Today was good, and good data collection about my arm injury.

First deadlifting. That went well. 350 for 7 is a 7RM, and I had a couple left in the tank, so I feel progress is good. I actually ditched hook grip. Well, double-overhead for warmups, hook for the first 2 work sets, then went mixed for the top set. Hook is alright, but it honestly doesn’t feel as solid to me. Maybe I’m still doing it wrong and need more practice. But in light of my biceps issue, I dunno… mixed felt better (and I worked well to flex my triceps so there wasn’t the typical biceps tension from mixed). All in all, went well.

As for my arms.

So the pain levels are low… there’s pain, I feel ache, but nothing felt worse. In a way tho I felt better. When I was resting between crunch sets, the way I sat back basically stretched my biceps — think the position your arms are in with fully supinated hands and incline DB curls. There’s a stretch there, and that actually seemed to help. I’ve also pulled out my lacrosse ball and been rolling it over my biceps & forearms during the work day here.

One interesting thing was on a FB group I’m a part of, someone posted about this very same problem — with the very same problem. So reading into that and exploring a few things, like this Alan Thrall video:

was helpful.

I played around with squat position on an empty bar in between deadlift sets. For 100% sure, my wrists get bent over and the bar is in that “press position” (just like Paul Carter refers to in his video I posted a couple days ago). And from having this happen in the past, I’m 99% sure this is the cause of my problems — or if not the cause, for sure it’s a heavy contributor.

What I dug about Alan’s video was the solution of how to still stay in low bar, but well, I can avoid the “eagle claw” grip and just use a false grip and let my index fingers come off the bar. It might only be the outer edge of my pinky in contact with the bar, but fine — just keep a straight wrist. This is actually very hard for me to get into. My shoulder mobility is pretty good, but obviously it needs to be better to make this happen more easily. I can work into it alright, but it’s just that — I have to do a little work to get in there. I’m sure if I spend time with a broomstick and work into that position, in time I’ll get loose for it. Not far from it, just need a little more stretch.

Anyways, this was a good exploration — deadlifting didn’t bother my arms (that I could tell), and I think I’m finding better technique (because I really don’t want the eagle claw, which now that I think about it, was probably hated because I still had the flexed wrists and now the bar pressure was coming down on top of my pinky!).

So, we shall see.

Tomorrow’s Pressing should be interesting. Yes I’m still going to Press, but I’m going to be mindful and change some things up, because well…. while I could lifetime PR tomorrow, I’d rather stay healthy and gather more information. I’ll break the PR soon enough, and I’d rather be healthy.

My own massing template, based upon 5/3/1 SST and some Paul Carter principles

• Deadlift
  • 150 x 5
  • 185 x 5
  • 220 x 3
  • 275 x 5
  • 315 x 3
  • 350 x 7 (7RM PR)
• Walking Lunges
  • BW x 12e
  • BW x 12e
  • BW x 12e
  • BW x 12e
  • BW x 10e
• Twisting Crunches
  • BW x 14
  • BW x 16
  • BW x 16
  • BW x 10
• Seated Calf Raises
  • 55 x 12
  • 55 x 12
  • 55 x 12
  • 55 x 12