Rebirth of the Juggernaut: Brute Force and Ignorance (Part 1)

Training Training Logs
41

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
One of the side effects of using the axle is, since it has no knurling or marks on it, my hands go to what they naturally feel comfortable with, rather than going based off of rings/external indications. Might carry over to the bench, or I may have to bring my grip in to save my rotator cuff. Time will tell.[/quote]
I honestly can’t remember what measurements I used (probably the official olympic measurements), but I ended up putting a ring of masking tape where the rings were supposed to be, and the inner collars where those were supposed to be. When I was doing clean and press, I kept favoring my left side, so I needed something to keep myself a bit more centered on the bar.

How did you do your single-leg SSB squats? Was your left leg in front/behind/raised? Did you just squat “normally” but put all the weight on the right?

I’m trying to figure out something for my own left knee. Even with bodyweight, my knees seem to work right until I’m a couple inches above parallel, and then something seems to slide outward under the kneecap. It happens more frequently on the left than the right, but it sometimes happens on both sides. That initial slide is fine, but when I stand back up and it comes back in, it can be a really sharp stabbing pain. I’ve only gotten that on the left side. It then hurts for a few days.

I fiddled with a bunch of squat stuff around that time – foot position, knee position, shoes vs barefoot, “spreading the floor” – but never really found anything. I thought maybe it was because I did too much squatting, and not enough pulling, and so I just went full-bore toward pulling to “even things out” and strengthen my hamstrings. But that didn’t seem to fix things with my knee.

I can probably do some sort of reduced ROM squat fine, and progress that fine. I’ve felt bombarded with the idea that I should be able to do a full ROM squat without pain. And that somehow limited-ROM squats will make things worse.

Any ideas?

42

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
One of the side effects of using the axle is, since it has no knurling or marks on it, my hands go to what they naturally feel comfortable with, rather than going based off of rings/external indications. Might carry over to the bench, or I may have to bring my grip in to save my rotator cuff. Time will tell.[/quote]
I honestly can’t remember what measurements I used (probably the official olympic measurements), but I ended up putting a ring of masking tape where the rings were supposed to be, and the inner collars where those were supposed to be. When I was doing clean and press, I kept favoring my left side, so I needed something to keep myself a bit more centered on the bar.

How did you do your single-leg SSB squats? Was your left leg in front/behind/raised? Did you just squat “normally” but put all the weight on the right?

I’m trying to figure out something for my own left knee. Even with bodyweight, my knees seem to work right until I’m a couple inches above parallel, and then something seems to slide outward under the kneecap. It happens more frequently on the left than the right, but it sometimes happens on both sides. That initial slide is fine, but when I stand back up and it comes back in, it can be a really sharp stabbing pain. I’ve only gotten that on the left side. It then hurts for a few days.

I fiddled with a bunch of squat stuff around that time – foot position, knee position, shoes vs barefoot, “spreading the floor” – but never really found anything. I thought maybe it was because I did too much squatting, and not enough pulling, and so I just went full-bore toward pulling to “even things out” and strengthen my hamstrings. But that didn’t seem to fix things with my knee.

I can probably do some sort of reduced ROM squat fine, and progress that fine. I’ve felt bombarded with the idea that I should be able to do a full ROM squat without pain. And that somehow limited-ROM squats will make things worse.

Any ideas?[/quote]

I’ve been tempted to pre-mark out the axle, but my concern is it hindering me when I compete with an axle that doesn’t have markings. The Ironmind one does, but few competitions use that due to the cost. But if things get real bad, I’ll definitely end up doing it.

For the single leg squats, I’ve been putting the right foot on top of a plyo box (24" I think) and then just letting the left leg hang off the side while I squat down. I go until my left foot hits the floor, and I’ll give it a little bit of knee bend before I squat back up. I also hold on to the side of the rack with my left hand while doing this to balance. I remember Paul Anderson doing something similar in some photos, which is where I stole the idea.

As for your squat situation, my honest answer would be partial ROM squats. I know the full ROM is the bee’s pajamas, but I feel it’s better to get stronger where you can than doing nothing. Other possible options would be reverse band squats to take pressure off that part of the movement, but if it’s happening even with just bodyweight, that won’t do exactly what you want.

Other possible ideas would be box squats, if breaking up the reversal from the eccentric to the concentric reduces knee pain. You could also try concentric only bottom-up squats, but again, that seems like the area where the pain occurs, so you’d have to experiment and see.

Pulling a sled/pushing a prowler would be another amazing leg movement with low knee stress. Squats are dandy, but they’re not necessary.

43


This image was going through my head today. I just love what it stands for. To be so strong to dare someone to attack your weaknesses.

One legged car deadlift simulator
Plate x 5
2Px5
3Px5
4Px5
5Px5

Dropset
6Px2
5Px3
4Px4
3Px5
2Px6
1Px7

Notes: Felt awesome to be lifting something sort’ve heavy again. Balanced out the other side by bracing my hand against the plyo box. Wasn’t quite high enough, so my upper torso was rounded, but was able to fully extend the leg, which was the goal. Next time, I’ll stand next to the prowler and use the post. Just did some visualization and flexing with the other leg. Think I’m going to alternate 1 day of high rep squats and 1 day of heavier stuff to keep things interesting.

Average band leg curls/hamstring flex
4x8/10

Average band leg extensions/quad flex
4x8/10

Notes: ROM is getting better with my healing leg. Able to really move it during these movements. Also, training these like a circuit, going straight from one leg to the other with no rest.

Blast strap fallouts
4x10

superset w/

Neck harness 45lbs
4x25

Notes: Again, as a circuit. Got a great ab pump: never had one of those before.

Reverse hyper (bodyweight)
1x100

Notes: This felt great. So happy to do it again. I think I’m going to SLOWLY add weight to this (like a chip per session) and keep the reps super high.

Band pull aparts
1x100

General notes: Woke up at 184.6. Gait is becoming more natural.

44

Captains of Crush Grippers

Dropset
10x#2
20x#1
20xTrainer

9x#2

36 second hold #2

Notes: Mixing things up, as my hands are feeling pretty swollen from these, and I hit my rep goal with the 2. The dropsets feel great, very restorative and totally blow up the forearms. Throwing them in first was a good way to limit myself through out the rest of the training.

Woke up at 185.4 this morning. I honestly think there is more bloat than weight gain there, as I had some Burger King for lunch yesterday and it tends to do that to me. Getting Subway today, same impact, but still, it’s nice to see the numbers go up.

45

Axle bench

10x axle
10x75
5x115
3x165
3x205
5x220
3x250
5x280
11x220

Notes: Plates kept hitting the uprights on the 280 set. Must’ve not set up far enough away. Couldn’t hit a rep or 2 more were it not for that, but the weight at least felt light in my hands, and I got to chase it pretty decently with the 220 set.

Dips (upright)
5x20

3 way shoulder circuit 15lb dbs
3x15

NG chins
15x15
3x10

Notes: Sets in between everything. Upon review, I forgot to hit the burnout set, but I was feeling pretty toasted at this point, so I think it worked out.

General notes: Woke up at 186.4. Hoping I can hold on to some of that. Plan was to hit the prowler later today, but it’s raining pretty decent, so that might get put on hold.

46


Just stopping in to give a little motivation! :slight_smile:

47

FarmerOwen: If the farming thing ends up not working out, I think you got a future making Valentine’s Day Cards, haha. Always appreciate the support man.

[quote]
I think I’m losing my grip
But I can still make a fist
You know I still got my one good arm[/quote]
-Trent Reznor

AM WORKOUTS

Single leg squats
10x85lbs
8x105
6x125
5x145

Notes: Alternate leg squat visualization/flex. These are becoming more like step ups, but still hammering the leg pretty good. Nice to go heavy again.

Average band leg curl/alternate leg hamstring flex
2x9
2x8

Average band leg extension/alternate leg quad flex
2x9
2x8

Reverse hyper 5lbs
1x100

Notes: Sticking with the plan to move very slow on this. Great way to end the session, really blows up the lower back.

PM WORKOUT

Arm over arm prowler pull 50’
2x unloaded
2x90lbs
2x unloaded

Notes: Love that I can train this event. Still need to figure out a place to get this done on my street. This time, I had a straight path, but the road bulges in the middle and my prowler kept falling into the gutter, making it grind on the pavement and act like the parking break was on. Really hammered my back, but wasn’t great for training technique.

Neck harness 45lbs
1x75

General notes: Woke up at 184.4. Tried to keep the calories high today. Cheat meal was the new Boss Nachos at Taco Bell.

Notice a trend in getting pretty upset on Saturdays. I’ll just be driving somewhere, listening to music, and alluva sudden I’m trying to rip the wheel off the dashboard. These days were always my big training day, and I’m wondering if my body just got used to getting this energy out each week. I’ve got a lot of evil to tap into, I’m going to need an outlet soon.

48

Seated axle press
axle x 5
75x5
115x3
145x5
165x3
185x5
145x10

Notes: Slightly tweaked my neck on the 165 set. Really trying my hardest to be pushing over my head instead of in front of my face. Want this to carry over as best as it can. Really shows that I’ve been slacking on my strict pressing with my focus on push pressing. When I’m back in top form, I’ll have to keep it in the rotation. Might even try to pump up the volume on his if my rotator cuff can handle it. It seems to be getting more and more used to the training.

Dips (forward lean)
1x34
2x33

Notes: Just shooting for 100 in the fewest sets possible each week.

Axle curl dropset
50x35lbs
50x axle

Notes: The 35lbs is 5lbs per side. Going to try to get that to 100 reps total then add more weight.

Band pushdown dropset
50x light
50x mini

Band pull aparts
1x100

Cable rows 110
16x10

Notes: Sets in between sets of everything else. Really focusing on contracting my upper and middle back musculature.

General notes: Woke up at 187.0. I’ve really been pushing the eating back into top form while trying to stay away from pure junk. More fatty meats: burgers and wings. Going to try some nutritional experimenting for the next few weeks where I push my carbs up pretty high immediately post workout on my heavy upper body days and then only eat fats and protein in the afternoon, and then on my 1 non-lifting day I’m going to go super low carb/higher fat. Got nothing to lose at this point, might as well see what I can do.

49

Just read your recent post on your blog, Mythical Strength. How is that everything you post is absolute gold? Keep on the good work and everyone should check out your blog. Can’t recommend highly enough.

50

Beanything: I appreciate that man. The blog has been a very positive experience for me, as it’s really forced me to think about what it is that I do. The self-imposed weekly deadline has done a good job in keeping my mind sharp on the matter, and it’s been just as much about learning for me as it is teaching with others. If there is ever a topic you’d like me to cover, please let me know, and thanks for reading.

Just got back from my first physical therapy appointment. Here are some highlights.

-My physical therapist is shocked I am coming in this late post-op, and insists I should’ve been in ASAP. I told him that I agreed, as did everything I read online, but that the health insurance referral system is pretty stupid.

-That having been said, all the stuff I’ve been doing at home has paid off, because he was pretty amazed at how much ROM I had regained. He said I was much further along than he anticipated I’d be at this point.

-After performing a little bit of voodoo, he was able to get me even more ROM. He was moving my knee in some directions that were hard for me to be psychologically comfortable with, but physically I was having very little issues.

-I cant’ tell if I just can’t feel pain, or if I have a stupid high tolerance, or if I don’t understand what “pain” is, because they were also shocked that I was a 0 on the pain scale, had quit my meds so early post-op, and that they couldn’t cause any pain with their voodoo. At one point they put my knee in a position that triggered a slight amount of pain around the outer edge of the knee, but otherwise, all I feel is pressure.

-I once again blew their minds with my ability to peddle an exercise bike (it’s nice when your standards are so low), so they had me peddle 5 minutes forward and 5 minutes backward.

That was the end of the session. Pretty underwhelming, but hopefully the start of something great.

As a positive, Doc cleared me to get away from crutches, said I can peddle an exercise bike as much as I want, and gave me the go ahead to do some band resisted leg curls with my healing leg. Extension is still off the table. I bought one of those old-people bike peddle things that you can just put on the floor, and I’ll probably use that while watching TV at night, or maybe bring it to the office. Additionally, Doc said he doesn’t think there will be any problems with recovery based off of what he is seeing.

It looks like all the at home work has paid off, and I’m also going to credit all the flexing/visualization I’ve been doing during my training, just because confirmation bias is great.

Going to get on a schedule of 3 days a week for the next 4 weeks. Great to be healing again.

51

Superb news on ROM above mate.

I honestly believe most people say ‘yep I did all the rehab prescribed’, when the truth is more like 10% of rehab is done - at best. The old ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ adage comes to town me thinks for many others out there… Rehab works!

Reads like we both did plenty (although you’ve outdone my efforts 5fold!) compared to the general populace.

6-10wks if I recall correctly and the graft would have healed, so you are almost there on that front. Happy for your progress. Keep the log rolling.

52


Glad to hear how fast and well your recovery is coming along!

53

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
Beanything: I appreciate that man. The blog has been a very positive experience for me, as it’s really forced me to think about what it is that I do. The self-imposed weekly deadline has done a good job in keeping my mind sharp on the matter, and it’s been just as much about learning for me as it is teaching with others. If there is ever a topic you’d like me to cover, please let me know, and thanks for reading.

Just got back from my first physical therapy appointment. Here are some highlights.

-My physical therapist is shocked I am coming in this late post-op, and insists I should’ve been in ASAP. I told him that I agreed, as did everything I read online, but that the health insurance referral system is pretty stupid.

-That having been said, all the stuff I’ve been doing at home has paid off, because he was pretty amazed at how much ROM I had regained. He said I was much further along than he anticipated I’d be at this point.

-After performing a little bit of voodoo, he was able to get me even more ROM. He was moving my knee in some directions that were hard for me to be psychologically comfortable with, but physically I was having very little issues.

-I cant’ tell if I just can’t feel pain, or if I have a stupid high tolerance, or if I don’t understand what “pain” is, because they were also shocked that I was a 0 on the pain scale, had quit my meds so early post-op, and that they couldn’t cause any pain with their voodoo. At one point they put my knee in a position that triggered a slight amount of pain around the outer edge of the knee, but otherwise, all I feel is pressure.

-I once again blew their minds with my ability to peddle an exercise bike (it’s nice when your standards are so low), so they had me peddle 5 minutes forward and 5 minutes backward.

That was the end of the session. Pretty underwhelming, but hopefully the start of something great.

As a positive, Doc cleared me to get away from crutches, said I can peddle an exercise bike as much as I want, and gave me the go ahead to do some band resisted leg curls with my healing leg. Extension is still off the table. I bought one of those old-people bike peddle things that you can just put on the floor, and I’ll probably use that while watching TV at night, or maybe bring it to the office. Additionally, Doc said he doesn’t think there will be any problems with recovery based off of what he is seeing.

It looks like all the at home work has paid off, and I’m also going to credit all the flexing/visualization I’ve been doing during my training, just because confirmation bias is great.

Going to get on a schedule of 3 days a week for the next 4 weeks. Great to be healing again.[/quote]
Awesome news man

54

I love a little competition. Would you be interested in some weighted dips? I know that having an opponent always pushes me farther, and it seems like it may be an exercise you could push pretty hard while rehabbing. Just an idea…

55

Raven78: Much appreciated dude. Your contributions have been very valuable through this process. And yeah, it amazes me how little rehab gets done, and in turn, I always tend to amaze my physical therapist with my recovery because I am way too excited to do ANY sort of training again. My shoulder surgery went the exact same way.

FarmerOwen: Thanks man, and you nailed it. This has been a fun little victory over all my co-workers who told me I was going to be messed up forever and never be the same again and be in agony and all that negative toxic crap. It may be arrogant, but I’m going to take a lot of pride in rising from this experience and being stronger than them both physically and through power of will. I’ve had to tell a few people giving me crap to remember that I’m still stronger than them with 1 leg than they are with 2, so they can just kindly shut the f**k up, haha.

dagill2: Thanks for the support man!

Brady888: It’s a very tempting offer, but I’m actually trying to stay away from weighted dips while I recover. With the unweighted, if I misgroove a rep and end up falling through the eccentric, I’ll land with my bodyweight at the very most, and most likely have better control over it. Once I start adding on weight, my fear is that I’ll land with too much force on the injured knee and compromise my rehab. I’m just using them to build up volume for now, and will most likely regulate them down to assistance work rather than supplemental in the near future once my rotator cuff starts playing nice.

However, if you want to play a game of 100 in fewest sets, I’m game, haha. That’s about where I am these days.

Second day of physical therapy, much more involved than the first. Ended up doing

15 minutes of cycling (5 forward, 5 back, 5 forward)

Strap assisted heel slides/leg extensions 2x10 (20 second hold knee bent, 10 second hold leg straight)

Quad extension/flex 2x10 (20 second hold)

Gastroc/Soleus stretch with a band 3x30 second hold

4 way straight legged raises 1x10 (5 second hold), whole series repeated twice

Prone hang, no resistance (lay on stomach, put towel under knee, let leg hang, 3 minutes)

Standing hamstring curl 1x10 (20 second hold on top, 10 second hold standing with leg straight)

And then 15 minutes of ice/pressure

-Was having a heck of a time getting my leg straight at the very start with the heel slides. I notice that first thing in the morning things are a little tight.

-Despite being delayed to getting into PT, the Docs are pretty happy with the ROM I displayed on everything. Biggest issue we were running into was language barriers regarding exercises. I interpreted a set of 10 to mean perform a rep, relax the muscle, then perform a rep. They instead intend for me to perform the full 10 reps with the muscle contracted the entire time. Good to note for the future.

-Was told that they went easy today, and we’re going to really start pushing things to make up for lost time. I’m excited about that.

-No pain with any exercises, but a little bit of increased swelling, which they told me to watch out for.

Next session in on Thursday.

General notes: Woke up at 187.2 today. Think I’m starting to get a hang on nutrition. Still having fun sort’ve playing around with some ideas and seeing how they unfold. Will train lower body later tonight.

56

Captains of Crush Grippers

Dropset
12x#2
24x#1
24xTrainer

9x#2

12 second hold #2

Notes: Grip was absolutely fried after that dropset. You can see it on the other sets. Seems to be nice on the hands as well.

57


I can’t be killed.

Seated chain suspended SSB good mornings
Bar x 5
155x5
245x5
265x5
295x3
295x5 (belted from here)
315x3

Notes: This brought out some of the evil I’d had welling up inside me. Ecstatic that I found a movement I can really grind with that doesn’t put any pressure on the knee. Just have to focus on only driving with the right leg. Had the bar suspended at the same height that I use for presses. The belt didn’t make much difference, but it felt comforting psychologically.

I’m going to become the seated good morning king while things heal up. I have enough different bars and settings to not get stale with this. Think I might make this an old school Westside style ME day as a result. Will probably need to get smarter and keep the reps higher in the future, but I wanted to feel 300+ on my back again.

Band leg curls (average right, mini left)
4x9

Notes: Got cleared to start doing hamstring curls with resistance, so that’s what I’m going to do.

Average Band leg extensions/quad flex
4x9/10

Blast strap fallouts
2x15
1x10

superset in a circuit w/

Neck harness 45lbs
3x35

Reverse hyper 10lbs
1x100

Notes: Still a great finisher. This might stay in the program regardless, just alternate with heavy stuff.

58

Got a few thoughts in my head I want to get down. Once again, I apologize for the dramatics, but this is my reality.

As I’ve mentioned, as much as I try to keep my cool here, in reality my emotions are all over the place. I thought I was keeping things under control, but when I told my wife how I was feeling, she told me it was pretty obvious. I’ve apparently been getting unreasonably angry about small inconveniences. It really just feels like a dam wall is about to burst with me, and I can feel fire red hot bubbling rage barely contained under the surface. In truth, I don’t even know what I’m mad about. I don’t know if I’m mad that I got hurt, or that I’m not training the way I want to train, or if I just don’t have my normal outlet for these emotions. I wonder if heavy training has been my way of self-medicating away my frustrations, and now that it’s not there, they’re building up.

Probably the more interesting part of this is that I like this feeling. It’s passion, fire hot. I feel hunger like I’ve never felt before, and every time I make the smallest victory in training it just increases the hunger a millionfold. The only issue is there is nowhere to channel it, and the more I let it build, the more it spills out. It’s a tight rope.

Like I said, I’m coming back from this thing evil. I think it’s going to take a long time before the good me can be in control again. I need to focus on directing my rage where it’s appropriate. I need to fight FOR my loved ones rather than with them, and I think it also means that I need to quit taking any shit from anyone else.

On an only semi-related tangent, I’ve been thinking a bit about something I read from Camus. In “The Myth of Sisyphus”, he had a passage that really resonated with me. Much of what Camus wrote about what the inherent absurdity of our existence, and the Sisyphus story highlights it significantly. Sisyphus’ existence is absolutely absurd and meaningless. He is condemned to a task that will never end nor bear any success, rolling a boulder up a hill just to have it roll back down again. There is no meaning, no purpose, no accomplishment.

However, there is a moment that Sisyphus also lives over and over again, and that is the moment immediately after the boulder rolls down the hill. This is the moment where Sisyphus walks back to the boulder, knowing the task he has to accomplish. It is in this moment that Sisyphus exercises freedom, for instead of resigning himself to his punishment, he can instead CHOOSE to push the boulder up the hill again. As he walks back, he acknowledges that his task is meaningless and absurd, and he ALSO acknowledges that he is still going to do it, because it is what he does. He exercises a mastery over the absurd, for he recognizes it for what it is, and chooses to pursue his task in spite of the absurdity, rather than trying to hide from it.

Right now, I feel like I’m walking back to that boulder.

1 Like
59

Hey man, I read your post; pretty intense stuff. Have you thought about doing like a bench-only powerlifting meet? It’d definitely give you a channel to direct said energy/frustrations and your training for now.

60

[quote]TX iron wrote:
Hey man, I read your post; pretty intense stuff. Have you thought about doing like a bench-only powerlifting meet? It’d definitely give you a channel to direct said energy/frustrations and your training for now.[/quote]

Thanks man. Right now, I can’t actually brace my left leg while benching (I bench with my right leg tucked and my left leg straight). I actually think it would be illegal in most feds to bench that way, haha. I do think powerlifting is going to be the first thing I end up competing in, just because the demands are lower than strongman, but it’s going to be a while yet before I can really do something like that.

I never really got the same release from upperbody work that I did from lower, and it might be something I need to address, as maybe that’s what I was better with the latter than the former. I’ve definitely got the time to experiment with it.