

The main reason for this was that I discovered that I should be able to deadlift again starting now. The doc explained that my injury wasn’t in a weight bearing portion of the ankle, which is why walking has been fine. Well, I decided to give deadlifts a shot, starting with the bar, and stopping if I felt ANY pain whatsoever (it still hasn’t been 2 weeks since surgery). It definitely turned out well.

DB Bench Press
40x10
50x10
60x10
70x8 PR
70x6

I’ve never really done dumbbell work at all, always barbell BP. When I did, it was with the 40s or 50s doing sets of like 20 with weird superset junk. I’m looking forward to getting used to using heavier weights on these (I was having trouble stabilizing the weight on the sets w/ the 70s).

Trap bar deadlift (low handles)
45x3
135x6
135x5
185x5
185x3
225x3
225x3
275x3
295x3
325x1,1,1

This is just a great feeling. Mixed in with these sets were:

Reverse Hypers
35x10,10,10,10 (again, just trying to feel these out, it’s my 2nd time doing them)

NG seated cable rows
120x10
150x10
200x3
180x5,5,5,5

Mixed in cable rotator cuff work as a superset w/ these

DB Shrugs
80s x 10

BB Bent rows
155x10,10

17

I finally got a before picture up, cute huh? I just wanted a baseline, this isn’t for “rate my physique” so I didn’t bother with the back and leg pics… Anyway, there’s obviously a looong, looong way to go from here.

18

[quote]18 Load wrote:

I finally got a before picture up, cute huh? I just wanted a baseline, this isn’t for “rate my physique” so I didn’t bother with the back and leg pics… Anyway, there’s obviously a looong, looong way to go from here.[/quote]

19

Thursday 4/2: Post-op Week 2

Had a good buddy ask me if I wanted to head to the gym late last night to help him out, so I decided to do my RE upper day then.

RE Upper
BB Bench Press
45xwhatever
95x6
135x5
135x5
155x5
185x20
185x12
185x11

Inverted Body Weight Rows
3x10

Pullups
4x6
(I’ve gotten so much worse at these since I put on some weight: about 10 pounds since December… They need to improve a lot)

Then did a couple of plate circuits that I’ve learned and really enjoy. I get a great pump in the shoulders and arms by the end of it. It also feels like it’s great for my core as well.

45lb plate, each exercise in circuit performed w/o rest in between. 1 to 2 minutes until the next circuit.
Front raise x 10
Standing chest press x 10
Standing overhead press x 10
Standing Plate twists with 1/2 hammer curl/shrug x 10
(with these I hold the weight like an oblique twist but when I get to the end of each twist I curl the weight up and pull my shoulders up and back, gives me a great pump)
Overhead around the worlds x 10

Spent the rest of the time teaching my buddy how to deadlift, I’m trying to help him improve his vertical from 24.5 to around 28. Should be doable- he’s never done any leg training before.

20

Sunday 4/5: Post-op Week 3

Did a full-body warmup of some different BW exercises and a plate circuit (the one at the end of the previous workout) then got into some deadlift for an impromptu leg session.

Trap-bar Deadlift
135x5
185x5
225x5
275x5
275x5
325x3
335x1
365x1

Bulgarian Split Squats
Just trying to get used to the movement and see if the ankle can take it. I’m planning on making these a big part of my training eventually.
20x8 (holding 20lb DBs x each leg)

Then did some shrugs w/ the 100lb DBs and got into the pool for the first time since the surgery. Figured out the school has a hot tub in there too so I did some contrast treatment, if you will, directly after my workout.

NOW OFF TO EAT!