KB swings are going to be the death of me. 🙂

Based upon Paul Carter’s LRB-365 and Base Building – dealing with ankle injury

• Incline Press
  • 45 x 5
  • 45 x 5
  • 85 x 5
  • 105 x 4
  • 125 x 3
  • 155 x 2
  • 175 x 1
  • 150 x 12
  • 150 x 6
• DB Bench Press
  • 50 x 10
  • 50 x 10
  • 50 x 10
  • 50 x 8
  • 50 x 8
• Behind the Neck Press
  • 75 x 8
  • 75 x 8
  • 75 x 8
• Seated DB Press
  • 30 x 10
  • 30 x 10
  • 30 x 10
  • 30 x 10
  • 30 x 10
• Rope Pushdowns
  • 20 x 100
• KB swings
  • 35# db
  • swing for 30 seconds, rest for 30 seconds
  • 10 times
• Foam Rolling

On the session:

Overall felt good. I’m liking the template of exercises to weights to progression. I feel like I get things properly worked. I dig it. I do think that if I stick with this template for a while, I might do something like every 6 weeks swap something… like instead of the BNP do some sort of pec flies instead. But just minor changes.

I will tweak the weights a bit more next week, but I’m getting things dialed in.

KB swings are going to be the death of me. Went up to 35# today and 5# makes such a difference… geez! I do hope these will pay off in conditioning, helping my ankle, and leaning out.

On my ankle:

Spent all day Saturday standing and walking around on it. It managed pretty well. There are still some small things, like the dorsiflexion, but even that seems to be improving. I am thinking I might want to add some one-legged split-squats to try to help me overcome any sort of preference/compensation towards my right (and keeping things off my left). But all in all, feeling better. I will keep going slowly tho.

On my diet/leaning:

I don’t know. I’m frustrated. If I look in the mirror, I swear it looks like I’m leaning out… could be fooling myself. But on the scale, nope. In fact, I appear to have gone up a bit. WTF? I’m working to adjust my macros and basically just eat less. I’m also looking at options for more conditioning work that will be friendly to my ankle rehab. I refuse to give up, but damnit I’m feeling so defeated right now. But that’s when you gotta fall back, reassess, regroup, figure out what’s wrong, fix it, continue forward.

Based upon Paul Carter’s LRB-365 and Base Building – dealing with ankle injury

• Chins
  • BW x 1
  • BW x 1
  • BW x 1
  • BW x 1
  • BW x .75
• BB Rows
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 7
• Shrugs
  • 140 x 20
  • 140 x 20
  • 140 x 20
  • 140 x 20
• Close-grip Pulldowns
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 8
  • 120 x 8
• BB Curls
  • 20 x 100
• KB swings
  • 30# db
  • swing for 30 seconds, rest for 30 seconds
  • 10 times

I like the adjustments.

Yeah, I suck at chins, but I’ll just keep doing them and someday I won’t suck. Putting emphasis on the negative.

Did regular BB rows… so the back is just above parallel, and a little body english permissable. But still have to get full range of motion, etc.. I want these to be the heavier movement here, so yeah… a little more weight, a little more “what it takes” to get it to happen. That should be alright.

The KB swings are kicking my ass, but that’s good. I will probably go up to 35# and see how things go. I hate them, but I think they’re going to do a lot for me. Not just conditioning, but for my ankle too.

Speaking of the diet….

It’s not working.

I actually appear to have regained some weight. WTF?

Yes, I’m frustrated. I don’t know what gives. The best I can think at this point is macros.

I’m adjusting my macros. It doesn’t take much. Like instead of 6 whole eggs in the morning, 3 whole and 3 whites. Instead of 2 sausage patties, just 1. And then a little less cream in my coffee. I’m also dropping some of the morning whey. Right there that drops me like 400-500 calories! That should be a sufficient first step. Between that and the KB swings well…. maybe things will get back on track.

Boring… but admittedly useful.

Based upon Paul Carter’s LRB-365 and Base Building – dealing with ankle injury

• Squat
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • 45 x 10
  • 45 x 10
  • 95 x 10
• Deadlift
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 115 x 10
  • 115 x 10
  • 135 x 10
• Leg Extensions
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 15
• Leg Curls
  • 40 x 15
  • 40 x 15
  • 40 x 15
  • 40 x 15
  • 40 x 15
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 20 x 10
  • 20 x 10
  • 20 x 10
• KB swings
  • 30# db
  • swing for 30 seconds, rest for 30 seconds
  • 10 times

I really hate these days… squatting 95#? Ugh. But so be it.

The ankle is feeling better. I walked to/from the gym, not a slow mosey, but not a brisk walk either. I kept a good pace and the ankle was mostly ok with it (some discomfort grew on the walk home).

Dorsiflexion continues to have some limits. I played with it some. It’s not limited due to tight calves or anything (if anything, my left has more range than my right, in this regard). It’s something up front that’s “in the way”. This is consistent with the injury. I don’t know if this is something I can improve or it may just be how things are going to be forever. Still, I’m going to have my at-home daily rehab work focus some more on that range and area to see what I can do. Meantime, I will keep weights light, but I’m going to start increasing a little bit… like next week I’ll probably do something like 2xBW, 2xbar, then 1×95, 1×115, 1×135. I do want my Wednesdays to put more stress on it to signal the body to adapt, but again, keep it slow. Reps are very slow, very methodical… I’m not focused so much on the squat as I am feeling my body, where is it moving, how it is moving, am I compensating (e.g. leaning more on my right), and other such things to just try to get this ankle better.

So… yeah… it’s boring, but it’s just how it goes for now. I am looking forward to when I can do more tho. Higher rep squats should be something novel and killer for me.

I also think calf raises are going to become a staple movement. I’m going to keep working up here to more reps/sets, weight doesn’t matter much. Going slow, feeling everything, ensuring I don’t fuck the ankle, good stretch at the bottom, good range, etc.. Today I even tried 1 set toes forward, 1 set toes out, 1 set toes in. Not so much to try to “hit all the angles” but more to see if there was any range or movement issues with the ankle; I think toes in may actually be good for me for rehab, given what I was feeling. Or more to the point, ensuring I get up not on my big toe, but onto my pinky toe.

KB swings. I opted to drop hypers because the swings should hit all the same stuff and give me greater benefit. Plus, the way the apparatus requires me to hook the back of my heels, it just causes too many weird forces on my ankle, which I don’t need right now. I dropped weight down to 30# but upped it to 10 rounds. I liked that. I would rather have 10 rounds. I do think 35# may be better, but I’ll just keep it here for a couple more sessions and see if today was just a fluke or if I’m getting into the groove of the movement and can progress. Oddly, I think this may also do well for my ankle, in terms of stability needs.

All in all, it’s about training economy, towards what will help me still achieve my goals (getting leaner), but also to help my ankle get better so I can train normally.

I’m liking this.

Based upon Paul Carter’s LRB-365 and Base Building – dealing with ankle injury

• Incline Press
  • 45 x 10
  • 45 x 10
  • 80 x 5
  • 100 x 4
  • 120 x 3
  • 150 x 2
  • 170 x 1
  • 145 x 15
  • 145 x 8
• DB Bench Press
  • 45e x 10
  • 45e x 10
  • 45e x 10
  • 45e x 10
  • 45e x 10
• Behind the Neck Press
  • 70 x 8
  • 70 x 8
  • 70 x 8
• Seated DB Press
  • 30 x 10
  • 30 x 10
  • 30 x 10
  • 30 x 10
  • 30 x 10
• Rope Pushdowns
  • 15 x 100
• KB swings
  • 40# db
  • swing for 30 seconds, rest for 30 seconds
  • 6 times

This is feeling alright. I am liking this change in program, and think it will suit me well for a while. I’m still getting in the groove of it tho. On the one hand, just getting the weights, reps, and numbers right. I’m close, and hopefully next week I’ll have things dialed in enough to officially start down the “rep progression” route. It’s also the movements, because I’ve been so used to the Wendler 5/3/1 approach for what? 2.5 years? everything’s different and it takes a little getting used to.

But I also like it. I think the change has a good psychological impact I hadn’t considered. You get caught up in numbers. You’re trying to get stronger, so you want to see your numbers go up in the weight and reps (to a lesser extent). With the CarbNite stuff, my numbers went down — no way they wouldn’t. It’s a little depressing, but you know to put it aside. Well, changing the exercises I’m doing, changing the routine, that totally changes the numbers you work with. So I have no reference point… no way to say “oh man, my numbers are blah blah compared to blah blah”. My numbers now are what they are. And yea, they are nothing like the stuff I saw this past weekend watching the RUM7 stream (wow, what a show!), but hey… at least I can’t get caught up in the crap of myself any more. Things just wind up being what they are.

So, I’ve got some minor tweaks to make, but all in all things are looking good.

Oh and KB swings? Holy crap those are kicking my ass. I actually didn’t do the full setup like I wrote… because on the last sets I was just peeding out. I’m not sure if I should lower the weight and work up “more reps”? or if I should just keep going as it is. When in doubt, I’ll stay the course, but I do wonder if maybe I should try dropping down to 30 or 35# to see if I can get 10 minutes out of it without dying, then build up.