You bring up a lot of good points. Most of my best training decisions have been based around doing things that I thought were “wrong”. The sad fact is, the majority of trainees are going to FAIL rather than succeed. This is because the majority of humans are going to fail rather than succeed. In turn, it means that the loudest training advice tends to be the WORSE, as it’s the training advice supported by the many. It’s the advice one DOESN’T hear that tends to actually contain the wisdom in it.
It’s hard going out there with no net, but it can also be liberating.
A nice read. I really like your writing style. While I don’t always agree on your opinion I always appreciate hearing it. I will continue to read in your blog, you should have mentioned it before
Keep it up!
On the subject of disagreement, I have a slightly different take on this than yourself. I agree with Koestriker that, all else being equal, the trainee who completes more perfect training cycles will end up stronger. The issue I would say is that the perfect training cycle doesn’t just rely on programming, but also on the intensity applied to the workouts. In an ideal world, you could run a program with gut busting intensity and zero risk of injury. Unfortunately we have to train in the real world and so one of these two has to give. Those that choose to sacrifice intensity will lose out 99/100 to those that sacrifice safety.
Absolutely correct, and something that took me a while to learn as well. On that topic too, the perfect training cycle pretty much never happens, and in reality there is a lot of damage control that goes on with one’s training. Dan John talks about something like 10% of workouts being awesome, 10% being terrible, and 80% being ones where you punch the clock, and it’s about accurate. Ideally, you walk away from a training cycle with more good than bad workouts, but there is always going to be something to deal with. A lot of times, the ability to figure out how to turn bad into good becomes valuable in these situations.
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I also find injuries tend to provide learning opportunities that simply can’t be obtained by training without injury, such as where one’s limits REALLY are, along with new training techniques learned from working around injury. I never would’ve figured out ROM progression on deadlifts had it not been for a real bad back injury, and in turn that method allowed me to pull 650lbs.
If you’d like to see the fully fleshed out version of this, the blog post was called
“GOOD FORM AND BEING INJURY FREE IS THE PATH TO MEDIOCRITY”
Lifting is dangerous, sure, but driving is far worse, haha"
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Too right. Hell if we rested everytime we had a niggle or sore spot I’d rarely train.
Injured leg? Hammer the upper body instead. etc…
I’ve found some of the best sessions are the ones I’m dreading walking to the gym. Find your zone, grab it by the balls and make it yours…
So any clicking in the knee when walking, etc mate? I’ve found mine is fine now, but every now and then random slight pain, other times randomly will be a bit ‘clicky’ when straightening etc… nothing worse than other mates whose knees have never had an op though.
My knee “catches” whenever I move from a dead stop. Like, while I’m walking I don’t have any issues, but if I come to a stop and then start again, it kind of feels like the knee snaps back into place before I start moving again. It can smart occasionally, but it’s more the shock of that happening that I feel rather than any actual sort of pain. I’ll feel the knee cap slip every once in a while too. It’s all weird, but no pain.
Thanks for checking in. Always good to have someone to compare with.
While I’m here, plan is to push the prowler again tomorrow, and wanted to post my motivation.
Notes: Boiled down to 32 laps of 50’, only pausing to turn the prowler around. My knee felt much better this time around. No slipping or catching. After it was done, there was a little ache and swelling, so I’ll monitor that. Once again, an amazing workout. The first 4-6 laps aren’t much of anything, but after that it starts to suck more and more. Was making all sorts of growls and grunts to get through at the end, and threw in those extra 2 laps just to catch myself off guard. Just going to keep adding distance to this for as long as I can get away with it.
General notes: Woke up at 186.2. Need to get diet squared away. Knee pain on lateral movements seems pretty diminished.
Notes: Found my 2.5 in my car, so it was game on. It’s the damndest thing, as I’ll get my first rep clean and easy and figure I’m good for a few, and then I try for the second rep and getting that last millimeter is a Herculean tasking. Happy to have something more challenging again, just gotta keep the hands healthy through the process.
Went a little crazy with the cheat meal. Panda express, 3 item (double orange chicken and beijing beef) with rice, and then a snack size McFlurry from McDonalds on the way home. First time in my life ever having a McFlurry, and probably the last, haha. Between that and my 2 pop-tarts post workout today I most likely overreacted to my scale weight this morning, but I wanna see the numbers move the other way for a few days.
Seated Chain Suspended Safety Squat Bar Good Mornings
10xBar
5x115
5x155
5x205
5x245
3x295
3x335
3x365
Notes: Did all of these without a belt. Tried to belt up on the 335 set and couldn’t break the weight off the chains. Seemed to be getting in the way. Really feeling a lot stronger on these; I think my rotation of movements is working well. Zero back strain compared to previous attempts. I don’t think 400lbs is too far away, but I still gotta play it safe with the knee.
Not on the video, but I DID try for a 4th. Couldn’t get tight, and didn’t want to risk anything too stupid.
Buffalo Bar Good Mornings 65lbs
1x100
Notes: Oh my god f**k these. I’m pretty sure the only reason I’m doing them at this point is because of how much I hate them. Hardest part is still holding the bar on my back, but it’s beating up my body something fierce.
Blast strap fallouts
4x19
superset in a circuit w/
Neck harness side to side 45lbs
2x25
1x20
1x22
Reverse hyper (bodyweight)
1x100
Notes: With how buggy my knee has been and how thrashed my back got from this workout, this seemed smart. I might even start alternating weighted session on my squat days and bodyweight on my good morning days.
General notes: Woke up at 189.2 this morning. Finally moved the scale the right way. It was an amateur move on my part to go so crazy yesterday, but sometimes you have to be a little stupid.
Man, those good mornings are so fucking cool! I WISH I had a healthy lower back to do those. Anytime I do some kind of low back extension exercise it destroys my lower back for up to several weeks if I’m not careful.
Do you think training the seated GM’s so vehemently is going to make you more monstrous of a deadlifter than you already are when you heal up 100%?
I’ve always been a quiet follower of your log and I really appreciate all of your advice. Your log has taken an even higher importance recently, as I suffered a nasty leg injury myself. Last Saturday I had a skiing accident which left me with an open fracture of my right tibia, which required emergency surgery (intramedullary nail). It was also complicated by a mild bone marrow embolus which left me requiring oxygen for a few days and I needed IV antibiotics because the fracture was open.
I don’t have much information on long term recovery, I just know that I’m not allowed to weight-bear on my right leg for 6 weeks (5 now!) and from what I’ve read full recovery takes around 6 months. I’m still at that very early stage where I’m not managing much at all. The actual pain from the break and from the surgery is totally bearable, but I’m really suffering from tight spasming muscles deep around my hip. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern to it, and it’s absolutely excruciating (although brief). My old lower back pain is also really flaring up, due to the odd position my hip is in while I’m on my crutches.
I’m staying with my parents right now, which is extremely kind of them, but I don’t have any equipment apart from two very light dumbbells. My previous training was pretty much all kettlebells, so very “whole body” if that makes sense, as well as additional upper body gym work (bench press, pull-ups etc). My plan for now is to get about on my crutches as much as I can, and to train my upper body with pull-ups (if I can work out a way to do them) and band work. I don’t want to do seated presses or similar as they will make my lower back worse. Once I get clearance to put weight on my right leg I will just introduce walking, stair climbing and, later on, bodyweight squats.
I was just looking for any ideas and advice while I’m in this very early stage of recovery. I really appreciate your insights, you are a huge inspiration.
Vinny: Thanks for checking in man. The good mornings are exciting enough to keep my interest at least, and are definite ball busters. Shame you run into those lower back issues. You ever try some reverse hypers? Might help out a bit.
I think the seated GMs will at least help me maintain the strength a touch. The mechanics aren’t exactly the same, as the hip hinge is somewhat difficult to hit while seated, but it’s definitely training me to strain and hit my upper/lower back. I think it’ll carry over well to stones too.
Furo: Means a lot to me that you sought me out for this. That sounds like a pretty gnarly injury. I dealt a little with those hip spasms, but I can’t imagine the sort’ve pain you’ve been enduring. You’re a tough dude for sure.
Resistance bands would go a long way I think. Light resistance, very adaptable/portable, and you won’t get killed on shipping. While you’re immobile, you can still hit all sorts of isolation work. Pull aparts, curls, raises, extensions, presses, training the good leg, etc etc. A TRX rig would be beneficial too for future work for similar reasons.
Dips and chins were a big part of my training in the initial phases, since you don’t have to put any weight on the hurt leg to perform those. Gotta get creative with volume manipulation and such.
Are you on pain meds? I noticed my breathing was really short whenever I tried to train on them, so that’s something to monitor for.
Let me know if I can provide anything more specific. I don’t mind sharing my insanity whenever possible, haha.
just read your blog post
thought provoking
but if you look at our lives
life is just one big competition
so every one feels the need to be better than’ every one else’ in something
where ‘every one else’ may be the person next to you
or at an informal competition
or organized compitetion
some way is needed to determine the winner
first person cross this line
or a number
“he who dies with the most toys wins”
One definitely can view life as one big competition, but even in that capacity I would argue that knowing if you are or are not better than someone else would not change the reality of IF you are better than someone else. I find in most cases superiority is apparent without the need for measurement, as it’s something that is simply always present.
Like, I’ve never raced against Usian Bolt, nor have I ever even run the distance that he competes in for a time, yet I still know, even in the absence of competition, that he is a better sprinter than me. His superiority is fact regardless of my measuring of it, all the measurement does is provide a data point about that superiority. Were I a machine, I’d find it valuable, but as a human my experience is a product of my perception.
So it’s less about not having winners/losers and more about how you can’t somehow become a winner just because of the numbers. If your bodyfat percentage is lower than someone elses, but they look leaner than you, no one is going to care about those numbers.
