This was a good day. Set another rep PR.
I opted to lift again in the powerlifting area. I figure I might as well get used to the visual distractions and other differences. And today wasn’t as bad. A slight change in my setup to mind the visual distractions — I prep looking out and up insetad of down, and I fixate on something that’s not a problem — like the vertical bar of another rack that’s basically in front of me. But still, some weirdness I have to get over, like constantly worrying my right elbow was going to strike the uprights. 🙂 It never did, but it’s in my head for whatever reason.
But still, the work up went well, especially with the renewed focus on setup.
Then the top set went awesome. Last night I knew I had to get 9 reps to stay on track, and 9 I hit. This wasn’t like deadlifting yesterday tho, where it was amazingly easy and I could have gone for more. No, here on rep 7 I could feel things dying out, and rep 8 felt like I should stop there. But it was weird – it felt like I should stop, that rep 9 would be a grinder or a fail. But something else said “no, go for it, you’ll get it”. And I did, and it wasn’t much of a grinder at all; a little slower bar path, but still good.
Quite happy!
On other things:
BBB sets of pressing was where it should be. I am finding that doing 60%-ish on my BBB sets for upper body work is better (whereas 50%-ish on lower body works).
Bent-over raises are staying stable on weights/reps, but I’m working every session on more of the movement — it’s moved purely by contractions. Really trying to work the muscles well, hard, squeeze, and get everything I can out of the movement itself. Every session I find myself a little better than the last time, and the reps are harder. So no need to up anything.
Wide-grip pulldowns – oh, my lats 🙂
JM Press. Happy to do this. I need to stay at this weight for a bit to continue to dial in the bar path, and get more punchy on the concentric. But this is happy and fun.
and the 100 rep curls? I’m starting to hate them LOL. But I’m committed.
5/3/1 (4th cycle, leader-1, 5/3/1+PR sets)
- Press
- bar x 5
- 75 x 5
- 95 x 5
- 115 x 3
- 125 x 5
- 140 x 5
- 160 x 9 (rep PR)
- 115 x 10
- 115 x 10
- 115 x 8
- 115 x 7
- 115 x 7
- Bent-over Lateral Raises (superset with press warm-up sets)
- 20e x 15
- 20e x 15
- 20e x 15
- 20e x 15
- Barbell Rows (superset with press work sets)
- 175 x 8
- 175 x 8
- 175 x 8
- Wide-grip Pulldowns
- 105 x 10
- 145 x 10
- 145 x 10
- 145 x 8
- 145 x 8
- JM Press
- 115 x 8
- 115 x 8
- 115 x 8
- 115 x 8
- BB Curl (100 rep protocol)
- 45 x 100
Stuff From Hsoi 
I have a slightly random question for you. Which you may not be able to help with, but since you weight lift you might.
Backstory: I have screwed up knees. The end result of a hard playing sports childhood. My left knee in particular needs support, due to the kneecap being screwed out of position (and having to have surgery to slice a tendon to prevent the kneecap from being pulled further out of position). I normally wear a cheap soft brace from the local pharmacy when I’m at work. Recently my brace disappeared (I blame the 4leggers in the house), and I had to buy a new one. Ran across the Ace/3M branded version, tried it on, it fit me perfectly! I’m short, so alot of the braces were always on the long side, but the 3M fit perfectly! Till I crouched to lift things at work while wearing it. The top and bottom wrap pieces that velcro into place promptly popped loose. Repeatedly. Annoyed I went and bought a different branded brace (which at least stayed in place while I was lifting stuff, but was again, on the to big side), and sent an annoyed email to 3M. After some round about, and them sending me a new brace, I realized that their braces aren’t designed to support the knee of someone with bulky weight lifter style muscle, which is what I have.
But now I’m less than satisfied with the brace I’m wearing. Can you point me in a direction for resources for knee support for folks who lift?
Geez… a knee support. I don’t know.
The only stuff I wear around my knees are knee sleeves, and then only when I’m squatting or deadlifting. I wear these:
https://markbellslingshot.com/collections/top-sellers/products/strong-knee-sleeves
tho I’ve worn some other flavors. Bottom line tho, as they are neoprene and really more designed for lifting… I’m not sure they would do well to help all day long, nor do I think I’d want to wear them all day long — they get warm (by design), and that warmth, sweaty, etc. may be more problem. They do offer me a bit of support when lifting, but in terms of what you need… I’m not sure and would suspect not.
I will say that my recent knee problems wound me up in PT, and the PT exercises have been HUGE in helping my knees feel and function better. However your situation is a bit different (with the sliced tendon). My reason for saying this is that — for me — I prefer to find ways to “fix” stuff such that I don’t need external support: be that braces, wraps, medicines, etc.. Of course, life isn’t always so easy tho.
I wish I had an answer for you, Ruth. Alas, I really am not sure what you can do. One thought: custom made brace? I mean, you can see what you basically need, and some commercial braces offer MOSTLY what you need. Could there be a tailor or someone that could slightly alter the brace to provide you with exactly what you need?
Well, I wouldn’t call the cheap soft braces as COMFORTABLE for all day wear, especially when I’m sweating my rear end off lifting a paver block order. Which is another aspect of the problem. But its one I’ve learned to cope with. I expect that I really ought to do is find an ortho specialist who can help me find the right brace, but I’m SO BEYOND done with the whole doctor thing right now.
I’ve tried a couple sleeve style supports, but the ones with the additional velcro wrap above and below the knee seem to work better for me. Thanks for the thought anyway. I do have a sewing machine. Maybe I need to look at buying some velcro and some neoprene and experimenting……
I hear you.
Well who knows. I mean, I’ve worn these: https://markbellslingshot.com/collections/knee-elbow-sleeves/products/sling-shot-knee-sleeves-2-0 and still wear them for deadlifting. It’s simply neoprene. It gets warm, but it’s not uncomfortable at all — I think I’d only get annoyed wearing it all day because it’d be warm, holds in the warmth and sweat, and eventually I’m sure skin would get annoyed at being moist and soft like that all day. But they are comfortable. I reckon if you maybe got a size smaller than normal, it might offer a bit of support? That’s kinda a trick with lifting sleeves: to buy a size smaller than “recommended” so it gives you a little more support, a little more pop. But then, we’re doing that to gain a bit of mechanical advantage in lifting — may not be correct for your need.
I have done an ortho specialist before with mixed results. I mean, he can certainly recommend and find the right stuff, but at least the one guy I used I got the feeling he was trying to find all the ways to make money and not so much repair me, y’know? YMMV. That said, there’s stores out there that sell all these sorts of things, so maybe just shop around at a more med-speciality supply store?
And yeah – maybe rolling your own might be a way to go. Then patent it. 😉