Rest Day
My wrists, especially my right, are extremely painful today - it’s a struggle to crutch across my living room and even lift a glass of water. I suppose the combination of “long-distance” crutching and high volume bench press has put a lot of stress on them. I have ordered a pair of wrist wraps with next day delivery, so I plan to go to the gym tomorrow once they arrive (although I’ll get a taxi in both directions). My lower body actually feels reasonably good, but I’m not going to train it today. Yesterday felt very close to the limit and I really don’t want to push anything too far.
Do you bench with a full grip or thumbless grip? I find the latter to be easier on my wrist.
Long distance crutching is a workout to be sure. It’s amazing how good you eventually get at it. I ended up developing some manner of psoriasis on my lats from the crutches constantly rubbing against them, haha.
I wrote in your log exactly as you wrote it mine! I use a full grip, thanks for the tip - I’ll definitely try that. Unfortunately my crutches aren’t like that - none of the weight is supported at the armpit, it all goes through the wrist. Spares the lat-rash, but fries the wrists lol.
Great day today. My wrist wraps arrived and they really helped. The bench press felt extremely solid, and I got through it at a fast pace. I upped the weight on the machine row and it was quite a grind at the end. I tried incline dumbbell curls for the first time, and they certainly felt effective, although the extreme shoulder stretch was a little uncomfortable.
I got a taxi to the gym, because of my wrist pain, but I ended up crutching my way back because I figured out a way to tweak my crutch form lol. If I put my weight through the muscle at the base of my thumb, instead of through my palm, and really squeeze my fist, it locks my wrist into an extremely strong position and eliminates the pain. The downside is it really fries my grip, so I think it won’t really work on trips to the gym, just on the way back. I used my wrist wraps for all benching sets (including the warm-up) and had no pain at all. I did the first four sets with a thumbless grip, but I somehow tweaked something on the fourth set, so I did the remaining sets with a full grip.
I felt pretty tired today, but the benching was solid. My biceps were absolutely fried from yesterday so I did some light band curls to get the blood flowing, and the grippers felt much heavier than I’d have liked, so I stuck with the guide. I’ll probably train my lower body tomorrow, but I might take a rest day.
In other news I didn’t have any energy drinks or protein bars today, my gut is definitely thanking me lol.
Measurements
I updated my measurements today and they’re not quite how I hoped. My calves are the same as week 7 - 16" and 15", which is a little disappointing as I’ve been able to push my calf training quite hard since then (not by normal standards, but compared to before). My thighs have both grown by an inch, so the discrepancy remains the same - 25.5" and 23.5". I think it is likely that this is mostly fat gain, as I tend to store fat on my legs and there’s no reason why my good leg should gain an inch of muscle. My arms and forearms are both up by half an inch, to 15.5" and 13.5", which is nice. My bodyweight this morning was 94.3kg, so that’s really beginning to take off.
I was hoping for a decrease in the discrepancy between my leg measurements, but I suppose as I can only train them bilaterally it’s really easy for my good leg to take the majority of the load. I guess I won’t be able to properly even them out until I can do single leg training. I’m happy with the improvement in my arm measurements - half an inch in 18 days is very good.
There was a colossal difference in the bodyweight squats compared to earlier this week - absolutely no knee discomfort and I managed over double the reps (50 vs 20). The bodyweight calf raises felt good, and I also did single leg seated calf raises (just with the bad leg), balancing a 28kg kettlebell over my knee. 28kg wasn’t a significant load I guess, but the 40kg would have been extremely uncomfortable and I wanted to get some work done that the good leg couldn’t contribute to.
Training: Phenomenal lol. Great progress on both bench press and lower body.
Nutrition: Acceptable - plenty of good stuff, but also plenty of junk.
Week 9 has been a really perfect week. There’s been a dramatic improvement in my lower body and I’ve hit all of the bench press sets reasonably comfortably. Here’s hoping I can keep this momentum going!
My wrists felt fine today so I crutched to and from the gym, although I used my new wrist wraps for the bench press sets. I probably did 7 sets, because I lost count and wanted to make sure I erred on the side of caution. In any case the benching felt very good, as did the machine row which was a PR.
My next appointment is on Thursday and I’m hopeful that I’ll be told I can begin to weight-bear. I’m going to make sure I get this weeks benching all done before this appointment so that I can dedicate both the Thursday and the Friday solely to walking. This will mean hitting bench press on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
My diet is getting a little out of control, mostly due to the energy drinks. I’ve got 3 left and so I’m going to set myself the rule of only consuming one with each bench press session, so that will last me to the end of this week. Then I’ll switch to coffee whenever I fancy a caffeine boost. Apart from the energy drinks I’ve actually been doing reasonably well - mostly meat, sweet potatoes and vegetables, along with the occasional treat.
The benching is definitely getting harder, but it’s still manageable. I’m really enjoying Smolov Jr, I’ve never followed a routine based on percentages of max before and it’s really refreshing. Solid session.
This was my first time doing proper deep bodyweight squats - I did each rep slowly and paused right down in the bottom position. I haven’t been able to stretch my hips like this in 10 weeks! The calf raises were also a big success - I did them leaning over my bad leg, it must have taken at least 70% of my bodyweight. I have been crutching around a lot today - went out for some lunch with a friend a went to a few shops getting stuff for his new car. I get a fair amount of discomfort at the fracture site on days like this, but it always settles quickly.
This is definitely beginning to get tricky lol, but I still got all of my reps cleanly and didn’t need a spotter. I know this isn’t a hypertrophy routine as such but I’m really blowing up right now, it’s pretty incredible. I definitely predict finishing this routine at peak size and strength levels (for my upper body lol).
Thanks man! I feel progressing from squats to a chair to deep free squats is a big jump and I’m very happy. The last few days I’ve actually been experimenting with a weird shuffle lol, I can’t really call it walking but it’s definitely progress. All very exciting.
It’s actually really weird now - I was washing my car earlier today and I can drop straight into a super deep squat to get underneath it, but then I have to do this dumb shuffle just to move around it. Funny how most of the adult population probably can’t come close to squatting like that, but can walk so easily. I must have looked pretty strange.
Excellent session today. The benching went well and I’m very happy about the pull-ups: I haven’t been very good at weighing myself but I reckon I’m back up to 95kg and I can still do 10 reps at a time, although the second set was a real grind.
Progress Picture
Found some good lighting so took a progress picture at the gym today. I haven’t bothered to pixelate my face this time because I want to show off my beard PR too lol. Anyway I’m not doing anything illegal or getting into arguments on PWI so I reckon I should be safe.
Week 10 - Walking (!!!)
I had my appointment this morning and the surgeon was really happy - he said that everything was healing up nicely and that I could begin to fully weight-bear. Since the appointment I’ve just been constantly hobbling around my flat - it feels so good to be walking again! I tried bodyweight lunges and managed 3 sets of 5, but they were extremely painful at the fracture site so I stopped. I attempted a single leg calf raise with my right leg and I’ve lost so much strength that I couldn’t manage a single rep. So I’m not going to bother with any bodyweight exercises for the rest of the day, I’m just going to walk around my flat non-stop lol. I might try some stairs too - if I do I’ll update this post with how it went.
