I’ve had to see my PT three times now in fewer months because this keep happening. First time I had no idea what happened, second I was getting up with dumbbells still in hand from a flat DB bench and this time this. It’s as if my spine just can’t deal with being in flexion anymore. I’d have accepted it if loaded flexion was out, but I should be able to do v-ups.
I’m hoping I just aggravated an old injury slightly, so that by Monday it’ll feel better. Otherwise I’ll have a phone call to make. It’s crazy how draining back pain is. It was cutting my days short by two hours (as in, I’d fall asleep two hours earlier than normal).
Saw my PT before my training session, he “fixed” my back to the extent that I can now at least hip hinge and try to remain tall without being in pain.
Furthermore, we had a first look at my shoulder. At the moment, my scalenes are so tight that it was difficult to establish the cause of my pain and so he requested I’d incorporate some stretches 2-3 times a day to relax my scalenes and stay away from barbell benching and replace that with DB benches until our next appointment which is Thursday the 23rd.
And thus, my session,
DB Bench @ 32/h
8
6
6
7
6
Press 3x8-12
11@35
8@35
10@35
Dips 3x8-12
12@15
9@15
8@15
Rope Triceps Extension 3x8-10 (ss: Cable Curl)
I’ve been thinking about maybe reducing the number of worksets on the main lift to 4 to be a bit more time efficient in the gym.
Uhm, stallish. But still pretty DOMS-y in my legs from Sunday, and my scale-weight isn’t exactly moving up so I’m not going to fret about this. Less than 7 hours sleep too. Again, I’m probably doing these maybe a tad too heavy, as evidenced from set 2.
2m30s rest is not a lot either.
Front Squat 4x4-6 (8s eccentric)
4x5@50
Week 2: 5-8 second eccentric with 3 sec pause at midrange of eccentric motion
These sets were fantastic.
Bent-over Row (parallel to floor) 3x10-12
12@50
12
10+2
Yesterday I made a lot of progress on my front-splints, excited I figured I’d follow up today. Didn’t feel stable, and as I tried to come out of the bottom of the my stretch I lost my balance. Still in pain an hour later. Fortunately, squats are on Sunday and not tomorrow. Hoping it’ll have healed up by then and not be anything more severe.
To answer some questions I’d ask,
is it tender to touch? No
is there a pronounced muscle weakness? No
swollen? No, not yet
red? No
all muscle bodies there still? Seemingly, did a side by side comparison
tight? Absolutely
pain? Was sharpish during the event, gnawing after.
Unfortunately, its almost bedtime so no room to stay moving. Just hoping I had enough protein and carbs to flush some nutrients there.
Doing a hamstring curl against a hard surface feels okay in the hamstring, pain doesn’t worsen, but radiates somehow to my front hip flexor (but more in the joint).
Good thing about sleep is I’ll be leaving it alone, and not trying it out every second.
Not a lot worse when compared to last time, but compared to my second to last time (Nordic Blood: Climbing And Lifting / Lifting And Climbing - #984 by Voxel) I’m not too happy. I chalk it up to fearing for my hamstring, as in I feared that if I exploded too harshly with my legs I’d make it worse.
Close-grip Bench 3x10-12
12@60
9@60 Good MMC
8 @ 60
Just to continue the discussion over here, so as to avoid cluttering up @Pinkylifting log.
I was mostly joking about the Dave Tate diet plan, I would never advise that to anyone.
I think that while we have similar backgrounds (I’ve also been “larger”, more than once in fact), we have very different mindsets. I hate “medium” with a passion, I find it the most difficult way to operate. I’m all in or all out naturally. What that means for diets is extreme cuts or extreme bulks. In training, its extreme program after extreme program. I’ve had to accept that with my age and my lifestyle (and history of fatty mcfat-ness), I need a lot more medium in my life. It’s a work in progress.
You seem exactly the other way, if i read it correctly. You seem big on controlling every detail to ensure incremental gains. I appreciate that mindset, and I think you’ll benefit from it long term however, allow me to drop one thing in there. Life isn’t 100% controllable, certainly when it comes to energy expenditure and recovery. Now if you’re going for an extreme approach, that doesn’t matter. If your gaining on 6kcals a day (Wendlers recommended diet for BtM), little things, little variations, just don’t matter. If you’re gaining 200g a week though, you’re relying on every single thing being accounted for perfectly and I’m just not sure that’s realistic.
Just my 2c, as someone who’s never been “camera ready” without the benefit of youth.
Ironically, I would. To whom? Someone at 270 pounds hellbent on gaining more.
I used to be this way. In a sense, I still am. What I’m doing is also extreme. Extremely detailed. There’s nothing medium, or sensible, with weighing in every day or planning to this extent. It’s just another articulation of extreme.
I’m not sure about it being realistic, and to be perfectly honest I don’t want to be on that edge for long. I’d like to start with 200, and build from there. Why? I’m skewing towards the lower end first as to not succumb to any tricks my mind might play on me.
I got the ballpark from many articles on T-nation that gaining between 200-450 grams per week is pretty appropriate. I’ll happily accept falling anywhere within that range, preferably somewhere inbetween the middle and the high end. It’ll take me over 100 weeks to reach my goal weight if I’m stuck at 200g/week. I’d rather get there in 60 weeks, and spend 40 weeks at that weight. Then maybe cut, and gain it back again.
Your basic premise makes sense to me. I worry about what happens when your plans meet the real world. Maybe I live a more chaotic lifestyle than you though.
How are you measuring your weight gain? I assume you have to use some level of statistical analysis to get account for the various fluctuations that occur naturally.
I measure my weight everyday on waking. I want the weekly median to go up. It has not. I don’t even need to extract the values and put them into anything yet, it’s that evident that my weight is stalled (or moving down). All last week, all weights were above 76 kilos. This week, I’ve seen 75.X on the scale twice.
I’ve posted this before but feel it could be relevant with your current discussion.
This is a little thing I made up when trying to explain eating to gain muscle to someone before, bit random but I think it sums it up.
Every day you are given a coconut (the coconut represents muscle) you obviously want to eat this coconut (build muscle).
Every day you have one shot at getting into the coconut, you have a few tools at you disposal. A very small hammer and sledge hammer.
If you take the small hammer, every now and again you may get a lucky shot, get the coconut and have very little to tidy up. But some days you will miss out.
Now if you take the sledge hammer, you will almost certainly be getting into the coconut. Your guaranteed to be doing all you can to make sure you get it, yes you may have a bit of tidying up to do afterwards but you will get the rewards.
