[quote]N522PB wrote:
I hate stretching… can never be arsed to do em.
how long to you stretch for on average?
[/quote]
As far as the Doggcrapp stretches, you are supposed to hold them for about a minute (if you can).
In general, I stretch for a few minutes in the morning and a few minutes when I get home after my SMR stuff. Nothing crazy. Just stretches for the areas that I feel need it.
Saturday 11/08 - Shoulders and calves
Pre-workout I did the DeFranco upper body series and then my usual SMR stuff for my calves and glutes.
Cuban rotations: 40 x 8, 45 x 6,6,6 - Did these with a wider grip these time, which made it tougher, but I felt it more in the shoulders.
Behind-the-neck Smith Machine Press - 135 x 5, 140 x 5, 145 x 5, 150 x 5,5 - Felt like changing up this week. These actually felt pretty good on my shoulders. I wanted to use the other Smith machine which would have allowed me to use and even wider (snatch) grip, but some dude was doing like a million sets of bench press in the other Smith machine.
One of the odd things he was doing was that he had all the weight we was planning on using stacked in little pyramids on both sides of the machine. If he needed a plate from the bottom he’d neatly unstack and restack the pyramid before continuing. He was probably taking a good 5 minutes between sets as a result and was still doing them when I finished my workout and was leaving the gym.
Sorry, I got sidetracked…
Seated Laterals/DB Side Row superset: 50 x 11/11,11/11,11/10,11/9
Rear Delt Machine: 145 x 8,8,8,8
Side Raises on slant board: 22.5 x 13,9,8 - I did these a little different this week, which is why there was a big drop off in number of reps I did
Rope Crunches: 80 x 8, 90 x 5,5
Carl’s Calf Raise: 180 x 15,12,14
Tibialis raises: 80 x 17,11,11
Monday 11/10 - Quads and calves:
Did the usual SMR and mobility crap this morning and pre-workout.
Front Squat: 215 x 3,3,3,3, 225 x 3,3,3,3 - YES! Finally hit one of my early goals. The 215 felt like it was flying up, so I decided to push it an give 225 a try. 225 didn’t feel that bad either, but I’m not going to push it next week.
Leg Press: 360 x 2:00 x 41 reps, 360 x 2:00 x 40 reps
Leg Extension: 130 x 15,16,15 - These were tougher this week, but I normally rest a little bit longer before doing these. I was short on time today.
Leg Press Calf Raise: 290 x 19,16,16, back off set 200 x 20 - I followed this up with a 90 second stretch with 200 lbs.
I had to skip the reverse lunge/ab rollout superset today because of time. I workout on my lunch break and one day a week, I have to be on the phones, which limits the amount of time I can normally take on my lunch. The day rotates from week to week, and this week, it fell on a Monday. I think in the future, I’m going to use this rotating day as a way to have a slight back off and skip an exercise or two in those workouts.
FINALLY! As I’ve mentioned before in this log, I’ve been dying to get back to up 225 on Front Squats. Now that I’m back, I can finally start to get creative with my supplement stack. I promised myself no supps until I hit 225. I’m not going to go all out initially, but I think I’m going to bring HRX back at this point.
Nice job on the 225 Front Squat Vader. Are you crossing your hands in front of you, or rolling the bar back on your fingers Olympic style?
Bum loss to the Kings yesterday, rough third quarter. We decided to keep the Hawks undefeated last night. Heading to the Thunder game on Wednesday vs the Magic, should be fun. I wanna see how big Dwight Howard really is. I’ve seen Shaq up close, so we’ll see if the Man Child stacks up.
[quote]tmoney1 wrote:
Nice job on the 225 Front Squat Vader. Are you crossing your hands in front of you, or rolling the bar back on your fingers Olympic style?
Bum loss to the Kings yesterday, rough third quarter. We decided to keep the Hawks undefeated last night. Heading to the Thunder game on Wednesday vs the Magic, should be fun. I wanna see how big Dwight Howard really is. I’ve seen Shaq up close, so we’ll see if the Man Child stacks up.[/quote]
Thanks! I’ve always used the cross-armed style. Funny thing is with me is that I started out using the clean grip and then switched to the cross-armed style. I actually found the latter more comfortable and the clean grip hurt my wrists too much. I’ll post a new video next week.
Yeah, despite being shorthanded (no Maggette-o’s, Harrington, or Ellis) I was a little disappointed we didn’t have a better showing against the Kings. At least Nelson is using the opportunity to give the young guys some burn. Last year, he would have just played the starters for 40+ minutes and that’s why we ran out of gas before the end of the season. Looks like he’s learned from that mistake. Besides, he might as well get them ready to play now. Who knows, we may still be able to make a good run at it once everyone is healthy.
Hey, at least the Hawks are a good team. If you’re gonna lose, might as well lose to the teams you expect to lose to. 
Howard is a freak. I haven’t seen him in person, but I’ve sat behind the bench for a few games. It blows me away how huge those guys are in person. I remember that I was standing on a step and Olajuwon was a few feet away from me and I still felt like I was straining my neck looking up at him.
Tuesday 11/11 - Chest/Tris and SHIT!!!
My shoulder bugged me the whole workout. I don’t know why my shoulder feels fine when training shoulders or back, but the second I do a chest exercise, it starts to bother me.
Flat BB Press - 225 x 5,5,5,5,5 - My left side felt too easy, the right side felt like a painful max effort with every rep.
“No Money” drill - 10,10,10,10 - When I do these I get a ‘pinch’ when my right arm gets to the end of the range of motion as it goes out to the side.
Incline DB Press - 90 x 6,6,5,4 - These didn’t bother me last week, but this week, I had an issue with it. My right shoulder didn’t even feel stable when doing them.
At this point I decided to cut the chest workout short.
Mechanical Tricep Tri-Set - 75 x 8/8/8, 80 x 8/6/5,7/4/3
Cuban rotation - 40 x 6,6,6
Side cable rotation - 20 x 8,8,8,9 - In between each set of this I did band traction for my shoulder. I’d get a real pinching sensation when I was doing the traction with my right arm either across my body or stright out in front of me.
So I’m pretty pissed at the moment. My shoulder was genuinely feeling better, so I didn’t think I was going to have any problem today. Looks like I’m going to have to really drop the weight and work back up.
I’m not an expert, but regarding the shoulder issue:
How do you bench? When you flat bench (if at all), do your arms create a 90 degree angle with your sides, or do you bench lower than that, almost below the chest?
Since I assume you are at a computer all day, your shoulders probably round forward, no?
Two things that have helped me have been scapular retraction drills. I credit postural correction to the following three things:
Hold the dowel behind your back for a solid 5 minutes. I do this at the end of EVERY workout. It really helps, and it’s best if you can do it for 10 minutes (maybe do lunges or something to pass the time) or at least do it multiple times a day.
Try to carry a similar stick with you to work to have at your desk.
Not trying to tell you anything you probably don’t know, but I have similar issues so I thought I’d share.
[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
Try to carry a similar stick with you to work to have at your desk.
[/quote]
Also useful for beating annoying coworkers.
AV and I are having similar shoulder issues right now, so I’m going to try your suggestions, Ponce.
With the DB external rotations, I stand - though you can obviously be sitting - and start with the DBs held upright, in a shoulder press position, then I just slowly lower them until my forearms are parallel to the ground. You don’t need a lot of weight, at least not in my experience.
The broomstick hold is crucial, though, just make sure you don’t do it immediately after the DB rotations. For me, I feel a real tightness with the broomstick hold, so I’ll throw in a forward pressing movement or a leg movement in between the two, to give my shoulder joints a rest.
I am doing the broomstick hold 3 times a week, currently. I really should do it everyday…
Another important thing to consider is, if possible, to balance out the frequency of your pressing and pulling movements to a ratio of 2:1 (pull:press) since you should be pulling more than pressing right now. This is IF you are experience a lot of tightness due to shoulders being rounded forward (excess internal rotation).
Do this temporarily for about 3 weeks, then ease the ratio back to 1:1
I started with 3:1 for three weeks, 2:1 for 2 weeks, then back to 1:1, but I had a severe probably with my scapula. I always ice my shoulder blades/scapula/rhomboid area after an intense pulling session because the tendon insertion points seem to get inflamed and this minimizes that.
I also roll a pair of tennis balls that are duct taped together on those areas the following day (then I ice it again for 15 min) and especially on either side of my spine that within that region. The crest between the tennis balls perfectly cradles the spine.
Thanks for all suggestions Ponce. I’m going to try the face pulls and broomstick stretch today. Actually, I’ve been meaning to do that stretch anyway, but I keep forgetting to do it.
I’ve been doing more external rotation work lately, so I’ll continue with that. I just have to remember that it’s part of my routine from now on.
I’ve noticed I get a lot of improvement from that DeFranco upper body series. In particular, the stretch when you lay on your side is really helpful as well as the front to back overhead band movement.
As far as your other questions:
One thing I just realized I need to do more is that arm behind the back chair stretch from the (De)-Construcing Computer Guy article.
Check out #19 on page 2. Number 15 is very useful as well.
When I do #19, my shoulder pops almost every time, but it feels a lot better afterwards. it really seems to open my shoulder up.
As far as my bench goes, I used to be an elbows out bencher, but I’m trying to get them closer to about 45 degrees and bring the bar lower. I’ve noticed when I dumbbell bench, my arm angle is a little more natural, but even that’s too painful at the moment.
I don’t think I have much of an imbalance between my chest and back at this point.
Today is my big SMR day, so I’ll try the rope/external face pulls and the broomstick stretch as part of my routine.
The Computer Guy and Neanderthal No More articles are my favorite of all time. Absolutely the most useful.
There is also a shoulder savers article you should check out but somehow I bet you already have.
The broomstick hold is golden. Remember, 3x a week at least, 5 min each time. Do it every day, twice a day at 5 min each if you can.
EDIT: Would you look at that? The broomstick stretch is actually #23 in that Computer Guy article you posted. Sweet.
Thursday 11/13 - Hams and calves
RDL: 325 x 3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3
Lying Leg Curl: 165 x 5,5,5,5,5
Natural Glute/Ham: BW x 6,6,6,6
Back Ext: 45 x 12,12,12
Decline crunch: 15 x 6,6,6 - Really emphasized the negative and made sure I was feeling it in the lower abs, especially at the bottom of the movement.
Seated Calf Raise: 115 x 20,17,15, back off set 85 x 23 - followed up with 90 sec stretch on the leg press with 200 lbs.
Did the Doggcrapp stretches for my hammies after the workout. I also did at lot of various shoulder stretches and lower trap activation stuff in between my regular sets. My shoulder feels a lot better now. I’ll continue with this over the next few workouts and I think I’ll be good to go within a week or so.
Friday 11/14 - Back and Bis
Chins: BW+90 x 3,3,3,3,2,2,2,2
BB Row: 285 x 5,5, 290 x 5,5,5
HS High Row: 290 x 8,8,8 - superset with
Nautilus Pullover: 165 x 10,10, 170 x 8
Face pulls: 50 x 10, 60 x 10
Reverse EZ Bar Curl: 80 x 8,8, 85 x 8,8
Mechanical DB Curl: 40 x 8/6/4,6/3/3,6/3/3
Throughout the workout I did various stretches for my pecs and shoulders. The shoulder is coming around, but slowly.
Saturday 11/15 - Shoulders and calves
Pre-workout I did the DeFranco upper body series.
Cuban rotations: 35 x 9, 40 x 8,8
BTN Smith Machine Press - 145 x 5, 150 x 5,5, 155 x 5, 160 x 5 - I supersetted this with the ‘no money’ drill and band traction.
Seated Laterals/DB Side Row superset: 50 x 12/12,12/12,12/10,12/10
Rear Delt Machine: 150 x 8,8,8,8
Side Raises on slant board: 22.5 x 12,10,10
Rope Crunches: 90 x 8, 95 x 6,7
Carl’s Calf Raise: 200 x 12,12,10
Tibialis raises: 80 x 18, 85 x 13,12
My shoulder still felt weird, but after the warmup it felt pretty good and didn’t give my any problems throughout the workout. There’s still a little pinch in there that I can’t seem to shake, but I’ll keep up with the SMR work and band traction and hopefully it will clear up in a few days. It’s improving though, so that’s the good news.
On another note, Anthony Morrow is my hero!
Have you tried the broomstick hold behind your back?
I am also incredibly tight in the shoulder girdle. That and my hamstrings, which I need to stretch so I can start pulling off the floor and ditch the rack pulls.
I don’t know if you have these, but if you can get a pair of blast straps (the nylon straps from EliteFTS) or something similar, try hanging them from a horizontal bar and having the straps/handles end about 6 inches off the ground.
I did this with olympic rings hanging from a beam overhead and I do suspension push ups and flyes, so I basically combine both movements.
The fly portion looks like I am doing an iron cross. Awesome chest workout. I want to add power bands strapped over my back in a few months.
Sorry, that was rambling.
What muscle group(s) would you say lag the most for you? Which ones seem to grow easily?
[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
Have you tried the broomstick hold behind your back?
I am also incredibly tight in the shoulder girdle. That and my hamstrings, which I need to stretch so I can start pulling off the floor and ditch the rack pulls.
I don’t know if you have these, but if you can get a pair of blast straps (the nylon straps from EliteFTS) or something similar, try hanging them from a horizontal bar and having the straps/handles end about 6 inches off the ground.
I did this with olympic rings hanging from a beam overhead and I do suspension push ups and flyes, so I basically combine both movements.
The fly portion looks like I am doing an iron cross. Awesome chest workout. I want to add power bands strapped over my back in a few months.
Sorry, that was rambling.
What muscle group(s) would you say lag the most for you? Which ones seem to grow easily?[/quote]
Actually, I picked up a good sized wooden dowel at Lowe’s after work on Friday and have been using that as much as I can. Holding it through commercial breaks or anytime I walk past it. I did it all throughout the Warriors game yesterday, which I why I think my shoulder felt better when I went to the gym after. I just need to stick with it and all the other stretches.
In a little bit here, I’m going to do my whole SMR thing and stretches and will pretty much be it for today.
My most lagging body parts, I’d have to say the calves and the quads, and not just because of the numb foot and hip issues. They’ve always just been slow to respond. The calves have been particularly frustrating because I’ve always been good about training them a few times a week and using various set and rep schemes. Even more frustrating, my Mom has huge calves, but my Dad, not so much. My sister it appears got my Mom’s calf genetics, where I got my Dad’s.
As far as my easily responding body parts, I’d have to say my back, particularly my traps (I haven’t done a shrug in years), chest and forearms respond the best. The body parts I’ve gotten compliments about have been my upper pecs, traps and forearms, so I’m kind of basing it off that.
On another note, I’ve had a weird tweak behind my right kneecap since Monday. It doesn’t really hurt, but it’s just kind of a sore feeling that comes and goes. It’s totally random. I can squat down to pick something up one time and feel it, and then immediately do it again and feel nothing.
So tomorrow, I’m probably going to take it a little easy on legs because I want to make sure it’s nothing serious.
Also, I started taking a half dose of HRX this morning. I normally take a full dose of HRX as I handle the supplement well, but with all my body issues, I’m not quite ready to go all out with my supplementation still. I thought I was there, too. Damn!
[quote]AngryVader wrote:
On another note, I’ve had a weird tweak behind my right kneecap since Monday. It doesn’t really hurt, but it’s just kind of a sore feeling that comes and goes. It’s totally random. I can squat down to pick something up one time and feel it, and then immediately do it again and feel nothing.
So tomorrow, I’m probably going to take it a little easy on legs because I want to make sure it’s nothing serious.
[/quote]
Might be a strained MCL or something. Do you ever wear knee sleeves when squatting? I was having some tweaky right knee issues a couple of months-ish ago and started wearing just one of those Ace bandage type sleeves when squatting and walking around the house, and the tweakiness went away. My tweak was more of a short-lived sudden pain, rather than an ache.
[quote]pushmepullme wrote:
AngryVader wrote:
On another note, I’ve had a weird tweak behind my right kneecap since Monday. It doesn’t really hurt, but it’s just kind of a sore feeling that comes and goes. It’s totally random. I can squat down to pick something up one time and feel it, and then immediately do it again and feel nothing.
So tomorrow, I’m probably going to take it a little easy on legs because I want to make sure it’s nothing serious.
Might be a strained MCL or something. Do you ever wear knee sleeves when squatting? I was having some tweaky right knee issues a couple of months-ish ago and started wearing just one of those Ace bandage type sleeves when squatting and walking around the house, and the tweakiness went away. My tweak was more of a short-lived sudden pain, rather than an ache.[/quote]
I always wear knee sleeves. I’ve been wearing them for a while now. I have a blue pair of Rehbands, but I recently bought a set of the newer style ones. I don’t like them as much. They slide around way more than the blue ones.
The knee feels fine today. Sounds like it was just a strain. I’m still going to take it easy today though.
[quote]AngryVader wrote:
On another note, Anthony Morrow is my hero![/quote]
I tried to post this earlier. Hopefully it works this time.