Notes: For some reason, my left hand always has an easier time with the rolling thunder, while my right is better with the grippers. Still, really pleased with my performance on this. Broke the 200lb mark without really having any idea what the hell I’m doing. Might actually have a future with this movement.
Oh yes, and cheat meal was pretty light this week. 3 item Panda Express: Double orange and teriyaki chicken, mixed veggies, and then a McFlurry for dessert. Was planning on getting a Shamrock shake, but they weren’t serving them yet. Might allow myself to eat a little dirtier this weekend.
Ok that’s really helpful thanks! I thought it was more an issue of the horizontal forces involved in swings vs the purely vertical forces in a deadlift (at the lower leg). But it’s more an issue of choosing an exercise that’s less catastrophic to fail at? Thanks for all of your help
Furo: You got it. The graft/ACL is still pretty weak all things considered, and due to it’s vital role in lateral movements/stablizing the knee, they’re keeping me away from anything fast, explosive and dynamic. I technically won’t be allowed to return to any sort of sports for another 3 months minimum. With your issue being a bone break, I imagine it won’t be quite as restrictive in that capacity, but that’s just speculation.
Notes: The warm-ups felt heavy, and then that set of 11x275 came out of nowhere. I was planning on 8, so it was a pleasant surprise. It also meant I pretty much blew my wad and had nothing left for that set of 215, but I’d rather have a stronger showing with the heavier weight. In ROM related news, I can easily get my left foot in the benching position that allows for leg drive. I’m still not willing to use much, but it’s nice to get back in the groove.
Dips (upright)
1x45
1x25
1x15
3 way shoulder circuit 20lbs
3x15
NG chins (various widths)
14x25
2x15
Notes: Sets betweeen sets, as usual. Got what felt like a touch of tendinitis in the left elbow at the start of the workout, but was able to move around it as needed with these.
PM Workout
On top of my physical therapy, I did 1 set of 50 walking lunges (50 per leg, so 100 total). Left patella felt a little achy at the end, but graft and knee tendinitis was fine.
General notes: Woke up at 191.8. Ate a little dirtier for lunch (more Taco Bell). Weight and bodyfat seem to be moving the way I want, so I’m getting a little looser with the diet. Getting a little stir crazy trainingwise, might start doing more 2 a days.
Notes: First time in a while squatting in the morning. Been getting lazy and putting my training off until the evening for a bit on this, just because I honestly can’t get too excited about squatting on just one leg. Brutal workout, made it all the way through. I’ll be upping the weight again, but I am hoping that my future will soon allow for me to squat on both legs. I know the weight will be light, but it will be something.
Axle deadlifts 60lbs
1x100
Notes: Since the squat workout is so high rep, I think I’m going to keep this a set of 100 each week and use my good morning workout as the time to push for rep PRs. Might even be stupid and very slowly increase the weight on this each session while keeping the reps constant.
Blast strap fallout hold
2:30
Neck harness 65lbs
50-20-15 (rest pause)
Reverse hyper 25lbs
1x100
General notes: Woke up at 191.6. Think I am finally solidly in the 190s again. Knee is all around kinda achy and swollen, but the graft area feels fine. I imagine most of the issues I’m dealing with these days are more related to the meniscus and fracture in the patella versus the ACL. Shoulders kinda bugging me too, not sure what’s going on there.
Notes: Still not really getting out the results I had before, but I imagine how hard/frequently I have been hammering the forearms plays a role. This is the issue I faced with grippers in the fast: I’m able to peak up to a pretty decent showing real quick, but if I want to really push far into heavy territory I have to invest far more time and energy than I really want to. I feel at this point that trying to seriously pursue the 3 would take away from my other training. Still, I plan to keep doing these until something more interesting comes along, and most likely focus more energy on the rolling thunder.
General notes: Woke up at 190.6. Have to attempt to not freak out and overeat to compensate, as it’s most likely just a small fluctuation. Had some GI issues yesterday, but seems to be sorted out.
A general note for both you and furo, inspired by your above comment…
“Knee is all around kinda achy and swollen, but the graft area feels fine. I imagine most of the issues I’m dealing with these days are more related to the meniscus and fracture in the patella versus the ACL.”
Some context: I broke my femur when I was 15 (in the last wrestling tournament of the season). Casted for eight weeks and then in a brace for another four. While I was in the cast, I did a whole lot of what furo is doing - whatever stupid upper body things I could make up just to get some exercise. Once out of the cast, I was allowed to start riding an exercise bike and then got the underwhelming PT regimen of “leg curls, leg extensions, and leg presses” - so invariably I would push myself a little bit outside of my PT appointments, because I didn’t feel that this was bringing me back quickly enough for my liking.
Every few days I would wake up feeling a bit like you describe above - something in my leg would ache fiercely and I’d half-panic, wondering if I had re-injured my leg somehow. In hindsight, it was not so much that I had aggravated the actual INJURY (the broken femur) so much as I was finally “working” my entire leg again, and all sorts of niggling stuff came up as the whole leg re-adapted to actually, you know, carrying weight and exercising. So you have hit on a really key point here - during injury recovery, it’s important to pay careful attention to whether soreness is an indicator of a problem with the recovering area, or if it’s supporting structures around the area that are saying “Whoa, hey there, we’re still trying to play catch-up after a couple weeks off too.”
TX_Iron: Way back when I was heavy into grippers around 2007 or so they started to bother my elbows. I believe the issue was that I was going too heavy too often: always training with the heaviest gripper I could for low reps. It’s actually why I’m doing so much more rep work this time around, as it seems to be sparing the elbows. Besides, it’s making my forearms jacked, haha.
ActivitiesGuy: I appreciate sharing that insight. It’s been great getting a lot of data points on this. I like to say I am talented at being injured, but there really is a lot of value to be had in having experience. Like you noted, you get to kind of understand what’s going on under the hood.
Axle strict press
5xAxle
5x75
15x5x135lbs
superset in a circuit w/
D-ring lat pulldowns 90
18x10
Notes: Went non-stop the entire time, bouncing from one movement to the next and back. Really felt it that way, and the pulldowns were just the right intensity to match.
Axle curls
1x300
Notes: Just hit my goal of matching Derek Poundstone’s 300. However, his was done on the Ironmind axle, and I rested in the up position versus the down, so now I have more goals to shoot for. Forearms are obliterated between this and the grippers.
Thanks man! I scoped out your log the other day and saw that awesome log you built for yourself. You put my ingenuity to shame when it comes to work arounds man, good stuff.
Alright alright. That makes sense. I just got some #1s for Xmas. Reps are still low but I’ve been going high frequency until my elbows got pissed. Should’ve got the trainer!
Nice work on the 300 axle curls
EDIT
Check out “how and why you should be training your central nervous system” on Outside’s site. Obviously you’ll already know about a bunch of it, but it’s a good read. Focuses on crossover adaptations of single limb training.
I apologize for the incredible lurking I’ve been doing. I’ve enjoyed your log immensely, partly because I’m interested in strongman and partly because I’m a student physical therapist and your rehab approach has been refreshing. I hope you recover fully soon.
I read another thread about 5x5 straight or ramped but I didn’t want to hijack it with my question. I’ve been using 5/3/1 for a while but am interested in the ramp sets. When ramping with an exercise do you just work up to the rep max of the day and treat each day separately, try to beat that number every week, or rotate exercises?
TX_iron: The trainer is honestly the most valuable gripper I own. Aside from training stimulus, it’s the gripper I always use for warm-ups. Definitely worth the investment, but if push comes to shove, you could always just pick up a department store one for cheap. It’ll be lower than the trainer (more around the guide or sport level), but still something. Couple of other companies make grippers out there for a few bucks less, but no real deals to speak of. And thanks for the kudos on the curls; it wasn’t much fun, haha.
I’ll make sure to give that article a read. Sounds right up my alley.
Roran: Glad to have you reading along. I’ve enjoyed my time as a case study for physical therapy, haha. I’ve got a few folks in that field that have been observing my progress, and it’s been nice to provide some evidence of other approaches.
Honestly, if you’ve been doing 5/3/1, you’ve already got experience with ramping. Jim built it into the program. On your 5s, 3s and 5/3/1 day, you ramp up to a top set. The only difference is that with Jim’s approach, you’re ramping toward a rep PR, whereas for the old school ramping 5x5, the reps are fixed and you’re ramping toward a weight PR for the day (so not an all time PR, but more just the best set of 5 you could’ve hit for the day).
What you should observe with such an approach is a general TREND upward over a period of time, but not necessarily constant linear progression like what is promoted with things like Starting Strength and the like. Some days you might not have it in you, other days it’s a great day and everything fires well, but by the end of the year, your general poundages should be up, just like how with 5/3/1 you’re either generally hitting more reps or more weight (or both), even if some days you just don’t have it.
I will fully confess that I have no experience specifically with the ramping 5x5 approach; this is mostly just my own understanding of how the process SHOULD work.
Seated Zercher Axle Good Mornings off Pins (SZAGMOP for short, pronounced phonetically)
5xAxle
5x75
5x115
5x165
3x205
1x255
1x295
1x345
2x385
Notes: The stars aligned tonight. Everything was feeling good and I decided to really see what I could do. It’s pretty amazing to see how little my knee comes into play on this; on the second rep you can actually see my feet leave the floor while I finish the movement. Will have to see if I blew out all my capillaries later.
Deadlifts 60lbs
1x170
Notes: Felt my lower back on the right side cramping up pretty good. Gotta focus on technique.
Blast strap fallouts
1x100
Reverse hyper 25lbs
1x50
Notes: Right hamstring wasn’t liking this, so I played it smart.
General notes: Woke up at 191.6. Been having real bad GI issues; realized I took a naproxen the other day. There is a clear correlation between the two. I need to quit taking them, might even just throw them out of the house to keep from accidentally doing it. They work great to take away inflammation, but it’s not worth this.
Roran: No problem man. I appreciate the question. Thanks for following!
Furo: Yeah, I’m hoping this is the last reminder I need to quit using it. It is at least reassuring to hear that you’ve come across this a lot. I’m going to continue monitoring and, if the problems don’t resolve, I’ll get it looked at, but otherwise I think I know the cause. Always appreciate free medical advice, haha.
Lol no worries at all man. It’s funny how legal status/common use affects perception of drugs, but common basic painkillers can be pretty brutal at times. I’ve seen a previously fit and well 40 year old man with a potentially life-threatening GI bleed from taking regular (but normal dose) ibuprofen for several weeks. Just something to be aware of, not trying to fear-monger haha. NSAIDs kick ass at what they are meant to do, just handle with care.
Furo: Thanks for that man. It’s interesting, as I’ve always taken ibuprofen, and though I never got the GI issues, I also never really “felt” it working. I started taking naproxen because it was the first time I took an NSAID and actually felt pain relief from it (real bad soft tissue issue in the glute). I was taking 2 a day with zero GI issues and was pain free. Then after a while the GI would flare up, so I lowered the dosage and only took 2 on bad days, and then only would ever take 1. Now, if I take 1 EVER, I’m suffering for about 3 days. Time to go back to the ibuprofen I suppose, haha.
Prowler (high handles)
10x180’
Notes: Been dry, so friction was high. Front ski kept skipping, and I’ve got a slight cold that made breathing tricky. So even though this was less distance than last week, it was a much more challenging workout. I am hoping I get the clear to start really loading the knee soon, because it would be nice to actually put some weight on the prowler and throw in some more challenges. Still, this has been awesome for my recovery in general.
General notes: Woke up at 190.8. Appetite has been diminished. Today is the cheat meal day and I’m not really feeling anything. That said, current way forward plan is to up my post workout carbs (from 1 poptart to 2) and see how that goes. That’s broken me out of weight gain slumps so far.
Notes: Tried for 210 but couldn’t get it off the ground. The set of 185 was solid though, so I think I’m going to try to progress back up with higher reps and see if that breaks the plateau.
Figure I’ll talk about some dreams I’ve had recently. Last night I dreamed I was the Juggernaut of Marvel Comics fame, but it wasn’t really very dramatic aside from that. I’ve most likely just committed to being the character for so long that it’s become infectious. However, more interesting was the night before.
I was in a dimly lit house, and for some reason I had this understanding that, if the lights went out, a vengeful ghost would invade the house and come after me. Sure enough, the lights went out, the ghost burst through some sort of saloon style/Japanese sliding doors and came after me.
I figured this was the time it was supposed to be a nightmare, but instead of being afraid, I grabbed the ghost by the face and just started screaming all manner of obscenities at it. Just a barrage of profanity “FK YOU FK YOU F**K YOU”, my thumbs in it’s mouth, feeling it’s teeth chewing on them (I’m aware of the incorporeal nature of ghosts, but I guess my subconscious needs a refresher). That’s when I woke up.
At first I just laughed it off, but if I want to engage in some revisionist dream interpretation, I’d like to think that the ghost was the representation of the fear of re-injury. I know it’s looming, and as soon as I let my guard down it’s going to come, but I’m too pissed off to let it get me.
