I am so proud of you for smashing a lifetime PR after this injury dude. Massively inspiring recovery. Great work!
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Week 24: Summary
Bodyweight: 96.0kg - meh
Training: Lifetime deadlift PR - can’t complain!
Nutrition: Poor
Nutrition was terrible this week - I literally didn’t eat a hot meal all week due to on-calls. Just endless sandwiches. 180kg deadlift is fantastic though.
Seeing as I’ve hit a nice PR, I’m not going to bother with a deload and max-testing, instead I’ll just run straight into a new 5/3/1 cycle. This time I’m going to go back to 2x/week, as it’s going to be hectic around the wedding and also I enjoyed it more.
Thank you so much, you’ve helped more than you’ll ever know. I’ve so often found myself asking “what would T3hPwnisher do?” - you’ve had a huge impact.
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Great job on the Deadlift PR! Keep up the good work!!
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Thanks @jblues85! I really appreciate your support 
Week 25: Active Recovery/Cardio
Crosstrainer
45min
Not much to say about this one.
Injury Update
I thought I should do a quick update on how my bad leg is doing in day to day life, so I am recording more than just gym numbers. In terms of pain my leg is pretty good. My main issue is anterior patello-femoral knee pain, which flares up after walking and is worse the more knee flexion is involved (i.e. squats, climbing stairs etc). I’m able to cope with it well enough though - I think knowing the reason for the pain helps to reduce it, if that makes sense. My calves are equal sizes, but completely different shapes lol. A lot of my right calf is bone callous and inflammation, although I no longer have issues with oedema. I also still have no arch in my right foot, unless I really focus on creating one (not sure if I’ve mentioned that before). It is extremely painful to kneel on my bad knee - apparently that is a very common complication of the surgery I had. I’m able to grit my teeth to do unweighted get-ups, but I can’t consider doing them loaded. The lateral aspect of my knee and the front of my shin is also almost completely numb. One thing that has completely resolved is pain at the fracture site - I never get that any more. In terms of movements I can climb stairs at a normal pace now (although it hurts, and I can’t go fast). I can also do a sort of hobble run, which is handy for crossing roads but nothing further than that.
Week 25: Upper Body (5/3/1 C4,W1,D1)
Bench Press
75kg: 5
90kg: 5
100kg: 8
75kg: 20
Pull-Ups (Regular Grip, Fat Bar)
BW 5x3
Press
50kg: 3
60kg: 3
65kg: 1
Lat Pulldowns
5x20
Dips
3x10
Crosstrainer
30min
Bodyweight: 95.8kg
This wasn’t such a good session. Bench was completely average, and pull-ups were terrible. I’m not sure if it’s from deadlifting but my lats were fried and just couldn’t cope. Press felt very heavy. Happy I got a reasonable amount of extra volume in with the lat pulldowns and dips though. My head just wasn’t in it today either.
EDIT: Looking back this session wasn’t as bad as it felt at the time. 100kg for 8 is a lot better than the singles I was getting in March, 65kg press is acceptable and I did a good total volume.
Deadlift Video
Thought I’d put up video of the 180kg deadlift for critique. I know there is a lot wrong with it, especially how I shoot my hips straight up. Any and all advice would be most appreciated.
Week 25: Kettlebells
Kettlebell Swings
28kg: 50x10
EMOM
Turkish Get-Ups (Unweighted)
5 reps each side
Bodyweight: 95.6kg
This was tough mentally, but I’m happy I got to the end without dropping down to 20kg (my initial goal was to get to 500 total reps with any weight). I’m especially proud that I maintained power and crispness throughout. The get-ups felt worse on my knee than I remembered, but I’m not too bothered.
This would probably be an ideal every day work out if your only goals were mobility and longevity. Extremely boring though!
I’m not much for form critiques online especially on PR attempts. The only thing I would work on is really your setup and get rid of the roll towards your body. A better setup will take care of a lot.
x3. Terrific work, and the video looks like it was a pretty easy lift, no doubt it was coming up. I’ll leave the form critique to someone better suited to it.
Thank you very much for your kind words @ActivitiesGuy! Your deadlift progress has been huge motivation for me.
Thanks a lot for the tips @jblues85! I found a @T3hPwnisher video on how he deadlifts, and that was very useful for advice on how to set up for the lift.
Week 25: Lower Body (5/3/1 C4,W1,D2)
Squat
60kg: 5
70kg: 5
80kg: 5
Deadlift
100kg: 3
115kg: 3
130kg: 3
Trap-Bar Deadlift
167.5kg: 1
177.5kg: 1
187.5kg: 1
197.5kg: 1 - PR
Back Extensions
BW: 4x20
Crosstrainer
30min
Bodyweight: 95.6kg
This session was insane! Squats felt terrible - it took 5 sets with just the bar before I felt comfortable adding weight, and it was a proper grind just to get the minimum on the top set. Then I moved onto deadlifts, using technique tips from one of @T3hPwnisher’s videos. The set up felt much more natural but on the very first work set something felt off with my lower back - like it was right on the verge of injury. I worked a bit on bracing and got through the sets, but not particularly comfortably.
I decided to get some volume work in with the trap bar - I’ve only played around with it a couple of times before my injury, and I can’t quite remember if I only just got or only just missed a single with 160kg. Anyway, that thing was flying up today - I kept adding weight and it kept coming off the floor! Ended up with a solid rep with 197.5kg - one week since I first lifted 180kg in any full ROM lift and I’ve already smashed it! Unbelievable.
A couple of things to note about the trap bar - I am estimating it’s weight at 20kg, so I might be off a little. Also I did all sets with a belt, which is unusual for me but my lower back felt bad and it definitely helped.
I’m going to switch to trap bar deadlifts for this cycle of 5/3/1, as the movement feels much more natural than conventional and to be honest I’m just pumped about them. I’m going to really take the emphasis off squatting for now - my squats improved so quickly initially, but they’ve completely stagnated now and I reckon my training has overtaken my injury recovery.
Trap Bar Deadlift (197.5kg)
Awesome pull!!! Looked a lot better than the barbell deadlift. I loved Trap Bar Deadlifts myself but I went through 1 cycle of 5/3/1 with them and then the Trap Bar disappeared from the gym all of a sudden. It was also fun to do Stiff Leg Deads with them as well. The good news with the Trap Bar is that it is a happy medium between Squats and Conventional Deadlifts. I’ve seen CT talk about if you have bad knees or back problems, doing T.B. Deads make for a great leg developer.
Thanks a lot @jblues85! It was definitely a much cleaner pull, although the first couple of inches took an absolute eternity lol. I’m very excited to see what happens when I train it regularly, and hopefully it will have reasonable carryover to my conventional deadlift too.
Hey furoBird,
Looking strong mate!
Watching you trap bar deadlift has got me thinking maybe it could be an option for myself. Obviously I have had massive issues with my lower back/SI joint/piriformis.
Do you feel the lower back is significantly less involved in the trap bar deadlift? How do your knees feel while doing them?
In regards to your injury, I was thinking that maybe your leg would feel better once you drop 2-3 kg’s. I know that my ankles & knees feel so much better when Im on the lighter side.
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Thanks @theBird! To be honest I’m really not an expert on the trap bar deadlift, I think that was my third time ever using it. All I can say is that I did it after squats which hurt my knees and conventional deadlifts which hurt my back, and it felt absolutely fine for both (although I was wearing a belt). I’d definitely say that overall the movement feels much more natural for me than traditional barbell movements, and I know we are similar builds so I think it would probably feel the same to you. I definitely recommend trying it out if you can get your hands on one!
Week 25: Summary
Bodyweight: 95.7kg
Training: 2 strength sessions and 2 conditioning sessions - huge trap bar deadlift PR
Nutrition: meh
A good week, mostly just because of that trap bar deadlift PR. I looked up the trap bar online and I’m pretty sure it’s 27.5kg - so I lifted 197.5kg. Otherwise squats, bench and press weren’t that great.
Week 26: 5/3/1 (C4,W2,D1)
Press
45kg: 5
52.5kg: 5
60kg: 5
45kg: 10
Pull-Ups (Regular Grip, Fat Bar)
BW: 4x5
Bench Press
80kg: 3
90kg: 3
100kg: 5
Dumbbell Rows
40kg: 10
45kg: 8
50kg: 5
It was really hard to get off the couch for this! Press hasn’t improved at all, but I’m not too fussed. Bench press wasn’t fantastic either, but I’m really happy with the heavy dumbbell rows.
It’s wedding week and I had my stag party over the weekend. My brother and dad organised the most incredible lads weekend in a hunting lodge deep in the Highlands - 8 miles off road. We went on a 6 hour hike (my first Munro since the injury), swam in a river, and did Highland games (caber tossing, tug of war, shot putt) and needless to say consumed a lot of alcohol. My leg held up really well during the hike, but has been very painful at night since.
After this cycle of 5/3/1 I need to switch focus - I’ve had an extremely successful recovery in terms of strength, but this weekend proved that my conditioning isn’t even back to baseline and I want to come back better in every way. Also, I’d really benefit from getting lighter. I’m leaning towards running the 10,000 swing routine, although I’ll need to build up my swings over the next few weeks - I’d want to use a 28kg kettlebell and it’s very taxing on both grip and cardio.