I tried these before. They hurt my lower back so bad that I never did them again. Not like a muscle pain, more like my back was bruised. I’ll never have visible abs, but I really need a strong core. First, I’m old and I don’t want to pee myself. Most people think it’s just your pelvic floor that matters, but you need to have a stronger core all around to support the pelvic floor. Then hopefully you won’t pee yourself. Second, I’m lacking some organs that play a key role in keeping other organs from falling out your bottom end. A strong core again is needed.
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2.21.26
No training. Call me lazy or something. So the group took last Saturday off from basketball and then I couldn’t play this week because my wife and I accepted an offer to present at a Winter Workshop for Phys. Ed. teachers that was hosted locally. I couldn’t fit both into my morning so no basketball for me. But it’s good to get outside your comfort zone and present to other educators even when you’d really rather stay home or do something else. It was fun to connect with other teachers and I we got a pretty great lunch. I don’t have the control of some on this site, so I went to town and had two plates of Mexican inspired food presented by On the Border. I did not stick to my diet of low/no carb and enjoyed every bit of it. Dinner was a fried chicken patty thanks to Chick-fil-a at church.
I’ll train tomorrow but haven’t decided on when. Option 1: do it during my daughter’s softball practice from 2-4pm. Option 2: go train in the morning and drag my son with me and go shoot baskets during the practice instead of lifting. I like option 2, but we’ll see how things play out. My wife and I both attempt to wake up without an alarm on weekends. I might get up at 8 or I might get up at 10. And I don’t really care either way. 
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Bodybuild Upper/Athlete Lower Leader 2
C2 W2 D1 - Bench
I opted for a mixture of my previously shared options. I got up shortly after 8 to watch the 3rd period and OT of the USA v Canada hockey game. But I failed to get out of the house to go train before my daughter’s practice. I ended up taking my son with me and we did a short workout together and had close to 30 minutes to shoot baskets. This will probably become my normal Sunday softball practice routine.
Warm-Up
Same as usual but the plyo box situation was sad at this branch. They only had a hard foam box that was 16"x20"x22". I used the 20" height but the landing surface was small and the box was wobbly. I even clipped it with my toe and basically fell on it during my jumps, but it was squishy so it didn’t hurt. I blamed the box.
Bench
135 x 5
185 x 5 (supposed to be 180 but I was lazy and loaded 25 instead of two 10s and a 2.5)
205 x 5
230 x 5
Bench FSL
185 x 5 x 5
mixed in
HS Chest Supported Rows
(3 plates per side) 270 x 10 x 3 sets
This was just sitting there unclaimed with 2 plates per side so it was easy to throw on a third and do these between sets of bench.
Kroc Rows
100 x 25
140 x 9
So I read Matt Kroc’s old article on here about how to do these. It’s not the typical rowing movement; he pulls it toward his pecs or mid-ribcage instead of swinging back towards the hip. This targets the upper back more than the lats. Tried it and got more reps. I also saw some old school 140 lb dumbbells sitting on the rack so I decided to give one a shot. The strange part was that my supporting arm got cooked as well.
Thought about doing more - workout calls for a bit more pushing I think, but if I kept going I wasn’t going to be able to use my arms very well for shooting baskets.
Shootaround Notes
Basketball is starting to feel less foreign. My shot is getting more consistent in terms of feel and release. I still miss a lot so I’m very consistent in that category. My knees feel pretty good and I occasionally make a move that involves a single-leg jump that doesn’t hurt or feel weird. I have no power off one leg, but at least I don’t collapse onto the floor. I was able to dunk two handed again today so I think the jumps and other training is paying off. Hopefully I continue to see improvement with my vertical because it’s all I really ever had.
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2.23.26 Bodybuild Upper/Athlete Lower Leader 2
C2 W2 D2 - Squat
Warm-Up
Included 15 box jumps and 4x10 decline sit-ups with the warm-up and it took between 15 and 20 minutes.
Squat
185 x 5
220 x 5
250 x 5
280 x 5
with
Squat Jumps
BW x 4, 4,
Band Resisted x 4, 4
Squat FSL
220 x 5 x 3 sets
SL Lying Leg Curl
65 x 10 ea x 2 sets
Side Crunch
25 x 10 ea x 2 sets
Back Ext
60 x 10, 10 (dumbbell held on chest)
40 x 12 (fixed bar on back)
RFESS Hops
20 hops forward and backwards
20 hops side to side
Sled
Rogue Sled + 135 lbs
Alternate Pull/Push 25m x 5 each
Time: 10:16
This was unpleasant and I nearly threw up.
The total length of this session was about 75 minutes. I still don’t know how how to trim it down. I usually keep a decent pace and limit rest to 1-2 minutes between sets. But I guess 7 sets of squats still take about 15 minutes with a decent pace.
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2.24.26
Fairly busy day today with another mandatory staff meeting after school. And after that I’m going to one last range night with my police co-workers. I’m officially done working with them after today. I’m good with one job for now. I didn’t enjoy giving up two Sundays a month to go work as a police officer. My truck gets about 11-12 mpg in gas mileage and I drove 22 miles each way so my first hour was like working for free to pay for gas.
On the nutrition front, I failed over the weekend again. I finally saw 229 on the scale Friday but that was killed by my daddy-daughter date night meal and the free lunch from On the Border the next day. Hopefully I can get and stay on track this week. I ate three of those tiny oranges they call Cuties last night. They were absolutely delicious. Perhaps my body wanted some fresh fruit for a change. I brought four of those flavored tuna packs today for food if I feel like I need it. I think they’re all 100 calories or less. I also have the trusty protein shakes.
My back hurts! I stopped going to PT at their recommendation which was fine by me at $50 a visit. All we did were stretches, some rotational stuff like a Pallof Press with twist, and manual tissue work. I think the tissue work helps the most. Perhaps I need to find a reasonable masseuse. How can one squat and deadlift without pain but experience pain every time I move in bed at night? I forgot to note it, but my back didn’t hurt during squats yesterday, but it felt like crap afterwards. And then it felt like a million bucks after the 45 degree back extensions. Anyone understand that?
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These are one of my favorite treats. They are just so sweet and juicy.
Not sure if you would be interested, but I got a neck massager for Christmas and I use it for my entire back. It seems to do a pretty good job of keeping me mobile between massages.
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On the nutrition front, I failed over the weekend again. I finally saw 229 on the scale Friday but that was killed by my daddy-daughter date night meal and the free lunch from On the Border the next day. Hopefully I can get and stay on track this week. I ate three of those tiny oranges they call Cuties last night. They were absolutely delicious. Perhaps my body wanted some fresh fruit for a change. I brought four of those flavored tuna packs today for food if I feel like I need it. I think they’re all 100 calories or less. I also have the trusty protein shakes.
So I’ll say that a daddy-daughter date night meal is NEVER a failure. When she grows up, she’s going to remember that date WAY more than remember daddy’s abs.
On the oranges front: Stan Efferding has a lot of positive things to say about oranges and nutrition, and oranges are a high satiety food (not to be confused with orange juice). For a mixed diet, I think that’s a great contribution, and you most likely are spot on there regarding nutrient cravings.
How can one squat and deadlift without pain but experience pain every time I move in bed at night? I forgot to note it, but my back didn’t hurt during squats yesterday, but it felt like crap afterwards. And then it felt like a million bucks after the 45 degree back extensions. Anyone understand that?
Sure do! That was me last year. Specifically, I felt the pain when I’d UNRACK the bar. Putting the bar on my back for squats felt GREAT because it’d compress everything and kinda put it back in place, but once I got out from under the load, the rapid decompression was absolute agony. Since I record all my training, you can look back and see how delicately I would have to rack the bar, and then I had to squat out from under it, rather than just step out, and hang out at the bottom of a squat for a few seconds before I’d think hang from the bar to get some relief. My amateur suspicion is if you’ve got a nerve getting pinched somewhere, possibly a slightly bulging disc.
Reverse hypers were really helpful for me in that regard, most likely similar to that 45 degree extension you’re doing. Basically forced decompression.
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I absolutely agree! That was planned in terms of my nutrition. I got their Smokestack burger and indulged myself with some truffle oil mac n cheese. My daughter got their best burger - the half pound Wagyu smash burger. I had it last time I went there. She was undecided on which burger to get so I told I’d get whichever one she didn’t so she could try both. I also wanted to try the Smokestack. And now we both know the Wagyu smash burger is the king of their burger choices!
In terms of my nutrition, the whole thing was calculated. The only reason it seems a failure now is that I indulged again Saturday. But I’ve never had an On the Border catered lunch and probably won’t again, so I ate the things and loved it. The end of the T-ransformation Challenge is a ways off, so I’ll be fine.
I know for a fact that I bulged L3/L4 way back in 2014. That set me up for recurring and fairly consistent back issues which is part of what I’m battling now. Since that day, my L5 likes to rotate and it impacts my SI joint. The SI joint is exactly what hurts. The PT couldn’t give me a specific diagnosis other than generic SI joint dysfunction. Nothing was out of place and there isn’t really anything in the area to pinpoint like a single muscle or tissue. It just hurts.
We have stackable foam plyo boxes in the weight room that go up to 36". If I lay my torso across the top and relax my lower half and let it hang, I feel it trying to decompress. It’s similar to hanging from a pull-up bar and letting my toes tough the ground. If I focus on relaxing my lower back area, it starts to let go but it actually hurts. I guess that’s how locked up it is.
I have one of those fancy massage guns and a full back massager that you throw on a chair and sit on. The part of PT that felt so great were the spinal mobilizations. They’d poke on the erector spinae next to my lumbar spine and kind of put lateral pressure on the vertebrae. It caused it to move a bit and felt great. Without that, I’m pretty locked up in that area.
Back to this. I ate one - peeled it and tossed the peel in the trash, consumed it while walking to the living room from the kitchen. I didn’t even sit down. I went back and ate two more without even leaving the trash can.
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2.23.26
Today is ACT testing day in our district so everyone except the juniors got the day off. My job is that of a bouncer hanging out with kids who got disqualified from the exam because they can’t follow simple instructions - turn off your phone and don’t use it until you’re dismissed at the end of the day. What happens? Quite a few of them get the boot at the first break for using their phones.
But my role is giving me plenty of time to work on the computer. Last night was my last official night as a part-time police officer. I went to one final law enforcement drills night with the team. It was a disaster shooting-wise. The first drill is a cold barrel qual with rifle and pistol. I decided to bring my own rifle. Unbeknownst to me, a tiny little spring fell out when I added a piece so my sling would connect to the gun. We do transition drills and when the rifle stops going “pew”, you switch to the pistol. Without a sling, you either hold the rifle and shoot one handed (not ideal) or you throw the rifle on the ground (even less ideal). So the sling mount was necessary. But the missing tiny part made it so that the gun didn’t go bang because the bolt wouldn’t slide all the way forward. It left a dimple on the primer of the round, but no bang. That pretty much set the tone for the night. I was embarrassed by my mistake. On the plus side I ended up getting to play with one of the range’s piston driven rifles with a suppressor. Now I’m thinking I need to convert my other rifle (not the one I failed with) to a piston driven model. Purchasing a piston driven rifle is about four times as much as what I paid for my rifle.
But I digress… we went to dinner afterwards and it was a good night all around. I was told I can still join them in the future. My Chief can get me retired officer ID that gives me the privilege to carry a concealed firearm nationwide as long as I complete an annual qualification and don’t commit any crimes (yes, they check for that every year, too). I didn’t officially retire from any agency because I didn’t meet their requirements, but my 11 years of combined service qualifies me under the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act. But more importantly, this allows me to continue to join everyone from the monthly LEO Skills Night.
I’ll hit my press day of week two after work today. Conditioning is still up in the air. I’m thinking of doing some work on the basketball court or jumping on the assault bike. But I’m also considering a trip to the chiropractor beforehand so I might be pressed for time.
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We are more alike than we realised. I herniated my L4/L5 years ago and have had lower back issues ever since.
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2.25.26 Bodybuild Upper/Athlete Lower Leader 2
C2 W2 D3 - Press
Warm-Up
Went to the chiro before training and that kind of warmed up my lower back. Did the couch stretch, Cossack squats, leg swings, and some moving stuff on the track (skips, high knees, etc).
Jumps
BW x 6 x 3 sets on 24" Box
Jumped off 2 feet, landed on 1
Press
105 x 5
120 x 5
135 x 5
with
Pull-Ups
BW x 7 x 3 sets
30" Box Jumps
BW x 4 x 4 sets (4th done with the following, then cut it)
Press FSL
105 x 5 x 5
with
Pull-Ups
BW x 7, 7, 6, 6, 6
DB Incline
80s x 8, 8, 6
Wanted 3x8, but at least I did 22 total reps which beats last week’s performance of 10, 7, and 4 reps.
Rev Press-Down
113 x 10F/10B/10T (multiple pulleys, odd weights)
120 x 10 (switched machines)
Press-Down
120 x 10
45 Deg Back Ext
BW x 15
Side Crunch
BW x 10 ea
EZ Bar Curls
80 x 15, 12
Well, another night of terrible sleep thanks to back pain. Chiro showed me the layers of muscles and ligaments that go over the sacrum and there’s nothing distinguishable in there to blame. He asked if I’d had an MRI or imaging and I haven’t. He mentioned it’s possible I have a bulged disc putting a small amount of pressure on a nerve. Back extensions making me feel better could be due to the movement pushing the bulge back in place. He wasn’t diagnosing me or anything; just throwing out ideas.
Edit
I knew I forgot something.
Conditioning
On the short basketball court at the Y.
Side shuffle to half court and back, run full court and back EMOM x 9
Each round was completed in 20-21 seconds. I was huffing and puffing, but able to go when the time hit. That tells me my legs and heart are doing okay (thanks to the sled work), but my lungs were trailing. It’s always fun to feel ‘tired’ and go anyway only to find that your body is doing fine with the work and you can continue going even though you’re out of breath.
5 Likes
2.26.26
Guess I’ll post my ramblings while I have time, and the workout later after it’s complete.
As mentioned with yesterday’s workout post, my back hurts. I don’t think I mentioned it with yesterday’s ramblings, but I’ve slept like crap for the past few nights. Sunday night was interrupted at about 5am by my sick daughter. I stayed home from work to take her to the doctor. I’d planned to go back to sleep after preparing my lesson plans for work, but I was awake and decided to stay up and try to be productive. I wasn’t very productive and the short night of sleep has compounded.
My whole body ached when I went to bed Tuesday. I was sore from Monday’s squat workout and standing on concrete for 2+ hours at range night didn’t help anything. I thought I’d fall asleep instantly due to exhaustion, but no. I laid there for over 2 hours rolling around in pain. Hips hurt, back hurt. I stretched. Stretched some more. Took some ibuprofen and Z Quill and finally fell asleep well after midnight.
Last night was slightly better. I fell asleep quickly but work up every time I moved thanks to the back. I’m dragging today. I hope to play basketball Saturday morning so I’m keeping that in mind as I approach today’s workout. It’s deadlift day. The plan is to try the trap bar deads and see how I feel. If those go well, then I’ll try cleans. If those go well, then I might throw in some single-leg work with bodyweight, but probably not. I’d like to feel recovered when I attempt to play basketball.
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*Getting ready to leave work and go to the gym, but I wanted to share this (because I keep forgetting): my book and shirt arrived last Friday!
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That’s what anabolism looks like in photo form.
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Just needs a bowl of chilli in front of it. LOL
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2.26.26 Bodybuild Upper/Athlete Lower Leader 2
C2 W2 D4 - Deadlift
Warm-Up
Foam rolled my hip flexors and glutes, lunges, leg swings and some other ‘dynamic’ stuff.
Box Jumps
20" x 5
24" x 5
30" x 5
With
Decline Crunch
BW x 12 x 3 sets
The above took 17:30.
Trap Bar Deadlift
225 x 5
275 x 5
310 x 5
350 x 5
FSL
275 x 5 x 3 sets
Nothing mixed in. I think I’ve done enough jumps for the week. Plyos can get to a point of being detrimental. They’re not one of those things where more is better.
Hang Power Clean
185 x 2, 2
205 x 2
225 x 2, 2
45 Deg Back Extension
40 x 15, 15 (bar on back)
With
Windshield Wipers
1 set of 12
Sled
Rogue Sled + 135
Alternate pull/push 25m x 3 each
Time: 5:49
Wanted to do this because it’s been so beneficial for my knees but didn’t want to wear myself out for basketball.
Warm-Up, jumps and crunches took 17:30. Took a couple minutes to get started on the lifting but that part lasted 30 minutes. So I guess the whole session took about 55-60 minutes.
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2.27.26
Back is almost back to where it was before I started PT. I’ve continue the stretching stuff. I guess I’ve slacked on things like a Palloff Press and focused on my side crunches and windshield wipers instead, but I don’t feel like I’ve stopped doing the things that helped me get better. The only thing I see as missing is the tissue work. And when I say it sucks, it felt like getting stabbed by a baseball bat on my sacrum last night when I sneezed. Yes, stabbing, sharp pain, but it covered a large area. My wife has a stockpile of muscle relaxers for some reason. She hates them. She takes half and has a hard time waking up. I took a full one and still slept like crap, but my back didn’t hurt as much, so that’s a win. Might be time to talk to someone about an MRI or steroid injection.
I’m taking the day off to rest up for basketball in the morning. It’s not like I’m trying to achieve peak performance; it’s just such a demanding task that I don’t want to go into it tired and sore.
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2.28.26 Basketball
My usual game was canceled but I’d heard of another game that starts at 6:30am. I hate that it’s so early but I went despite a week of poor sleep and my desire to feel rested again. It was good exercise. We had 24 people and used two courts. You only had to risk sitting out if you lost on the ‘losers’ court which only happened to me once. I was happy, too, because it ended up making my team better by snagging one of the best players in the gym after his team lost two in a row. I tried to run my watch on cardio mode during the games. I probably let it keep going between games at times. But I was on my feet and moving for 74 minutes and burned over 1000 calories. Cardio mode on my Garmin is supposed to be somewhat reliable since it’s just tracking heart rate and not distance.
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3.1.26 Bodybuild Upper/Athlete Lower Leader 2
C2 W3 D1 - Bench
Warm-Up
Some
Bench
135 x 5
195 x 5
220 x 5
245 x 5
Bench FSL
195 x 5 x 5
Kroc Rows
110 x 20
140 x 10
Not sure if I’m going to keep these or not. I tried doing them like Kroc and pulling high to target the upper back more than the lats, but it’s having a “meh” effect. I might try going back to standard DB rowing motion but using the same concepts of high rep all out sets.
I guess that’s it. It took 30ish minutes to get through. My son tagged along again and we shot baskets the last 30 minutes before it was time to go pick up my daughter from softball practice. It’s a nice session even though my lifting volume is very much low. But it was easy to talk myself into it - I was tired from basketball. I didn’t have any legs under me when we went to shoot.
Bodyweight was 231+ this morning. That’s one of my better Monday morning weigh-ins so maybe I can suck it up and break the 230 barrier for more than a few hours this week.
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This gives me some drive to be better too. I have decided if you are gonna do it, I have to do it. I kind of feel like we are in this together. Lol.
Edit: My success is now tied to yours. No pressure. 
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