Ugh! Your poor wife! Autoimmune conditions are so tricky and they affect everything. Tell her to keep fighting and stick to that diet. It will help with some of the inflammation. Also, have her look at her fat choices - try to limit the saturated fats in favor of monounsaturated. So, less fatty meat/coconut based fats and more olive oil, avocado and nuts. That will help some with the inflammation too. And seriously, if there is anything I can do to help her with that diet - just let me know. I’d be more than happy to connect with her.
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Will do, thanks for all the tips it has been very helpful.
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W2D2 DE Lower
SSB box squats 50lb Chains 205lbs 10x3
2" Deficit Deads 225 6x3
Leg extension top set 140 drop set 90 12 and 8
Leg curls top set 90 drop set 70 8 and 6
45lb Weight vest long lunges 300ft no break
Squats and Deads we’re worked up to slowly. I tried just the bar to 16" box and hip immediately squawked. Grabbed a red mini band around both knees and tried it with just the bar and still no bueno. So I squatted the first 4 sets with the top weight to 18" box and the rest to the 16" box no problem. Kept the band on to remind me to push out and use the glutes.
Jumped right into Deads and those flew off the floor. Will wave the weight up slowly but all seems to be well. On the leg curls and extensions I superset those and took them up to a top set and on that top set did one drop set both taken to failure. I paused the weight at the bottom and exploded on every rep to keep in the DE speed work mantra even though it may not apply here…thought it couldn’t hurt.
Walking long lunges…woof. Those sucked. I wanted to throw in a challenge and that was tough glutes were absolutely burning. Good stuff though. I didn’t want to powertec squat due to the hip so I thought this may suffice in its place.
Hanging leg raises 4x12 this will be a warmup here on out for the hip flexors.
Walks of course and 60 chins and ab wheels all week this week. Next week 70.
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Good video with Dave Tate and Joe DeFranco. Dave, at the time I have posted, talks about working the full range of motion in everything just lighter to keep mobility and strength throughout the ROM. This is my thinking on my hip stuff at the bottom of the squat.
W2D3 Rep Effort Upper
4x12 65lb DB Press
Superset 1 Lat pulldown 2x8 1x5 205 1x3 1x10 180
Face pulls 50 lbs 4x 15
Superset 2 Seated Viking press 155 15, 2x12 175
DB Side Lateral 20lbs 3x15
Superset 3 behind the back trap row 275 3x12
Rolling db tricep extension 50lbs 3x8
The rolling tricep extensions felt good. That was definitely the most weight I’ve done for those so progress is definitely being made. 60 chins and 60 ab rollouts today with the walks.
My wife paid me an awesome compliment this morning. She said it looks like my arms are about to bust out of my shirt. Hells yeah. It’s the little things. Good dopamine hit before work.
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W2D4 Max Effort Lower
Deads from “blocks” I used the stupid foam exercise matts. Not ideal but it worked.
Deads slow ramp to 415 and it didn’t want to move. Jumped down to 385 for 4. I almost loaded 405 and pulled again but opted against it. I knew Deads were lagging.
RFESS 65 2x10, drop set 65 10, 30 8, bw 6
Superset Dimmel Deads 135 3x20 and Leg curl 70lbs 3x8 everything done here explosively.
Warmed up with HLR 3x15
60 chins and ab wheels today.
Next week may jump to 70 chins we will see. But I want to switch to standing ab wheel. Not sure how many yet.
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Rough day. Virtually no sleep last night.
W3D1 Max Effort Upper
Bench Blockz Chain Bench slow ramp to 185 + 50lbs Chains for 2. Drop set to 135 + 50lbs chains for 8
20 degree incline DB Bench 60s 4x10
85lb DB Rows 20, 15, 11 superset with band pull aparts 3x20
Trap rows 225 3x15
Hurried the last part of the workout. Halloween stuffs with the kids.
Also did 30 wide grip paused pullups. Pause in the middle at the top and bottom. 50 ab wheel rollouts. Walked and about to walk some more.
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Better sleep still not great.
W3D2 DE Lower
Chained Ssb Front Squats 155 + 84 chains. 8x3
Semi Sumo DL 275 6x3
Nordic Ham Curls 3x8 help from orange band
Leg extensions 90 8 both legs 5 single leg, 70 10 both legs 8 single leg, 10 both 10 single
Superset with red band Back Extension 3 x 15
Leg curl 70lbs 2x15 just burn out here to kill hammies at the end.
Great workout. Feel like upper back was worked from Ssb Front Squats and lower back and glutes smoked from semi Sumo Deads and back extensions. Hamstrings feel like death right now too. Feel like back extensions are needed for my Deads. I need to start loading it a bit more. Good stuff. Learned a little today, I like it.
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Thought I’d share this little tidbit, but after Monday’s Wide Grip Pull Ups with pauses and yesterday’s lower session, I went to the feed store to buy some more chicken feed for my feathered free loaders. I grabbed that 50lb bag of feed and threw it over my right shoulder. Walked to the register, and immediately on my LEFT side from my arm pit all the way to the middle of my lower back I got an intense cramp. Never ever had a cramp in my lats…ever. Never even heard of this. I tried with out moving much to pull my wallet out at the register and paid and still trying to move a little as possible the kid asks if he wants me to carry it to my car. The bag is still on my shoulder and I can’t put it down at this point. I smile as best I can and say No thanks and saunter out slowly. Stood by the car until it stopped and then loaded it up and got in the car and just sat there sweating. Wow…never felt that before. Leg cramps sure. Lat cramps nope. Tried doing some chins or something today…and it was a big Nope! Just dead hangs to stretch it out a bit. Either I’m doing something right or something extremely wrong. Not sure yet.
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This happened with my upper-most right abdominal the other day—just that one (!)—and it was a cramp like I’ve never felt before. Never mind the fact that it was in my abs, and literally just one of them. I managed to look in the mirror and thought, “If only all 6 of them would look like that all the time!”
It was the strangest thing…
Anyway, hope you work it out soon.
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Sucked bad and was weird that an offset load on the other side of the body caused it. Just shows how interconnected the muscles are. Everything feels good today just some DOM type soreness.
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W3D3 DE Upper
Swiss Bar Chained Spotto Presses 10x3 135 + 34lb chains
Superset Powertec pulldowns 205 2x8, 1x6 drop 180 6, 135 6
Chest supported DB rear lateral raise 20s 3x12
Superset 2 Powertec reverse grip bench 225 x 15, 275 3x12
Lateral raises 20s 4x15
Superset 3 decline rolling tricep extension 50s 3x8
Behind the back barbell shrugs 135 paused at top 3x12
The decline rolling tricep extension was way tougher than just on the floor. Bigger stretch and a little tougher to press out. Good day. I did 30 some paused chins today instead of wide grip. Just to take it a bit easy but they were fine. Did some abs and carries with my son later. 1000ft with 50s traps got a good burn and grip. Decline crunches and hlrs.
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W3D4 ME Lower
Reverse Red Band Squat slow ramp to 365 for 1. Got 345 for 3 and felt like there was still some in the tank. Should have went on to 365 from 315.
Deficit SLDL work up to 275 3 x 8
Superset Leg Extensions 140 3x10, 1x10 then drop to 90 for 10 more
SL Back extension 4x10 per leg. Not sure I like these. Thought I’d try them anyway. Not a fan.
Weather sucks today so not much walking but did a ton of paused pull ups all different kinds of grips. I have a big ass purple mark now on the left side just around from my armpit. No pain there yet but that is where that cramp the other day started from. We shall see where that leads.
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W4D1 ME Upper
Reverse Band Red Bench
Slow ramp up to 245 x 2. Back off set 225 for 5.
Man I wish I could actually bench some weight. Also need to rig the bands up better. It didn’t take much off at the bottom but still hard to justify reverse bands with this weight. This is one time that I am jealous of my fellow shorter lifters. I have a 79-80 inch wing span. I’m built like a Chimpanzee. A former training partner used to joke that I could scratch my knees without bending over.
I left the reverse bands on and thought this may be helpful with incline bench at least. So…
Reverse Band high incline bench 155 4 x10
Kroc Rows 3x12 with straps 1x8 without
Superset with chest supported face pulls 50lbs 4x15
Trap work was seated 60lb DB Shrugs 3x20ish first 12-15 were slow and held at the top. The rest were fairly quick to failure
Arms 30lb DB Iso Hold Curls 3x10 these sucked more than I anticipated. Superset with Pushdowns 60lbs 3x15.
I warmed up with Pushdowns for my elbows 2x25 50lbs. A bunch of various chins today throughout the day some paused. Walked a few times while the weather was nice.
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W4D2 DE Lower
First off my feet have been sore again for the last couple of weeks. This morning I wake up, take one step as quiet as possible not to wake the wife, and as soon as my right foot hits the floor this shooting pain toward my heel pops up. Besides all the popping and creaking I make as is, I now am hobbling trying not to cuss. I failed, she woke up. But my foot hurt to put any weight on at first. Got better throughout the day, but still not fully there. Almost definitely plantar fasciitis. May need some help from @FlatsFarmer but I have been using a racquet ball and stretching it out.
Anyway on with the show.
Snatch Grip Deads slow ramp to 225 with 35lbs chains for 10x3 only 30 seconds rest between sets. Beltless and this pumped up the low back.
RFESS 60lb DB 4x12
Nordic Curls Orange Band Assisted 4x8 damn these are hard. Would like to progress these.
Ab superset HLR 3x10 with Decline Crunches 3x15
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Foot shit is terrible. For me it usually pops up when I’m really getting after my hips and quads. Sometimes my legs get tight, my knees move funny when I walk and my feet have to contort into a strange alignment. Like I’m walking heavy on my heel or like the outside foot. I barely even notice it until I start getting the foot pain BS.
Anyway, first thing I would try, make sure your knees are tracking properly over your toes. When you’re moving your foot around or stretching your calves or whatever, Make sure your knee is moving over your 2nd toe. Or in line with your 2nd toe.
With one leg just standing around, no weight/equipment, do like a little no stress calf raise. Let your knee slide forward as your heel comes off the ground. Make sure your knee goes over your 2nd toe. Control the eccentric and make sure your knee travels back in the same line as your heel drops towards the ground.
Then do a couple seated tibialus raises. As you lift your foot up, let that 2nd toe lead the motion. Control the eccentric, don’t let your foot flop around.
Sometimes just 2-3 sets of 5 or 6 “reps” of those motions is enough to get my feet right. Or like contracting the ground correctly, with that good tri-pod foot, instead of rolled up in some weird way. And that lets me walk normal and takes the pressure off my feet.
You can also try rolling out your calves with that racquetball. Up high, near your knee, way down closer to your ankle, around the front on your tib muscle. Sometimes it’s just tight spot in your lower leg causing tension down in your foot.
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What’s up with those snatch grip deads?
Did you get real low, like an Olympic dude setting up behind the bar? Or was it more like a high hipped, stiff leg style?
Last time I messed with that lift I think I was trying to get my hips to low.
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@FlatsFarmer I feel really tight around my Achilles tendon on that side now that you mention it. What’s weird is now the pain has migrated up towards the ball and that 2nd toe. I had pain like this last year off and on in both feet and it drove me nuts. I finally switched to a minimalist type shoe with a wider toe box and it all went away. Weird that it’s creeping back up on me. I’ll see if I can’t work out that tightness around the calf and see if it helps. I should be doing tib raises more often for sure too.
The Snatch Grip Deads were setup just like I would do Conventional Deads just with a much much wider grip. The grip was a couple fingers outside the rings. I probably in general don’t drop my hips much when I deadlift just because my hips suck. I am going to start pulling more semi sumo to kind of work that hip stuff out, and try to get to full sumo stance without hip pain. I really like snatch grip deads though. My erectors are still lit up this morning.
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Damn, that is a pretty wide grip.
I’ll try higher hips next time too.
I have long ass arms…for deads it’s nice. Sucks for literally everything else.