GIANT SETS (press/dips OR BTN press/dips-raise-pull aparts)
Axle strict press 146/dips
3x10/failure
BTN press 120/dips
2x10/failure
1x9/failure
DB lateral raise 20s
1x12
5x11
Band pull aparts
6x15
CONDITIONING
Juarez Valley Burpees 10 w/5 chins (various grips) between sets (totals 55 burpess and 50 chins)
Notes: I always forget that, if I start a workout of the supplemental work, it takes about 2 rounds before I’m really “warmed up”. First sets were rough, and I forgot to close my belt on the first set of presses, but after that I was firing on all cylinders. Connective tissue has been real achey lately: I imagine long hours, short sleep and training first thing upon waking is a part of that. I like the conditioning workout I came up with. Seemed like a good idea to not have an external load on my body for that one. Gonna try to break up my deadlift day into a back day in the morning and maybe max effort in the afternoon tomorrow, as I get to go back to 8s for a day, but we’ll see how it shakes out.
FWIW, connective tissues: glycine (3-5g), gelatin (5-10g), or collagen powder (5-15g) are all supplements where I’ve actually noticeably felt a difference in how my body feels when I supplement with it… not counting rhodiola and stuff.
Even though what you list are reasonable culprits it might be worth supplementing during those periods in your life to reduce risk of injury. Or you know exactly how hard you can push when they are achy
Actually, to expand on that, I was thinking about it walking into work today (since I was feeling the pain in my knees on the stairs), in that this is the “floating pain” Brian Alsruhe has talked about. Previously I wrote about how my hips were bothering me. They no longer do. Pain migrated to the elbows for a bit. Now it’s in the right knee. Being “pain free” is pretty much never in the cards, so long as I keep training, but as long as it’s moving around and doesn’t stay in one place for too long, it’s never really a big deal.
I will say that for knee pain, collagen powder worked well for me. Don’t really need the sleeves even except for preventative measures on volume days for squats and deads. But I get it, my knees no longer hurt as much but now my shoulder is killing me.
I didn’t initially do it for knee pain. I have a ton of crepitus in my knees. Allegedly the collagen helps lubricate joints like the knee. I’m just trying to prolong not having to have surgery. But to my surprise it actually helped with the pain. So hopefully its doing something good there. Also protein that I can put in my black coffee is a plus.
It is weird now at 38 because I don’t remember this being a problem a few years ago, but when you wake up and walk to the bathroom, how much noise all of your joints make. Any joint involved in walking…pops creaks and cracks. I wake the wife up all the time. I feel bad but not much you can do.
CIRCUIT (no rest between sets) of chin-abs-chin-hyper-chin-neck repeat
Chins (all the grips)
10x10
6x5
Standing ab wheel
5x5
Reverse hyper (bodyweight)
5x10
Neck harness 55
5 sets
Axle rows against bands (1 minute rests between sets)
2x10 against short light bands
1x14, 1x12, 1x10 against doubled light bands
Axle shrugs against short light bands
1x51
Kroc rows 115
1x23
Band pull aparts
1x50
Tabata trap bar pulls 135
GHR
1x30
Notes: Final pre-work workout of this series of shifts. That nerve pinch from the axle pressing a few days ago still has me pretty jacked up, but after a few sets of chins things felt better. The circuit was more just to get my daily work knocked out and find a way to provide “rests” between sets that are more traditionally afforded to me via swapping out plates. Worked well enough, and upon writing it out I realize I actually did more reps than needed to hit my daily totals on ab wheel and reverse hyper, so that’s cool.
Reduced the band tension after 2 sets of the rows, as it was too much to really get in a good feel for the back work. It’s the right RX for the shrugs though. Really lit me up. I also realized how accidentally smart I am, because the only reason I use the axle is because it’s smooth and doesn’t chew up bands the way a knurled barbell will, but it dawned on me that the larger diameter of the axle is most likely why my elbows aren’t pissed off from all the band work. Funny how things shape up.
Speaking of pissed off, my right knee felt fine this morning going down the stairs, but eventually started to ache during the workout. Thinking I may have strained the ACL. It’s getting better, but still something I’m keeping my eye on.
I owe some sort of max effort and supplemental work still. With it being so early, I didn’t wanna be doing deadlifts and waking up the house. May break out the new gateway gear from Spud I got.
@TrainForPain nah, this is the right knee. Left knee is doing alright. It’ll ache, but not near the surgical site.
PM WORKOUT
MAX EFFORT
(1) Elevated High Handle Trap Bar Pull
5x135
5x225
3x315
1x405
1x495
1x585
1x635
1x655
1x635
Deficit Deadlifts REST PAUSE (12 deep breaths between reps)
(5) 12x325
(4) 7x325
(3) 6x325
(2) 6x325
(1) 5x325
(Floor) 5x325 (stripsets from here)
7x255
10x165
20x95
Notes: Got in the rest of yesterday’s workout, and restraining myself from doing anything else because I’m going to squat tomorrow. This was a solid effort. That deficit continues to get silly. I barely have room to set up my straps at the start. I’m still pretty much stiff legging it, so it’s murdering my hamstrings. The max effort delivered as needed: I’m exerting myself maximally. I most likely need to get a little more intelligent with it. Might go back to that alternating scheme I had before. I feel healted up enough. Could be a good excuse to use my gear.
The number in parenthesis represents the amount of mats. So for today, I had 1 mat per side under the plates on the trap bar pulls and I was standing on 5 mats at the start of the deficit pulls.
@anna_5588 For me, it would mean selecting movements based on their ability to make me stronger, vs selecting movements based on my willingness to do them. The trap bar has been a good implement for exerting myself, but I’m not employing much variety.
@heretolog awesome dude! They have a ton of utility.
This is the holy grail for success in sports. Or pretty much sucess in everything but strictly hedonistic pursuits. Even there a little bit of farsightedness will often result in greater joy.
Way to digress: You just perfectly summed up the main reason why people (who have at least a little bit of knowledge themself) make so much more progress when they are coached vs. plan their own training.
I am very much one of them. While I do coach other people successfully.
