Oh, my elbows

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 25, week 1

• Work Set – Squat (working max: 310#)
  • 45 x 5 x 2 sets (warmup)
  • 125 x 5
  • 155 x 5
  • 190 x 3
  • 205 x 5 (work)
  • 235 x 5
  • 265 x 5
• Assistance – Leg Press
  • Empty x 15
  • 135 x 12
  • 225 x 10
  • 315 x 10
  • 135 x 15
• Assistance – Leg Curl
  • 40 x 12 x 3
• Assistance – Crunches
  • BW x 12 x 3 sets
• Foam Rolling

As I start my next “6 week cycle” (2 back-to-back cycles with no deload in between), my plan was to keep things mostly the same as last cycle. The main difference was going to be determining the source of my elbow pain. It’s something with the elbow and muscles around it, like the brachioradialis and brachialis. I am thinking it’s just inflammation, but I don’t know for sure at this point. But I know what seems to cause it to hurt, so I was going to change up my pressing days to have different back work in hopes of at least learning a little more about what my body is trying to tell me. We would see.

But today? It sucked. From how you have to grab the bar while squatting, it just put the same sorts of pressure on the arm and elbow. I wanted to do more squatting, but I figured I better err on the side of caution and try something that didn’t put so much pressure there. So, leg press. I really don’t WANT to leg press, but here we are. I think it’ll be good for me tho, so I’ll roll with it.

So on squats, I intentionally went for prescribed reps only. I actually felt kinda crappy mentally today and just wasn’t into things, but the squatting itself was good. I was great on depth on that last set, cranked out the 5 and felt like I could have done 1-2 more, but you know… leave it in the tank. Then I hit the leg press.

The machine at the gym is a 45-degree angle sled. I have no idea how much I can leg press (does it matter?), but I know I wanted to keep it strict. That is, my back stays flat on the backrest (no rounding the lower back as the weight comes down); my legs move through full range of motion — no half-reps so I can look like a big man pressing lots of 45 plates; take a stance on the foot rest akin to my squat stance, so just slightly more than shoulder-width apart, toes out about 30-degrees, and so on. Full range of motion. Oh, and I want this to be for reps. I have had thoughts about my future goals (more on this another time), and taking some more bodybuilder-like techniques in my assistance work is on my mind. So that’s things like higher reps, less rest between sets (I only did about a minute between sets), and so on.

And so, I cranked. Worked up. I probably will start at 135 next time…. oh shit! I just realized that I’m doing plate math! I’m assuming the bar! ha ha ha… 135 really is 90 (45 plate on each side). I have no idea what it really is with the sled and all.:-)

Anyways, there we go.

Did some leg curls to balance things out. Was too light, but meh… focus on the negative.

Crunches, and then no farmers walks. I must admit the leg presses trashed my quads. I foam rolled a LOT and I’m sure I’m going to feel this over the next day or two. 🙂

I’m just going to adjust my cycle to try to help my arms and elbows.