Welcome back.
Re: ODD/related issues: some developments on my end as well. I feel your pain.
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Hm. I can’t seem to figure out how to send direct messages. I don’t think I came across anything in your log. I’d like to know more though.
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I finally started doing my PT. Right knee already feeling better after one day. No change to the snapping problem that I’m actually there for… but it’s been one day.
The exercises take awhile. Longer than I expected. 8 exercises, 3 sets of 10-12. Some with 5-10 second holds. They are hitting places I’m currently weak, so that’s good.
Overhead pressing:
Saturday: 80x5, 70x5
Sunday: 85x5, 75x5
I also went online barbell shopping and I think I’m going to get my first “good” barbell. Fringe Sport Hybrid bar.
Reviews: Fringe Sport Hybrid Barbell Review 2023 | Garage Gym Reviews
Fringe Sport 20 kg Hybrid Bar Review
But it’s not purchased yet. Will sit on it a bit.
Covid booster on Friday hit me hard. Just exhaustion mainly, but didn’t realize quite how out of it I was until today. Feeling normal and awake again, finally.
It’s cold and I’m lazy, but so far today I did my presses.
90x5, 80x5.
Doing fives feels good after spending over a month doing triples only.
I’ll probably do some more stuff later. Meetings and such for now.
I’ll tag you in my log at some point on this subject.
I often don’t post, but I’ll read in someone’s log and think, “we should have a long conversation about that”. However I don’t have a lot of free time, and hate typing on the phone, so I usually fail to follow up.
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Morning spent wrestling with a 5 year old, out of bed, into the car, into the other carseat, into school; emotionally exhausting more than physical. Had to shift carseats a few minutes into the drive because it was no longer safe to have her behind the drivers seat.
Yesterday (Halloween)
Press: 95x5, 85x5
Axle stuff: a couple mat pulls, a couple cleans
Today:
Press: 100x5, 90x5
DOH Axle deadlift: 130x5, 110x5
Press could have used something of a warmup. Went into it completely cold, not even the most basic of anything.
Deadlifts are silly light. This was more about just figuring out the PttP setup for these. Going to be: do first set, remove a pair of 10s for the second set. Add the 10s back and a pair of 5s for tomorrow, repeat.
Because I’m still working through that thoracic mobility work – where it’s better if the bar is closer to my body for pressing – and front squat stuff, I’m going to keep using my barbell on the rack. I’d prefer to keep doing the deadlifts with a barbell, but eh.
I’ve basically pared everything down to as far as I can pare it down. As little thinking and unessential work as possible.
“Bodybuilding” stuff is gone. Velocity stuff is gone. Variation is gone.
PT work is in. Weighted ab work and heavy kettlebell swings will probably stick around.
I’m just motivationally drained at the moment.
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Yesterday I did some ab work.
Straight-leg situps: 46# x 10
Now I get to add another 5 pounds. Straight leg is a million times harder than bent knee.
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Went to bed early again. I’m currently unable to handle the refusal, yelling, etc. from either kid; yesterday morning was the older one, last night was the younger one. Went to my bedroom to keep my reactions in check. Three distinct reactions: depression-like despair, anger/rage, and shutting down/disengagement.
More sleep will probably help, so I got more sleep.
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Today. I did some thoracic stretching before I lifted but no actual warmup.
Press: 105x5, 95x5
DOH Axle Deadlift: 140x5, 120x5
H2H Kettlebell Swing: 55x15 (each side)
Press actually feels more like a full body movement as the weights get heavier. I don’t know when/where this changed, but mentally a set of 5 is really 5 singles with no rests, versus how I used to do a set of 5. I guess I maybe wasn’t as mentally engaged with every rep in the past?
These aren’t necessarily in any order, but there are milestones/sub-goals to get to the larger clean and press goal:
- barbell deadlift 230 x 1
- barbell deadlift 230 x 8
- barbell power clean 230 x 1 - from the floor
- barbell power clean 230 x 8
- axle deadlift 230 x 1
- axle deadlift 230 x 8
- axle clean 230 x 1 - any type of clean, including continental
- axle clean 230 x 8
And of course:
- barbell press 230 x 1
- barbell press 230 x 8
- axle press 230 x 1
- axle press 230 x 8
EDIT:
I didn’t actually do the swings yesterday.
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Press: 110x5, 100x5
DOH Axle Deadlift: 150x5, 130x5
H2H Kettlebell Swing: 55x15 (each side)
Presses are feeling heavy. Going to take the weekend off (it’s been 8 days straight), and get back to a 5-day training week starting Monday.
And then PT appointment.
Apparently she has her own opinions about squatting, but also said that from a PT standpoint, my [bodyweight] squat is actually looking pretty good. The “PT” way of doing things is feet parallel, hip width, knees never pass the toes.
I demonstrated a bunch of squat variations around stance with, foot angle, shin angle, and how that affects things and so on, especially with my long femurs.
She then had me do stuff I didn’t like. My balance/stability at my hip apparently sucks; single leg RDLs with my legs straight is hugely challenging. Bent knee I can do it fine.
So she wants me to do those.
Also she had me do some lateral step downs from a box. She showed me two variations, and I made the mistake of saying “so, it’s like a regression of a pistol squat”?
So now she wants me doing pistol squats, since I showed her I’m actually capable of it. 
And a few other stability things.
And she was wondering if I actually read the Starrett book, “Becoming a Supple Leopard”. She hadn’t read it herself, but apparently she now seems inspired to start squatting again (she said she used to squat 220 but had some tight hips), so figured she might get some tips for herself from it. That’s pretty cool that my “can you help me fix my squat” inspired her to do the same.
I might also pick up a copy, since I knew of it but never actually read it. His personality and the whole “super friend” kitchy crossfitty thing he had going turned me off.
She hasn’t made the new modifications to my exercise selection, but the old set of exercises was taking like 25 minutes+ to do. A bit of time.
Kid stuff… well, another rough morning that involved wrestling into the carseat and being carried sock and shoeless into the school. I didn’t expect these would be the “real life skills” I was training for in the gym, but c’est la vie.
Verbal insults from a 5 year old are a little funny though, when the most aggressive thing is “you’re stupid!”
Later today, I did:
Straight-leg Situps: 51# x 5
Finally hit the 50# threshold. After I work up to 10 reps, I get to do them with backbend (and no weight).
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I didn’t take the weekend off.
Saturday.
Press: 115 x 2; 105 x 5 - end of the wave
DOH Axle Deadlift: 160 x 5; 140 x 5
PT (original 8 exercises)
Sunday.
Press: 85 x 5; 75 x 5
DOH Axle Deadlift: 170 x 5; 150 x 5
Straight-leg Situps: 51 x 6
PT (now 12 exercises)
Grip is starting to become taxed. Shoulders feeling unhappy.
The situps take more out of me than anything else. Winded and overheated after them, lol.
Today.
Press: 90 x 5; 80 x 5
DOH Axle Deadlift: 180 x 5; 160 x 5
H2H Kettlebell Swings: 55 x 16
PT work later
Shoulders need a rest. Not hurting in the same places as before, so that’s good I guess? New pains. Nothing feels “injured”, yet, but needs a break.
Also should actually think about warming them up… maybe that’s a sign of getting old, when you can’t just lift cold any more…
PT takes forever, as in, at least 45 minutes.
- Single leg raises. 3x10. Sitting up, internally rotate the straight leg, raise about 6" and hold for 5-10 seconds.
- Reverse lunges. 3x10.
- Banded squatting monster walks with a sweeping motion. 3x10 steps. Band around ankles. (Currently using a doubled-up red band.)
- Banded squatting side stepping. 3x10 steps each direction. Band around knees. (Using the same doubled-up red band.)
- Marching bridge. – I’m not doing these any more
- Reverse clamshell with bands. 3x10. (Using a single red band.)
- (Normal) clamshell with bands. 3x10. (Single red band.)
- Weighted side planks on elbow, down then up. 2-3x10. (Used a 10lb plate on my hip, but should just progress these as capable.)
- Straight single-leg RDLs, lightly touching fingers to the ground. 2-3 x 10 each side.
- Pistol squats. 2-3 x 5-10. Lol. I did two reps each side and called it good. I need to get better eccentric control over the very bottom of the ROM.
- Elbow planks with leg raises. 2-3 x 10-12. Hold the leg up for 5 seconds.
- Bird dog planks. 2-3 x 10. It’s a plank on the hands (not elbows), but then doing the bird dog alternating extension thing. Right arm with left leg, vice versa. Hold 5 seconds.
7 days a week, 11 exercises, 2-3 sets each, almost all are unilateral.
That’s 25-33 sets for each side alone, and then the 3 sets of monster walks. 53-69 sets total.
So there’s not really time for any other lifting. And even if I half-ass the PT, it’s still a lot of work.
I’ve now added some color to “PT takes forever”.
Is it doing what it should? I don’t know. It’s definitely addressing places where I’m currently weak and unstable, so it’s not a waste of time in that sense. My left knee still seems to have its issue around 90 degrees, but it’s still early on.
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Thanks for writing that out. It’s interesting to see.
Were both legs equally shitty at Pistol Squats?
Strength wise they’re about the same. I can balance significantly better on my right foot.
With my left foot, I end up hopping at the top to catch my balance. I don’t know why I do that instead of just, you know, using both feet.
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Confession: I think doing PT 7 days a week is dumb, at least with 3 sets of 10. Balance and stability stuff, sure. Strengthening? Not so much.
I did do some PT stuff yesterday. Balance and stability stuff.
- Stiff leg RDLs - turns out I’m mostly just wobbly when my hamstring is fully stretched
- Bird Dogs from Plank (on hands) with holds
- Pistol Squats. Not really doing Grease the Groove, but I do own that book, and doing a few reps every few hours for practice does seem suspiciously like GtG.
But I didn’t do the other stuff. I’ll do better today. Probably.
I also went back and skimmed Calvert’s Super Strength again, now that I’ve been entirely out of that headspace for awhile.
I’m going to start doing pullovers daily for a month or so. His argument for ribcage expansion is compelling. Many people have debunked the idea (as many people did, back then, too), but I’m on the fence. I can see how it might work, and I do actually feel it around my sternum, both during and after.
Worth the experiment. And if it works, a more stable base to press from seems like a good thing.
I also don’t miss those squat variations, but I do miss Jefferson squat/deadlifts. I think continuing to push those up will only be a good thing. I don’t have an approach to work those in with normal deadlifts yet.
Today.
Some pullovers with the 26-ish pound ez-bar.
DOH Axle deadlifts: 190x5, 170x5 – had to reset my grip after rep 3
Straight-leg situps: 51 x 7
Outside of that, PT stuff throughout the day is the plan.
Probably going to buy that new barbell soon, despite having sold myself on my current workarounds. Don’t have two barbells? Don’t feel like moving it? Axle sounds good.
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PT yesterday went fine, I guess. A few exercises I did all 3 sets, most I just did 2. But I did them all.
I also dug up my copy of Naked Warrior, by Pavel. I hadn’t looked at that book in years. It was, I think, my first “lifting” book. 15 years later, I finally learned enough to realize how much information he actually had packed in that book.
Fun stuff.
So, pistol squats are hurting my left knee, the same way all squats do. Get right around parallel and some tendon snaps and hurts.
But I still played with pistol squats, and dragon squats, and shrimp squats, and sissy squats, and reverse nordic curls, and all sorts of silly things I saw on youtube. Nothing feeling super great, but fun to do.
Did a set of pullovers before bed.
Today.
Did a set of pullovers when I woke up.
DOH Axle deadlifts: 200x5, 180x5 – reset my grip after every rep
This is nearing the end. Grip is starting to go on every rep. Probably one more session left before a reset.
An interesting bit is how my form is different with the axle versus the barbell. With the barbell, I’m basically scraping my leg. With the axle, I’m forward and not touching at all. I wonder if it’s because I’m afraid touching my leg will mess with my grip? It does feel more “natural” in this groove though.
Also, now that I’m seeing what happens with my grip just with the deadlift, I think the idea of doing a DOH axle clean of 230 pounds for multiple reps is nigh impossible. Mixed grip continental clean may be the only option.
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Hit the end of the DOH axle deadlift run.
Press: 95x5, 85x5
DOH Axle Deadlift: 210x3, 190x3 – reset my grip after every rep
Straight-leg situps: 51x8
Grip is gone.
Time to bring that back down to 70%, 150 pounds, and work up again. Grip failure is kind of neat to experience; it works works works and then its gone.
Presses felt heavy (not sure why), but shoulders felt ok. The 2 day break helped.
Those situps though, I think that’s some of the hardest work I actually do.
I did do a subset of PT stuff yesterday. And pulllovers.
Also, trying to do reverse nordic squats is a lot of fun.
Today I’ll work in my hour of PT throughout the day. Ugh.
I have a massage later. Curious what she says. I haven’t seen her since I started doing all the PT stuff.
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Better late than never, I guess.
Friday.
My son is now 3. Me, my wife, my daughter, did not have school or work. My son had to go to school on his birthday…
Actually had a good day with my daughter. Covid shot first thing, then some physical stuff (mostly her doing silly stuff with a swiss ball), some reading, and shopping for a couple gifts for her brother, and then all of us doing birthday stuff and watching a movie. Generally good day.
Interestingly and unfortunately, my left knee tendon stuff is actually getting worse the more I do the PT stuff. Additionally, pistols are not the right choice for now.
Massage therapist said hamstrings and glutes were a mess. A large knot in my upper traps, but overall, shoulders, neck, traps, back is better than she’s seen in awhile.
Press: 100x5, 90x5
DOH Axle Deadlift: 150x5, 130x5
H2H Kettlebell Swing: 55x17 (each side)
Grip and forearms still fatigued. I’ll probably take the weekend off with the axle deads, and keep the presses going until next weekend. Then my 2-day break should sync up for both.
I spent an hour or so and did a fast reread of Power to the People. That book doesn’t really have a lot of content, and does have a lot more “the Party is right” and “Soviet commandoes” schtick. But the bodybuilding variation was spelled out a bit better than I remembered it.
Normal power to the people is set of 5, 90% for another 3-5 minutes later. For the “bodybuilding/Bear/Hollywood” version, then do sets of 5 at 80% (of the top set) until form breakdown with a 30-90 second break. Should get 5-20 sets, depending on physiology, no real prescription other than, well, what was prescribed. Essentially going for a bit of metabolic fatigue but with 5-rep sets.
Instead of doing that, I’m thinking of tacking on those Calvert side presses every other day after the current cycle is done. Not the same thing at all, but, kind of the same spirit. If I stick with Power to the People as my base program for a bit, there’s some room for experimentation with volume and “size” stuff.
And continuing on that thread, I’m re-re-re-re-reading Super Strength. I think if he were still alive, he’d say the most important thing I need to work on is getting my hand-to-hand kettlebell swings up to 100 pounds, while continuing with the ab work and deadlift work. Deadlifts, or “hand-and-thigh” lift, or Jefferson lifts, it seems are pretty comparable.
Probably the simplest summary of his views were: the center of the body is more important than the periphery, and the back of the body is more important than the front.
So, the most important things are low-back, hips, upper thighs, abs. Order of importance moved out from there. So traps more important than deltoids more important than upper arms. Upper thigh more important than lower thigh more important than calves.
The only exception is that grip (and forearms) are more important than upper arms.
He had his pet exercises, of course, and his training approach tended toward double-progression with a single-set per exercise. That didn’t fundamentally seem to change across all of his writing.
That’s nothing I really disagree with, and even if I’m not exactly training using his methods, the spirit is still there.
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Saturday.
Press: 105x5, 95x5
Straight-leg Situps: 51x9
Straight-arm Pec Flies: 10# x 10
Pullovers
Some PT stuff
Sunday.
Press: 110x5, 100x5
Swing: 55x18
Straight-arm Pec Flies: 10# x 11
Pullovers
Some PT stuff
Today.
Press: 115x5 (PR!), 105x5
DOH Axle Deadlift: 160x5, 140x5
Straight-leg Situps: 51x10
Pullovers
Straight-arm Pec Flies: 10# x 12
Some PT stuff later
Notes:
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finally a PR with pressing. No video or mirrors or anything, but it felt like form was good. It also felt slow, but it went up. Very happy to finally see some objective progress.
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I’m still pretending this is a 45 pound bar.
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New barbell is on its way here, the Fringe Sports Hybrid bar mentioned above. Got a great deal on it, but should also be a great “forever” bar.
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I’m currently pretty happy with this combination: presses, deadlifts, heavy situps, heavy hand-to-hand swings, pullovers.
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On the one hand, I feel like I’m not making much progress, even compared to just a few months ago. On the other hand, my body actually feels a lot more stronger and solid. I think I’m ok with that.
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These Pec flies were on the floor, not on the foam roller. Straight arm I get a lot of a biceps stretch, but I intend to keep doing it that way.
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I’m done with this phase of ab training. Hit 50+ pounds for 10, now onto “backbend” situps.
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I will actually be seeing PT tomorrow. Have a few things to talk about.
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More unplanned weighted carries: a shoeless child, with bags, into the car and then into the counselors office at school.
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This is Calvert’s ab progression. Pictures first, then words.
These are as much about training the hip flexors as it is the abs, and – importantly – training them to work together.
First, straight-leg situps from the floor.
Next, backbend situps over a bench or stool.
And then onto to the Roman Column (ideally) or Roman Chair if you can’t find a column.
Roman Column
Roman Chair
And the words:
They [situps and leg lifts] are so easy that men have been known to bring the body to the perpendicular position 2000 times in succession; and almost anyone can, in a few weeks’ practice, learn to repeat either movement from 25 to 50 times. Anyone who can do that much, can safely start doing the body-raising movement while holding a weight at the back of the beck, as in Fig. 36.
The beginner can start with 10 or 15 lbs., and he will find that he can increase quite rapidly, and that it soon becomes no more trouble to do the exercise with 50 lbs. than it formerly was with 15 lbs. When he gets this far along, he should adopt a more strenuous method. (In some of our cities no candidate is accepted for the police-force unless he can do this exercise with 40 lbs.)
The next step in abdominal development is to sit on a bench or a chair and then lean back and pick up a light bar-bell, rest it on the upper-chest, and bring the body back to a sitting position. Naturally, the feet have to fastened to the floor, and the customary thing is to either put the toes under a strap or else to put the insteps under a heavy bar-bell. This variation should not be attempted until it is easy to use 50 lbs. in the preceding method, and then you should start on the chair with 10 or 15 lbs. When you can make several repetitions with 50 lbs., it is time for you to graduate into Roman-chair or Roman-column work.
Now we are coming to really advanced abdominal exercises. In all the previous variations, where you rest the body, your weight has been supported at the hips and all the bending has been done from the hip-joint. In the Roman-chair and Roman-column work, the support is at the knees, which makes it much more difficult; because, for one thing, the leverage is longer, and for another thing, the work is shared between the abdominal muscles and the muscles of the hips and thighs. Of the two kinds of apparatus, the column is much preferable.
If you refer to Fig. 37, you will see that there are rests for the feet, and that most of the athlete’s weight is carried by the chains fastened at one end of the post, and at the other end to straps buckled around the upper part of the calves. In a properly arranged Roman-column, when the athlete leans back and throws his weight against the chains, the knee-joint should be but little higher than the ankle-joint.
The first exercise in the Roman-column is to learn to get in the sitting position shown in Fig. 38, which, but the way, is much harder than you would think. Then you learn to bend backwards and lower the body until the finger-tips touch the floor, as in Fig. 39.
The real work comes in raising the body again to the sitting position, and no one should even attempt the stunt unless the muscles of the abdomen and the groin have been developed and strengthened by the preceding exercises. Since, on your first attempt to use a column, you might find it impossible to bring your body up, you should always have a friend present to rescue you, if necessary, from the headdownward position. During the first week’s practice you will gain in strength at a surprising rate; and while the first day you may not be able to bring your body up even once, on the seventh day you will do it many times with the utmost ease.
Then is time to start with a light bar-bell; ten or fifteen pounds is enough to begin with. You have to lift it from the floor, hold it against the bend of the hips, and then bring it with you to the sitting position. You can make the work harder either by increasing the weight of the bell or by holding it close to the chin instead of in front of the hips. The further the weight is away from the knees, the more strength it takes to raise the bell and the body.
After a month’s practise you will suddenly awake to the fact that you have a degree of bodily strength which is entirely new and most pleasing; and you will wonder why it was that you wasted so many weary months trying to get real strength by performing the kindergarten exercises which started this chapter.
About the Roman Chair:
My objection to the chair is that you have to bend the body back farther in order to reach the ground. In the pictures of the Roman-column, you will see that when the body is down it is at right angles to the calves of the legs; and in the pictures of the Roman-chair, the body has to be bent beyond the right angle.
Professor Attila, and later Sig Klein were known for their roman column stunts.
There was also a “Roman Board” that showed up some time in the future (30s? 50s?). I think it was closer to a sissy squat machine, if I remember right. Can’t find a picture or description right now. Used for legs and abs.
And some other thing I can’t find the article on, but here’s a picture. Could probably be used to work towards Roman Column/Chair work. I did read about this (or something very similar, with the knees supported like this).
Anyway…
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Press: 120x3 (PR!), 110x5
Straight-arm Pec Flies: 10# x 13
Pullovers
Break for PT Appointment
DOH Axle Deadlift: 170x5, 150x5
H2H Kettlebell Swings: 55# x 19 (each side)
Notes:
- Another Press PR. At least for this go-around. I haven’t done that in 7+ years.
- End of the cycle, starting back over at… 60% of this? Something like that.
PT Appointment:
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She acknowledged that the exercises took forever, and didn’t mind my modification to it. More important to just keep working on the things I’m bad at.
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We talked about how lots of things were getting better, but not the specific knee problem. She had me show her exactly what was happening, and it turns out you can actually see the tendon snapping across the bone.
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Some cupping, and scraping, and foam rolling later, and it seems like it’s likely a tight gracilis muscle. Basic theory is muscle is tight, so the tendon is then snapped across the bony bit. Same muscle that was causing my right knee pain earlier this year; different symptoms, same problem. Finally something that seems normal with my body, in that it’s the same tight muscle on both sides of my body.
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Of course, having a tight gracilis isn’t normal or common. HOWEVER, this was also the same problem she had, and she eventually got it resolved after 20 years. Dry needling was what fixed it for her.
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So I’ll try that. Along with stretching and foam rolling (for once, an effectively painful thing I can do on a foam roller). Additionally, she’d like me to keep doing the balance work, the vastus lateralis work, and do more toes-forward squatting.
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Muscle imbalance wise, the other thing that was notable was my left sartorius is not as strong as my right. Nothing prescribed to work on that, but it is a thing.
Programming notes:
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I was reading through my old training logs yesterday. Some interesting things, like having decent notes about when my knee was first a problem affecting my squats (2013), and things I tried to fix it (crazy stuff, like high reps with ROM progression with shaking/swinging/unstable weight). Also some good notes about shoulder pain, elbow pain, etc. Glad I got surgery on that elbow; turned out to be a real problem.
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For my press, it seemed like I had good progress with Power to the People (where I may or may not have been running the Bear version with extra volume at the time… have to dig).
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It also seemed I had good progress running one of the Power and Pump routines that Hepburn did. Psychologically I did not like doing it. It called for lifting 2x a week. I later modified it to 3x a week. Lots of sets, lots of waiting around. And very slow progression. Something like 8 sessions to add 2.5 pounds to the working weights.
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My shoulders were a wreck back then. I was lifting more than now, but they hurt constantly and were waking me up while sleeping. Not a good tradeoff.
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I’ll go back and actually analyze it better, but the pattern of “what worked” seemed to be concurrent training: low volume higher intensity, immediately followed by higher volume lower intensity. For example, a bunch of doubles and triples followed by an AMRAP set at 65% of that.
Videos from today:
PR set with 120. Bar path was bad the first rep. Definitely backbend, but not painfully so.
Hand to Hand Kettlebell Swings. I’d never filmed these before so was curious what they looked like.
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Lol. I did get a lot of progress using the “Bear” version of Power to the People. But lol:
This felt too easy. The 15 sets were boring. I cut it off at 15, but had more in me.
I was reading a novel between sets.
A few things were different from now.
- Warmups - Currently there’s no warmup sets. Back then I was warming up from the bar, with sets of 5 and 10 pound jumps, until I got closer to my work weight and dropped to a triple, then a 15-20 pound jump to the work weight set of 5.
- Volume - In addition to that extra warmup volume, I was doing 5-20 sets of 5 with 80% of the top weight.
- Frequency - For the “Bear” version of the plan, I was pressing only twice a week, Monday/Thursday. For regular PttP I was doing that 5 days a week.
Apparently I was also using some tool to look at volume and stuff. It looks like when I was doing the Bear, the total number of reps was ~160 a week. Interesting that I logged that. I guess I wasn’t super dumb back then.
I was getting regular PRs doing that, so…
Also:
I don’t understand what’s going on with the mat pulls. This is the 6th straight session with a PR. Went from a previous max of 320 x 6, to now 355 x 5. Not complaining but a bit confused. I expected to be hitting a wall before now.
And:
I’ve gotten more out of my current style of training than I have from anything else I’ve ever done training-wise.
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Well, I guess I finally caught up to the same mental space I was in in late 2015, before various injuries sidetracked and distracted me. But toys (rings, hiking) and life (engagement, wedding, building a house) were a bit distracting too.
Fortunately I’m not dealing with those injuries, and I’m now used to my life being a constant distraction.
I also have better knowledge and access to people to keep these things at bay. Physical therapy is accessible, massages are fairly regular, and I know a few more things about the body (and my body).
So, lets see what happens if I just stick with what worked back then. I.e., mostly what I’m doing right now.
Press: 85x5, 75x5
DOH Axle Deadlift: 180x5, 160x5
Backbend situps: 10# x 5
Straight-arm Pec Flies: 10# x 14
Pullovers with 26# ezbar
Note:
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I don’t know if I mentioned it explicitly, but there’s no warming up with weights for these. Maybe a few shoulder rotations, band distractions, glute activation things here and there, but no traditional warm up with lighter weights. Every day I load the bars for the next session so there’s no thinking when I walk in.
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Not warming up hasn’t been an issue in terms of pain/injury. It probably is limiting my strength a bit without the extra neural activation, but I’m not sure that’s an issue. Getting stronger without warming up is still getting stronger. I’m not a first responder of any sorts, so I don’t necessarily need to train this way, but I am lazy and don’t find it necessary.
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Caveat: not ever warming up for these probably works because I’m doing them almost every day.
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Warmups are an easy way to get in some volume, as evidenced by my previous training log. Worth considering if/when I need more volume.
First attempt doing these weighted.
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