CHIMERA
CYCLE 2 - BLOCK B - MESO 1/3
MICRO B - WEDNESDAY EVENING - UPPER // SECONDARY
PREP FLOW
P1 | Shoulder CARs
2x5/5xMicro Mini
P2 | Deep Tier Plyometrics - Incline Push-Up
2x10xBW - On boxes, impulse drop into catch in deficit position
P3 | Med Ball Chest Pass
2x5x25
Bench Press w/ Bands
7x3x205+70 (Dbl Minis) - Under 2 min rests
A1 | Band-Assisted Pull Up - Fat Bar
3x10xBW-Light - Rest-Pause match sets with just dead stopping on floor when needed. I’m doing these with the band set up horizontally. Positioned so there was no assistance at the top
A2 | Cambered Swiss Bar Overhead Press
2x8x145 - First time doing OHP with this bar, kept it conservative
B1 | Single-Arm Cable Pec Fly
2x8/8x35
B2 | Cable Triceps Pushdown
2x12x70
C1 | Cable Facepull
2x20x35
C2 | Cable Rear Delt Fly
12x35
9x35
Not much to note here. Low energy from doing the home health training all day.
HAMSTRING REHAB THUS FAR
I’m not going to log literally everything I do once I’m out of this initial week, but I wanted to provide the details of the first week to make a point. As a reminder, I’m a physical therapist and I’m not afraid of working through pain because I can tell the difference between pain and injury. This is not medical advice.
- July 6
- 10:30AM Injury - Left Mid-Proximal Muscle Belly Grade II Strain of Biceps Femoris
- Significant pain immediately and grew over the next 15-30 minutes. Settled to 3/10 at rest and intermittent spasms/positional pain at 6-8/10 for remainder of day. This was definitely one of the more painful strains I’ve dealt with.
- 12:30PM Rehab Process Begins with 30 Minute Walk. The remainder of the day included:
- 4 x 5 min bouts of floss band compression for analgesic effect primarily
- 20 x Prone Leg Curl, 3x0:30 Prone Leg Curl Isometrics, 20 x Standing Leg Curl, all unweighted
- 30 Seated Heel Slides, 5 x 20 Prone Leg Curls, all unweighted
- 3 x 20 Prone Leg Curls, 3x0:30 Prone Leg Curl Isometrics, 5 x Ultra Slow Prone Leg Curls (60+ sec eccentric and concentric), all unweighted
- July 7
- Waking Pain: 1/10 at rest, 3-4/10 with movement, 5/10 with decreased intermittent spasm frequency
- Rehab Performed:
- Walk 30 min
- 2 x 20 Prone Leg Curl, 3 x 30 BFR Prone Leg Curl, 3 x Ultra Slow Prone Leg Curl, all unweighted
- 2 x 20 x 10 lbs Cable Seated Leg Curl with Manual Concentric Assistance
- 2 x 20 x Micro Mini Band Standing Straight-Leg Hip Extension
- 3 x 60 sec Long Lever Split Stance Isometric (negative shin angle)
- 2 x 60 sec Slumped Kickstand RDL Isometric
- 2 x 60 x Monster Mini Standing Hip Extension Oscillations (30-40 deg hip flexion range)
- Evening Pain: 2/10 at rest, 4/10 with movement, mild irritation post-gym
- July 8
- Waking Pain: 1/10 diffuse vague tightness at rest, 3/10 with movement/infrequent spasms with lengthening
- Rehab Performed:
- 1 hr walk at 2.3-2.7 mph on walking pad
- 5 x 30 Prone Leg Curl
- 3 x 60 sec Long Lever Split Stance Isometric (Foot on box, knee bent, negative shin angle)
- 3 x 60 sec SL RDL Isometric
- 3 x 20 Standing Leg Curl
- Evening Pain: 0-1/10 at rest, 2/10 with movement
- July 9
- Waking Pain: 0-1/10 at rest and normal movement, 3/10 with bending over
- Rehab Performed:
- 2 x 30 Prone Leg Curl
- 3 x 60 Sec Ultra Slow Prone Leg Curl
- 10 x 10 sec Con/Ecc Slow Prone Leg Curl
- 3 x 60 Oscillation Prone Leg Curl at End ROM
- 4 x 15 x 22-32 lb KB RDL
- 5 x 15 sec Hamstring Bridge Isometric
- Evening Pain: 0-1/10 at rest and normal movement, 2-3/10 with bending over
- Jul 10
- Waking Pain: 0/10 at rest and normal movement, 2-3/10 with bending over
- Rehab Performed:
- 5 x 10 x Bar+115 Landmine Belt Squat
- 20, 30, 40 x 17.5 Cable Seated Leg Curl
- 3 x 20 x 45 Stiff-Legged RDL
- 3 x 60 sec Long Lever Split-Stance Hamstring Isometric (Foot on Box, ~20 deg knee flexion)
- 2 x 50 Leg Swing (Light, ~75% normal ROM for this, for reactive shortening / eccentric braking at top i.e. the usual strain mechanism)
- Evening Pain: 0-1/10 at rest and normal movement, 2/10 with bending over
- July 11 - So Far
- Waking Pain: 0/10 at rest and normal movement, 1/10 with bending over, 2-3/10 with strict hinging / lengthening
- Rehab Performed:
- 30 min walk
- Introduce light stretching with 5 x 60 sec Seated Hamstring Stretch
- 2 x 20 x 17.5 Standing Straight-Leg Cable Hip Extension
- 2 x 30 x 17.5 Seated Cable Leg Curl
- 2 x 30 sec Con/Ecc Standing Straight-Leg Slow Cable Hip Extension
- 50 Leg Swings (Still at about 75% ROM for these)
And that’s it so far. Only a few days into it and I’m getting near no pain / guarding with any normal daily movements. Volume and frequency is very high, usually split into 2 chunks, and it might be a little more aggressive than you’d think. Things still bothering it are lengthening the hamstring in standing (closed-chain hinging) and putting powerful/speed intent into any hamstring exercise, both of which are improving.
The Lesson: We have 3 things to work with: Intensity, Volume, and Frequency. In normal training, intensity is the most important variable and it dictates how much volume and frequency we can handle. When injured, intensity is basically entirely removed. But we can handle an enormous amount of frequency and volume within that lack of intensity. And those 2 need to increase heavily to provide signaling that intensity can no longer provide.
Early mobilization of an injured muscle is paramount for proper tissue remodeling, pain reduction, and function. 2 hours after my injury, I started performing rehab on it, despite the discomfort. I personally think it’s pretty much horse shit to “rest it for 24-48 hours to avoid damaging it further” unless you just start stretching the shit out of it like an idiot. As you can see, I’ve done thousands of reps of hamstring things in various positions and contraction types to signal how I need the tissue to heal.
In a perfect world, I would have gone on 3x30 min walks per day, especially with hills, but that hasn’t been possible and usually isn’t for most people. Stretching isn’t indicated for muscle strains early on. Strains are usually associated with being in the stretched position and trying to stretch it more just because it feels tight is not the move. The muscle isn’t literally shorter because you strained it, it’s guarded (i.e. “tight” neurologically, not literally). It needs signals that the muscle can be safely used, not stretched to death and causing more damage. Just use the muscle within the available ROM, to pain tolerance, and that available ROM will increase as guarding decreases. I’m just now adding a bit of light stretching, but there’s no reason to attempt to improve ROM beyond what it was prior to the injury until the injury is fully healed.
No matter the reduction in intensity needed, there is no world in which rest is the right thing to do after an injury. The body needs more signals of what you want it to do. In normal training, high intensity and low frequency / volume (relative to multiple times per day and hundreds of reps per day) gives you all the strength, power, and hypertrophy signaling you need. When you don’t have intensity available, crank up the frequency / volume within whatever intensity is tolerable. This is true even if the injury is so bad that you can only move the joints above and below it or you have to assist or passively move the injured area through a reduced ROM.
As it heals and you add intensity to your tolerance, the focus will naturally shift back towards higher and higher intensity and lower and lower volume and frequency, until you’re back to normal, training the muscle with super high effort for a few sets a couple of times per week.
