The Really Heavy Method

Training Training Logs
567

January 4th

W2D1 Recovery

Paused Larsen Press
45 x 2 (yeah no)

Plate Loaded Incline Press (1 Min Rest)
.25pps x 8
1pps x 8
4 x 1.25pps 8

Plate Loaded Flat Press
1pps x 8
2pps x 1 (nope)

Standing Cable Tricep Pushdown
80 x 12
150 x 6 (stopped, injury getting angry)

Single Arm Tricep Extension (1 Min Rest)
30 x 15
50 x 12
60 x 8
30 x 25 Burnout

Incline Smith Machine
135 x 7 (decided against this)

Lateral Raise Machine (1 Min Rest)
60
3 Sets of 25 Reps

Bicep Curl Machine (1 Min Rest)
40
3 Sets of 12 Reps

Very careful with this session. Larsen Pressing a few days ago obviously fucked me up again (in my defense, I didn’t know).

Got a really great pump, I feel happy. Guess I’m a Bench Only Guy for the time being lol.

Going to see how I feel tomorrow. Took note of everything I tried and what aggravated it.

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568

Pretend it is the 80s, bench and curls. That is it. Leg day?

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569

Haha yep.

I didn’t realize how structurally important the Low Ab / Internal Oblique was. I noticed I can’t twist with weight. Pretty much all stabilization is compromised.

Thankfully it feels alright today. Still walking with a limp though. I can put a decent amount of weight on it, and I can stretch out in bed with minimal discomfort. The groin pain was the worst for the first 4-5 days.

I hate taking any type of painkillers, but for the first day or two I did a mix of THC, CBD and Ibuprofen since it was bad enough. Using this time to detox from caffeine too.

I may go in today just to do some walking and sauna stuff. Love the gym too much to stay away lol.

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570

January 6th

W2D3 Tear Recovery

Seated Shoulder Press Smith Machine (Slow Tempo)
45 x 5
115 x 5
2 x 135 x 5
2 x 115 x 20

Incline Smith Machine (Slow Tempo)
115
3 Sets of 20 Reps

Very, very light stretching, half squats and twists. Sauna.

Things to note:

  • It doesn’t feel very inflamed or swollen anymore, compared to the last 8 days.

  • There’s still mild pain doing the most basic of movements. Twisting to my right, I still have full ROM. Twisting to my left, I can only go about 1/4 of the way before it gets too tight.

  • Doing lat stretches also produce the same affect. 1/4 ROM on my injured side compared to my left.

  • Lateral Movement still causes soreness.

  • Surprisingly, air squats with support do NOT hurt. Interesting.

  • There’s no more sharp pain, just a constant, never ending dull ache. Almost like a runner’s stitch except on my right abdominal.

  • Groin Pain is almost completely gone. The injured abdominal feels extremely itchy but I can’t itch it because it’s all internal.

So… What this tells me is that I’m recovering. The soreness and itchiness is definitely a GOOD sign. Probably scar tissue beginning to form as it repairs whatever I tore.

Still extremely cautious with every movement and will do so for another couple weeks. No hard stretching or Resistance band work yet.

9 Likes
571

W2D6 and The Future

  • Acute Pain is just about gone, what’s left is soreness, still pops up when I start straining too fast or twisting too hard, or hunched over in a crunched position.

  • Now that I can feel around the area without any swelling getting in the way, I am missing a decent size chunk. Doesn’t feel to deep, there’s one area that’s a bit tender and feels like the deepest extent of the injury, definently got me good…

  • Because of the area and how important it is to movement, i’m going to assume the recovery process is going to be a very long one since it’s hard to rest something like that.

I’m going to be out of the gym this entire week, around Week 3-4 i’ll see if I can start rehabbing.

This happened at a terrible time (Major Move and very little set aside in savings because of it), and what this means for me is that I’m stuck with very little ability to pay for any extra testing or better diagnoses, or getting specialized care/PT.

I’ve got to raw dog it and hope for the best, I try my best not to think about it. So for the time being, I think it’s best to avoid squatting and deadlifting until I get a seasoned second opinion.

It really, really hurts me mentally to not to be able to do those movements for the foreseeable future. It looks like i’ll be a Bench Only Guy for however long it’ll take to heal from this.

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572

Crappy news, but sounds like you’re taking the sensible approach, even if it ends up being months off instead of weeks, you’ll come back and you’ll surpass yourself in no time once you do.

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573

Glad to see you’re on the mend!

I’m pretty impressed how fast you’re recovering

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574

Well… I may be recovering pretty fast but there’s a lot of things that I always think will play a major role for the future

The chances of reinjuring that (plus for being in an anatomically important spot) is pretty high…

This brings up the question on how much and for how long am I willing to tolerate powerlifting at a higher level? I don’t know. At the levels I’m trying to get too, this won’t be the first tear at all.

And this has been a really eye opening experience for me. I always thought “I wasn’t strong enough” to tear something, well, I obviously am now. (I know it’s such a stupid thought process). This is very much rooted in Ego and the Confidence/Arrogance mindset I had towards the weights.

Of course now I realize it’s not a game. I have a new found respect for them. I hope I didn’t end my journey before it even started.

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575

I’m hopeful, haha.

My buddy actually showed me a silver lining in all of it. He told me since I could dedicate all my time towards benching now that I’m not held back by the insane amount of Posterior Work I did, it might actually end up blowing up well past what I thought was possible and it may become my best lift.

Definently puts it into perspective

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576

w2d7

  • Significant ROM improvements and mobility in general.

  • There’s still some obvious discomfort/random soreness, doesn’t really pop up anymore outside of when I start doing a lat stretch again and leaning far to my left side.

  • I am able to put weight on my right foot. I’ve gone from a hobble, to a limp and now to a slow shuffle/Psuedo walk. I can also go up and down stairs.

  • Very, very light movement today. I had a short day at work, so I’ve been periodically getting up, doing squats off the bed etc. still no stretching yet.

  • I can actually bend at the waist and touch the floor now. I did 3x25 on a deadlift using a broomstick at home.

Can’t believe I’m saying how grateful I am to be able to slowly move again.

I guess this’ll be the way I log for now :rofl:

Loosely following this protocol and making adjustments as needed. I am in NO RUSH to be heading back into the gym hard anytime soon.

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577
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578

I can’t say I’ve ever really hurt myself lifting.

But, i have wrecked my body in sports. Torn ACL, torn Patella tendon, torn rotator cuff, shattered shoulder capsule, 3 broken ribs, broken foot, multiple broken fingers and toe, broke my nose twice, slipped a disk in my back, and I can’t remember how many concussions. (That’s a joke, but 7… old age may be rough).

I’ve been told multiple times my athletic career was over. Always ended up being more of a “your season is over.”

Take things slow. Listen to your doc, but don’t accept defeat. Blood flow is healing, and you gotta believe that you can get back to 100%. Obviously it’s not always true, but in my experience, docs wildly overinflated the seriousness of injuries just because of how lazy the average populace is in their effort to recover

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Hey thanks for this bro, this is honestly really inspiring and motivating.

I knew I’d have to deal with a tear eventually. I think I’ll be much more experienced coming out of this.

Really, the physical pain I can deal with fine l, I could care less about that.

For me, it’s the mental aspect that’s really fucking with me. It’s making me realize how much the gym is literally my everything. Everything the last 3-4 years I’ve done financially, time, and career wise was to set me up to maximize my time and progress there.

Now that’s taken away from me (momentarily), I realize how much I lack hobbies and coping wise outside of this.

Honestly the best way to describe it is feeling like a neutered dog lol.

3 Likes
580

January 11th

W3D2 Tear Recovery

Deadlifts Conventional
3 x 35lbs x 15

Paused Squats
3 x 35lbs x 15

Standing Shoulder Press
2 x 35lbs x 10

Planks
Varying Times

Pushups
Set of 10

Lying Leg Raises with injured Side, twists with 10lb Plate, side lunges

  • Hard to log these. These were all done extremely slowly, trying to feel the contraction and burn with everything.

  • HUGE improvements in mobility and strength, especially with the leg raises. That surprised me that I could do that.

  • I had very minimal pain but I pretty much stopped all exercises right before I started feeling uncomfortable on my injured abs

  • Still not comfortable with big stretches still or targeted resistance band work.

  • As I write this , I am doing some light laps. I expect to be sore tomorrow. Next week’s plan is to start doing massage work and bigger stretches to break up the scar tissue

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581

I think this is the case for just about every serious athlete. Pain sucks for a few hours, but the mental is tough.

One thing I like to do is to separate myself from my body. I am me. My soul, my mind, my essence, whatever you want to say. My body? This is my ride. Busting up my body is like taking my bike into the shop. Rode it hard, had a great time, now time to fix her up a bit. I know this thing is getting totaled in the end, but I’m getting my moneys worth out of it until then.

A BAD habit of mine is to treat recovery like a competition. There’s no trophy for who got back to a 225 deadlift the fastest, no one gives a damn if your the best at your PT exercises. Recovery is recovery, competition is competition, treat em like that.

@T3hPwnisher made an entire log documenting his recovery from a gnarly ACL tear. Lots of gold in there, I think you’d get something out of it, even if just mindset stuff.

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Training Plan for the Next 2 Weeks:

Okay, I really need to write this out for myself because it’s time for me to get my shit together. Getting my head out of my ass.

I’m not hurting bad anymore, it’s been 16 days, I need a plan now that i’m not immobile and the acute swelling is down.

@atlas13 thank you for tagging the log. I read through it and it is inspiring and gives me some ideas.

My insurance ended with my last job, very little savings, and only a ultrasound to go off on.

I am doing this with no external help. Keep calm and carry on.

Bill Star Rehab Protocol (Modified)

This is going to be the template I follow for the next 2-3 weeks. The weight jumps seems pretty aggressive for my circumstance since i’m also dealing with some connective tissue, so i’m not going to be as gung ho about it.

Today was the first day back in the gym and I was doing a bunch of “random” things to get a baseline for how I feel. Based off how I felt, I am good to start doing this.

3x25 using 35lbs for the next couple of days, followed by 3x25 with 45 and so on… The goal here is to be able to start working up to 135, 225, etc…

I will be training just about everyday for the next 2 weeks.

  • Massage Work and Static Stretching is to going to be introduced sometime Week 3-4, this should be about the time that Scar Tissue is starting to lay down and I want it to set correctly. Maybe once or twice a week. I’m going to continue doing this for awhile.

  • Right now i’m doing alot of one sided work, plan is to slowly re-adjust and rebuild confidence and start working as a unit again. I’m hoping the time under the bar and the high reps will help with this.

  • Bill Star recommends not to do any heavy lifting that would affect the injured muscle. Unfortunently since this is my Abdominals… That’s quite literally almost everything.

  • This will be a tricky one to work around and I really think the only way is through. I’m just going to have to slowly reintroduce excercises as I go.

  • Calories are bumped back up to Maintenance, in fact, I may dip into a SLIGHT surplus at 200, just to see if that improves my recovery time.

  • I am going to be doing this for the extent of my journey, whether that is 6 weeks or 20 weeks.

Resistance Band Work will be introduced but I don’t know when yet. Probably in the later stages.

This is my 2 Week Plan. Subject to change, but this is a starting point. Every 2 Weeks i’ll re-assess.

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583

And we’ll all be here to cheer you on!

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584

January 12th

W3D3 Recovery

Squat
2 x 35 x 25

Deadlift
2 x 35 x 20

Bench Press
2 x 35 x 15

  • Woke up mildly sore today, more itchy than anything again which is good. I’m guessing the scar tissue is being broken up and setting itself again, which is exactly what should be happening on this protocol.

  • The internal itching can be a bit much as it feels like a scab I can never get too. The soreness I learnt is just part of the normal rehab process.

  • Bill says if the pain gets worse through exercise to stop. The pain got better the more moved around. This is also good.

  • My speed on all reps increased dramatically. I can move a bit faster. I still stopped before discomfort (hence why I stopped on the bench and deadlift when I did).

  • I left it as is, since this was already a dramatic increase in volume since yesterday. I’m going to be doing a lot of icing and coming back tomorrow to hit it again.

  • I didn’t fully extend my deadlifts. This is really a mental issue I’m slowly working through. My brain is telling me not to hyperextend because that’s exactly how I got hurt.

  • Overall, I’m happy with everything. Below, I attached two videos of my squat and deadlift

This is more for me to look back on. A reminder I am not indestructible as much as my ego wants to tell me that.

Very humbling.

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585

January 13th

W3D4

Deadlift
1 x 35 x 25
2 x 45 x 25 10lb+

Squat
1 x 45 x 25
1 x 55 x 25 20lb+

Bench Press
1 x 45 x 12
1 x 65 x 10 30lb+ This one was the most uncomfortable, surprisingly.

Seated Bike
5 Minutes
Slow, Low Intensity, this one also caused very mild discomfort, interesting.

Sauna
10 Mins

  • Intensity was a little higher today, still going slow. This was the first time I felt my abs actually pumped, very good.

  • Bench Pressing caused the most discomfort. This was surprising.

  • I woke up today with almost NO pain, I felt great, and I hope this trend continues.

  • Overall, this session was good. Need to take it day by day. Let’s see how I feel tomorrow.

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586

Glad it could be of some help dude. It was my first REAL major injury as a lifter. I tore my labrum as a high school wrestler as well.

Time is funny, because, when YOU’RE in it, it feels like forever, but when you observe it from the outside, it’s a blip. Right now, every day is going to feel like forever, and recovery won’t seem like it’s happening, and then one day you’ll look back and forget you ever got hurt in the first place.

This is a great opportunity to learn and prioritize new things, and you’re off to a great start here.

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