B) 3 Grip Bench Press (Narrow/Medium/Wide) w/90 sec between boards
0 board x 225 x 4,4,4
1 board x 225 x 4,4,4
2 board x 225 x 4,4,4
3 board x 225 x 4,4,4
4 board x 225 x 4,4,4
5 board x 225 x 4,4,4
C) Lat Pulldown
110x6
170x10x5 (PR???)
D) Rope Pushdhowns
80x12
85x12x2
E) Adductor Rehab
I have been doing 5x5 on Bench for several weeks now, so I decided that it was time to switch to 3x3’s for a few weeks. These felt pretty strong today. I will bump it up to 345x3 next week.
I think the reduced volume helped out the 3 Grip Bench. I was able to get all six sets of 4x3 this week. I’m torn between going up in weight or trying to get sets of 5. I started last week with the idea of getting 3 sets of 5 at each board height, and didn’t even get through the first set, so I’ll probably go back to that and see how far I get.
Everything else felt strong. I got all 5 sets of 10 at 170 on Lat Pulldowns. I’m sure this was a PR, but my computer is died and I had to reinstall windows, so I can’t check my records. Luckily I backed everything up on an external hard drive this time. Regardless, I’ll go up to 175 next week.
Starting to get my strength back, and it feels good.
[quote]Alpha wrote:
I think you need to stop being a baby and get some real work done!
Glad to see you’re still kickin’ arse brother.
Rehab and injuries suck but you are kind of a legend in these parts, thus I know you’ll be back stronger than ever very soon.
Know that I’m still watching a rooting for ya man.
b [/quote]
Thanks man. This is the slowest healing injury I’ve ever had. I just wasn’t able to keep weight on my bad leg in the bottom of the Squat, and I was coming up lopsided. I tried working through it, that didn’t work, so that’s when I decided to take the baby approach.
Today was a planned day off from DLing. My DL was going into the shitter from pulling from the floor every week, so this is an off week. I’ll start back up next week.
My grip felt a little weak today. I think the DLing beforehand is a nice warmup, and by skipping it, I wasn’t ready for the Shrugs. I hit the same number of reps this week as last week with the double overhand, so something was off. I managed to get all 3 sets of 20 with the straps this week. I may bump this up to 495 next week, but will be DL’ing first, so I’ll have to see how I feel and make my decision then.
A) Seated Shoulder Press
barx12
95x10
135x6
175x10x5
B) Incline Bench (1 and 1/2’s)
155x3
215x5x3
C) DB Rows (Kroc)
Left - 125x15,12,12
Right - 125x20,21,16
D1) EZ Curls (W/N/W/N)
EZ+100x10x4
D2) Lateral Chain Raise
10x3
E) Adductor Rehab
I’m still happy with the progress I’m making with Shoulder Press and Incline Press. I’m really hoping that the increased shoulder strength will have a positive carryover to my Flat Bench.
I decided to go for as many reps as possible with the DB Rows today. My left hand is still lagging behind, but making some noticible improvements. I think I will stick with the Kroc Rows, and work up to 20 reps on my left hand before increasing the weight.
B) 18" Box Squat
barx10x2
135x5x2
225x5x2
275x5x2
315x5x3
C) Abs on GHR
Greenx12x3
Squats felt good again today. The weight is very light for me, but I dropped the box another 2". Originally I had planned on going up in weight but keeping the box height the same. I decided that I need to get back to squatting to depth and then work up in weight as tolerated.
I am going to do some direct ab/addcutor work later today with the ab/adductor machine (inner outter thigh machine) I will do 4 sets, one set each of sitting upright with legs straight, sitting upright with knees bent, reclined with legs straight, and reclined with knees bent for both adduction and abduction.
I think the tentative plan for Squats is to stick with Box Squats for a while. At some point I will probably switch to touch and go on the box. If I feel 100% at any point, this plan will go out the window. In fact, there is probably about a 10% chance of me actually sticking to this, but I’m putting it in writing so I have something to refer back to and gauge my progress.
Ideally I’d like to get 2-3 sets of 4-6 reps each week with the listed weights:
wk 1 - 20" @ 315 x 5 x 2
wk 2 - 18" @ 315 x 5 x 3
wk 3 - 16" @ 315 x 4-6 x 2-3
wk 4 - 18" @ 365 x 4-6 x 2-3
wk 5 - 16" @ 365 x 4-6 x 2-3
wk 6 - 14" @ 365 x 4-6 x 2-3
wk 7 - 16" @ 405 x 4-6 x 2-3
wk 8 - 14" @ 405 x 4-6 x 2-3
wk 9 - 12" @ 405 x 4-6 x 2-3
wk 10 - 16" @ 455 x 4-6 x 2-3
wk 11 - 14" @ 455 x 4-6 x 2-3
wk 12 - 12" @ 455 x 4-6 x 2-3
wk 13 - 16" @ 495 x 4-6 x 2-3
wk 14 - 14" @ 495 x 4-6 x 2-3
wk 15 - 12" @ 495 x 4-6 x 2-3
This would take me up to a couple weeks out from the Arnold’s. Like I said it’s just a guideline, and I can almost gaurantee it will change depending on how I am feeling.
[quote]Phillip Wylie wrote:
Good to see you’re recovering from your injury, Modi. Good luck with your training for the Arnold. [/quote]
Thanks Phillip. Hope to be 100% well before then. I left a lot of weight on the platform at Nationals, so I’d like to have a good showing at the Arnold’s.
Bench felt solid again today. I didn’t realiz that I had tied a PR until I dug out my old record sheet. I will bump this to 350 or 355 next week depending on how my warmups go.
I tried to get 3 sets of 5 on each grip tonight and it really took it’s toll during the middle boards. I’ll stick with this weight until I get 3 sets of 5 with all 6 sets.
I skipped Lat Pulldowns today because I am going to be getting into some heavier DL’s on Thursdays, and want to go in with fresh lats. The LPD’s have been adding some nice size to my lats, so I’m going to keep them in my program, but move them to the end of my Bench Accessory day on Saturday instead.
Once again, I’m happy with my progress on Shoulder Press and Incline Press. I have been consistently adding weight each week and hitting my reps. Each week has felt hard, but the following week hasn’t felt any harder. I’m going to stick with this plan as long as it keeps working.
I moved my Lat Pulldowns to todays session, so my lats wouldn’t be fried for DLing in Thursdays. These felt strong today, but I think it’s time to add another warmup set in the middle, maybe 100x8, 140x6. My left forearm was starting to complain on the heavy stuff, but didn’t keep me from finishing all five sets.
I’m still doing Physical Therapy twice per week on my right adductor. It’s feeling better each visit. He is doing a ton of Graston and ART on it, and with all the mobility work I’ve been doing, my hips feel much looser, and I find it more and more difficult to get a good stretch on my right adductor. I never get a sharp pain with it, but when I push the stretch, or when I squat too deep, it feels like someone is pushing hard on a very deep bruise.
My PT also discovered that my adductor has adhered to my medial hamstring. More ART for this as well. Not as painful as the adductor, but not entirely pleasant.
Monday is supposed to be a Squat day, and I think I’m going to modify my Squat plan that I just laid out. Meat had suggested doing Reverse Band Squats instead of Box Squats with straight weight. I really like this idea, because I can set the bands up to have no tension at the top, and take a good chunk of weight off the bottom. This will get me used to walking out heavy weights again, and locking them out where I don’t have any pain. I will also be doing these to various pin heights instead of the box. I found I was getting the most irritation in my groin from relaxing on the box, and then re-engaging my muscles.
The only problem is that Monday is a crazy day for me, and I’m not sure I will be able to make it home for a lift. That means either training in a commercial gym, or moving my Squat day to tomorrow (Sunday) or postponing it to Tuesday. I know I could bring my bands to a commercial gym, but I want to be consistent with my setup and my rack is a 7 footer, versus the 8 footer in the gym. Also, my pin holes are at different heights than the gym, so I think whatever I end up doing, it will be at home.
B) Reverse Band Squats (pin #13)
Blue Band
135x8
225x8
315x6
365x5
405x5
455x5x3
B) Single Leg Squats
10x3
C) Landmines
50lbsx10eax3
D) Plate Chops
45x10x3
Squats felt really good today. I used the Blue band (strong) today. The biggest problem is setting up the bands on a 7’ rack. There was no band tension for the first 4-6 inches of the range of motion, which meant that occasionally the bands would get a little twisted when there was too much slack. These gave somewhere between 105-110lbs of help out of the hole, and nothing for the last 4-6 inches of lockout.
These are much easier on my adductor than the Box Squats were last week. Relaxing on the box and then re-engaging my adductors caused a little bit of the achy pain that I have been getting. Pin # 13 was about 2" lower than the box I used last week, and I would say that I probably had 12 or 13 completely pain free reps at 455.
It’s also nice to get used to walking the heavier weights out again.
I’m going to stick with these and drop to pin #12 next week, and then pin #11 the following week, then bump it up to 495 and repeat the cycle. I’m beginning to have a glimmer of optimism that I will eventually be back to Squatting some decent weights in the near future.
I’m a little pissed about the Bench. I know I had all 3 sets of 3 in me today. On the first set I touched too low and didn’t grind out the rep. I nailed the next two sets of 3, and decided I would try to finish the 3x3. I breathed out after the second rep and couldn’t get tight again. I tried it one more time, wasn’t feeling it, and didn’t want to miss another rep, so I racked it.
I managed to get through the 3 Grip Boards of Death Press today, so I will up the weight next week. I’ll probably go up to 245 on this and see if I can get 4 reps on all sets. Not likely.
EZ Curl record because I usually do these after Lat Pulldowns or DB Rows, so I was fresh today, but I’ll take the PR. Whore.
Holy hell, I felt this one today. I haven’t pulled anything over 495 in quite a while, and then to finish it off with reps set the tone for the day. My grip is definitely improving, but I don’t think the COC Gripper was helping that much. So I moved my Kroc Rows to my DL day to really kill the grip and then give it enough time to recover.
My plan is to get ultra fat today. I’m shooting for at least an 8lb weight gain by tomorrow morning. Anyone else up for a little bloat challenge?
Football on the TV and an excuse to overeat with the family. That’s what I’m thankful for.
Good looking deadlift session there, Modi.[/quote]
Thanks Mahwah. I’m going to try to make some sort of gains with my DL while I’m still in rehab mode for my Squat.
I only managed a measly 4lbs (266.4lbs) of bloat yesterday, a little dissapointing.
I have been eating more carbs lately, and I think my body just wasn’t really shocked by all the starches. Maybe next year I’ll try cutting weight for Thanksgiving, and then going for a 10lb bloat. Ah well. Can’t win them all.
I only got 4 as well, but I kinda cheated. I didn’t weigh in til this afternoon.
In my family, Thanksgiving lasts until there are no more leftovers. I pick at turkey and dressing pretty much constantly for a couple days. But I have an excuse, like yours. I’m getting to the top of a rebound from cutting weight for a meet. Working hard now for every pound.
I’m also giving a try this “splits” training everyone is so high on…
