Given last week’s shoulder injury at the hands of rowing, I opted to take today on the conservative side… just to see how things go.

My shoulder is feeling much better, but there’s still something there. It feels like there’s something in my lower cervical or upper thoracic spine that if it could just pop (knuckle crack), I’d be fine again. But given some of the tightness I still feel in my upper left trap and side of my neck, I reckon until that relaxes and elongates more, the pop won’t come. So I continue to stretch, roll, move, massage, and do other things to help in that area. It will get there.

But there is a part of me that thinks there is some injury to the area. Maybe it started years ago when I was thrown off my motorcycle and landed pretty much on that shoulder… or then all the years sleeping on mhy left side. I dunno. Something does feel properly different, but at this stage all any doctor would tell me is to take it easy and rest and let it heal — after spending thousands on an MRI and other crap. So, I’ll just continue to take it easy.

Aside from that tho, the session went alright. Opted to do regular barbell shrugs instead of Meadows shrugs, just to see how my shoulder played; didn’t like it at first, but as I went on things felt better. I am hoping that some direct work and increased blood flow to the area will be helpful for the healing.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

I can’t quantify if I’m stronger, but I am more adapted to the workload (which of course leads to strength improvements, in this case).

Whereas last week kicked my ass, today was much better. Squats were completed with good form. After the last set of deadlifts I didn’t realize it was the last set and I was still readyt to do more. No pausing on the leg pressing. So I’d say I’ve improved in terms of adapting to the workload. So that’s good.

Squats went well. If I’m understanding Base Building correctly, the 3 models aren’t a means of progression but rather a means of finding a model that works for you that allows you to progress. So you don’t do model 1, then 2, then 3, rather you start with 1 and if it works for you and you progress on it then just stick with it; if you see no progress, try model 2 and see if that template provides the proper stimulus to allow you to progress, etc.. So while within the model, once it gets really easy, then you stick with the model and just up the weight. How easy? Well, once it starts to feel easy, stick with it a couple more weeks — make sure you didn’t just have a 10% day, make sure you really have milked it, make sure there isn’t perhaps some progression still left in there (maybe small, but still something). If it is really solid and easy and remains so after a couple weeks, up the weight and keep going.

So in that vein, squats I think may wind up with a bump in a month or so. The 175 5×5 is feeling really good, but I know I haven’t tapped it out yet. I probably started lighter than I was capable, if I can handle it this well so quickly. But that’s fine; better to start light and have progress.

On deadlifts, halfway through I realized I had just been doing the movement, not applying C.A.T.. So the last 2 sets were done that way, and I just have to not forget to apply that principle to my deadlifts.

All in all, felt alright today. Happy.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Squats (model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 145 x 5
  • 170 x 4
  • 200 x 3
  • 220 x 2
  • 250 x 1
  • 175 x 5
  • 175 x 5
  • 175 x 5
  • 175 x 5
  • 175 x 5
• Deficit Deadlift (model 1)
  • 315 x 3
  • 315 x 3
  • 315 x 3
  • 315 x 3
  • 315 x 3
• Leg Press
  • 135 x 20
  • 135 x 20

First, diet report: down 5 lbs. in my first week.

But that’s the thing, first week. The lack of carbs is going to cause a more dramatic initial weight loss because of water and bloat loss. How much fat did I lose? Hard to say at this point, but hopefully 1-2 lbs. of that is fat and not just bloat. Still, this is normal and “on track” for the first week.

So far so good otherwise. I do appreciate the simplicity and flexibility of the program. Yes there are lines you have to color within, but those lines aren’t so crazy restrictive (and aren’t too far off from how I normally eat; someone that lives on Sonic, Whataburger, and prepackaged grocery store food will have a more drastic adjustment). Other programs I’ve tried had me going nuts after a week, but I’m not crazy… yet. I think this coming week will be telling, because I woke up this morning craving carbs like crazy. I did just spend the past week somewhat carb deprived, and just had 2 days in a row of no carbs, so I’m not surprised my body is saying to me “What the hell have you been doing? Feed me, damnit!”. My breakfast this morning had an apple, nectarine, 1/2 cup of oatmeal, 1 tomato (and 40g whey) and I just inhaled it. So, this week might be a little more nuts for me as my body learns to adjust, but I hope it’s like any sort of extinction burst — it gets worse before it gets better, and that I’m starting on the worse phase now and that it will in fact get better in the coming weeks.

BTW, while I hate eating chicken breasts, I found what might become a livable solution. I can buy these 5 lbs. bags of frozen, raw, deboned chicken breasts at the store. Heat up the Weber grill to about 375º, throw the frozen breasts on the grill, cook for 60 minutes, done. Advantage? Much easier than trying to cook that much in the kitchen, less time consuming. I can also throw on some wood chips to smoke and add a lot of flavor to the meat. Halfway through the cooking, you turn them; so at that time I brush the breasts lightly with some olive oil and lemon juice. Yes, this turned out chicken breast meat that didn’t suck.

Also, Tony Chachere’s creole easoning? Great seasoning, but do NOT use it as a rub. Gonna be choking down some salty-as-hell fatija meat this week too. I’m glad I opted to cook a bunch of brown rice as a primary carb source for this week — will help cut the saltiness.

Yes, I’m trying to cook a bunch of food on Sunday, to facilitate eating the rest of the week. Never done that before, so we’ll see how it goes. But at least looking at the past week, it was sure handy.

Enough about diet! On to the lifting.

First, my left shoulder is still not 100% from whatever I did this past Friday. It’s MUCH better, but it’s still going to be a few days. Nevertheless, lifting today seemed fine but I was willing to can it in the name of shoulder health if needed. Thankfully that wasn’t necessary.

The lifting itself felt good. This program is certainly an ass-kicker. I also think that doing bench work on Monday is going to be a good thing. I normally like to squat on Monday, but I think if the diet continues like it does (2 days in a row of no carbs), that squatting on Monday would be too much. I was feeling drained today, but I certainly perked up as the session progressed. I felt really good with the BHP.

Only got one more rep, in total, in the bench work sets compared to last week. So not much progress, but progress is progress. I also felt more comfortable today with the program. So we’ll see how progress goes. Liking things so far.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Bench Press (model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 130 x 4
  • 155 x 3
  • 170 x 2
  • 190 x 1
  • 170 x 8
  • 170 x 8
  • 170 x 8
  • 170 x 7
  • 170 x 4
• Machine Flies
  • 75 x 10
  • 75 x 10
  • 75 x 10
  • 75 x 10
• Behind the Neck Press
  • 80 x 10
  • 80 x 10
  • 80 x 10
  • 80 x 8
• Hammer Curls
  • 25e x 10
  • 25e x 10
  • 25e x 10
  • 25e x 8

Today hurt — in the bad way.

On the first rep of the 3rd set of rows, I felt a sharp pain in my left shoulder. In short, it hurt a great deal, and was quite painful to do much of anything. I tried to get through the rest of the rows, but couldn’t. I thought to try pulldowns since it was a different plane of motion and while I could basically do them, I couldn’t get a full contraction without pain. Shrugs were right out. Hypers were fine, just uncomfortable in my shoulder/neck region.

I don’t know for sure what it did, but right now I’m not considering it anything too serious. It feels like if I could just pop/crack my neck, I’d be fine. But I can’t pop it because things are tight or something is impinged. So it’s just going to take a little time to stretch everything, work through the range of motion, and eventually it will come back.

Contributing factors? Hard to say, but right now I say a primary is probably my long nagging shoulder issues — from sleeping primarily on my left side. Last night I started on my left, felt really odd in my shoulder, then rolled over. Can’t say how much I slept on it overnight, but there we go. I think also the massive amount of tightness and soreness I’m feeling from Wednesday’s squat/deadlift session may also be a factor — everything is sore, everything is tight, including my traps. Who knows for sure.

One good thing? my diet.

I’m down about 3# already, but that’s primarily water/glycogen loss from the low-carb days. I also realized I was overengineering things. While the diet is provided in a very easy to follow format, I’ve been so used to counting every macro that I kept doing it. So say I’m to have “3 servings of fat”. A serving of peanut butter has 15g fat and 7g protein. What I was doing was calculating out both the fat AND the protein, so if I had 3 servings, I was calculating 21g protein there. Then I’d subtract that from the protein source I was to take in, so instead of having say 6oz of turkey I’d have like 2-3oz. Turns out, this is not the way they have the diet laid out. Yes those other things matter and are taken into account in the overall calculations — but in terms of the plan they give me, just stop overthinking it and follow it as-written. Peanut butter gets classified as “fat” and just count it against that. Quinoa has fair protein in it, but just count it as carb. Salmon has some fat, but just count it as protein. And so on. Again, it all matters and it calculated for on their end, but on my end, this is what keeps the plan simple to execute. I like that. Less minutia.

Granted it’s not 100% cut and dry like that, but I’m starting to see where RP’s plan is going. So… onwards. This isn’t too bad so far.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding