I think you should do it if that’s something that motivates or interest you.
Every time I’ve run with any consistency over a period of months was based on getting roped into some race, and refusing to show up incompetent and therefore train appropriately.
Yeah, I definitely would not want to show up and do terribly. It’s not a competitive race and half of my co-runners would be soccer moms, but for myself, I’d want to do well. If I remember my 10k from a few years back, I’m pretty sure I got it in under an hour…if I could do right around an hour I’d be cool with that.
Thanks. Will try to work this in!
My Tu/Th afternoon job is working in my school’s tech center. I literally sit at a computer for 5 hours straight, sometimes helping people with tech questions, but in the meantime, I mostly read. Been skimming Wendler’s blog (on his own site), and man, I just really like his writing. Everything he says resonates with me. I certainly have moved much closer to vag than he would approve of, but I really like the picture he paints with his articles.
I know he’s mentioned it in multiple places before, but I just read an article that basically said, whatever you can lift on January 1st, do 1 rep more or 5lbs more by the end of the year. I didn’t test myself this year, but I incline benched 42.5lb DB’s for 9 reps and set my maxes on SSB squats and deadlifts as 185lbs and 225lbs, so here is a concrete goal for 2020:
SSB squat 185lbs for 2 reps or 190lb for 1 rep.
Deadlift 225lbs for 2 reps or 230lbs for 1 rep.
Incline bench 42.5lbs for 10 reps or 45lbs for 9 reps.
I’m 99.99% sure I can already do this and more, but until I actually do, these are some goals. The benching will happen fairly soon since I’m pretty much doing double progression, but the squat and DL will take some time, as I’m not going to test it, just wait until I reach that weight in my normal training.
That’s very sensible…and a slap in the face since I’ve been so up and down with injuries for over two years.
Just did a quick look at towards the beginning and towards the end of 2019 in your log - at one point at the beginning you did 1.5 reps on the lat pull down - 140lbs for 10 reps, and then towards the end you did another type of lat pulldown - 215lbs for a few sets of 8. Those aren’t exactly the same but that is heavier weight for more reps!
I think it’s just a way to say “OK, did I actually make any improvements this year?” That’s how I viewed it. It seems very Wendler-esque too - small progress here and there adds up. And you seem to be recovering well and finding movements and training methods that will work for you, so once you’ve got a concrete plan in place you certainly work hard enough and consistently enough to make some progress.
I mean, you’re about to deadlift 500, right? (Or more!) If you can do that, maybe add some reps, some single leg work, and some type of press and pull consistently that allow for gains without injuries, you’ll be good. You’re already lean and probably more muscular than the average American dad, so it’s not like you really need a whole lot to at least better than most.
My problems stem from the injuries (obviously). I’ve had an upper and lower body injury over the past two years so I haven’t been able to do any one lift for an extended period of time. It’s been build up, stop, recover, build up again, and repeat. I just want to build for a while, ya know?
And I have to either pull 505 on the power bar or 550 on the deadlift bar tomorrow to set any new PRs. I’m not sure if I have it in me. The goal is 500 but I’m hoping for more. I’ll definitely use the deadlift bar so I can at least move 500 again.
THURSDAY, 02/20/2020
Lift:
shoulder and arm pump work
DB presses and pulovers
deadlifts
FRIDAY, 02/21/2020
Run: 2 x 600m
Will add another 600m lap biweekly, working up to 4 total.
MONDAY, 02/24/202
Run: 1 mile
Time: 10-ish minutes again
TUESDAY, 02/25/2020
Lift:
shoulder and arm pump work
DB incline & machine rows
Worked up to 42.5lbs for 8 reps on the incline and 135lbs for 12 reps for rows. Rows are nothing special - continuing to feel a great MMC with my lats, so I’ll be throwing on another plate soon here. Incline was not great - I’ve done better than 8 reps but felt very weak today. Didn’t sleep great (this is becoming very common) and afterwards I felt more drained than I think I maybe ever have after a workout. Almost fell asleep in the shower.
Was going through my 5/3/1 books and realized I’ve completely forgotten that you’re “allowed” to do squat and bench one week, deadlift and press the next. I think I’ll do this. I was going to do 2 full body’s a week but by the time I get to the second big movement I wasn’t very energetic, and I probably should be doing some assistance work for my abs/low back, so I’ll do those after squats/deads. Most likely reverse hypers and an ab movement.
So, it’ll break down to this:
W1D1: DB incline and pump work
W1D2: squat/assistance
W2D1: DB press and pump work
W2D2: deadlift and assistance
Basically the same as before, just more spread out. No biggie.
I’m pissed about my shoulder. I have no clue what’s up with it. Thought the DB work was okay, but maybe not. I’ve been kept up at night the past few nights from the pain, which has never happened to me. I had surgery on it 6/01/2019 by a surgeon who used to be the go to guy for an MLB team and a few D1 schools. Seemed like he’d know what he was doing. My PT was (in my opinion) garbage. The lady seemed to have no idea what she was doing. Nothing we did caused pain, but she just didn’t seem to have a plan or really knew what she was doing. She’d tell me to not raise my arms above my head and then give me a movement that required raising my arms above my head.
Ever since then, the pain in my shoulder and sometimes bicep has stayed the same. There was really no improvement, whether or not I was lifting. My thought process was well, if I’m going to be in pain either way, might as well lift, but I don’t know.
I can handle pain but I don’t want to make anything even worse. My doctor is clueless last time I asked, and I definitely can’t afford a follow up with my surgeon. He’s 3 hours away, and the only reason I was able to see him was through my Medicaid which ended when I turned 18. Plus, he never met with me himself, it was just his PA or whatever.
Oh well.
WEDNESDAY, 02/26/2020
Run: 4 x 400m
Felt good about this. Didn’t time myself again, which I will eventually start doing, but I felt fast. The last 2 laps felt harder, both on my lungs and legs, but I didn’t feel like I slowed down at all. And they didn’t feel as hard as last week’s.
Thinking of the words of Wendler (or Tate…or someone else), I may get from shit to suck pretty quickly. It doesn’t seem to take that long for me, provided I work hard and stay consistent. Suck to good will take longer, but that’s cool.
Back is really sore, not sure why. Must’ve slept on it weird. I’ll do some glute bridges or something later, or reverse hypers. Doing a little glute work daily for just 10 min. or so really helped my body feel good when I ran in H.S.
Time for class. 8 school days till spring break, and 10 1/2 weeks (9 1/2 minus spring break) till summer. I’m not minding school but I’m looking forward to nice weather and the ability to work more.
What!? Did I miss this or did you not share it? I had surgery June 5th. Biceps tenodesis. What’d they do to you?
I’ve been going to PT for over eight months. I don’t know what happened but I had some inflammation that wrecked everything. I got a steroid injection and the pain disappeared and I started making progress again. I’m finally getting close to being normal again.
Shoot, no, my bad. It happened in 2018, not 2019. It was for a torn labrum.
My PT was like 6-8 weeks long. Don’t remember exactly. Didn’t seem to make much a difference. My buddy said when his grandpa had labrum surgery, they did want him moving at all for a week. I started moving the next day. Maybe the age difference was why.
Not sure what my game plan should be…
Find a good PT. It probably won’t hurt anything to run a good dose of anti inflammatories, too. My injection was a life saver.
This is my issue. We only have 1 place in town to go to, and they’re not known for being great.
I am going to check with my school though - maybe there’s somewhere in the athletic dept. I could go to. Even if I’d have to pay, I feel like they might be a little better.
Do you just mean like ibuprofen or more intense, like your injection?
Checked. Not an option unless I’m an athlete.
ibuprofen or some other NSAID. I can’t remember which ones do which… @flappinit, a little help here? What’s the best over the counter anti inflammatory?
Who’s a doctor on here? @whang? Are you one? Just curious, but what kind?
The best one is the one you like best - for me, I like naproxen, or Aleve - same thing. But most people just go with Advil. Most OTC Advil is 200mg, and if you go to a doctor and get prescribed Advil/Motrin/ibuprofen (all the same thing) it’s usually 800mg big ass pills, so 4x200mg will do the trick.
@jshaving do not just start popping them when you hurt, you can try a regimen of 2-3x a day for 10 days, which is generally what I’ve been prescribed in the past. Most important is NOT relying on them long term and finding out how to fix your problem. But giving yourself some relief for that time can definitely help.
@FlatsFarmer - question for you. Before I begin, I fully acknowledge that getting advice on medical issues over the internet is not the smartest thing to do, but I’m really just wondering if you have any moves you recommend trying to help with shoulder pain. From what I’ve read, you seem good in this area.
Here’s the situation:
Had surgery on a torn labrum in June of 2018, then had a couple months of PT. Aaand, it still hurts. That’s about it, haha.
For movement, I’d say the place where it always hurts is that 60-120 degree range, the sub AC arc. Sometimes other stuff bothers it, sometimes not. Sometimes it will hurt just on it’s own, but movement through that range WITH a straight arm always hurt. If my elbow is bent, it doesn’t really bother it.
I’m reading through some articles and may attempt PT again, but just trying to find some options for what would help with it. Any tips?
Thanks @flappinit - I’ve really only used ibuprofen and actually have completely stopped using it for other reasons, but I’ll give it a shot. Maybe just a week or so of them would help. We’ll see.
@Frank_C - random question for you:
OK, so if person A were to threaten to shoot person B, reach into their coat, start counting down, and and act as if they were about to shoot person B, what would happen if person B quickly shot them first? Also, if witnesses from both parties, and neutral ones, all had the same testimony. Would person B be justified?
This is obviously a real scenario, I’m just wondering if all departments would handle it the same way.
Naproxen occupies a weird space for me. It’s the only OTC pain reliever I ever used that actually relived pain, but it also tore up my insides bad enough to make me pass blood, and now I get twitchy around anti-inflams.
Probably a TMI, but that’s the only one that ever did it to me. Advil has no effect, positive or negative.
Prop up your phone and record your back as you do a front raise with a light weight. Do a lateral raise as well. Do various movements and then watch the video to see what’s going on with your scapula.
My problem was structural impingement. My scapula was winging in a way that it moved up so when I raised my arm things got pinched between my humerus and scapula. I don’t know what caused it but once I got rid of the inflammation I was able to stabilize better and move without the impingement and pain.