Finally a good night...

Wasn't hurting too bad today which is nice.  Made me think I might be ready for the meet.  Ready or not I'm going but still, I just figure if my numbers suck more than I expect I'll be pissed off for a month after.  Anyway, was worried about laying back on the bench because of my rib but it didn't hurt too bad.  My speed felt good, once I got up around 300 I was popping it off my chest so hard that my shoulders were wanting to leave the bench so I was having to stay tucked extra hard.  Did some more Spoto presses and some double bar triceps press downs.  Best way I can think to call that move.  Anyway, you hook a bar between both sides of the cable machine and use both stacks for press downs.  Sounds odd, it's hard as hell because you have to be over 300 pounds to do the stack on each side just so it doesn't lift you off the ground.  Anyway, best part was getting to help train a friend with his squats since he's decided he wants to do a meet in about 6-7 months.  It feels good seeing the stuff you're teaching click and stick with.  Long story short, for the first time of ever doing box squats he did pretty damn great.  I guess that'll do for tonight, maybe another rambling post this week.

MMmmm ribs...

Made an appointment with a chiropractor to see about getting this rib popped back into place.  It'll be next week though.  Monday should have been speed deadlift but I was hurting too bad to bend and attempt to pull, so went with several sets of seated rows which on a scale of "no pain" to "fuck" they were somewhere around "son of a bitch."  When I was done I tried to do some pull ups but yeah, that was a no-go.  The pull up was fine, the lower myself back down was up that "fuck" level.  Probably should have just pulled up, let go, then dropped.  Tomorrow night is speed bench, I'm hoping it'll go better.  I'm about 95% rid of this cold/sinus issues so feeling good and since the weather is about to turn to what winter weather should be around here the sinuses are clearing nicely.  Seriously, screw 75 degree weather in December.  I've got my weight back up to 332, so almost where I should be.  I'm thinking maybe the cold threw off my eating too.  So anyway, that's enough rambling.  Another update tomorrow night.

Rambling: BDD: OSFED: more rambling

I've had this tab opened since last night trying to put thoughts together.  I still can't think of a good way so this will probably be a lot of incoherent rambling.  First, no real training updates because I've been pretty sick, cold and sinuses because of bi-polar weather kept me out all for one shitty day last week.  Anyway, over the past week I've done a lot of reading about eating disorders.  Not really sure why, well I know the initial reason, not sure why I've continued aside from the fact I find it fascinating.  There's a ton of  types of eating disorders because really when you hear eating disorders you instantly think bulimia and anorexia.  OSFED/EDNOS are pretty broad terms used to describe several others.  I've had trouble keeping my weight where I need it to be for my next meet(which I feel horribly prepared for).  I've been using junk which while it taste good, isn't the best stuff for me, so came up with a game plan for getting an extra 1200 calories a day from chicken/blackbeans/corn, put it together today.  Tasted pretty good, now the plan is anytime I go through the kitchen to eat about 1/8th of it throughout the day and hopefully won't make me feel as crappy as candy.  I mean I'll still throw in a peanut butter Snickers, but still, not as many.  I remember when I first started lifting I was on the north side of 400 pounds, I think my waist was right around 70".  The whole reason I wanted to lift to lose weight was to wrestle.  So I started going to the gym, started doing cardio, ended up dropping 100 pounds in the first year.  Felt good, but I still had the mentality "I gotta lose weight"  By the time I started training to wrestle I was at around 240 pounds and when I had my first match I was at 224, which was probably the first time I was at 224 since middle school.  It was pretty awesome, but after looking at those pics I was like "Damn, I look like I'm on chemo and meth."  I've always had a big head/shoulders, so that combo on a body that was too small for it just didn't look right, so I went up to around 250.  That was fine, had my gall bladder out and went to around 280, I think that's about the weight I prefer for "look" and I might go back there eventually, but not soon.  Over the years I've grown to hate the phrase "I need to lose weight." or "You look like you've lost weight."  People who say the first in the gym my first thought is "Well, go walk on a treadmill an hour a day, you'll accomplish your goal, it won't be good but if that's your goal..."  The second one bugs the ever living fuck out of me when someone says it to me.  Anytime someone says "Wow, you've lost weight?"  My mind goes straight to "Oh fuck, am I getting small?"  I guess it goes to show where my mindset was to where it has come.  I'll rationalize the last time I saw them like "Well, it's been 2 months ago, I'll check some logs."  I'll then check my logs and be like "What the hell?  I was 337 two months ago, now I'm 331, has that 6 pounds made that much of a difference?"  I believe that's probably an mild case of body dysmorphia disorder since after rationalizing it in my head for a while I realize they're just stupid, but I've probably ate just in case.  At any rate, this is long as hell already so if you've stuck around for my rambling, I guess it's just that the mind can be real asshole sometimes, but maybe that's what makes some of us more awesome.

A day late...

So, dynamic effort bench night was pretty damn good.  8x2 First 2 was with 315, moved well enough that I jumped to 325 for the next 6, finally 335 for the final 2.  All moved really well so I was pleased.  After that went to Spoto press for singles, kinda rapid fire between me and the guy I train with, did a total of 8, with about a 2 second pause, the final three I did without a re-rack just because my partner couldn't get more than 5 but he still did better than I thought, oh yeah, 315 on those.  Started doing weighted dips again.  Went to 50 pounds of plates dangling between my dangledoos.  That put me at a robust 385 and managed to do 3 sets of 6-8.  That felt pretty good and my tris were screaming after so naturally I did some high rep press downs and ended with some curls.  Friend and I were speaking about how doing a pull motion after a push motion seems to help with some of the inflammation in the elbows.  It did seem to help, so I'm pretty pleased with that.  Anyhoo, I'll post up some more stuff in a day or so.

Back to boring...

Damn, should post shit with more depth more often.  Had a lot more views than I would have thought.  Anyway, this one will be getting back to the boring.  So anyway, I had to go train Saturday morning before work.  I hate training in the morning.  Some speed shoulder work, 8x3, then hit the triceps hard again.  Really gotta hit them hard right now.  Monday night was speed deadlifts, 315 for 8x2 off the 3" deficit block, definitely have to increase that a bit.  They all moved really well and I was happy with them.  However, going in that night I knew it wasn't going to be a great night.  Thanks to a lot of work and stuff that kept me from sleeping there was a lot of mental and physical exhaustion.  All day at work Monday I felt beat up like even getting to the gym might be out of the equation.  I forced myself to go and I'm glad, but I was so further exhausted after the deadlifting that I called it a night and didn't do any accessories.  Feeling good right now, everything seems to be not be as sore and tight.  Got some almost decent sleep last night and had some time to get shit off my mind so really looking forward to speed bench on Wednesday.

It gets in your blood...

This post popped up in my 'on this day' and I wanted to repost it, I noticed that I misspelled my friend's name so corrected it and this might show up as a new post. I still remember how I felt writing it out. Was an interesting one to write.

A friend once said that to me, this was about six months after he had a full knee and a partial shoulder replacement.  It was also about a three months before he set a world record in the deadlift for his age and weight class by pulling 840 pounds raw.  I started lifting weights so I could get in shape to wrestle.  I got injured doing that to the point my knee was pretty bad so I knew I wouldn't be able to do it anymore.  I kept lifting and started getting into powerlifting more and more.  Me mum bought me one of those magnetic bracelets with the two balls on each end because she knew what I was going to be doing was going to hurt and she didn't want me to hurt.  It was sweet.  17 years later and I still wear it, a friend Christy dubbed it my "old man bracelet" and I've called it that since.  People ask if it works, my reply is always "Not sure, but I like it."  I know that started with some rambling but this morning at the gym me and a couple of guys were talking about training while hurt.  Another guy chimed in, with an injury he had that kept him out of the gym for a year.  I couldn't imagine that.  Second week of training for wrestling had what we'll refer to as a minor accident and I compressed my spine and bruised my spinal erectors.  I was back six weeks later doing it again.  Nervous, but I was there.  Had my gal bladder removed in 2000(2001?), took about 4 weeks till I was back to wrestling and lifting.  After wrestling my knee took about three months to heal to the point I could do squats again.  I've had way more injuries than I'd like to have had over the years.  Really my worst was in 2009, fell/got pinned under a 625 pound squat lockout.  Couldn't walk at all for four weeks.  Then I moved to two knee braces, a boot, and crutches for 2 weeks before I ditched the crutches for a cane.  So at the six week mark while in the braces, boot, and cane I was like "Well, I can train bench"  And I did.  If it's something you love you will learn how to work around injures, push the pain out of your mind and do what you can, or drag yourself to the gym even on days you feel completely beat up.  Anytime I go to the doctor for something that's hurting they always ask the whole "On a scale of 1 to 10..."  I find that scale funny since I don't remember the last time I was lower than a 3/4.  I think most people who do any kind of physically demanding activity, sport, or job probably would find that funny.  You learn what to do to heal faster, what works to alleviate the pain, or to recover faster.  If you really want to do something you'll do it, you just suck up the pain and go push yourself to it.  Some days are a lot easier, some are a lot harder.  Today was a hard/painful day.  I guess that's why I rambled but I guess it does get in your blood, probably like a disease.  Sorry for not making paragraphs, just felt like rambling.

SKWAT

So, there's really not much I can say about my squat days since all I'm doing is box squats for speed with like 235-255.  8-10 sets of doubles.  Finished up with some single leg leg curls, 4 sets of 8 each leg with the stack on that machine, I'm thinking it's 100 or 110.  Nothing fancy.  Since I just do push/pull I'm not worrying too much about my squat going up.  Just hoping the speed box squats help with some carryover to my deadlifts.  Those past couple of shitty days got a lot better today which is nice.  Hopefully it keeps up.  Went back and checked my weight from the results of the last meet and I was at 335, so I won't bench in my shirt again until Jan 6th so I've got plenty of time to bloat myself up, and fortunately I also have a Krispy Kreme that doesn't require a 30 mile drive now.  Mmmm taste like... diabetes.  I did have a really oddly placed bruise form where my biceps connects to my deltoid today, that has disturbed me because I don't remember hitting anything in that area and that's not an area you want to see a bruise in after bench night.  I'm hoping it's just from where my shirt was sitting there and it bruised me it never has before.  Anyhoo, I think that's enough rambling or I'll keep going.

Bench shirt bruises...

Anyway, this will go one of two ways... it'll be short or I'll ramble.  Shitty day/night/day translated to a so-so night at the gym, sometimes that therapy isn't enough to get you out of a funk.  Anyway, enough about that.  So, woke up this morning at around 325, which is about 10 pounds lighter than I like to be for my gear to fit me right so getting into my shirt was pretty easy which isn't a good thing.  405 for a single went up fast and it touched.  I knew that was a bad sign, never been able to get 405 to touch in my shirt so that means I'm going to have to bloat myself up a bit.  455 flew up.  505 I had a minor sticking point at about 6" off my chest.  Video of that will be below.  It wasn't too bad and I had to video it to make sure I saw where my sticking point was.  Going to have to end up hammering my triceps a lot harder over the next 8 weeks also increasing the weight on my speed work.  It's irritating seeing my bench stay at this damn plateau lately while my pulling has gone up.  I'm still looking like I'm on pace to put up better numbers than the last time and that's the important thing, but right now I have that on my mind with a fuckton of a lot of other things.  Anyhoo, here's that video...

So I didn't blog a day...

That doesn't mean I didn't go.  Was just an easy shoulder day.  Was kind of on a good mood type thing plus had to get up earlier than normal this morning so that's why I didn't post the shoulder day.  But it was pretty basic, Overhead dumbbell presses, 80s for 5 sets of 8, some Bradford presses, some Klokov presses, some javelin presses, and some bicep work.  But anyway, to the important stuff that made me feel good.  So today, I just felt off.  Like, all day at work, things were just going wrong and had me dreading tonight.  Get to the gym, doing rack pulls from the 2nd pin off a 3 3/4" deficit block.  Last time I did them didn't have the 3/4 plywood and went to 605 and it wasn't easy but I got it.  Tonight, it was harder because of the deficit being higher and I decided to attempt 610.  Honestly didn't think I'd have it at all, but I moved it well, had a small stutter at near lockout but it was one of those things that I felt but not sure if it was noticeable.  Was really pleased.  However, I was beat so I just finished with a lot of one armed rows and called it a night.  Felt really great and helped boost my confidence a bit more going into Jan.

Squats, yes, I went there.

Back felt pretty good, ankle felt pretty good, my mood was pretty good, so tonight did squats.  Nothing amazing, box squats, worked my way up from 145 for a few reps to doubles with 165, 185, 205, then 235 for 8 sets of 2.  All of them felt good, didn't require knee sleeves so that was nice.  Did the reps for speed, I was pretty smooth and speedy on all of them.  Couple of them even had to re-position the bar because it left my shoulders.  All the leg extensions and leg curls I've done lately out of necessity had poorly prepared me for doing squats again.  After that my legs were kind of throbbing.  So naturally I did the dumbest thing I could think of and dropped to 145 and did mid-range squats for 4 sets of 15.  The portions of my quad just above my knee were throbbing and on fire at this point.  Considered doing some more accessory work but I came to my senses since I do need to be able to walk at work tomorrow.  As I was leaving the gym a friend sent a text telling me after his leg day he was walking like Lt. Dan.  I too knew his pain at that moment.

Beat up

So, tonight was one of those nights where I went into the gym pretty beat up.  Managed to get my primary work done and a couple of accessory lifts.  I just felt bad/run down tonight, I've had congestion and a cough for over a week now and it's aggravating, I don't think it'd bother me so much if I had a symptom other than the congestion and cough.  But anyway, enough of that, speed banded bench tonight, worked up to 295 + purple bands, so around 400 at the top, they all went up smooth quickly.  Felt a bit easier than the last time even though I did feel a bad so that was a positive.  Thankfully the rain is supposed to end over night so maybe once I stop getting rained on every time I walk outside I might get rid of the congestion.  Gonna cut this one short and attempt to get some sleep tonight.

Speed pulling

Tonight was another good night, however this muggy November weather is giving me a case of the horribles.  I've had pretty bad chest congestion for like two weeks, that's my only symptom.  Congestion and coughing.  It's starting to get on my nerve.  So I got some Mucinex extra strength and took it before I went in. Guaifenesin is the main ingredient so it's kind of a stimulate, so with the high humidity and that in my system I was sweating even more than normal. Got texted to see if I could get in a little earlier to help spot a friend.  I'm helpful like that, that and when you're benching over 450 it's helpful to have someone around you know that can deadlift more than 100 pounds.  Good crew in there tonight, and the guy I usually train with showed up too which was nice, so naturally I punished him with the time between sets of our speed work.  8x2, 315 off the 3" deficit block.  All were done beltless and they all went up pretty speedy, made me feel good. After that dropped the block out just pulled the 315 for a set of 8.  It's funny how big of a difference that block makes, actually standing on the floor it felt like I was damn near doing a rack pull with it.  Did some nice and light bent over rows for reps, heavy yes and nos, and ended with some short stroke behind the head pulldowns.  Haven't weighed myself in a couple of weeks, probably around the 330 mark which is where I need to be right now.  Other things seem to be going pretty good.  Still not really mentioning them in great detail because I'm worried I'll jinx it, but everything kinda seems like it's completely on point right now and that's pretty terrifying.

ADM is Spanish for OMG!

Yeah, that title has nothing to do with anything.  Anyhoo, good night tonight.  Went heavy on the hammer strength shoulder thing.  There will be a pic of that right about... here

So, that was my last set, I got it for a single, 4 plates, 1 quarter, and a 1 five on each side.  Fortunately on the 4 plate 4th set I only went for a double, if I had tried a triple there's no way I could have locked out the last one.  Anyhoo, finished up with some rear-delt work, triceps, and a few sets of curls.  So anyway, last night saw a friend I haven't seen in a while.  A beautiful ginger man.  After hugging me he commented "Damn you're hard to reach around"  That was awesome.  Also apparently I've changed shape a bit which is a good thing.  Then went by work and hung out with a friend and went to Steak and Shake, there I learned Steak and Shake still pretty much sucks, but the company was good.  

Legturday!

Damn, I was reaching with that title.  So, lets see, before gym stuff non-gym stuff, yes I do stuff other than train.  The greyest of Thursdays and blackest of Fridays has passed.  Holy shit, according to the pedometer on my phone I walked nearly 15 miles contained inside Sears over that 30 hour period.  My attempts of sleep Thursday night were shot thanks to going to Waffle House and eating horribly greasy food with a friend and staying out way later than I should have.  The horribly greasy food lead to not being able to sleep much even after I had gotten home.  Kept having to go between Hardware and Receiving so I was pretty beat.  But the times were good.  Anyhoo, alarm went off this morning and I was dragging after the past two days.  Finally got to the gym, got in some legs, I had gotten a bit dehydrated after the past couple of days my lower back was pretty tight so skipped squats and leg presses today and focused on leg extensions and leg curls.  Felt decent, nothing too great, 8 sets of 8 with the stack on leg extensions and 120 for 5 sets of 8 on leg curls.  At least I got a hug and told I smelled good by a hulking he-beast.  So really that's all you need to feel good.

Gravity, the great equalizer.

All in all, tonight sucked at the gym.  It happens, I don't like it but it does.  Any way, first the good then the bad.  Did bench rack lockouts about 4-5" off my chest.  Went to 500, it went up but damn it went up slow, felt like an eternity under there.  So, this pissed me off so I dropped back to 405 and fired it out for a set of 8.  That made me feel good.  Well, that was the good, now the bad.  That 500 went up so damn slow.  Yes that was good that it got up, but I seriously should have gotten it with more speed than that.  Almost wondering if the tightness in my upper back was what was hindering me, but not really sure.  Tonight I was suppose to do regular flat bench HOWEVER, the person who who said they were going to be there to spot me help me in my shirt was a no-show.  That means I'll get a flat bench number to work off of with only 6 weeks prep time which sadly means my meet prep is kinda thrown off to the point that I might be screwed, but we'll see.  So, that's enough of the bad.  Think I'll attempt to sleep.  Sleep has been pretty shitty the past few nights, not sure why.  Hopefully that'll get fixed so I'll get some rest before the blackest of Fridays, and uh, the greyest of Thursdays.  Damn opening on Thanksgiving stores. Oh yeah, thanks to seeing the Captain America: Civil War trailer I'm probably going to end up rereading all of Marvel's Civil War, so that'll probably screw up a lot of that planned sleep.

A pulling we will go...

Tonight felt pretty amazing.  Rack pulls, second pin off the deficit block.  Warmups because it's cold and I'm old damnit!   225 for a few, 315 for a couple, 405x1, 495x1, 545x1, 565x1, 605x1.  Felt pretty amazing getting that 605.  At this point I was pretty much willing to say the back is healed up.  Not too bad, 2 weeks, not quite Wolverine speeds but easily Sabertooth(sorry, geek moment there).  Seriously, tonight was damn awesome.  Okay, so after that I pulled the block out and dropped to 495 and repped that 7 times.  Once again, that felt good too, I was blown up like I had just actually had to cardio when I was done, but I didn't mind because my lower back felt strong.  After that finished up with some heavy assed abductors and adductors and some mildly heavy one armed rows.  All in all pretty great night.  Still pretty sure the TB500 helped a ton in the recovery and I still have 5 more doses.  That's enough rambling for tonight.  Wednesday is heavy bench day so that'll be fun.

Shoulder Sunday Funday

Tired as hell thanks to getting up early, going to train, then to work.  Damn people enjoy the hell out of some deals on tool boxes and ratchet sets.  Anyway... this morning was good, got to the gym, the heat was set to 62 degrees which is nice because since it was 62 in there it was pretty comfortable, just takes longer to warm up.  Today was a rep day for shoulders, used the hammer strength machine, plate and a quarter on each side for a set of 12, two plates a set of 12, two plates and a 10 on each side for a set of 12, two plates two 10s on each side for a set of 12, and 2 plates and a 35 for a set of 12.  Could have finished out a little stronger but since I had to work tonight I decided to go a wee bit easier.  Followed up with some heavy rear delt flies on the pec deck/delt fly machine, I use the stack on there for 3 sets of 8, then some super setting some straight bar triceps pressdowns with rope triceps pressdowns 3 sets of 15/10 and then some Gerry extensions for triceps.  Ended with some biceps, few sets of heavy curls.  By the time I left my arms looked totally huge.  I mean, they did when I got there but still.  Anway, nothing too interesting, tomorrow will be heavy deadlift day.  Probably be rack pulls unless nothing changes.  I'll try to be more interesting again at some point.

Injury? Training? Pt 6

Yeah, hopefully the last time I'm using this title for a while.  Had to add the question mark behind the training because thanks to getting over a minor cold and not wanting to affect people at the gym I decided to not go this morning.  Feeling pretty great right now so tomorrow morning I'll get my shoulders and supplemental accessory work done.  Thanks to working late I'll have to get a morning session in which aren't my favorite but has to be done.  I'm sitting here with my TENS unit on my back and knee.  Both are feeling great, can't even tell my back has had a pull recently, which is handy since Monday is heavy deadlift day.  I'm probably going to do rack pulls again, haven't really decided on accessory moves for it yet but I need to get some good mornings in.  Wednesday afternoon got a call from work wanting to know if I could come in at 7am on Thursday and work till 4.  So with cleaning up the warehouse to get ready for the blackest of Fridays it was almost like 9 straight hours of accessory work.  This helped me really test something.  At that point I was 5 doses into my TB500 which I got out of hope it would heal my back up quicker, and right now I have no doubt it did.  However, if you've known me since my wee squat lockout accident in 09 you know my ankle has hurt sometimes horrible for about 6 years now, fortunately I have a high pain tolerance so I just suck it up and go on about my day, work around it in the gym or whatever I need to do so I don't bitch about it too much.  Which seems odd since bitching, more like ranting, about things is right in my wheelhouse.  At any rate, my ankle is about 90% pain free at the moment.  That's fucking amazing.  Not having odd limps after I take my shoes off after a long shift or anything.  Starting to think there's something to this stuff.  I'm not expecting this to be a permanent fix but I am interested in seeing how long of a temporary fix it will be.  Actual lifting stuff in the next one.

Injury? Training Pt 5

Tonight was pretty f'n amazing.  It was dynamic effort bench night, broke out the bands for the first time in at least 6 months, might be closer to 9-10.  My back was pretty tight after deadlifting last night but not too bad.  When I first got on the bench to warm up I was a bit worried I wouldn't be able to get my arch, but I kinda pushed through it and got myself tucked.  Was a bit sore getting up but that went away pretty quick.  Wanted to make sure the back wasn't going to crunch up so my working sets started with 2 sets of doubles 225, went fast and smooth, 2x2 245 once again fast and smooth, 2x2 265 felt really good and moved fast, decided to make a bigger jump, 295 1x2 still fired up up quick.  305 1x2 this one wasn't as fast as I'd like but the speed was good.  I was using my purple bands so that's around 100 pounds extra at the top of those sets so felt really amazing.  Didn't really pay a lot of attention to my sets/reps of straight bar triceps press downs.  Used 200 pounds, it was probably 6-8 sets of 10-15 reps.  At this point my arms, chest, and shoulders kinda felt like they were going to explode which was nice.  Used the rear delt fly machine, the stack on it for 3 sets of 8, I'm thinking that's around 200 pounds, and finished with palms facing incline dumbbell benchpress with 80s for 3 sets of 10, at that point I was just shaking so that seemed like a good stopping point.  My third dose of TB500 comes before bed tonight.  I think I'm noticing something but I'm a bet hesitant to talk about it until I can confirm it, so that'll be the cliffhanger.  Pretty sure after leg day this week I'll have to drop the "Injury?" from the post titles which means I'll actually have to think of titles again.  Too much pressure man.


#training #powerlifting #injury #injurytraining #randomcrap

Injury? Training Pt 4

Today wasn't really any different than yesterday.  Didn't require any NSAIDs and didn't really feel any lower back pain which was nice.  So I figured might as well go in and do my dynamic effort deadlifts tonight.  Good group in the gym again tonight, one of the guys asked what I was doing tonight, I said speed pulls.  His reply "Worried about the speed?"  my reply "Nah, it's the pull pulling too much that has me worried."  Warmed up with 135 because I don't think you can warm up any lower than that.  Did a few sets of 5, everything felt good.  Went to 225, pulled that for 2 sets of 3 beltless, it felt good but at that point I was like "Yeah, I should belt up for 315."  On 315 I stopped at 5 sets of doubles, they all felt great, speed was good, I could have pulled faster but was worried about my back.  After every set I'd pull the lever on my belt slowly like "Oh shit, please let the back still be there."  It was.  Finished up with some hip abductors, adductors, and some standing side bends off the cable machine.  Easy-peasy.  Didn't want to do any sort of row to play it safe.  As I sit here and type this my lower back is a little tight, but more so in my abs and obliques, must have been holding them extra tight on all the deadlifts tonight which is handy.  Tomorrow is dynamic effort bench, which means I'll get to use bands.  That should be a fun time.




#training #powerlifting #injury #injurytraining #randomcrap

Injury? Training Pt. 3

Woke up this morning, no twinge getting out of bed and getting moving. Woke from a mid-afternoon nap, once again no twinges. Didn't use an NSAID of any kind today. Did take my second dose of TB500. Went to the gym, did the Hammerstrength military press machine. Went up to 4 plates and a quarter on each side and got it once. Going in I felt maybe I had two but my mind was ahead of my body on that. Followed that up with some short range overhead dumbbell presses to get the blood flowing into my shoulders. 60 for 2x15 and 1x30. I felt a bit groovy on that last set so I kept going. Then some simple triceps press downs and machine curls and called it a night. Back is feeling really good, tomorrow is dynamic effort deadlifts, normally I'd do them from a three inch deficit block but I won't tomorrow. That should be more than enough of a test for my back. On Sunday nights we usually play the 80s channel but man they were playing some slow assed shit tonight. Trying to press something heavy over your head while Take My Breath Away by Berlin is playing is a bitch. Side note, apparently bitch is the only curse word I haven't taught Swype on my Nexus 6p since I got it. Don't worry, I've got my favorites covered.

#training #powerlifting #injury #injurytraining #randomcrap

Injury Training Pt 2

Good sense is something I've never been accused of having an abundance of but today I listened to it.  Should have been squat day, however squat day turned into leg extensions and leg curl day.  It was pretty good, best part is, with the exception of Sweet Ass and Goldilocks I couldn't have been more happy with the people that were there(I've given a couple of nicknames in cause that wasn't obvious.)  Everyone that I enjoy training around and talking to were there so it was pretty nice.  Kept the leg extensions pretty simple, 150 pounds, 8 sets of 10, and leg curls 120 pounds 4 sets of 20(that's a clever reference!) As I was finishing up I briefly considered leg presses but I didn't want to curl up my lower back at all so once again that good sense thing kicked in.  It's odd reading that I have that.  Once again left the gym with a pump, that still seems odd, I'm blaming it mostly on the l-arginine I'm taking again daily.  Getting up at 9 to go to the gym my back was a little sore but I had no trouble getting out of bed and getting my socks on.  I haven't even had a twinge in it today so that's meant no need for the tramadol or cyclobenzaprine which is nice.  Also, had my first dose of TB500 yesterday.  Still too early to tell if it's helping but we'll see, 9 more doses to go.  Right now I'm about 75% sure I'll be able do do my speed pulls on Monday.  Might do one set and change that but we'll see.


#training #powerlifting #injury #injurytraining #randomcrap

Injury training

Felt pretty good today, the meds really took care of a lot of spasms which was great.  Worked this morning, basically walking around all day scanning shit.  Came home, had a wee nap, then went to the gym.  Was suppose to be a heavy bench night, but wasn't sure if I'd be able to hold my arch right to bench so I just used the hammer strength incline military press.  If you raise the seat all the way it's like a very high incline bench press.  This was way tougher than I thought it would be.  Usually I just use it for shoulders so the seat is all the way at the bottom.  Going to have to throw those into the rotation.  Followed that up with a new row machine we have to work my lats, I know rows and a bad back?  But, it has a chest pad you sit against so it's just straight up lat work.  Finished with some triceps press downs.  The new cable machine has way more weight on it than our old one did, but I still do the stack on those for sets of 12-15.  Left with a nice little pump.  I seem to be enjoying that more than I'd think. My weight today was 344, so that's 19 pounds over what I was at my last meet.  That thoroughly explains why deadlift suit was so tight.  I'm almost afraid to get into my bench shirt.  I'm going to drop back down to 325-330 for the meet.  Enough rambling for tonight.

Injury update No. 1

So, woke up this morning and straightening up was kinda tough, so I decided to go see the doc.  I had to go for some lab work this week anyway so that killed two birds with one stone.  Fortunately/unfortunately it isn't my first rodeo with a lower back pull, so my doc gave me "the usual" shot of Toradol in the office and some tramadol and cyclobenzaprine.  I love toradol, hurts to move, get a shot, two hours later you can move again.  Then the rest just kinda help hold off the spasms.  Back was well enough that I had no trouble working tonight even moving several air compressors.  My training will be a bit slower, won't do a heavy bench day like I had planned tomorrow but I'll see what I can do when it gets here.  I think since I'm currently in training for a meet I'm going to give TB500 a shot.  I've heard really good things about it, I'll post some updates on how that's going too.

Take 2.

So, Monday I went in after work for my heavy pulling day.  Was suppose to be deadlifts.  Had a few realizations.  One thing I like about the conjugate/Westside style is that you have flexibility in your primary lifts.  What I was doing, there was none.  I was suppose to deadlift so I deadlifted.  The other realization was that at my current weight, 342 I can't get down to get the bar in my deadlift suit, straps up or down does not matter.  So, I've got to drop about 12 pounds for it to fit right.  That'll be easy.  I didn't even feel like deadlifting, so after pulling 500 once very off balanced because of my suit I decided it wasn't meant to be and I'd try again tonight with something I'm more comfortable with.  So tonight I went in, did rack pulls from the bottom pin while standing on 3/4" plywood.  Pulled 500 really easy, went to 550, it wasn't easy.  A nice grind but I got it no problem.  Problem came when I was putting it back down and I felt a slight lower back pull.  It's not excruciating fortunately, but it came with nice timing since I'm going to the doc this week for a checkup anyway.  Been over a year since this happened so I should have been expecting it.  Anyway, so now I get to try to rehab this a bit while training for a meet, that should be even more interesting.

Shoulder Sunday Funday

Despite some pretty interesting forearm pain shoulders were pretty fun today.  Today is the last day of my training week, it's generally shoulder with some optional accessory work.  Generally triceps and if I'm feeling froggy some biceps, but I still feel I work them enough with rows.  Since I started in receiving at work with all the truck unloading and box opening I've been having some pretty bad forearm/wrist pain that flares up randomly.  Fortunately today began my, lets see, it's been called transfer/promotion/upgrade, however I like the term "graduation" that a dude I work with uses so that's what I'm going with.  Anyhoo, hopefully not having to unload 500+ boxes and open another 150 will cause some of those flareups to, uh... flare out!  Oscar Wylde like wordplay there.  Since I have heavy deadlifts and heavy bench this week my shoulders were mostly for the dreaded reps and mostly accessory moments to increase blood flow and what not.  Great video on it by Dave Tate that everyone should watch.  I'll link that down below but I assume anyone reading this has already seen it or heard me talk about it.  Today was some nice Hammer Strength incline/shoulder presses(as much as it pains me to say it, I love that machine), rear delt flies, then some straight bar triceps press downs and a move I've come to call Gerry Extensions, since a dude named Gerry was the first person I ever paid attention to doing them.  Felt good and as much as I don't really train for a pump I left with a pretty awesome pump today and it felt good.   That's enough for today I think.

 

Squats are evil fun...

So, it's been 10 weeks since I've been able to do squats.  Thanks to an old injury flaring up my ankle has been hurting so bad over those few weeks that walking was a bit of a pain but I just kinda sucked it up.  Deadlifting hasn't been too bad on it, but even a body weight squat made me want to scream.  I kept it kind of easy last night, just to 325 for singles.  First one made my ankle made a lovely popping sound that I could hear over the music.  That was a bit disturbing but I managed to finish.  Today it doesn't feel great but I haven't wanted to scream.  Fortunately all the deadlifting and deadlift accessory work I do always hits my hips/glutes/hamstrings so I'm pretty good as far as no soreness in those areas today.  I'm disappointed with the weight I used, but since I'm just getting back into the swing I'm trying not to dwell on it.  Plus only training for push/pull so it's not like I'd need to have it way up there.  However, personally I want to have it way up there.  But we'll see...

On an unrelated note, I noticed something at the gym the other night.  If your phone is bigger than your arm, don't get an armband to hold your phone for music while you train.  That's a fun tip.

Light bench day?

I'm not going to say tonight was a good night but it certainly wasn't a bad night.  It feels awkward doing my light days to a failure set, this will take some getting used to, fortunately, there's 5 more light bench days between now and Jan 30th.  315 close grip to failure on my top set.  After I was done the guy I asked to spot me said something along the lines of "You were going close on that."  So I said "Yeah, the way I'm programmed right now my light days I'll do close grip."  Another guy said "That's a light day?"  That made me feel good, I only managed 7 reps and that 7th one was a pretty massive struggle but I got it.  Did some incline dumbbell presses for the first time in maybe a year as an accessory.  It was odd, I had forgotten how much I loved them.  Decided to play it safe on those and use the 80s since they're far less bent than the 90s and 100s, but did 3 sets of 15, control was nice and smooth, changed hand position on each set.  Normal first, turned in slightly for second, then palms facing for the third.  That palms facing on incline felt pretty amazing, so the fact I only got the got the 315 for 7 wasn't as disheartening.  Ended with some banded triceps pressdowns and some one armed rows.  

Only slightly unrelated, I've been ravenous lately.  Just some rough numbers about 1200 calories more than normal.  Need to attempt to slow that down on non-training days.  

Begins anew...

So, I'm going to knock the dust off this thing.  A friend has started logging her training and inspired me to start doing it again, while I probably won't be that dedicated to updating daily, I'll try to hit the highlights.  So, I'm 13 weeks out from my next meet.  I have the numbers in my head I think I can hit.  I have the numbers in my head I want to hit.  The goal is to get the can closer to the want.  I start 13 weeks out, that way I have a 1 week deload before the meet.  Once again, I plan on doing push/pull. I'm doing this training cycle a bit different, alternating weeks between heavy/light.  Heavy days will be doing singles, light days will be using between 55-65% of my current one rep max on deadlift days and 62-72%.  And I'll probably talk about any random thing that pops in my head.


Tonight worked out pretty well, nice and simple primary lift was deficit deadlifts, 315 for 3 sets of 5.  No belt since it was a light night, fortunately I didn't have to unload a truck today so I went in pretty fresh.  The deficit block I use is about 3" so the pulls felt pretty long but good.  Unfortunately it was far too muggy for a November, about 70 and rainy so it felt kind of oppressive in the gym.  Because of that probably took longer between sets than I should have, but at least I had good company.  All the pulls went nice and smooth, didn't feel horribly taxed so that means 325 2 weeks from tonight.  Standing band situps, stiff legged deadlifts, and I did a couple of chinups just to see how hard they were at the moment.  The answer to that is very, but I was able to get my 337.2lb ass off the ground, so I'm calling that a mini-victory.

Tomorrow will be light bench day.  We'll see how that goes.