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Training Training Logs
901

2/15/13 - Leg Day

Mobility: Foam/Lax ball rolling on glutes, piriformis, back

Leg Press (4x8): 4 pps, 4.5, 5, 5.5 [it felt weird to write leg press first instead of squats there]
Leg Extension: 3x12
Leg Curls: 3x12 <^ these were supersets
Ab Machine: 3x12

Prowler: 90x40x8

Been short on time this week so this was the first day I trained. Doesn’t really matter since I planned on not squatting or deadlifting this week anyway, since I’ve got my MRI tomorrow. But decided to have a proper leg day and it was excruciating. All exercises felt pretty good, but I am sore as shit now.

Prowler got off to a rough start since I puked after the first trip (damn burgers before training!) but finished up fine. Didn’t time my rest sets and just rested long enough to catch my breath.

My back has been sore as fuck all week, after my basketball game. Foam rolling it yesterday helped a bit but it is still real angry at me.

Speaking of which, I was thinking tonight about how gay calf raises are while planning my leg day before hitting the gym. I literally have never done them in my life, as I think they are a useless exercise unless you want a purty’ leg to show off to your friends. But then I started thinking of a thread on here recently where some guy was talking about using hammer curls (for the forearms) to keep his shoulders from hurting, and seemed to have success due to the added motion, or stronger antagonsists, or something. That got me to thinking about my own possible lower body muscle imbalances, and thinking about it the calves are basically the lower body forearm and the hips are the lower body shoulder, maybe hitting some calves every now and again would be beneficial to hip mobility?

Admittedly this is a pretty far out there theory coming from a desperate man, but it probably couldn’t hurt anything and makes at least a little bit of sense.

So yeah, I guess I’m gonna start training calves directly soon…shoot me.

902

I just doing the same thing last week for the same reason!!! I think we’re stupid as shit for thinking it’ll help, but when my calves were huge back in the day my knees were great, so clearly correlation = causation.

903

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
That got me to thinking about my own possible lower body muscle imbalances, and thinking about it the calves are basically the lower body forearm and the hips are the lower body shoulder, maybe hitting some calves every now and again would be beneficial to hip mobility?

Admittedly this is a pretty far out there theory coming from a desperate man, but it probably couldn’t hurt anything and makes at least a little bit of sense.

So yeah, I guess I’m gonna start training calves directly soon…shoot me.
[/quote]
If I were in your shoes I would probably try anything as well. My gut tells me though that calves are still useless. I don’t even think they have any impact on the knee, much less the hip. Just the ankle I suppose.

Anyway, I don’t know how long it will take to get MRI results, but we’re all quite curious so post em up whenever it’s all done.

904

worse come to worse, you will look fantastic in shorts this summer

905

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

Prowler got off to a rough start since I puked after the first trip (damn burgers before training!) but finished up fine. Didn’t time my rest sets and just rested long enough to catch my breath.
[/quote]

Did this happen to occur in the bathroom in the cardio room? Because it seriously looks like someone went on a vomiting rage in there right now; and I know how violently you hurl.

906

That calf idea is the most harebrained thing I’ve ever heard.

907

[quote]scj119 wrote:
That calf idea is the most harebrained thing I’ve ever heard.[/quote]
then it’s bound to render spectacular improvements

908

[quote]browndisaster wrote:
I just doing the same thing last week for the same reason!!! I think we’re stupid as shit for thinking it’ll help, but when my calves were huge back in the day my knees were great, so clearly correlation = causation.[/quote]

I don’t think its the worst idea…plus calves are pretty damn easy to train. I think there is more to the contributions of joint mobility/stability than people realize

[quote]csulli wrote:
If I were in your shoes I would probably try anything as well. My gut tells me though that calves are still useless. I don’t even think they have any impact on the knee, much less the hip. Just the ankle I suppose.

Anyway, I don’t know how long it will take to get MRI results, but we’re all quite curious so post em up whenever it’s all done.[/quote]

But if your calf connects your knees and ankles, how could it not impact the knee at all? If your calves are strong, it will give your knee more stability, allowing the mobile ankle and hip joints to perform as intended.

[quote]scottkoscielniak wrote:
worse come to worse, you will look fantastic in shorts this summer[/quote]

Between you and me, this may or may not be why I’m doing this!

[quote]Polsen714 wrote:

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

Prowler got off to a rough start since I puked after the first trip (damn burgers before training!) but finished up fine. Didn’t time my rest sets and just rested long enough to catch my breath.
[/quote]

Did this happen to occur in the bathroom in the cardio room? Because it seriously looks like someone went on a vomiting rage in there right now; and I know how violently you hurl.[/quote]

Nah yo, I prefer to do my vomiting outside, in nature. You know, the way god intended!

[quote]scj119 wrote:
That calf idea is the most harebrained thing I’ve ever heard.[/quote]

More than your face?

[quote]spar4tee wrote:

then it’s bound to render spectacular improvements[/quote]

That’s the right way of looking at it!

2/19/13

Benchin (531): 295, 335, 370 (3)
Chest Machine Press: 3x10
Row Machine: 3x12

Not a bad workout, but was definitely not as strong as I had hoped going into it. I have been run down the last week or so and only made it into the gym for leg day last week. I had gone to do my 5’s week benching on Saturday, but was real hungover and did a couple warmup sets and wasn’t feeling it so I left.

Got a basketball game tomorrow night, and will do back day on Thursday (whatever that means without deadlifting) then OHP’ing on Friday. I am going to try to hit a single at 275 to set myself up for 300 next month.

909

2/20/13

Cardio: Basketball game…we won…sweet…I did decently…had 10 points or so, and got some good shit talkin’ in. One more week of regular season left before playoffs start.

910

2/21/13

Back Day

Pullups (40): 6, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4,4, 3
One Arm BB Rows (3x10): 70 (don’t laugh)
Face Pulls (3x12): Yup
Dual cable row (3x10): Light (very light)
Lat Pulldowns (3x10): Got harder as I went along

It is rather pathetic how weak my back has gotten (or maybe was never strong to begin with?). This is the first back day I’ve done in a loooooong time (ever?) and I am absolutely fried now. Good news is that I was finally able to actually feel my back muscles working by the last two exercises, which I have never been able to do. The bad news is that my weights are very low. They will move up quickly once I get the form down (never done 1 arm bb rows before) but still probably wont be breaking any wolrd records.

911

  1. Did you mean BB or DB for your rows? If BB, how did you do them… Meadows style where it’s basically like a 1-arm tbar row? Been thinking of trying these.

  2. I think part of working back muscles is fatiguing them. CT used to talk about trying to fatigue your lats as the way to spur growth, they are built to work differently than pressing muscles

  3. Using lighter weight than you’re capable of doing is what all the cool BBers say really helps MMC. You can’t MMC if you need real strength to move the weight. Or so I’m told.

912

2/22/13

OHP (531): 190, 215, 240, 260x1, 275x1
Curls for the girls: 3x10 on machine

Prowler: 90x40x8

All of my warmup sets and working sets and singles felt like shit today. I don’t know why I was feeling so weak, but the 215x3 set was fucking rought–didn’t think anyway it was going to be a PR day. Struggled with the 275 single, but ended up getting it. Hopeful that I was just having an off day. Gonna try for 285 or so next time in I think, then 290-295 for the comp. 300 if I’m feeling great that day, but I’m not really expecting it. We’ll see.

Hit the Prowler. It was wet and hard to push, but got 8 fairly easy trips in.

913

MRI

MRI Results are in, and it doesn’t look good:

-L2/L3: Mild disc desication (loss of height) with mild diffuse disc bulge.
-L4/L5: Disc desication with broad based posterior disc bulge. Also annual tear within the disc annulus
-L5/S1: Disc desication with broad based disc PROTRUSION, causing moderate/severe impingement upon left neural recesses and foramen

Also my L3 is slightly forward (retrolisthesis) of L4, and L5 is slightly forward of S1

So that’s the story. I don’t really know what to make out of it, but I have an appointment with my chiro to get worked on and go over the results. I suspect I will end up having to see a spine specialist to chart out my next steps. I would not like to have surgery, but if that will repair the discs and get me back into the weight room I’d probably consider. Hopefully something a bit more extensive than chiro manipulations, but still more conservative than surgery, may be an option. Some sort of PT or something. I dunno.

Word

914

Nice press! Absolutely savage!

915

The gastroc does cross over the knee joint, but the soleus does not. Since you’re looking to aid things further up the chain you’ll be better off doing calf work standing. Just my two cents. Good luck with the disc and spine issues.

916

Back stuff:

http://www.nasgaweb.com/forum/my-lower-back-strength-and-flexibility-stuff_topic15929.html

917

[quote]BossKean wrote:
The gastroc does cross over the knee joint, but the soleus does not. Since you’re looking to aid things further up the chain you’ll be better off doing calf work standing. Just my two cents. Good luck with the disc and spine issues.[/quote]

Yeah I figure standing up to do the calf work is the right answer…I don’t sit down to pee, so I dont sit down to do calf work…even though its girly…

I went and deloaded at some point last week. I think I just did the bench workout. I know I didn’t do OHP or anything else later in the week cause I was at home selling my farm animals with no access to a gym. Farmer Nate.

Speaking of farming, I bought a pair of Elite Farmer’s Handles to put in the gym the other day. I can’t remember if I mentioned this or not. Some guy that used to have them was selling them and I got a pretty good price for them (plus didn’t have to pay the $150 or so in shipping from EFS). Pretty sweet. Haven’t used them yet though.

I’ve got an appointment scheduled with the spinal expert on Thursday. I looked at their website and checked out all their treatment options. It looks like they have a wide range of therapies available, and they aren’t a surgery center so I will probably be doing the conservative route a bit longer, but hopefully with more direct treatment of the affected areas.

3/4/13 - Legs

Mobility: Agile 8

Leg Press (4x8): 4 pps, 4.5, 5, 5.5
Leg Extensions: 3x12
Leg Curls: 3x12
Calf Raises: 3x10 (at 90 pounds lol)
Ab Wheel: 3x10

Prowler: 90x40x10

Pretty good workout. Started out with the Agile 8 to warmup and get my hips/back loosened up then hit the Leg Press. Squats are officially out for a [long] while so I gotta get used to this leg pressin’ machine gizmo thing. Worked up to a fairly easy 5.5 plates, which was what I did 2 weeks ago but it was much easier this time. Going to push this a bit next week.

Leg Extensions and Curls were supersetted and I used a pretty high weight. I am about to max out the leg curl machine weight stack.

Did calf raises for the first time ever. Got a whopping 90 pounds for my work sets. It was a lot tougher than I was expecting–I figured my calves were always pretty strong from basketball and being close to 300 pounds, but I guess not.

Finished up with some ab wheel and hit the Prowler. It was fairly easy for 10 trips–was nowhere near out of breath to the point I was a month or so ago trying to push it, even though I haven’t really been pushing this hard as I would like, so that makes me happy. Goal is to push it every day after workouts this week, if it doesn’t snow tomorrow night like its supposed to.

Happy with today’s workout–making the best out of a bad situation.

Benchin tomorrow.

918

3/5/13

Benchin (3s): 275, 315, 355 (4)
Some DB Floor PResses
Some Band FLys
Some DB curls against bands (these were tough!)

I went and lifted with Liquid Mercury from this site, since he is in DC for a month or so on work. The dude is a beast and works out hard as shit. It made me sorta realize how lack luster my own training had been for the last little bit. So we benched and I followed his assistance exercises as a change of pace–they were pretty cool. The DB curls against bands was the most awkward thing I think I have ever done.

Only got 4 reps on bench, which ties what I did back in November but might have been able to manage 5 if I hadn’t lost my tightness on rep 3.

I’m also down right around 20 pounds from the first of the year (297 to 277 or so) even though I haven’t been able to train or do cardio consistently. I’m eating a lot better.

I haven’t lifted since last Tuesday–was going to do back on Thursday but just didn’t feel like it. My motiviation to train is completely in the toilet with this injury. May be shaking things up quite a bit here soon to breath some new life back into my training. Stay tuned for big updates.

Back Progress

I had my appointment with the back specialist last Thursday. She was really cool and took the time to sit down with me and talk about what is going on and what her recommendations are. She was basically flat out with the fact that my hernia was huge and a surgeon would have absolutely no reservations about operating on me. But she also recommended I take a bit of a more conservative approach first and avoid it if necessary. After discussing my options, I decided to go with the cortisone injections.

They gave me the shot (two actually, one into each nerve) right there in the office and it was painless and over in about 20 minutes. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I am in more pain today than I have been. It is radiating down my leg and ass and is really uncomfortable. It’s not an overwhelming sensation, but more just like a dull throb that I know I didn’t have before. I’m going to eat some aspirin here in a few to see if I get any relief from that.

She had mentioned a lot of people don’t see any relief for a few days, so hoping that comes soon if it is going to. My guess is the injection aggravated what is already going on in there and this is part of the healing process.

I go back in 2 weeks for a follow-up, at which point they will give me another one if I want it (followed by a 3rd 2 weeks later if warranted, which is the most for a 6 month period).

I’m also going to be following a protocol recommended to me by Liquid Mercury for rehab.

Finally, she had mentioned that this shot is diagnostic and if it doesn’t provide any relief there may be other issues other than just the visible hernia. My money, if so, would be on the SI-joint…we’ll see I reckon.

919

3/11/13 - Leg Day

Agile 8

Leg Press (4x8): 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6 pps
Leg Extension: 3x12
Leg Curl: 3x12
Ab Wheel: 3x12

Prowler: 90x40x10 in 10:22

Fucking great workout.

I had debated skipping tonight since I am still having a lot of pain in my leg after the cortisone shot, but I have been slacking off so bad that I couldn’t really justify it. Got in there and had one of the best workouts I’ve had in recent memory…everything felt light and quick and I moved up half a plate for my last set on leg press over last week’s efforts.

Hit the Prowler after and got a fairly easy 10 trips in just under 10 and a half minutes. Pretty good.

The pain went away for the most part during the workout but is back now that I am relaxing afterwards. It doesn’t seem to be as bad, but I’m not optimistic about tomorrow. At any rate, it seemed to not impede me doing legs, so that is a promising sign.

Plan for this week is bench Tuesday, smash back on Thursday, then hit OHP on Saturday and go for 285, which is what I need to tie the guy in the lead in the OHP competition I’m doing. Hopefully that will coax him into attempting something higher in the next couple weeks and I can put a couple micro plates on there and overtake him on the finish line.

920

I really hope this back shit gets sorted out quick