Damn dude, sorry to hear about your back. Glad you’re pushing through. Kobe Bryant would approve.
Glad you made it back into the gym! I must admit it was really weird not having your log in the top three every single day, loL.
You live on page 1!!
God damn, my tris are sore today, feels like I haven’t worked out in 2 months. Feels good though.
Gonna try to hit up legs this afternoon. I’m thinking trap bar deads or hack squats (with a barbell, not the machine) - one of them might work for not hurting my back. If not, my main movement might be lying hamstring curls.
[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
Good to hear you’re back in the saddle bro…ease back into it and you will be good to go in no time.
Im doing a light deload workout Saturday if you’re interested[/quote]
Sorry man, I think I’m going to shamrockfest (scored free VIP tickets through my girl). If it rains I might not go, but either way I’m gonna work legs tonight.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Damn dude, sorry to hear about your back. Glad you’re pushing through. Kobe Bryant would approve.[/quote]
Haha, thanks man. Good to see you back in the logs section.
[quote]Spock81 wrote:
Glad you made it back into the gym! I must admit it was really weird not having your log in the top three every single day, loL.
You live on page 1!! [/quote]
I guess I do. Partially because I train a lot and partially because I just like to hear myself talk (see myself write?)
You have nowhere to go but up
3/23/12 : Road to Recovery
Trap Bar Deads seemed to not aggravate my lower back, however I will reserve judgment till I see how I look/feel tomorrow morning.
Slowly getting back into things… low volume, not much choice as to leg exercises when you can’t load the spine. Was really tentative on the Trap Bar DLs.
Workout
A) Trap Bar Deadlifts
135 x 8
185 x 5
225 x 5
255 x 5
275 x 5
295 x 5
315 x 3 <— vid to be posted later
B) Lying Hammy Curls
70 x 15
100 x 11
100 x 10
100 x 8
-backed off weight here and focused on form, I got more out of it than I did using 130lbs.
Incline walk: 12-15% incline, 25 mins, 1.2miles
Got VIP ticketes to http://shamrockfest.com/ tomorrow. Free beer all day! Tickets were free. Having a girl who knows people pays off.
Have a good weekend y’all. Doc said to try some basketball this weekend so I will on Sunday.
[quote]spar4tee wrote:
You have nowhere to go but up[/quote]
It would seem so. Thanks bud.
something different.
3/26/12. Upper Body Fuckingaround
Still recovering from the back injury. Feels a ton better this week. Switching to a male doc did me wonders, he uses a lot more force when realigning me, I actually hear things pop, and frankly I now think that frail ass chick wasn’t doing shit.
Still not 100% though, and only doing exercises where my lower back doesn’t feel a thing. This throws out a lot more exercises than you realize.
Workout
A) Floor Press
65 x 5
95 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 5
205 x 5
230 x 3
B1) Lat Pulldown (alternate overhand/underhand)
10 x 10
10 x 10
11 x 8
11 x 10
10 x 8
B2) Bodyweight dips
5 x 10
C) Lateral Raise
25 x 10
25 x 8
25 x 8
The trap DLs look good!
Glad you’re back at things. I also realize that this is futile and I’m being your mother, but please take it slow.
Anyway, looking lean and strong!!
i tweaks my back somewhere new last week so what you’re going through is very informative (and unfortunate =( )
sucks you cant even do chest supported rows wtfff. since you’re looking for leg exercises that won’t load the spine, have you looked into doing a dip belt squat? Ben Bruno wrote an article about it some time ago. basically you wear and load a dip belt, then do a squat while standing on something wide and high enough to give the weights room to come down underneath you. you could probably set up two sets of steps or boxes if your gym has them.
Played 20mins of ball last night per my doc’s recommendation. Everything felt pretty good.
Or at least my back did. If my vertical leap is any indication of strength, I am not looking forward to seeing how much strength I’ve lost. Couldn’t even get my fingers over the rim. Egad.
[quote]cholulalula wrote:
The trap DLs look good!
Glad you’re back at things. I also realize that this is futile and I’m being your mother, but please take it slow.
Anyway, looking lean and strong!![/quote]
Thanks mom.
Trap DLs are much harder than I thought. Thought 365 would be easy. But they are basically like close stance squats with no stretch reflex. I’m sure if I did them a lot they’d be easier.
[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:
i tweaks my back somewhere new last week so what you’re going through is very informative (and unfortunate =( )
sucks you cant even do chest supported rows wtfff. since you’re looking for leg exercises that won’t load the spine, have you looked into doing a dip belt squat? Ben Bruno wrote an article about it some time ago. basically you wear and load a dip belt, then do a squat while standing on something wide and high enough to give the weights room to come down underneath you. you could probably set up two sets of steps or boxes if your gym has them.[/quote]
Yeah, I’m not sure how I would load such a thing though. Plus the weight is hanging from your lower back so it doesn’t seem like the best idea. I had actually thought about it before you posted.
my post got eaten…?
as I understood the exercise, the weight would actually be hanging off your hips and put no load whatsoever on any part of your back.
Went to nephrologist, my BP was mysteriously perfect, like slightly below 120/80 average on three readings. I have no idea why it went down. I haven’t measured it in about 3-4 weeks and it was still 145/92 at the time. My guesses are
1.) Infection, because the high BP came on so suddenly and left just as quick
2.) Lots of small lifestyle changes added up. I’ve been sleeping more, drinking less, eating less fast food, drinking less caffeine, taking CoQ10, doing some steady state cardio
3.) weight loss. Don’t think this is it because I had high BP 4 weeks ago when I was still 210, and my BP wasn’t high when I first started weighing 220+ , it took a while.
4.) Who fucking knows. The body is weird.
I am going to measure myself at home over the next week and see if it was a random reading, or if I’m actually low now (also will test cuff on a roomie to make sure it’s good).
Atlantic City today bitches!!! Get some!
edit - other good news. My girl is interested in starting to strength train. Booyah!
[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:
my post got eaten…?
as I understood the exercise, the weight would actually be hanging off your hips and put no load whatsoever on any part of your back.[/quote]
Yeah but a dip belt rests on your lower back. Plus how the hell would I even set one up? It’s irrelevant though I really like trap bar deads so I’m good for now.
My fucking post got eaten
4/2/12. Getting Back Into It
First real workout in a month. I was super weak… although the weight felt plenty light in my hands, I just couldn’t move it. Probably my body has neurally forgotten how to lift. I haven’t lost bodyweight so I doubt my body is exchanging muscle for fat at a fast pace while I’m eating 300g protein/day.
Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself
Workout
Foam Rolling/Stretching
A) Bench
105 x 5
135 x 5
160 x 3
-work sets-
170 x 5
200 x 5
225 x 3 <–lolol
B1) SSB Squat
bar(85) x 10
135 x 10
175 x 8
185 x 8
195 x 6
B2) Bodyweight Chins
7, 7, 6, 6, 7, 6 (I think)
Conditioning
Prowler - 50lbs x 10 trips x 40m - 11:00
On bench, I used the Fitness First bench apparatus for the first time, and it’s horrible. Plus the knurlings were different than I’m used to so I couldn’t get my grip right… but that shoulda been -1, -2 reps at most. Not -6. Hah.
Also my left leg is way more sore than my right. Either I just was out of practice at squatting or my still-somewhat-crooked upper body is causing an uneven loading on my legs. Not sure yet but I’ll be conscious of it going forward.
Good to see ya back at it man…
4/4/12
So, I really underestimated how much hurtin’ I put on myself when I worked out for the first time in a month. I could hardly walk due to leg soreness but my upper body is usually fine after 2 days rest so I went at it.
Floor press, Dips, anything that required my front delt to hold any sort of load during the eccentric was simply not happening. Apparently my half a bench session tore my atrohpied delts a new asshole. Seeing’s how no compound movements were working at all, I did what I could - arms and abs baby!!! GTL!
A1) Tricep Pushdown
42.5 x 14
50 x 11
50 x 10
50 x 10
A2) EZBar Curls (Standing)
70 x 9
70 x 9
70 x 8
70 x 9
B) Decline Situps
3x11
Since I’m planning on lifting Friday (OHP and either conventional or Sumo DL’s depending how my back feels) I didn’t want to do 8 sets of arms n shit. This was more of a recovery workout. Plus that’s just boring anyway.
Decided to eat my way to recovery for dinner - postworkout meal was 2 mcchickens, mcdouble, snack wrap, fries, full sugar soda and a 50g protein shake afterwards. Haven’t eaten like that in a long ass time. I’m not even grossly full so I think I needed it.
[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
Good to see ya back at it man…[/quote]
Thanks bud, good to be back
4/6/12 (yesterday)
I could still hardly walk yesterday just from the Safety Bar Squats and prowler Monday. I get horrible leg DOMS and it’s way worse when coming back off a layoff. Like an idiot, I lifted legs though… despite being stiff and sore all day, the stiffness went away once I was working out and I can deal with pain, so I did some light stuff.
I’ll get back on a real split next week, this was more or less just getting SOME sort of work in, so I played around with shit I don’t normally do
I kept the volume really low since my body is clearly not ready for it yet.
Tried Sumo DL for the first time, figuring it would be easy on my lower back. These blow with long legs, plus my adductor/abductors (whichever is on the inside of your leg haha) is super weak and tight, so I couldn’t get low enough, ended up doing this weird half-conventional looking dead that tweaked my back so I stoped before it got heavy
A) Standing OHP
65 x 5
85 x 5
105 x 5
115 x 5
135 x 5
155 x 5 <-struggled with this lol. Layoffs blow.
B) Incline Bench (haven’t done in forever)
135 x 8
155 x 8
165 x 6
–did about 7 sets of bodyweight chins in there
C) Sumo DL
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
255 x 5 <–called it
D) Convention Deadlift
225 x 1
Wanted to test how a conventional dead felt. First time doing one since I hurt myself doing them. Frankly, even 225 scared me. Went up easy but the lift felt like something I had never done before, like taking 4 weeks off made me totally a beginner. Weird. Anyway, my spine felt fine, but I got this weird pain on the side of my back, so I’ll be doing Sumo Deadlifts off blocks next training cycle.
4/9/12.
So, I am back to 5/3/1 for upper body lifts. I knocked my training maxes on OHP/bench back by 20-30lbs to deal with my recovery to form. It seemed to be the right amount for bench at least. Hopefully I will just need one cycle with these low maxes to regain my strength.
For Lower body, I am going to try front squats and sumo deads off blocks. I don’t know my maxes so I am going to something resembling 5/3/1 - I’ll work up to a heavy set of 6-8 on 5’s week, heavy set of 5ish on 3’s week, and a heavy triple on 1 week.
I do not think I’ll be pulling conventional for a good while based on how that one 225x1 felt last week.
Workout
A) Bench
95 x 5
120 x 5
140 x 3
-work sets-
155 x 5
175 x 5
200(5+ ) x 8… coulda grinded out 1 more if I had a spotter. Was hitting 225x8 before I hurt myself. Sigh.
B1) Incline Bench
135 x 10
155 x 8
175 x 5
175 x 5
B2) Chins
bw x 4 sets
B3) Face Pulls
Plate #3 x 15-20 x 4
Good quick workout.
I am considering going on a feeding frenzy for 6 months. I wasn’t happy with my strength levels before hurting my back and am far more unhappy after not training for a month.
patience grasshoppa. Give it a little time and you’ll be back.
Sounds exciting about the girl wanting to train. Is she recruiting your help?
I forgot to tell you this the other day, but I credit the ab wheel with helping me rehab my back injuries and preventing them almost entirely for over a year now (knock on wood).
I forgot to mention, but I have good news: I can stand up straight in front of a mirror with absolutely no sideways lean anymore. thank god.
The musculature around my spine is still tight as hell, hence my conventional DL mishap. However the spine itself seems to be in perfect working order.
[quote]cholulalula wrote:
patience grasshoppa. Give it a little time and you’ll be back.
Sounds exciting about the girl wanting to train. Is she recruiting your help?[/quote]
You’re alive? I need to head back to your log then.
I am going with her on Friday to help her. She doesn’t know what I have in store. I’m going to teach her how to safely do the big 4 (I’m guessing she’ll mainly need squat/dead pointers), and I’ll write her a program if she wants me to. Not being pushy.
[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
I forgot to tell you this the other day, but I credit the ab wheel with helping me rehab my back injuries and preventing them almost entirely for over a year now (knock on wood). [/quote]
Ab wheel is the only thing I like doing for abs. Big fan.