Training: Great gripper PR and good progress with the calf raises. First bodyweight squat. Otherwise unremarkable.
Nutrition: Poor - lots of junk and not enough protein.
Week 7 has been alright, but I feel it has set me up for a great week 8. I need a good couple of rest days and a diet rethink, and then I’ll be ready to kick things up a gear. Starting next week I’m going to start alternating upper body gym days at my local commercial gym and bodyweight squat/calf raise days at my flat. I didn’t go to my commercial gym last week, because I was afraid of the 1 mile walk as it has been quite icy, but the calf raises have really boosted my confidence in my bad leg.
I know I have been advised against bodyweight squats by my surgeon, but in 3 weeks I’m going to start trying to walk and that will involve putting all 92+kg through my bad leg (probably more accounting for momentum), and so I feel that putting 46kg through it doing a bodyweight squat will help build me up and not break me down. Needless to say I’ll have to be extremely careful though.
Bad session today. Over the weekend I’ve been up and about an awful lot and today my left knee (good side) had just had enough. It was spasming all day and it was very painful. My right knee also wasn’t great for some reason. I foolishly decided to try bodyweight squats anyway and they didn’t go very well. Both knees played up, and at one point my right knee locked completely for a couple of seconds and it was painful of the entire duration. I wasn’t able to distribute my weight evenly and was leaning heavily to my good side, which meant I could really open my hips properly and my technique wasn’t very good. I got full ROM etc, but nothing felt like it was moving correctly. This all knocked my confidence a fair bit, but I do feel that I managed to get a worthwhile amount of work done - both quads felt like they had been trained.
The calf raises on the other hand went well, they didn’t bother my knees at all and my tibia seemed unphased. And of course they felt effective. This week I’ll certainly keep doing these, but I’ll have to play it by ear with the bodyweight squats. I might be better off just leaving them for now.
This was a good day - a solid volume of grip and upper back work in the morning and a good PR on the bench press (feet up). The pull-ups felt quite heavy, but I’m happy enough.
Unfortunately my legs have been really playing up today. Lots of pain in both knees and increased discomfort at my fracture/surgical site. Right from my knee down to my ankle. I might have to revise my plans going forward, it doesn’t seem sensible to rush into front squats or even deadlifts. I don’t want to recover from my fracture just to mess up my knees.
I should add that I’ve been trying hot and cold baths for the leg and they haven’t helped. I think I just need time. In terms of my lower body training from yesterday I have DOMS mostly in my adductors and my left calf (good side), although also in my right calf.
Also I’m back at my parents house this week and I didn’t bring all of my CoC grippers - just the trainer. So that’s a shame, but work with the trainer is still effective.
This was a good day - the rowing machine was a big success. My knees are still quite painful. I stopped the calf raises and ab roll-outs well short of failure, as I really don’t fancy bad DOMS. It has more of an impact when you are less mobile.
Any chance you could rig up some sort of TRX rig? Instead of ab rollouts, you could do fallouts. One of the primary benefits of that is that you can stand on one foot to perform them, taking pressure off the knee, while still really hammering the abs.
The TRX would actually work for a lot of stuff while you’re healing come to think of it. I use elitefts blast straps, but there are far more economic options out there.
Thanks a lot for the suggestion! I have gymnastic rings, do you think they’d work? The main issue I have with them is finding places to hang them.
On a separate note I’m considering running a cycle of Smolov Junior for my bench press. It has just struck me as a fun challenge to do over the remaining few weeks before I begin to weight-bear. Do you have any experience with it?
Rings would do the trick for sure, assuming you could find a place to set them up. I contemplated getting one of those door frame chinning bars and setting up rings off that once, but never went through with it.
No personal experience with any of the smolovs. Keep in mind that those are basically peaking programs. They’re very good at getting you to fully realize the strength you already possess, but not necessarily in building more of it. That’s why tons of folks talk about how they “set a PR but weren’t able to keep the gains”. They didn’t really “make gains” so much as they got to see what they were really capable of in a short window. If that sounds like something you’d like to experience, I’d say have at it.
Thanks a lot for the help. I had heard that about Smolov before and it’s definitely not ideal, but I’m tempted to do it anyway. Partly as a mental challenge and partly because I’ve got fuck all else to fill my day with.
I’d never sworn on t-nation before starting this log and now I’ve done it twice. This leg is getting to me!
Haha, I try to keep it clean online too, but every once in a while it’s good to get it out.
If nothing else, smolov would be a fun challenge for sure, and a lot of times that’s enough of a reason to do something. You could always be absolutely stupid, and chase smolov jr with German Volume Training once the cycle is done. It was pretty much how I went about it with the upper body work as soon as I was good to go; all the volume and intensity I could handle, because why not?
This was a good day today, mainly because my left knee has stopped hurting. The calf raises were a little uncomfortable, but they feel like they are doing good things - I have had constant DOMS since I first did them on Sunday and I suspect I will continue to have DOMS for a good while as I condition my calves to training again. The purpose of the bench pressing today was to establish a training max to use for Smolov Junior, which I plan to start next week. I got a solid rep with 110kg, but failed on 115kg (feet down). A little disappointing, but not too bad.
I’m still undecided on how exactly I’m going to structure my lower body training once I can start weight-bearing. I’m very keen to push myself with a heavier exercise (e.g. trap bar deadlifts) but my main goal is going to be 5x10 single hand 40kg kettlebell swings within 5 minutes, as this best fits with my overall goals and because it was my target before my injury. Hopefully I can push these quite hard early on, as they should involve relatively minimal knee stress, but today I ordered Rehband knee sleeves to give me some extra support.
I’m getting married in mid-July, and I feel this is a good deadline to aim for with some goals. I’m not sure what is realistic with the trap-bar deadlift but I’d like to at least hit 180kg (405lbs) by then as well as the above single hand swing goal (5x10 with 40kg should be do-able, getting it within 5min might take a bit longer though).
Just calves today. I attempted bodyweight squats to a chair afterwards, but they didn’t feel good at all, I developed a pain deep at the fracture site which was pretty grim. I really pushed myself with the calves though, and I’m happy with how they went.
Smolov Junior Plan
On Saturday I’m going to start Smolov Junior for bench press, using a training max of 110kg and shooting for a single at 120kg when I’m done. For a long period of my training life I’ve been able to do 120kg for a single, and I’ve done 125kg twice, so I’m hopeful that this phase will get me back to that level. Hopefully the fact that I’ve been that strong before means that I’ll be more likely to maintain my gains.
I feel that the main advantages of Smolov Junior are the mental challenge and the fact that it should distract me from trying to take things too fast with my lower body. I think I’ll structure my assistance like this - during week 1 I’ll do pull-ups at the end of each session (while the bench press weights are light), during week 2 I’ll just do band pull-aparts and during week 3 (when I should have got the all-clear to weight-bear) I’ll just do walking etc. But I’ll have to play that by ear.
This was my first Smolov session and also my first trip to a commercial gym since my injury. The hardest part was the 1 mile “walk” each way. I didn’t really think about it, but for half a second every alternate step my hands, wrists and forearms support all 93kg, in a grip identical to bench press (my crutches aren’t the type that fit under your armpits for extra support). Each direction took over 30 minutes so by the time I started warming up on bench press my forearms, wrists and hands already felt extremely fatigued. I was only pressing 80kg today, so it was fine, but it was a bit annoying. Also the route I take is on really uneven pavement and it’s very busy, so it took a lot of concentration. A snapshot into life as an unsteady 85 year old I suppose!
Overall this was a good session though. I hit my required reps and the walk was definitely good conditioning.
A good upper body session today. I was given a lift to the gym which made a big difference, but I had to crutch my way back after. It really fries my wrists! I timed it at 32 minutes - just under 2mph lol. Luckily by week 3, when the benching really gets difficult, I should be cleared to weight-bear so I’ll either be able to walk or drive to the gym. My chest felt a little sore from yesterday’s session, but totally manageable.
Tomorrow I’m going to train my lower body. I feel confident that I’ll be able to do kettlebell SLDLs, after my trial on Friday night, and I might try bodyweight squats again if I feel brave. My new Rehband knee sleeves should help. At least I know I can do bodyweight calf raises. This has the potential to be a well-rounded lower body workout!
I can’t believe that you crutch 1 mile to the gym. I can’t remember ever crutching more than a few hundred yards for the one period I was on crutches (about 12 weeks when I was 15 years old). I definitely think that would take something out of my bench pressing…
Patience, young lad. You will be cleared to weight-bear soon enough, and that will open all sorts of wonderful doors.
Also, congratulations on the wedding. You’re beating me down the aisle, but not by much - I’ll be getting married in August. We have been joking about winter being our time to gain muscle, but by summer it will be time to start leaning out…
Thanks a lot ActivitiesGuy, I really appreciate it. Yeah the 1 mile crutch is a struggle lol. But you broke your femur! I only broke a measly tibia haha. Yes, as soon as I’ve gained back my leg size I’m going to switch to a serious recomp for the wedding .
This was a very productive lower body session. Both the SLDLs and the box squats felt like they were right at the limit of what I could safely do, occasionally in both exercises I would experience a deep pain in my leg when my weight shifted slightly in the wrong direction. While neither exercise felt heavy enough to be of much value, I at least hope that they will recondition my lower body for proper training.
I imagine I will have pretty bad DOMS tomorrow, as it has been so long since my right thigh did any work at all. I’ve also been suffering from an ache in my left hip, which I’m certain is due to the 1 mile crutch-walks to the gym and back. Depending on how exactly I feel tomorrow I might take a taxi to the gym and just crutch back.
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