You ever do anything to isolate them? I’m blessed/cursed in that regard. I activate my traps on everything just about and they seem to grow better than everything lol
You’re welcome! Thank you for your honest and approachable attitude.
Wendler Rows. I love them. And I’d like to think a strong power clean would help.
I’ll have to wait a bit before a can do those again.
You’ve done about all kinds of variations to hit your traps. I like SG high pulls, for my traps… but you probably can’t do them yet.
How about good old shrugs, DB’s should be a good option… It was stated in another log, can’t remember, that DB were better than BB.
And 1,5 miles in just over 12 minutes is pretty good. You’ve at least improved your running ability lately.
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I was kind of surprised. I had no goal for the workout other than to move a bit. I just ran loops in my neighborhood. My daughter was home. I told her to open the front door of she needed me. I ran by the house every 3-4 minutes. It was kind of nice because I only thought about the current lap instead of the total time or distance.
I’d love to build up my traps but I’m not going to worry about them until I’m normal again. I’m beginning to think January 1st is optimistic, though.
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Trap bar is another great option!
9.19.19
5 AM TRAINING
WARM UP
2 lap dynamic w/u
GIANT SET (3 ROUNDS)
Squat 215 x 5
Squat Jumps x 3
Side to Sides x 10 ea
Wore my squat shoes and knee sleeves. I feel like a tool wearing sleeves with 215 on the bar but my joints don’t like early morning training. 215 also moved slow. Boy, do I have a long ways to go.
GIANT SET (5 ROUNDS)
DB Row 105 x 8 (65 x 8 w/ right)
SA DB Bench 65 x 8 (6 on last set)
RDL 135 x 8
Using DBs is already proving to be tricky. I normally make five pound jumps of upper body stuff but DBs force me to go up five per arm. Looks like I’ll be at 65 for bench for a couple more weeks.
SUPERSET (3 ROUNDS)
Rev Cable Fly 30 x 10
Neutral SA PRESS Down 50 x 10 ea
CONDITIONING
Lateral Lunges (aka Cossack Squats) x 50-40-30-20-10 (total reps)
20 Calorie Row between lunges
13:20, 6:40 of that was rowing. Covered 1602 meters. Pretty good workout.
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Trap bar deads with a shrug at the top! But seriously, behind the back shrugs on a smith machine is my favorite trap exercise.
J - haven’t been in here for a bit, and despite saying you have a long way to go after the 215 squats, you should realize how far you’ve come in the blink of an eye. You’re a beast, dude.
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9.20.19
Rest day and I’m glad. I really like my program. I found some great balance.
Combining 3 sets of the first giant set with 5 sets of the second giant set (and vice versa) is perfect. It keeps the days equal instead of having short and long days.
My heart rate also says I’m in decent shape. Resting HR is 46 but it’s actually 43 right now. I’m in better shape than when I ran my little CrossFit experiment last year.
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I hate morning training as well ahah!
For traps, well I guessed playing US football conditioned mine to being big, but I found out that carries, deadlifts and O-lifts were the best for them. Then some nice DB shrugs with a hold at the (important), or Kaworski shrugs, and the best personally for feeling are Lee Haney shrugs (using a barbell, or my favorite, the smith machine, do behind the back shrugs but actually bending the elbows and using the arms as well for like 3-4 inches)
I guess we were all ashamed at some point by the weight we used. But you come back from injuries! I started squatting with 40 kilos and it was hard and painful ahah. What matters most is your recovery and actually working the muscles! That doesn’t make you any less trong or jacked 
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For the most part, I base my expectations off of experience. This recovery has kind of thrown me a couple curve balls in that regard. First, I thought I’d bounce back like I did in 2004 after my first shoulder surgery. I soon realized that I was wrong, and then I realized that they didn’t actually cut any tissue during my first surgery. They tightened up my shoulder capsule by overlapping ligaments and stitching them together. There was no cutting so there was much less trauma.
The newest realization is my leg strength, but this goes back further than the surgery. I guess I quit squatting back in November/December. In my mind, I shouldn’t be this weak but I’m comparing it to my hip surgery/recovery. I squatted or did leg training until the day of surgery and then I was released to squat again 12 weeks later. My depth started high, but I think I started with 205 for 3x8 and 5x8 and considered it fairly light. I started with 205 for 5’s this time and most of the reps feel slow. I think 185 would probably move at the same speed as 205 did last year. I know I’ll come back. It’s just throwing me off because I’m starting from a different (and worse) point.
I guess it doesn’t really matter. I’m going to train regardless. It’s not like any of this changes my plan.
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Well, I’m confident enough that I can share my layout now. I don’t think I’ll be making any drastic changes.
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Wouldn’t it be better if the jumps go before the main lift?
I just realized…is that a BB back squat there??
I actually started with the jumps and moved them. I used to do some power training where I’d do a heavy/slow squat followed by the explosive jumps. I think the mindset works both ways. The heavy/slow movement recruits the most muscle fibers and then they all fire quickly when you do the jumps.
Brian’s method is to prime the muscles for the squat with the jump. I just prefer them the other way. I also only take about a minute to rest after I finish a round of the giant set. Doing jumps before squats kind of got me breathing heavier than I’d like for a squat.
And, yes, those are barbell squats! I’m still playing with my foot position but so far, so good. I used a narrow stance yesterday and didn’t have any pain.
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I see I see. Keeping fingers crossed that your hips won’t complain!
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Weights are fast or slow, Strength is measured in time. Fun stuff!
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@Frank_C I don’t know if you listen to podcasts but you might be interested in listening to The Crime Machine Part 1 & 2 by Reply All. @mortdk you’d also be interested I’d imagine.
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9.21.19
Full Body #1
WARM UP
The usual.
GIANT SET (3 ROUNDS)
Deadlift 235 x 5
Jumps x 3
Machine Crunch 185 x 10
GIANT SET (5 ROUNDS)
SA Pull Down 100L/70R x 8/8
DB OHP 45 x 8 (L Only)
RFESS BW x 8 ea
The knee/leg pad on the pull down is a great spot for the trail leg on RFESS
DB INCLINE R/P
55 x 12-4-3
SUPERSET
Cable Lat Raise 20 x 7 drop to 10 x 10, 10 x 15
Straight Bar Curl 45 x 10F/10T/10B, 8F/8T/8B
CONDITIONING
Run 1 lap (1/6th mile) in 60 sec, rest 60 sec x 5
That was a horrible idea but I hit my time every round even though I wanted to die. Spent my breaks on the floor before the 4th and 5th run.
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Random fact. My resting heart rate is in the mid-40s according to my Fitbit but I don’t wear my watch to sleep. I wore it to bed last night to see how low it would get. The lowest reading was 37 and it said out of range. I wonder if that means I’m in pretty good shape or teetering on the brink of death when I sleep?
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If you do tons of cardio, you’re fine lol. I’m pretty sure you’ll slightly freak out a doctor when you go to one for the first time lol
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