Yesterday evening workout
E - LSS Running
- Run 5.00 km (about 3.1 miles) in 32:11
- Walk 1.70 km (about 0.62 miles) in 14:21
Lungs are finally back. No cough. There is still something going on with my sinus but at that point in time, it is probably just seasonal allergies.
That run felt so good! It was not on flat ground and I was not completely wiped which surprised me after a month of not running and going faster than my zone 2 runs from base building. I did some chins, push ups and squats during the last days but did not log them.
I was worried about my trip to Madeira where we planned for a lot of hikes carrying my son so this run brought back my confidence. We are leaving on Saturday and I don’t plan on training today or tommorrow. I’ll get back to it when we come back, at the beginning of June.
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I got back from Madeira on Monday. It was a really great family vacation with lots of hiking done up to 6000 feet altitude. Plane travel with a 15 months old toddler is a sport in itself. I don’t recommend especially as we started with a night flight. Our flight back was cancelled and the rebooked us on a flight to Lisbon, then to Toronto and then back to Montreal (1.5h + 8h + 1.5h) instead of the initial plan of flying to Azores then Montreal (1h + 6h). So, I took yesterday to unwind and take care of the house and stuff that happened during those 2 weeks.
All my previous coughing and that traveling + hiking got me though. For the last 7 days, I have what seem to be a umbilical hernia. I am going to the doctor on Friday to assess if this is really the case and what to do with it. I won’t lift heavy until then but will resume training by walking/running and doing some light work (bodyweight or light dumbbells). I have no pain but I have discomfort especially when I pick up heavy stuff or do some manual work like mowing the lawn yesterday. It did not prevent me from doing all the hikes I had planned in Madeira though.
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I just came back from the doctor office and indeed, I have an umbilical hernia. I need surgery but when will it happens depends on the hospital. Could be a few weeks, could be months.
In the meantime, like I thought, no heavy lifting but how heavy or light depends on me and how I feel. Pain = stop, light discomfort = continue with caution.
I will try to make a lifting plan with exercises that don’t create too much abdominal pressure but considering I train at home, it will be harder than if I was in a well equiped gym. Upper body should not be a big problem but any idea for lower body is welcome. I may also go for super high reps of squats, split squats and lunges. I did sets of 300-500 of those using only bodyweight during Covid and my legs were in great condition. Maybe something in the middle using the weight vest and a dumbbell in the goblet position could be ok. I will have to experiment. Running is ok but I will probably stick to zone 2 running (E).
So like I said, if anybody has some ideas on how to structure training around a home gym and also around the fact that I want to reduce abdominal pressure as much as possible, you’re welcome to comment.
FYI, my home gym has a squat rack, bench, incline bench, dip handles, multi grip pull up bar, dip belt, barbell, trap bar, plates, adjustable dumbbells, few KB, weight vest, bands, rings and airbike. I probably won’t use the ab wheel and ab mat anytime soon.
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I have an umbilical hernia. I am not at surgery stage. Machine crunches, crunches-crunches, sit ups, planks, etc. I was informed by my physical therapist they are verboten. The vacuum exercise he smiled upon. I also use an abdominal muscle stimulator. Is it effective? I do not have Frank Zane abs but everything seems to be holding its own. The vacuum, I think, is pretty effective. Pull downs I have to pay attention to keeping my midsection tight. Pull overs? Be careful with those. If you do them. There is quite a bit of info online. Just be careful.
Thank you so much for that answer. It gives me hope for my training while waiting for the surgery. I will look for more info because I met with the surgeon today and it was pretty vague what I can and cannot do in the meantime. After the surgery, the gameplan will be pretty obvious but before it’s like, don’t lift a fridge, you can do weightlifting but not to heavy. Like, how heavy do you think I normally lift?
Lunch workout - Upper body
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Press
5 x 45
5 x 55
5 x 65
5 x 75
5 x 85
I started to feel some pressure in my hernia at that point so I know to not go over 75 pounds for now. The previous sets felt fine. I plan to do volume on press or test seated dumbbell press instead. By seating, it should relieve some pressure on my abs.
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Neutral grip pull ups
3 x 3 x BW (166 lbs)
I started really low with pull up volume because even if I never feel them in my abs, there can be some good ab contraction. So I did only 3 sets of 3 and will wait to see if I feel fine after. I was feeling the hernia but not necessarily pressure or pain during the movement. I may use bands next time to remove some pressure and do more reps/sets.
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Dips
3 x 10 x BW
I did not feel pressure on dips. I will increase volume on these for sure. This exercise may become my main pressing exercise until surgery.
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DB Hammer Curls
2 x 12 x 20/hand
I have not train arms for a long time so I went easy. I don’t want to be too sore and will increase next training. Keeping these. Nice little pump.
Total time : between 30-35 minutes. Did not time it.
This session was all about testing. Not sure about keeping the press. I would have to go really light so I will test dumbbell seated press to see if I can better work my shoulders with those without puting pressure on my abs. For pull ups, I will test using a band but will also test chest supported dumbbell rows on the incline bench also. I would like to have 2 good back movement. Dips are awesome to I will keep them for sure and increase volume. I will also test the bench or incline bench. Incline will probably be easier on abs so I might test these first and keep them.
I would like to have 2 upper body sessions and 2 lower body sessions I can vary. I know lower body will have to be light work, high reps but I would like to keep some tension for the upper body.
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I tested a bunch of different exercises over the last days. I also evaluated different training/programming options. I decided to go Walrus style from Jim Wendler. My main circuits would be dips, inverted rows and split squats. Those don’t cause me any abdominal pressure, I can start with bodyweight and add weight via weight vest over time. I would have like to keep pull ups but I came to the conclusion they caused too much pressure on my abs/hernia. Leg supported pull ups are ok but kind of awkward to setup and execute I found.
So I will repeat the following circuit many times over the next weeks.
Walrus circuit
- 10 dips
- 10 inverted rows
- 10 split squats/leg
I will start with 3 to 5 circuits each time for about 3 times a week at first and then I can increase number of circuits, frequency and/or weight each time I feel like I am ready. It covers most of the body and I can progress for a long time on these. Conditioning will be walking and weight vest walking, running should be fine too and I will test Airbike slow ride for when it’s raining too much. I will rotate easy sessions on those 4 types of effort which will all stay zone 1 and zone 2.
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Lunch workout - Walrus circuit
3 times the following:
- 10 dips
- 10 inverted rows
- 10 split squats per leg
Total time: 8:30
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Lunch workout - Conditioning
Time: 22:01
I am not posting much because I just do the same circuit than last time 1 to 3 times a day so that side of training is pretty boring.
Today I kicked my own ass and went for a run. I have been wanting to test if it sits well with my hernia for a while. No problem on that side so I will of course try to keep at least one run every week. I went slow but not zone 2 slow. My zone 2 running is pretty slow and I wanted to test things without going too hard.
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