It definitely is a learning experience, sucks but it’s something I sorely needed. That gym session I did which led up to that injury was absolutely unnecessary and all ego.
I had just gotten recovered from a minor strain, and went in and loaded up 20lbs over my PR on a Barbell Hyperextension, which was a stupid jump. I got it but at the cost of snapping my shit up.
I do read your current log from time to time as well, hard to keep up with so much information haha. I actually remember seeing a few of your deadlift videos years ago when I just started out lifting, didn’t know that you were on these forums till way later .
Kinda living vicariously through your log lol, trying to see what you did for rehab and the timeline and all. It helps a lot, especially since I can’t afford the external help atm.
Conventional Deadlift
45 x 25
55 x 25
65 x 25 20lb+
Squat
45 x 25
65 x 25 10lb+
Bench Press
45 x 25
65 x 15
Feels about the same as yesterday. Abs feel a little more sore today and got a bit tighter during the workout.
So I dropped a set on both the squat and bench to see if that will help with recovery for tomorrow. A part of this could also be the nutrition from yesterday. I think I ended up being a little under maintenance. Being 5 degrees out also doesn’t help lol
If it’s still about the same, I’m going to drop one of the movements (probably bench) and see if that’s what’s aggravating it the most.
Woke up today with no soreness, so what I did yesterday was good and the perfect amount of volume and movement. Let’s try to replicate this.
PR: today was the first day I could put my pants on with one leg, on my injured side. I was pivoting and twisting on one leg! This is fucking awesome and alot of function has come back.
I felt pretty good all the way through. Not much change in soreness. I’m slowly starting to understand the difference between actual pain and general rehab pain.
PR: speed improvements on everything, especially the deadlift. This is also awesome.
Bench Press Larsen
45 x 15
95 x 15
135 x 10 30lb Increase, stopped once discomfort
Woke up feeling even better today. I was able to shovel the driveway of snow, going up stairs with no support. Walking normally.
Pushed the limits here with the weight jump. I decided to drop the squat because I don’t feel like it’s necessary with the weight increase I did.
There’s not much else to do except see how I feel tomorrow. Didn’t really have much pain through the set. Only thing that really seemed to bother it was again, the bench press.
I’m starting to form some small, painless lumps. From what I’m told, this is scar tissue being built up. It’s about time I start gentle massage tomorrow, I think the moment is right.
Healed up enough to tell that these are the areas that have the most physical deformities. I’m definently missing mass here and can feel the torn fibers. Nasty one to come back from but I have hope.
Decided to take the last two days off, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t because of some laziness and stress.
Pain is almost gone at this point, I haven’t really noticed it since taking my days off. This is good.
I’m bending, twisting, and walking normally now, it’s such a blessing to be able to have the ability to move again. Sometimes you take that for granted.
There was still some mild discomfort when doing the Bench Press again, I’m watching that carefully.
Not much else to say here. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow, this was another pretty big jump.
Some people need a push to move things up and not spend their lives doing rehab prehab and actually make progress, feels like you are the opposite and need to remember rehab isn’t a race.
That said you sound like you’re taking it seriously - my previous default when injured is just to drop training and any semblance of healthiness and just become a potato, so well done for being an awesome patient.
If I’m being honest, I’ve been slacking a lot. Really little motivation to do anything related to the gym right now.
I think taking the time off made me realize how burnt out I’ve actually become. It’s easier to ignore it when you never rest, getting consumed by the numbers.
Honestly no. I said I would “deload” but that pretty much meant I’d go “easy” on the compounds and just jack up the volume on my assistance, because that was “easier” for me to do.
Hopefully the time off will help and you’ll get the fire back.
Honestly I got way too caught up in the PRs. Looking back on my log the last 6-8 months, it’s literally almost every session, almost every day, week after week that I was getting stronger and getting more and more hyper fixated on the training.
I’m taking as much time as I need to recover. My wife appreciates it. She said we didn’t do much together anymore. Spending time where it matters and focusing on our big move is first now.
Larsen Spoto Press
45 x 15
135 x 12
185 x 8
225 x 5
205 x 10
Deadlift Paused
45 x 20
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
275 x 5
Decided to test the waters again after a week off. Pretty big jumps on both. I felt no pain on either exercise and no discomfort.
The last week or so has seen basically a 100% return to normal functioning outside of the gym. I’m doing day to day movement with no restrictions again.
Despite this, I am still not going to be doing any type of isolation work just yet. I’ll be spending a lot of time on the S/B/D just rebuilding it again. But at this point, I can start thinking about recovery from weight and volume, which is why I left out the squat.
This will still be day to day. I’ll have to see how I feel tommorow, maybe this was too much. As of right now, I feel great. I’m not rushing it though. If I need to take another 5-6 days off after this, then I’m fine with that.
I also stepped on the scale again, really afraid of how much weight I’ve lost. It wasn’t pretty lol. Dropped 6 more pounds. Down to 203lbs. Lightest I’ve been since I was 18.
Thanks man, it’s a far cry from what I was doing but I’m grateful to actually be able to lift anything that feels heavy in my hands lol. I was really happy about the Bench Press, glad to see my strength there hasn’t faded away too much.
The squats did feel a bit sketchy, I’ll be honest. There was a ache I got afterwards unlike with the Bench and Deadlift. Trying to figure out the best way to approach it. Might not be ready for that yet.
Paused Conventional Deadlift
225 x 1
315 x 1
405 x 7
Lying Leg Curl (KG)
80 x 8
100 x 8
125 x 8
Standing Cable Crunch
80lbs
3 x 15
I am currently in Nebraska. Me and my wife just drove 10 hours from Michigan and are staying at a hotel at the moment. We are so back.
There was some minor ab pain after this, so I’ll have to see how I feel tomorrow.
This looks so ugly. I’m 200lbs bodyweight as well, lost so much weight. But I got a start somewhere. This felt harder mentally than it looked, I need to retrain my brain again.
Larsen Spoto Press
135 x 5
185 x 4
225 x 3
265 x 5 (Stop)
Paused Incline Bench
3 x 135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
Skullcrushers DB
30 x 12
40 x 12
50 x 12
Back in Colorado. Drove another 9 hours and hit this at my old home gym. I’m going to be writing up a training routine here very soon.
This is all basically foundation building right now. Just trying to feel things out. I’m going to estimate it’ll take 3-4 weeks to really get a good idea of where I can start for my routine, gotta fill back up with glycogen and water, need to clean up my diet etc…
