There’s also studies for that in the plank. The results go something like 20 second holds are the good enough or that past 40 seconds the plank has no added benefits anymore. Not sure how valid they are; I didn’t really look into them. But yeah adding reps rather than increasing time makes sense. Still accumulating time under tension
Totally agree with the second part of what you said. Hopefully it would help sort things out really
I hope I’m not being overly optimistic, but right now it seems like whatever was going on with my SI joint is over. Earlier in the day my left hip flexors were acting up a bit, in the morning before I did my mobility stuff and again later at work. I did some stretches at work and such and it relaxed, now I feel pretty much normal. I just need to keep it this way and avoid irritating my SI again.
By the way, I combined some of those exercises you sent me with the stuff I’m already doing. Certain things (like side planks) are already part of my program or are very close to what I’m doing, basically I added a front plank between side planks (which is one of McGill’s recommended progressions) and added those leg raises. I stretched my hamstrings by laying on my back and pulling one leg back at a time with a band, McGill warns against stretches that involve rounding your back so I will heed his advice. I don’t want to trade a sore SI joint for a herniated disc.
Like this?
Yeah this is good! The only challenging part here is keeping the other leg flat
I thought that mechanism was for flexion under load like in the deadlift? But anyway, as long as you get your hamstrings stretched, loose, and mobile, then we’re good.
Just keep doing them everyday for a couple of weeks. Both the exercises and stretches. Let’s hope for the best
Yes, exact same stretch.
The more load the worse it is, but the weight of your own upper body is still something and it’s multiplied by the time spent in a flexed position. He also cautions against trying to increase back flexibility (which that sort of stretch does to some extent) because it reduces stability and can increase injury risk.
Well for what it’s worth, I’ve also learned that flexing/arching the spine to reach the foot is waaaay different from leaning forward (spine more neutral) and reaching for my foot. I get more hamstring stretch from leaning than from flexing forward so I’ve always tried my best to lean forward rather than flexed my spine. It’s a long process but it used to be that no matter how much I cheated with flexing and shrugging my shoulders to reach further, I simply couldn’t reach them. I flex my toes with my fingers clipped over the toes now
Come to think of it, I’ve always worked on hamstring mobility, not back flexibility
Monday, July 15 - Main bench day
Bench press - wider grip
360x2x2 - I wanted a triple but it didn’t feel like a 3rd rep was there so I did a 2nd set, went about the same. My left glute is a bit achy and it probably affected my setup, other than that I don’t know why I suck today. Last week 355x3 felt like I could do another rep, should at least have a triple here today.
CAT bench
315x3x3 - 2 min rest - I would have done 5 sets but I did an extra double before this and this weight is sort of heavy (about 80%) so this should be enough.
Slingshot bench
405x4 - same as last week, I wanted another rep or two but today is not my day.
Dead bench
330x5 singles - 90 sec. rest
Incline flys
55’s x13, 10, 9
Band pushdown
light band over 2 bars x15, 11, 7
Close neutral grip chin ups
bw x8 7, 6 - Supposedly a closer grip uses more lats, plus last week didn’t go well so if I’m going to suck it’s better I suck at something I have no expectations for. This was actually better than last week though, and didn’t bother my back or SI joint.
I feel like I’m doing too much in this workout, it took over 2 hours too. I think I might change some things around here.
I don’t feel anything in my SI joint today, only thing is my left glute is a bit achy. My hip flexors were messing around yesterday and stretching them involves squeezing your glutes, so now my hip flexors are OK but my glute hurts instead. At least it’s a new pain for a change, and hopefully it will go away soon.
The thing is that the way that a lot of people look at it, the objective is to reach your toes or past them and no thought is give to spine position. At one time I used to be able to bend over and put my knuckles flat on the floor in front of my toes, with my knees locked, but my back used to bother me on and off and I couldn’t squat or deadlift much (not that I trained them seriously).
In McGill’s “Ultimate Back…” book there is a section on how to properly stretch the hamstrings, the standard “bend over and touch your toes” is fine as long as you maintain a neutral spine, which for many people means they won’t actually be touching their toes but of course the objective is to stretch hamstrings so it doesn’t matter.
I probably sound like McGill groupie, but it looks like he knows more about back/spine issues than anyone else plus he works with athletes including powerlifters so he’s worth listening to.
Agreed. Anyway, McGill definitely knows what he’s talking about, so yeah he really is worth listening to
Tuesday, July 16 - Some squatting and stuff
SSB squat
315x5x5 - This was alright, decent speed and didn’t feel bad. The descent on the first rep of each set is extra slow, I guess my brain is a bit wary of dropping into a squat but the following reps don’t have that issue. I think I can add 10lbs next week.
Split stance RDL
95x10x2 (each side) - trying to sort out imbalances, I was going to do a 3rd set but this feels like enough for today.
Band hip flexor march
mini band x15x3
superset with
Band bad girl
mini band x25x3
The hip flexor march is hard to do properly, I will try to improve the quality of the reps before I add more. I guess I have weak hip flexors.
Today I have no pain in my SI joint or back or anything like that, my left glute was a bit sore but that’s it. Once I got warmed up it felt pretty much normal. I think I can try to deadlift on Friday, but I’m going to go very light and not push anything. I don’t want to take any chances and mess myself up again because this was not a fun time.
Thursday, July 18 - Bench assistance day
Close grip bench
320x5
Close grip 2 board
350x4, 4 - Could have done another rep on the 1st set but my left adductors were cramping up, it’s just one problem after another lately.
High incline
230x7, 7
Floor pause tricep extension
170x6, 5, 5 - Feels like I’m stalling out on this. I think I will switch to JM press.
Band pull apart - underhand
super mini x22, 15, 11 - closer grip than last time to make it harder
Barbell curl - super strict
65x17, 12, 8
As for my back/hips, my glutes and SI joints feel fine, nothing going on there. The only issue is that my QL is a bit tight and uncomfortable, mostly the left side. It’s pretty minor though. And my hip flexors aren’t bothering me at all, they aren’t tight or anything.
It seems strange how the pain and tightness kind of migrates from one place to another. On Tuesday evening (after squatting in the morning) I laid down for a bit and it was like everything relaxed and the tightness disappeared but when I got back up my QL felt tight and it has since then. And in the beginning it was my glutes and/or SI joint that were bugging me but there was nothing going on with my back. What a pain in the ass.
Friday, July 19 - Rehab squat/deadlift
SSB squat
315x2x6 - 45 sec. rest - I wanted to do low bar squats but something in my back still doesn’t feel quite right so I stuck with these since they keep me more upright and I know I can do them without a problem. The first couple sets were a bit slow and I’m hesitating on the descent but by the end it was moving fast like it should.
Rack pull below knee - sumo - stiff bar (so I don’t ruin the DL bar)
315x5x3 sets - this felt OK, I feel a bit of discomfort in my back but nothing major. I don’t want to go ahead and pull from the floor just yet because the last time I did that is when my back/SI/hips took a turn for the worse so I’m just going to lower the pins one hole each week for the next while. My hands must have grown in the last year and a half or so since I started using a DL bar, this bar was hard to hook grip and feels like I’m going to tear off a thumbnail. The bar is thicker than a regular power bar, I think it’s about the same as a squat bar.
Inverted row
bw x16, 13, 11, 9
Band hip flexor march
mini band x15x3 - getting better at these
superset with:
Band bad girl
mini band x25x3
I spent about half an hour before actually touching a bar doing stretches and muscle activation stuff, it’s time consuming and it sucks but hopefully it will pay off.
It seems like I got my QL to loosen up, and I have no pain or discomfort in my glutes, hip flexors, or SI joints but there is something going on between the upper part of my left hip bone and my spine. I don’t know if it’s a muscle or a herniated/bulging disc and I can’t find out without an MRI (which I can’t afford and should be healed well before I could get a healthcare-covered one) so that’s that. It doesn’t hurt, it’s just a “mild discomfort”, less than my thumbs after hook gripping those rack pulls, but I definitely don’t want to aggravate it.
Bulging and herniated discs are very common, and more so among powerlifters, so I would not be the least bit surprised if that is what is going on right now. The thing is that other places were hurting much worse before compared to this so it’s possible that I didn’t even notice the pain/discomfort in this current spot. Anyway, it’s getting better, so I will just keep going with what I’m doing and soon enough I should be back to normal.
Don’t worry, it’ll pay off
I was honestly surprised Brian was this flexible. Tagged at the specific time.
When you have worse flexibility than a 400lb man it’s a sign that you need to work on it.
I can’t even set up to pull conventional without being totally rounded, and I think my proportions/leverages aren’t too different from his. He locks out with the bar at crotch level just like me. I’m starting to wonder if neglecting hamstring flexibility has something to do with my issues.
Haha! You and me both
Monday, July 22 - Main bench day
Bench press - medium grip (my normal grip)
365x2
320x5
I was stalling out with the wider grip so I decided to switch back and see where I’m at. My PR triple was 360 so I’m more or less there without training this grip. I’m going to back off the weight a bit next and gradually work back up. My bench was stalled the last bit but I was all caught up with my back issues and I didn’t give my bench programing much thought, I’m trying something a little different now.
Slingshot bench
410x3, 370x6 - This is a bit harder with a closer grip, I was going to do 2 sets with the same weight but it was heavier than necessary.
Floor press
315x3, 285x6 - My triceps are fatigued, this was well below expectations.
Band pushdowns
mini band x32 - This is just to prevent elbow issues, for some reason band pushdowns help with that. That was the original reason I started doing them but I got carried away and started pushing them hard but it doesn’t seem like it was paying off. My elbows are fine right now, I just want to keep them that way.
Close neutral grip chin ups
bw x10, 8, 7
My back is feeling better but still not 100%. Getting up off the bench after every set doesn’t seem to help much either, but it’s either that or quit lifting altogether. I will be back soon enough.
Tuesday, July 23 - Another injured squat workout
SSB squat
315x5x5 - Last week I was thinking about increasing the weight on this but after giving it some thought I decided it’s better to be conservative and wait till I’m actually healed up. These went well, didn’t feel bad and moved at a decent speed. Not as fast as 315 should be moving, but it’s an improvement.
Prone band leg curl
super mini band x16, 12, 10, 8 - holding the peak contraction - These were harder than I thought they would be, I used to do these seated but I figured that might be uncomfortable so I did it like this, maybe face down is harder? After realizing that my back issue is probably a herniated or bulging disc I decided against any sort of RDLs, and especially not split stance RDLs because they won’t help at all at this point. I’m not really doing anything for hamstrings and this is the one exercise that doesn’t involve any loaded hip hinging so I will do these for now.
Band hip flexor march
mini x15x3 - these still suck
superset with:
Band bad girl
mini x25x3
Also I spent half an hour before squatting doing some stretches and muscle activation stuff, fun times.
@whang - Something that might interest you, the other day I came across an article where a guy said he was having pain in one of his glutes and he attended a seminar with Stuart McGill. He said that McGill examined him and quickly concluded that he had injured a disc in his lumbar spine. It’s quite likely that what happened with me, starting off with glute pain, was in fact a disc injury. I never would have guessed that since I felt nothing in my back at the time.
I got my wife to help me with that test, no pain in my lower back at all. My legs were each raised close to 90 degrees (looks like my flexibility has improved). Does that indicate without a doubt that this is not a disc issue or what? What else could this possibly be?
One thing though, I feel some tension in the front of my left hip when my right leg is raised, I think it’s the pectineus (and maybe adductor brevis). Those muscles were giving me some problems back in the winter but haven’t been a problem lately. I get the same feeling when I do the hamstring stretch with a band.
Another thing, my back feels much better this evening/afternoon. Since I started having this issue, by the end of the day at work my back usually feels a bit tight and/or fatigued but today towards the end of my shift it actually felt totally normal. I suppose that’s a sign that whatever it is it’s getting better, but it kind of comes as a surprise. I didn’t try any sort of risky movements, but there is definitely an improvement.
Yeah, it’s not totally gone. This morning my back feels stiff after getting up again, but less than before. It seems like it’s gradually improving, but yesterday evening was the first time since this started that I had zero pain or discomfort for a period of time.
Do you sleep on your side?