Lo/Rez Training

Training Training Logs
521

Second day with the shoes. And yep, they’re too small. I like lifting with them, but I don’t trust them yet.

Yesterday, ramped triples to 185. Today, ramped triples to 215. Might do more later. Legs aren’t feeling quite right though, and it could be the shoes just changing the load a bit. Who would have thought… do a few thousand squats barefoot, and it would feel “off” with shoes.

Moderate Incline Bench from High Pins (pin 4)
45, 95, 105, 115, 125, 135, 145, 155, 165, 175 x 3
185 x 1 (PR)

Finally hit that 185 milestone.

135, 137.5, 140, 142.5, 145, 147.5, 150, 152.5, 155 x 3

Stopped here or so. Got bored, and my mind was more focused on my “squatting the deadlift up” thread. Drew a diagram to describe what I was talking about and stuff (that was time consuming).

I’ll probably bench after work. It’s warm and sunny today and I finally got a good night sleep last night.

Overall energy is still low though; food intake has been not-enough, although my bench did get stronger. Bodyweight is in the 152-154 range this week. Somewhat stagnated over the past two weeks.

522

I’ve been doing some stuff training-wise, but nothing particularly notable.

Tonight,
Bench variation

Triples 95 to 160 by 5 lb jumps
Triples 115 to 145 by 2.5 lb jumps (1.25 per side)

95 x 2 x 5 (slow down, fast up)

Right elbow is feeling not so great so I just stopped at 160. I also feel like I pulled something in my left trap a few days ago, and it’s still sore and hurt while benching.

Afterward, I did some tricep work in the apartment gym – pushdowns, overhead extensions, and some more pushdowns

–

I haven’t really been squatting much since I’m waiting for my shoes. Bad excuse, but eh, that’s actually why. I tried filming deadlifts on Sunday, but it was too cold and the phone just died. Did a few of those though. Did some benching yesterday but called it early due to the same pain as today (but today was actually a decent session.)

Otherwise, mostly working on shoulder rehab stuff and some back stuff. Various bent rows, kettlebell one-arm rows, pullups.

–

Kettlebell halos. That’s an amazing exercise I’d completely forgotten about. Takes your shoulder joints through the motions. You get full 360 degree rotation of the glenohumeral joint as well as all sorts of scapular protraction, retraction, elevation stuff too, all while supporting a load. Good core stability, shoulder stability, neat stuff.

I actually stumbled upon it again after watching Riddick. I was wondering what Internet had for silly "Riddick workout"s (since obviously all you have to do to look him is do that for 6 weeks). Men’s Health was trying to get you to buy their magazine to see the full workout, but in their shoulder prehab stuff they mentioned dumbbell halos. I originally read about them in one of Pavel’s books.

Gave it a shot, really liked it. Going to be keeping these in my routine. They don’t seem to aggravate my rotator cuff tendons like every fucking thing else overhead does for me.

523

Your pressing is flying up…good stuff

524

I have no idea if what I did made any sense.

(Squats, ramped triples to 195. New shoes arrived today. But this isn’t what I’m curious about.)

Meadows Rows
50 x 11, 10, 7, 5 – alternated sides without stopping, same reps per each side

One arm BB Rows
50 x 7, 5 – same format

Was that enough volume? I have no idea.

–

Shoes arrived, as I said. These actually fit nicely. I like them. They’re a touch small with wool socks, but, um, I was wearing wool socks. Otherwise, they’re great. Time to ship back the old ones.

I’m just going to retrain my squat with these shoes. First few days will just be slowly working my way up. 195 today. 215 tomorrow probably. Etc. And then eventually getting into real work.

–

I saw a big guy at the auto shop the other day. I was trying to understand what exactly made him look “big” to me. Upper back and shoulders I think was most of it. Everything else was big too, but I think it’s those that really sent that signal. I don’t know though.

Anyway, I’m thinking my back days will rotate between: SGHPs, Conventional Deadlifts and Rows. Rows hit the lats well, SGHPs hit the upper back (and calves and glutes and hamstrings), and deadlifts are deadlifts.

Bench tomorrow. Deadlift Saturday.

525

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]csulli wrote:
I know what you mean man. In fact I struggled a bit with even continuing to play horn after I more or less shifted passions from music to lifting. Between training and work I only play once a week for an hour or two. People still tell me how good I am, but it’s tough for me to personally come to grips with how I used to be compared to now.[/quote]

Are you working on getting better again, or have you just sort of stagnated?
[/quote]
Oh I definitely stagnated hard. I just keep playing so that what I worked at for over a decade doesn’t go to waste.

Good luck with it anyhow. I do love Chopin, although mostly his insanely difficult stuff lol.

526

[quote]csulli wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]csulli wrote:
I know what you mean man. In fact I struggled a bit with even continuing to play horn after I more or less shifted passions from music to lifting. Between training and work I only play once a week for an hour or two. People still tell me how good I am, but it’s tough for me to personally come to grips with how I used to be compared to now.[/quote]

Are you working on getting better again, or have you just sort of stagnated?
[/quote]
Oh I definitely stagnated hard. I just keep playing so that what I worked at for over a decade doesn’t go to waste.

Good luck with it anyhow. I do love Chopin, although mostly his insanely difficult stuff lol.[/quote]

I played the trumpet for ten years, had aspirations of making a living from it someday, but I had to stop abruptly at the beginning of high school. Haven’t played in about 3 years. Miss getting to play big band stuff and full orchestra stuff.

527

Well, so much for “bench today, deadlift Saturday”.

Deadlifted the day after lat work. A part of me thinks “that was kinda dumb”. Another part of me things “meh”.

Deadlifts
135, 185, 225, 275, 315 x 1 or 3, depending on how I felt
365 x 0
335 x 1
355 x 0
345 x 1 (PR)

Not much went into those misses at all. As soon as they clearly weren’t going anywhere, I stopped.

Apparently my deadlift is NOT like a squat, as much as I thought it was. Videoed the PR.

I might get some deadlift volume in tomorrow. Didn’t really have the time today, and didn’t leave work until after 11 tonight. Deadline time for the next few business days… and I was trying to get some tests set up to run over the weekend.

Otherwise… squats and bench tomorrow.

528

Bodyweight average this week 153.4

Squats
45, 95, 135, 155, 175, 185, 195, 205, 215, 225 x 3

These don’t feel right yet… these shoes are too small. My toes are hitting the end (which I’m not so concerned about since it’ll stretch), but the insole doesn’t fit my foot. Which means I don’t feel very stable since there’s not good contact between the insole and my foot.

Don’t know if I need to move to a 10 or a 10.5. This is tedious. Would be great if there was a store to actually try stuff on. Eventually I’ll get there.

Moderate Incline Bench from Pin 4
95 → 175 x 3, 10lb jumps – 27 reps
185 x 2 (PR)
190 x 1 (PR)

135 → 160 x 3, 2.5lb jumps – 33 reps

100 x 2 x 5 (5s eccentrics)

73 reps total.

I stopped at 160 on the volume ramping because my shoulders started to lose tightness/stability. I also feel like I’m shrugging up the left shoulder while I bench. Not sure I can trust how I feel though. Still decent volume though.

Right elbow was feeling better today. Not perfect, but not very painful. I think by starting lower with the initial ramp I was able to get things warmed up. Or maybe it was from the tricep work I did earlier this week. Who knows. The combination of the two worked.

529

The shoes should fit true to a nike. Go try some Nike shoes on.

530

Ya. Vids are awesome learning tool. Ill tape sessions or certain sets just for review now.

531

I’m doing a 180 on my programming for a bit.

My body just needs a rest. Shoulders hurt, one elbow hurts, knees occasionally hurt, left hip hurts, traps are tight, etc. etc. I just feel a bit beat up. I mean, I feel better today, but I felt bad yesterday. (Oh, right, I squatted yesterday and didn’t write it down. Just ramped triples up to 225 again.)

I’m going to start pounding fish oil again. I stopped using it for whatever reason.

I’m also really pretty annoyed at how achy and sore I’ve felt the past couple weeks. Nutrition, in the micro-nutrient sense, isn’t so great these days. That could be part of it. I’ll work on fixing this.

Shoulders are annoying me most of all though. I think I’m going to alter my rotation from 1:1 chest to back, to something like 1:4 or so. Just work my way up with pullups, rows, deadlifts, SGHPs, face pulls. Rotator cuff tendons still haven’t healed. Kind of grasping at straws here, but maybe more and more, and then even more back work will help things.

It seems like the majority of people who get RC issues get it from doing too much bench work. Whereas I was doing back and overhead work, no benching when I started getting issues. But, I’ll just give this a shot.

/frustration

In other news, measured my chest at 41" and waist at 30". 10 months ago my chest was only 36" or so. I’ve been getting good results since I switched things up a couple months ago.

I just wish I felt a bit better overall. I actually think it’s because I’m lacking something (fish oil, or some vitamin or something), rather than because I’m doing too much.

532

Im oppsosite… Injury n ache free for months now… I buy the triple strength fish oil and take one every night w. A multi. And one before each traini ng session. No idea what ideal.but I feel good.

533

Rehab + back work:

I bought a cheap resistance band from Target and just started doing band dislocates. 10 reps or so. Move the hands in a bit, 10 reps. Etc. I did about a million of those over the last two days. My shoulders hurt a lot while I slept, because of arm positions. I think these are helping though. We’ll see.

I’ve been doing sets of Meadows Rows and one-arm barbell rows too; 10-12 reps per set or so. I like these MUCH more than regular barbell rows. My lats are the main focus for these. I’ll probably do some SGHPs in a few days for the upper back.

Also did some thoracic mobility work yesterday, thanks to that video trivium posted in his log. Some work on a foam roller (PVC wrapped with a yoga mat) and a peanut (tennis balls in a sock). These are a bit gentler than lacrosse balls.

I’m thinking thoracic mobility might be part of the issue with the overhead impingement.

–

Also, I feel really stupid talking like this. I sound like those people spending an hour on “mobility” before their workout, instead of just, well, lifting.

On the other hand, I actually have been to a sports-medicine doctor, I have actually been prescribed medication and a rehab routine from a PT, and this is an issue that’s lasted more than 6 months.

I think I’m actually justified.

534

749×554 49.1 KB

Progress?

From May 2013 to Feb 2014.

I also just realized yesterday that my bench press variation has gone up by 35 pounds over the last couple months. I wasn’t even really paying attention to it. Kind of curious where my regular bench is sitting these days.

535

Alot thicker in your delts, traps and chest…your right trap is huge lol maybe it’s just your arm angle though because of your phone.

536

Yeah… that was definitely because of the arm angle. They’re basically the same size now – when I started training, one side was quite a bit bigger, but a lot of my unevenness is balancing out.

I think I’ve made decent progress at this point, even though I know a year or so down the road I’ll compare myself then to now and be like “how could I possibly have been so skinny”.

I’d actually say my back and legs actually grew a lot more than that front shot shows, but I don’t have pictures.

537

Meanwhile, I’ve been out of the weightroom/garage.

Been doing this 70 rep band pullapart series posted in elitefts and slowly but surely things seem to be improving. Well, that + rest + prescription anti-inflammatory. Anyway, things are moving in the right direction. My posture even seems to be improved, and I get less pain while I’m sleeping.

[quote]The variations are as follows:

10 X band pull-aparts, arms straight, hands pronated
10 X band pull-aparts, arms straight, hands supinated
10 X band pull-aparts, elbows bent at 90 degrees, hands pronated
10 X band pull-aparts, elbows bent at 90 degrees, hands supinated
10 X band pull-aparts, bent over, elbows bent at 90 degrees, hands pronated at face level
10 X band pull-aparts, bent over, elbows bent at 90 degrees, hands supinated at face level
10 X overhead band pull-aparts
I recommend starting with one set (seventy reps) a day for about a week and work up to three sets (210 reps) a day. They can be done as part of the warm up, between set work, as an accessory movement, or at the end of the workout. You can split them up or do all three sets at once. It doesn?t really matter. The only stipulation I have is don?t do all three sets prior to a heavy bench or press workout. It will fatigue your stabilizers too much. Instead, you can do one set as part of your warm up and the other two after the heavy bench session.

Usually, you?ll notice much improved strength and mobility in just a few days and significant improvement in your overall shoulder health after a few weeks.

[/quote]

–

In addition to this, I started doing this old calisthentics routine developed for the Royal Canadian Air Force called 5BX (5 basic exercises). Simple stuff. Designed to take 11 minutes or less a day.

Their pilots in remote areas weren’t staying up to physical condition, and didn’t have access to a gym, so some guy developed this system. There are healthy people currently in their 80s and 90s that are still doing these exercises.

5 exercises a day:

  1. a stretch that’s variant of a toe-touch with a backbend
  2. a situp variant
  3. a hyperextension variant (by hyperextension, I mean like the “superman stretch”, lying on the ground, doing a backbend)
  4. a pushup variant
  5. running in place (or running/walking for time) with a set of jumps every 75 steps

There’s a series of charts, and you spend a few days at each level and move up if you can. When you can do everything under 11 minutes, and you’ve been at that level the minimum number of days, you can move up. There are goal levels based upon your age. It’s designed for everyone from age 7 up.

Pretty neat system though. You can google for “5bx” and there’s a PDF of the original book/pamphlet.

Today, I did:
4 toe touches with backbends
5 lying on my back, just raising my head off the ground situps
6 lying on my belly, alternating leg and head raises
3 knee pushups (lol)
175 steps, running in place, with 10 scissor-kick jumps every 75 steps

Easy, but it’s intentionally designed to be easy in the beginning and progress you slow (like every other successful program).

I’m only doing this for general “health and fitness” and because I can’t stand not being in the gym. I probably won’t get much out of it until 3-4 months from now when I’m actually at a challenging level. I’m hoping to get at least to the goal level for 20-25yo pilots (which is higher than the normal 20-25yo standard.)

538

I thought my arms were long . . .

539

[quote]nkklllll wrote:
I thought my arms were long . . .[/quote]

Yeah… lol. I’m pretty sure that 21" arms on me would look like 18" arms on most people.

540

So, I feel guilty admitting this, but I just did some behind the neck presses.

95 for 5 (or so, trying to feel out the weight)
65 for 3 x 12 with 30s rests.

In the middle of rehabbing my shoulder impingement, when I know that regular overhead pressing aggravates my shoulders, I decided to do BTN presses. Dumb?

However, my reasoning.

  1. wall slides are good for opening up the shoulders
  2. the last exercise in that shoulder series are basically wall-slides with a band
  3. behind-the-neck pressing is basically wall slides with a barbell

Plus, I just re-read the section from Keys to Progress where McCallum says… let me type this up…

[quote]Your first exercise is press behind neck. Do three sets of twelve.
Don’t be frightened by the relatively high reps, and don’t be stampeded into using low rep stuff. The value of low reps has been greatly exaggerated. Moderately high reps, properly used, provide umpteen times the growth stimulation, and are so much better for your health that the comparison becomes ridiculous.
Do the presses in strict style with a medium width grip. Work hard on them and try to force the poundage way up. There’s no use kidding yourself on this or any other exercise. If you use baby sized weights, then you can expect baby sized muscles. It’s as simple as that and there’s no way out of it.
If you want respectable deltoid, trapezius, and triceps development, then you’ve got to work up to about three-quarters of your body weight for twelve reps. That means around 120 pounds for a 160 pound man, 150 pounds for a 200 pound man, 180 pounds for a 240 pound man, and so on. Nothing less will do. If you think it will, forget it.
The biggest fallacy in weight training today is the foisted notion that you can build big powerful muscles without hard work on heavy weights. You can’t do it, brothers, and you’re wasting your time trying. If you’re not gaining like you should, give your training poundage a long hard look. The fault may be entirely yours.[/quote]

And… yeah. I like doing these, and my little chat with Apoklyps reminded me of it.

Anyway, shoulders are feeling fine right now. We’ll see overnight and tomorrow morning.

If they continue to be fine, I’ll actually use these to help rehab things… and get stronger and stuff. One of the mistakes I think I made before was trying to keep my scapulae depressed. This time, I only care about keep them retracted in the beginning, since that keeps the subacromion space open.

On the other hand, the rack position, and attempting to press from the front hurt. So, I just lifted it off my squat rack at ear height behind my head and pressed from there.