My Road to Elite

Training Training Logs
601

[quote]mrodock wrote:
Just logging some little shoulder exercises I did so that I can keep track of what seems to be helping and what isn’t. Don’t be intimidated by the pink dumbbells.

Vertical DB Flyes (very soothing)
5x15x5lbs

DB Flyes (irritated muscle crossing front of shoulder)
3x15x5lbs

Push-ups (tried a few, irritated shoulder at lockout, especially when I tried protracting my scapulae)

Reverse DB Flyes
3x20x5lbs

Band external rotations, scap retractions (mini-band)
3x10

Massaging the shoulder during the day really seemed to help quite a bit. But I probably over did it.

Will do some more silly exercises tomorrow. Some the same, some different.

[/quote]

See if barbell shrugs (not too heavy, of course) help out. They always seemed to do the trick for me when I had similar shoulder issues.

602

Have you taken a look at the Diesel Crew shoulder warm up on Youtube?

I do a variation to warm up my shoulders before every bench, overhead press and squat session. My abbreviated version is basically YTWL’s leaning against an incline (30-45 degrees), for ~10-12 reps each with ~10lbs (started with 5lbs), then I immediately do side lateral raises with 10lbs, then scapula wall slides. This seems to get the blood running through my shoulders pretty good.

603

Hey Matt:

Regarding the shoulder, the ideas that work best for me have been:

  1. Shoulder Horn. Look at getting one of these things if you don’t have access to one, and use it 2x/week, real light.

  2. Use the SSB where you can in place of the straight bar, and keep the bar off your back where it’s an option, although I understand that often it isn’t.

  3. Separate squatting and benching as much as possible in the training week. If you are doing them on the same day or close together, squat after you bench instead of vice versa.

Also, I won’t pretend to understand what you’re doing with your training these days, but it looks like you’re figuring a lot of stuff out and doing a nice job. Explain it to me sometime when you get a minute :slight_smile:

Later.

604

[quote]novaeer wrote:
mrodock wrote:
Just logging some little shoulder exercises I did so that I can keep track of what seems to be helping and what isn’t. Don’t be intimidated by the pink dumbbells.

Vertical DB Flyes (very soothing)
5x15x5lbs

DB Flyes (irritated muscle crossing front of shoulder)
3x15x5lbs

Push-ups (tried a few, irritated shoulder at lockout, especially when I tried protracting my scapulae)

Reverse DB Flyes
3x20x5lbs

Band external rotations, scap retractions (mini-band)
3x10

Massaging the shoulder during the day really seemed to help quite a bit. But I probably over did it.

Will do some more silly exercises tomorrow. Some the same, some different.

See if barbell shrugs (not too heavy, of course) help out. They always seemed to do the trick for me when I had similar shoulder issues.[/quote]

Cool man, I’ll give them a run.

605

[quote]Ruggerlife wrote:
Have you taken a look at the Diesel Crew shoulder warm up on Youtube?

I do a variation to warm up my shoulders before every bench, overhead press and squat session. My abbreviated version is basically YTWL’s leaning against an incline (30-45 degrees), for ~10-12 reps each with ~10lbs (started with 5lbs), then I immediately do side lateral raises with 10lbs, then scapula wall slides. This seems to get the blood running through my shoulders pretty good.[/quote]

I’ve seen some of their other shoulder videos but not this one, thanks! I started a warm-up routine after I screwed up the shoulder but I am adjusting it to suit my needs. I’m sure I’ll put some of the Diesel stuff in, thanks again.

606

[quote]Ramo wrote:
Hey Matt:

Regarding the shoulder, the ideas that work best for me have been:

  1. Shoulder Horn. Look at getting one of these things if you don’t have access to one, and use it 2x/week, real light.

  2. Use the SSB where you can in place of the straight bar, and keep the bar off your back where it’s an option, although I understand that often it isn’t.

  3. Separate squatting and benching as much as possible in the training week. If you are doing them on the same day or close together, squat after you bench instead of vice versa.

Also, I won’t pretend to understand what you’re doing with your training these days, but it looks like you’re figuring a lot of stuff out and doing a nice job. Explain it to me sometime when you get a minute :slight_smile:

Later. [/quote]

Thanks for giving your thoughts Ramo!

  1. Have a shoulder horn at the gym, will use on Wednesdays and Sundays with light weight. 5 pounds a good place to start?

  2. Would the slight cambered bar be a good compromise? It kind of sits on my upper back so I don’t have a lot I need to do with my shoulders. Yeah the SSB right now wouldn’t be too great now but I can adjust if necessary.

  3. I do squat and bench exercises on Wednesdays and Sundays. I always bench right away.

My programming for squat and deadlift is based on Sheiko. The plan is to keep increasing volume gradually until it no longer seems to increase strength at which time I will up the intensity and decrease volume slightly. Nothing too special here. But it gets me squatting 2 times a week, some days are double squat sessions with deadlift mid-week. I seem to recover fine from this and it seems to be working.

For bench I am working with Mike T’s Reactive Training System under novaeer’s guidance. I really like the possibilities of this style of training for equipped bench but I just have to figure out how to get healthy.

607

Some shoulder crap:

Scapular wall slides, Gentilcore’s “no money” drill, and some arm swinging thing from “Inside-Out”

Vertical DB Flyes
3x15x5lbs

Face Pulls (2 monster mini bands, 1 for each hand)
5x15

Band Pullaparts (mini band)
4x15

Shoulder still feels kind of tight in spots. None of these exercises aggravated it at all so victory. And mixed in some massage and icing.

608

Week 12, Day 1

Squat (controlled competition/skills evaluation)
1x5x225
add belt
1x3x275
1x2x315
add knee wraps
1x1x355
add suit, straps down
1x2x405
straps up
1x2x455
1x2x500 (45 pound PR, hard)
1x1x545 (38 pound PR, stupid easy)
1x1x565 (gym lift*)

Face Pulls (2 mini bands)
3x20

BB Shrugs
1x15x135
1x12x135

*I call 565 a “gym lift” because it wouldn’t have been passed. I was plenty deep, I squatted the weight up fine, but right after locking out my knees started bending so I would have been called for that. Really bizarre and trying to wrap my head around why it happened.

So it was a successful day in the suit, not only because I hit PR’s, but also because I learned a lot. On my double at 500 I descended extremely slow on both reps. I decided to switch my plan from working up to a heavy double to taking a single or two and being more aggressive. On the 545 I took the advice of my handler from last meet and descended aggressively. It felt absolutely amazing, I had never hit a squat cleaner in the suit. On my next squat at 565 I had a hell of a time getting it out of the rack (rack was probably 1/2 inch too high with how low I was putting the bar on my back) and by the time I got the damn thing walked out I was so exhausted. So perhaps that is why I dipped the knees after lockout. Either way I learned a lot and had some successful lifts.

Shoulder felt pretty funky after all the squatting, no surprise. Not sure if the exercises afterward helped calm things down or not.

609

I think I may have hurt my subscapularis muscle. As I can no longer successfully pass the lift-off test:

“Subscapularis function is assessed with the lift-off test. The patient rests the dorsum of the hand on the back in the lumbar area. Inability to move the hand off the back by further internal rotation of the arm suggests injury to the subscapularis muscle.”

Also when I internally rotate my left arm and raise it against resistance it hurts. Both of these things seem to implicate the subscapularis which incidentally I had surgery on about 5 years ago because a chunk of my humerus had lodged within it, calcified (and grew).

If anyone has rehab ideas, or exercises that should be avoided I would be most appreciative.

610

[quote]mrodock wrote:
I think I may have hurt my subscapularis muscle. As I can no longer successfully pass the lift-off test:

…

Also when I internally rotate my left arm and raise it against resistance it hurts. Both of these things seem to implicate the subscapularis which incidentally I had surgery on about 5 years ago because a chunk of my humerus had lodged within it, calcified (and grew).

If anyone has rehab ideas, or exercises that should be avoided I would be most appreciative.[/quote]

My subscap has been inflamed pretty significantly on a couple of different occasions. When I’ve dealt with it, the only thing that I really changed was to cut out overhead pressing and heavy rows because both of those seemed to aggravate it more than anything else. I continued to bench and as long as I didn’t go too heavy, no problems erupted.

Also, various doorway stretches help quite a bit as will the old stand-by of Advil or Aleve. If you have capsaicin or any other strong liniment, I’d suggest slathering some of that on and keep the area covered with a snug t-shirt or anything else that keeps the heat in.

611

[quote]novaeer wrote:
mrodock wrote:
I think I may have hurt my subscapularis muscle. As I can no longer successfully pass the lift-off test:

…

Also when I internally rotate my left arm and raise it against resistance it hurts. Both of these things seem to implicate the subscapularis which incidentally I had surgery on about 5 years ago because a chunk of my humerus had lodged within it, calcified (and grew).

If anyone has rehab ideas, or exercises that should be avoided I would be most appreciative.

My subscap has been inflamed pretty significantly on a couple of different occasions. When I’ve dealt with it, the only thing that I really changed was to cut out overhead pressing and heavy rows because both of those seemed to aggravate it more than anything else. I continued to bench and as long as I didn’t go too heavy, no problems erupted.

Also, various doorway stretches help quite a bit as will the old stand-by of Advil or Aleve. If you have capsaicin or any other strong liniment, I’d suggest slathering some of that on and keep the area covered with a snug t-shirt or anything else that keeps the heat in.[/quote]

Thanks a lot for the advice novaeer. Hopefully I won’t need too much of it as the shoulder today feels the best it has since I tweaked it 2 days after the equipped squatting.

The things which were bothering it, push-up plus and LIGHT db flyes don’t seem to be irritating it any more. Plus it feels like all or nearly all the inflammation is gone.

So the plan is to bench very light today. 3x3@60% on touch and go bench and floor press. If that all feels fine I will add 10% to those weights on Sunday and do 3 sets of 3. If that goes fine I will start a new RTS mesocycle but the first couple of weeks I will be quite conservative with the volume work.

I’m thinking soft touch bench for my main raw variation and for my second raw variation I’ll do floor presses. Not entirely sure what I will do for the raw supplement yet.

Also I will use the safety squat bar on Sunday, then use the cambered bar for a couple weeks. Maybe I won’t do a straight, low bar back squat until I max out on Sunday October 18.

612

ho man, injuries suck, but what does not kill you makes you stronger. You’ll be fine and coming back for getting a new PR.

Best of luck man.

613

[quote]tuchavito wrote:
ho man, injuries suck, but what does not kill you makes you stronger. You’ll be fine and coming back for getting a new PR.

Best of luck man.[/quote]

Thanks man. Will do.

614

Week 12, Day 2 (Friday)

Deadlift (controlled competition/skills evaluation)
1x5x135
1x5x225
1x3x315
1x1x405
add suit
1x1x455
1x1x475
1x1x500
1x0x520 (just missed in the last inch at lockout)

Bench (soft touch, pinkies on rings)
1x5x95
1x3x120
2x3x145 (60%) [shut it down, felt a little pain in shoulder at lockout, wanted to do 1 more set @ 145]

Shoulder horn
1x15x5
2x15x8

Pull throughs
1x12x100
2x12x150

I decided I wanted to do the deadlift testing today because I really want to start the taper. I thought about doing a few singles at 455, then a week later work up to around 520. But my inner thighs are so damn raw from the squat suit I didn’t want to have to put my deadlift suit on again in a week. After the meet in January I will likely be switching to Titan gear, because Metal is made for people with smaller thighs (at least in the smaller sizes). Considering my level of fatigue I was pretty happy with how I pulled. My technique wasn’t very sharp so I put 520 on the bar so I would MAKE myself do it right. In the end, I think it was hamstring fatigue, not technique that was the problem. My wife took in my straps 1 inch and I definitely was getting really good pop off the floor. Looking forward to what I can do in about 4 weeks.

I’ll retry the bench on Sunday and see if I can do 3x3x145 without pain. Interestingly the warm-up didn’t hurt at all, just started to hurt on the “work-sets” a little.

Bret Contreras’ article “Dispelling the Glute Myth” really inspired me to start working the glutes in isolation. I think rather than Sheiko’s proposed single leg variation on deadlift day I will do some glute work. I want to get to the point with my deadlift where if I can break the bar off the ground I can lock it out. And no I don’t intend to do this by nailing my lockout and neglecting my starting strength.

So the accessory targets in order of importance:

  1. upper back
  2. glutes
  3. spinal erectors
  4. abz

I could like pull-throughs if the weight wasn’t pulling me off-balance. Not sure if there is a good way to combat this.

615

Week 12, Day 3

Squat (cambered bar, beltless)
1x4x215 (50%)
1x3x260 (60%)
2x3x300 (70%)
4x2x325 (75%)

Bench (soft touch, pinkies on rings)
1x5x95
1x3x120
3x3x145 (no pain)

Floor Press
1x4x110 (pain at lockout, abort)

Pull-ups
1x6
3x5

Shoulder Horn
3x25x8

Sumo Good Mornings (beltless)
3x5x205

Saturday

Hip Thrusts (shoulders on swiss ball)
1x10x30lbs
1x10x40lbs
1x10x60lbs

L/Y/T/W
3x8

Shoulder is still a little screwy. I am thinking about relying on shirted bench for my primary bench movement for awhile. I’m thinking the shirt will keep everything tight and lockout will not bother my shoulder. I’m just not sure what to think. I’m also considering to try and find a good physical therapist. Not sure how difficult it will be, I’ve yet to be impressed by a physical therapist to date though.

I suppose I could rely on a day of shirted bench for my actual pressing and then hit my triceps really hard. One raw exercises I could probably do effectively would be paused half bench presses. Maybe there is a more technical name for them, but pausing on the chest, going half way up, then going back down to the chest, pausing, etc. Decisions, decisions.

Those hip thrusts are pretty damn cool. Bret Contreras is a smart guy.

616

Just weighed in over my weight class at 199.0 (195.0 this morning). Pretty happy about this, it wasn’t so long ago that I weighed 145.

617

Do you have any numbers planned when you max in October? Are or you gonna plan it by ear?

618

[quote]mrodock wrote:
Just weighed in over my weight class at 199.0 (195.0 this morning). Pretty happy about this, it wasn’t so long ago that I weighed 145. [/quote]

wow, some people lose weight, others just gain it, the point is to always progress.

congrats man, 50+ pounds??? wtf, pretty good man.

i just hope to be as strong as you when i hit 200pounds.

619

[quote]BlackLabel wrote:
Do you have any numbers planned when you max in October? Are or you gonna plan it by ear?[/quote]

I want to hit a 6 plate equipped squat. But at the very least I want to hit a very clean 565 which I did hit a few days ago, but would have been red-lighted on because of the knee dip after lockout.

As for deadlift, I am a little less certain. I am thinking anything 535+ would be pretty good. So I guess an 1100+ total between the two lifts would make me happy. It will be awhile before I max out on bench.

620

[quote]tuchavito wrote:
mrodock wrote:
Just weighed in over my weight class at 199.0 (195.0 this morning). Pretty happy about this, it wasn’t so long ago that I weighed 145.

wow, some people lose weight, others just gain it, the point is to always progress.

congrats man, 50+ pounds??? wtf, pretty good man.

i just hope to be as strong as you when i hit 200pounds.[/quote]

I’m still relatively lean. I can still see a few abs.

When you are as skinny and undernourished as I was it becomes pretty easy to gain weight once you start lifting and eating!