You go girl.
I wanted to squat three plates for my 53rd birthday, but got hurt, not bad, so it will have to wait. Maybe four plates for fifty four?
Keep lifting bro/sis.
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Wow! No wonder you’re a beast! Thanks for the encouragement. I am just an impatient ass 
I just have to keep at it, and stuffing my face.
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I read your log, and have no doubt you will do it!
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Just for you Yogi
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Stylin! There are no rules in fashion!
What’s that line about the Marine who looks like a modern art masterpiece?
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urgh that’s exactly the shit I’m talking about!
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my favourite bit in that scene is when he says “choke yourself!” and makes Pyle lean into his hand
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in all seriousness, and with no flaming whatsoever I promise, what are those actually doing for you? Is there some secret benefit to shrink-wrapping your meat and two veg that I’m missing?
Lol, I wear them when it starts to get a little colder out since I lift in my garage. Normally, they’re under my sweat pants, but I started wearing them earlier this year because I changed my deadlift stance and I’m scraping my shins more. This helps prevent that.
*I’m gonna tell Amit you’re making fun of him for wearing them…
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Hey Yogi,
From my understanding you have similar back issues to myself.
Have you ever thought bout getting an MRI done of your lumbar spine and hip??
Im asking this as I have had some irritation of the lower back again and this time I have gone to seen my doctor who has given me a referral for an MRI scan of my lumbar spine and hip. Its expensive so Im not sure if Im going ahead with it, but I would like to get a proper diagnosis. My feeling is that its a SI joint issue, but I am no doctor.
Uncle Bird.
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Hey Uncle,
I did, yeah, a few years ago when my back was really bad, but I did some reading that put me off. Check this out (taken from an Eric Cressey article on here from way back):
In 1994, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study that showed that when doctors looked at MRIs of 98 asymptomatic backs. Researchers noted the following:
“52 percent of the subjects had a bulge at at least one level, 27 percent had a protrusion, and 1 percent had an extrusion [82% of subjects]. Thirty-eight percent had an abnormality of more than one intervertebral disk.”(3)
And, that’s just talking disc issues. In a great study of elite Spanish athletes, spondylolysis (vertebral fractures) proved to be highly prevalent in a wide variety of sports (most notably, track and field throwers, weightlifters, rowers, and gymnasts), yet only 50-60% of those diagnosed under imaging actually reported having lower back pain. (4)
Here you’ve got loads of people with absolutely no pain, yet they have diagnostic imaging that’d tell you that they ought to be in absolute misery.
Here’s a great excerpt from an interview I did with Dr. Jason Hodges, a fantastic radiologist in New York City:
"Regarding the low back, I am a radiologist and I see MRIs every day describing what you said in the newsletter. Lots of people have bulging discs without symptoms. This is especially true of older patients who can have bulging discs at every level but without focal neurologic symptoms. In my experience, younger patients tend to have focal neurological signs with even mild disc bulges or disc herniations. But very often, the symptoms don’t match up with the imaging findings. I have seen patients with symptoms down the right leg, but the disc herniation is on the left side.
"Often imaging findings do not correlate with clinical findings. Older patients often have very degenerative spines without symptoms. Whereas younger patients can have small bulging discs or herniated discs and have debilitating pain. The human body has a great reserve capacity. I see many “normal” kidneys that are in chronic renal failure.
"Medical imaging generally deals with anatomy: how organs “look,” not so much how they function. Obviously, they are linked, but function can decline long before anatomic changes occur. Symptoms can occur without imaging abnormalities. This leads doctors to conclude that nothing is wrong because the x-ray/CT scan/MRI looks normal. This is simply not the case.
“Medical imaging is simply one piece of the clinical puzzle. An analogy can be made with astronomy. You can image the universe at visible light, x-ray, ultraviolet, infrared, etc. Each modality provides a vital, but incomplete picture of the universe. You have to put it all together to get the big picture.”
To get an MRI done I’d need to talk to my GP (who would just tell me to stop lifting weights), convince them I need to see a specialist, wait for several weeks (months, even) until the specialist could see me, and then convince the specialist to give me an MRI. It’s a lot of hoops to jump through for something which may not even provide any real insight.
I’m certainly not recommending you don’t get an MRI, but that was the thought process that put me off having one.
The other thing is that although my back pain is (was - it’s been ages since I’ve had a flare up) pretty chronic and really fucking debilitating at times, all the usual stuff you’d expect to make it better usually did. Glute activation, core work, etc.; all done consistently made a big difference. The real problem just seemed to be my laziness when it came to core work and my being too stubborn to admit that certain exercises were contraindicated for me (back squat and deadlift). If I had an MRI, and it showed some sort of problem, I’d get referred to a physio who would most likely just prescribe all the shit I already knew I was supposed to be doing.
The last time I hurt my low back was about 6 months ago, and it was only about a 5/10. That was from hyperextending my back when incline pressing. Put an aerobics step on the floor in front of the bench to put my feet on (thus putting my spine into ever-so-slight lumbar flexion) and I’m good to go. I can train the shit out of my legs with front squats, good mornings (careful to really brace on these) and lunges without any fear. The day after a leg workout I can be a little achey in the SI joint, but it’s nothing worse that DOMs, really, and certainly not anything I think I should be worrying about.
How diligent are you with your core work? Have you ever checked out Kelly Starrett’s videos on SI joint pain?
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Thanks nephew,
I think this time around I am just extremely frustrated and I just want a answer. One day I feel like a million dollars, and the next day Im walking around like a 90 year old.
I think I have aggravated it trying “land mine” squats for the first time that felt totally unnatural and awkward. Its not as bad as it usually is when I “trigger” it, but its about a 6/10 and will probably require me to take 1-2 weeks off before I get back into the gym.
I think I just have to rethink my goals and routine and stick to single leg stuff, goblet squats and one day maybe even front squats.
Could you please explain to me your regular maintanance routine you do for your core/back?
Uncle Bird.
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Mate I know exactly how you feel. The worst is the fear you get every time you feel a sneeze coming on, like “damn this is really going to hurt…”
Honestly, it’s not even that much any more. I throw in a few sets of whichever core exercise I feel like doing at the end of every workout and that’s it. It seems to be MUCH more to do with what I don’t do, rather than what I do. I don’t think any amount of core work would have me feeling good if I were still trying to deadlift.
I feel like front squatting has probably had the most benefit, as these days I concentrate on bracing my core like fuck, something I didn’t ever do. The day after a front squat workout my midsection is killing me from bracing so hard. That seems to be keeping my back happy.
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so I feel a bit like I have now crossed the line from “lean” to “a bit fat,” which has gotten me thinking about cutting weight. I think I’ll start in January and it’s going to look a bit like this:
Once January comes around, I’ll reduce calories (currently at 4000/day) down to about 2500. This is going to look like this:
Meal 1 - 250g turkey mince, 2tbsp olive oil, veg
Meal 2 - 250g turkey mince, 2tbsp olive oil, veg
Meal 3 - 250g turkey mince, 2tbsp olive oil, 100g rice (50g rice if not training)
Meal 4 - 250g turkey mince, 2tbsp olive oil, 100g rice (50g rice if not training)
I usually train between meal 2 and meal 3, however the order of the meals may swap around depending on whether or not I’m training either morning or evening. If I train in the morning I’ll have one carb meal after training, and the other before bed.
So it’s kind of a carb backloading-type thing, and works out to about 2500 calories a day on training days, and about 2200 on days I don’t. The actual numbers will be slightly higher due to my not counting things like the carb content of veggies and shit like that, but that’s more or less where I’ll be.
I’ll start eating like this in January, which should be plenty to get the ball rolling, and I plan to develop it by adding cardio and drugs. Something like:
-Jan: diet only
-Feb: add cardio
-March: add drugs (clen and testosterone)
-April: add more drugs (T3 and anavar)
And I should be finished in June. I’m hoping that I’ll not have to drop my calories if I just keep increasing the cardio. I’ll reverse-diet in June to get back to eating at maintenance in July, and then decide from there where I want to go to next.
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Pics or it didn’t happen! You bodybuilders have a very flimsy definition of the word fat 
Thats a lot of turkey mince. Why so little variety?
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haha, very true. Fat for me is still leaner than the average, but considering I live in Scotland that’s really not much to brag about.[quote=“max13, post:157, topic:221798”]
Why so little variety?
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I just find it easier. I’m quite good at eating the same shit every day. I’ll save the variety for the cheat meals (I’m thinking one every 10 days or so).
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I can’t count how often I am thankful for that. Makes life so much easier.
This made me laugh harder than it should have. Hell, at least your honest though.
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