Not there.

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

• Squat
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • 45 x 5
  • 45 x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 145 x 4
  • 175 x 3
  • 205 x 2
  • 235 x 1
  • 175 x 12
  • 175 x 6
• 20 minutes elliptical

I’ve got a lot of stuff on my mind right now. Nothing bad, just immensely consuming. I couldn’t stop my mind from dwelling on it the entire time. It’s truly priority in my life right now.

So, I took a cue from Wendler, “jack shitted” it today. Just squat and leave.

The squats felt alright, tho I do feel weak as hell. I did feel something tho on the 205 and 235… did I really lose strength? Or have I lost confidence because I’m not wanting to hurt the ankle, I’m not sure if the ankle can take it, I’m compensating by changing technique or favoring my other leg or whatever.. and so it changes everything. I cannot say for sure, but especially on the 235 that occurred to me.

Best thing I can say? Just keep going. Next week, I’ll up it 10#, even on the rep sets and just see how things go.

I mean, part of me felt like I could put 225 on the bar and just go for like a 5×5 and be just happy fine. But then, another part of me said no… but as I think about it, it’s the part of me that’s thinking about the injuries and other little things that make me think “Crap, I don’t want to get hurt again… or hurt so badly I have to stop and won’t be able to squat at all.”

I have started to think that perhaps I do need to move away from powerlifting-style work towards more bodybuilder style work — in theory it’s less stress on your joints and such. Not really what I want, but I’d rather be here for the long haul.

Much to think about…. but, this thinking will have to wait.

Had to get back to it.

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

• Incline Press
  • 45 x 10
  • 45 x 10
  • 105 x 5
  • 125 x 4
  • 145 x 3
  • 175 x 2
  • 195 x 1
  • 155 x 10
  • 155 x 5
• DB Bench Press
  • 50 x 8
  • 50 x 10
  • 50 x 10
  • 50 x 10
  • 50 x 10
• Behind the Neck Press
  • 85 x 8
  • 85 x 8
  • 85 x 8
• Upright Row
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 12
• Punchdowns
  • 50 x 20
  • 50 x 20
  • 50 x 20
  • 50 x 20
  • 50 x 20
• Foam Rolling

My shoulder still hurts, but it’s much better. I can move through a full range of motion again. Depending what I do, still a little pain, but damnit I want back in the gym. I figured I can take it easy, if I feel pain, stop, and don’t do anything that makes it worse. I need to get back in the saddle, but also things like a lot of blood flow to the area would be good.

If nothing else, consider last week like a deload. 🙂

I opted to stick with weights from last time. I had planned on upping things more, but in light of the shoulder, just stick with it. I did make some changes.

First, all during last week I was doing rehab type movements with my arms/shoulders. I found that I am not getting and STAYING as tight I can, especially in terms of scapular retraction. I think the incline kinda lends to that slacking, so I kept working that feeling myself “in the air” to try to keep that sensation and remember it. So I really focused on that today. Also, found it meant a slightly lesser range of motion, especially on the incline — like I might stop just shy of touching my chest. Fine. I know Paul Carter does this, and I know a lot of guys actually use “1” off the chest pauses” as a legit technique… so hey, fine if that’s how it has to go. I also found that as I worked the retraction stuff in the air, my hands wanted to be closer together. Normally I bench with my ring-finger on the rings. I read about a lot of guys that bring their grip in and it’s better on their shoulders — yeah, you lose some leverages and weights go down, but better that than lose your shoulders and never press again. So I went with what felt natural, which put my pinkies just inside the rings (i.e. outer edge of my pinky was just touching the inner edge of the rings… maybe a hair more “in” that that). Not enough to be a close-grip bench press, but certainly a little closer than I normally bench. From that, I can see my weights went down slightly — I couldn’t rep as many as I did the week prior, but meh. The 195 felt really good, shoulder and all. So whatever. I’d rather press differently than not press at all.

When I started the DB presses, the first set peeded out early because every rep was an experiment — try this angle, turn the hands parallel, turn the hands perpendicular, now 45º or whatever. I kept trying to find what felt more natural and brought less issue to the shoulder. In the end, something “natural” that was about 45º-ish was fine. But more important? With DB’s I have more range of motion and conseqeuently I move my shoulders a lot — at the top I’ll want to squeeze, which means the shoulders “roll forward” (protraction?) and that sort of thing wasn’t feeling good. So I really worked to keep my shoulders locked on the last 4 sets and that sure was a different sensation in terms of the muscles worked. In some ways, it felt like more pec work because now they’re really having to hold things stable in a sort of “fly-like” situatoin instead of just rolling up. Hard to describe, but again, something I have to watch.

BHP was fine.

I opted against the DB overhead pressing. Last week I hated it and couldn’t do any. And while I’ve been doing rehab movements at home, going overhead still bugs things a bit. So, I opted to skip it for now. Instead, upright rows.

The thing about upright rows? They used to be horrible for me… I’d do them for a bit, then my shoulders would scream at me. But some months ago I saw a video from JL Holdsworth about the upright row and it changed my thinking. I did them like he first suggests, where you go to about the bottom of your pec, upper arms go to parallel (no more, no less). I played with grip width some and found that starting at shoulder-width was good. I had no idea of the weight to use so I picked something and went with it. I’ll up it more later, but for now this actually felt good. Am I worried about this being bad again for my shoulders? Well, I always used to do them with my thumbs almost touching, rowing up to my chin sort of thing… too much. Ever since seeing JL’s video, I’ve wanted to try the alternative movement. I did that sort of movement empty-handed during rehabbing last week and it felt alright, so well… why not try it now and see? So far, so good.

Here’s one interesting side note.

As I did it, I just put the bar down on the ground. When I did, it pulled “forward” on my shoulder. I will say this has caused me still some pain — and for the past some days I’ve felt like the shoulder needs to “pop”. I’ve described it to Wife saying that geez… if someone could just pull on my arm, pop my shoulder, because that’s what it feels like needs to be done, this pain would go away. Well, with 50# bar hanging from my arms (imagine being in a bent-over row position), it was just enough that my shoulder was pulled forward and popped. It hurt to pop, but oh it felt right and good afterwards. So, that’s telling something about what I did to it… but I’m not sure how to read it.

Consequently, doing deadlifts on Wednesday? I dunno. I might try it, but if there’s any bit of problem I will stop and do something else instead. And back work on Friday? Well, just have to wait and see. Certainly no chin-ups. 😉

And finally on the last work… triceps punchdowns? It’s something I saw from Clint Darden. It makes a lot of sense, and I think is still somewhat an isolation exercise, but yet there is more. I used the cable crossover, which means more pullies, so the amount of weight is deceiving, but it did allow me to adjust a handle right where I needed it (didn’t use bands, as Clint suggests). My shoulder was OK with the movement, and I dig it. I’ll probably keep with this for a while.

Anyways, I’ll see how things go with the shoulder and ankle. I just have to go slow and smart here, and if it means improving technique (and sacrificing weight) so be it.

The log of no log.

My shoulder continues to be in pain. Every day is better, but still not worth it.

This sucks. 🙂

I’m trying to think what I can do in light of now both a shoulder and ankle injury. Blarg. Who knows. I may just rest…. my body can use it. I’ve been sleeping in a lot this past week and it’s been wonderful.

I don’t know what I did to my shoulder on Monday, but it wasn’t good.

I’m still in pain today. Doing a lateral raise? 99.9% pain free. Doing a front raise (no weight, just lifting my arm in that direction), hurts a good deal, tho each day it’s less than the day before. Trying to move my arm across my body, ouch.

I also hear/feel something moving funny.

I do think I did something bad.

I may never do another chin-/pull-up again. I always have something eventually go wrong with my shoulder, and this is certainly the worst. I cannot say precisely what happened, but it certainly happened as a result of the chin-ups. I still want to try one more time, doing rope/towel chins, since that would put things in a more neutral and “free to move” position. But I’m not sure how wise it would be at this point — just chalk it all up and move on.

I opted to just sleep in and not go to the gym. My body obviously needs more rest, less beating up. Likely will skip Friday too. Beyond that, no idea.

I hope I didn’t screw up my shoulder. *sigh*

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

• Incline Press
  • 45 x 5
  • 45 x 5
  • 105 x 5
  • 125 x 4
  • 145 x 3
  • 175 x 2
  • 195 x 1
  • 155 x 13
  • 155 x 6
• DB Bench Press
  • 55e x 10
  • 55e x 10
  • 55e x 10
  • 55e x 8
  • 55e x 7
• Behind the Neck Press
  • 85 x 8
  • 85 x 8
  • 85 x 8
• Seated DB Press
  • No
• Triceps Pushdowns
  • 30 x 100

I want to get better and chin-/pull-ups. One common approach is frequency. So while I’ll more seriously work them on back days, I figured why not do a few each day, right?

So I get in, warm up some, then figure to hit the bar and work to crank out 3. 1 and 2 went fine, went for 3 and didn’t quite get it. And that may have been too much. I was a little warmed up, but probably not warm enough, and suddenly moving my 240# through the air may have been too much for my cold shoulder.

I lay down in the bench to start the empty-bar warm-up and something in my left shoulder screamed at me. Crap.

I’m not sure what I did, and it doesn’t give any symptoms of serious damage, but it does hurt. I was able to work through things for the most part. Heck, the 195 went up really easy. I did notice because of the shoulder pain I worked on getting REALLY tight and having a much better setup. It was a small thing, but I think it made the difference in that 195 feeling so light.

I thought BNP would be painful, but it went fine.

Then I grabbed DB’s for the seated press, lifted the DB’s to my shoulders to start, and immediately put them back down. There was a pain that said “don’t be stupid, stop”. *sigh*

I think it’s starting to tell me… that yeah, chin-/pull-ups are probably not in my future. Every time I try to work on them, something ends up being a problem with my shoulders. Always. It may happen slowly, it may happen quickly, but without fail any time I try working on them and this happens. I do think a great deal of it has to do with hand position and how it causes things to have to rotate, lateral stresses and so on; just given how it feels. I mentioned to someone the other day that I might go back to trying pull-ups with a towel — drape a towel over the bar, then you grip the ends of the towel and go. It’s wicked awesome to work on your grip and forearms, and it puts things in a mostly neutral position PLUS since the towel can move, it doesn’t necessarily force your body into a particular track or groove of movement. So that may wind up being the approach I consider, if I’m going to give -ups another try. If that doesn’t work well… I may continue to search for SOME sort of solution, but I may also just have to give up on them and accept that. Oh well, such is life.

Never good when you’re distracted.

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

• Chins
  • BW x 2
  • BW x 2
  • BW x 1
  • BW x 1
  • BW x 1
• BB Rows
  • 140 x 8
  • 140 x 8
  • 140 x 8
  • 140 x 8
  • 140 x 6
• Shrugs
  • 165 x 20
  • 165 x 20
  • 165 x 20
  • 165 x 20
• Chin-up grip Pulldowns
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 9
• Incline DB Curls
  • 20e x 10
  • 20e x 9
  • 20e x 6
• BB curls
  • 20 x 50
• 10 minutes elliptical

I’ve got stuff on my mind that’s consuming me, mentally and emotionally (and eventually it’ll spill into physically). So today was nothing but distraction. I’d try to not think about it, but it’s consuming so…. fail.

Just did what I could, but just didn’t feel like cranking through all the reps. Shit happens. This is one of those -10% days.

The ankle feels better, but weird….

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

• Squat
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • 45 x 5
  • 45 x 5
  • 95 x 5
  • 135 x 4
  • 165 x 3
  • 195 x 2
  • 225 x 1
  • 165 x 15
  • 165 x 8
• Stiff Leg Deadlift
  • 165 x 8
  • 165 x 8
  • 165 x 8
• One-Leg Split Squats
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 6
  • BW x 5
• Leg Press
  • Sled x 15
  • Sled x 15
  • Sled x 15
  • Sled x 15
  • Sled x 15
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 25 x 15
  • 25 x 15
  • 25 x 15
  • 25 x 12
• 20 minutes on the elliptical

The next phase of the ankle rehab starts.

I’m shifting to follow the LRB protocols a little more (5,4,3,2,1+50%), but keeping the weight “light”. Or so I think it’s light. In my mind it’s light, but in reality I’ve lost a ton of strength. The ankle injury, the diet changing… hasn’t been good for strength. The 225 felt heavy. *sigh* Still, I’ll keep going up 10# per week until truly the single is a heavy single. The 165 for reps tho was pretty good for me. Around rep 10 my brain wanted to stop because things were starting to scream, but I didn’t stop. Just pressed on because brain wanted to stop, body wanted to stop, but I knew there was more in me. By rep 15 for sure I was failing because I almost didn’t stand back up… so yeah, that was kinda cool.

But boy, that took it out of me. The rest of the session was just killer…. the one-legged squats I could barely do. 🙂 I have to remind myself as well that I’m taking barely any rest between sets and exercises — maybe 60 seconds. So of course things are going to kick my ass more, compared to when I was taking 3-5 minutes between sets. I have to remember perspective, not pure numbers.

As for the ankle… it’s weird.

I do feel stronger, better, more stable. But it has taken on a strange popping. You know that feeling when a knuckle wants to pop/crack, but doesn’t? It’s some dull weird feeling that if you just got 20% further along it would actually pop and you’d feel relief? It’s that feeling…. and it’s uncomfortable because it doesn’t pop. Plus, it’s happening in that area between where the bottom of the shin bones come in contact with the top of the foot bones — that pocket. That’s a novel sensation, kinda weird feeling. But yeah, the ankle “pops” now. Not sure what to make of that. Furthermore, the Achilles tendon feels inflamed. I think part of my problem? The elliptical. But I’m torn there. I’m actually enjoying it… because I can use that 20 minutes for something else in life… reading a book, listening to a podcast, or just clearing my head for 20 minutes. I kinda like that.

Anyways, chugging along.

Yeah… this diet change is good (but we’ll see).

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

• Incline Press
  • 45 x 10
  • 45 x 10
  • 100 x 5
  • 120 x 4
  • 140 x 3
  • 170 x 2
  • 190 x 1
  • 155 x 12
  • 155 x 6
• DB Bench Press
  • 50e x 10
  • 50e x 10
  • 50e x 10
  • 50e x 8
  • 50e x 8
• Behind the Neck Press
  • 85 x 8
  • 85 x 8
  • 85 x 6
• Seated DB Press
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 8
  • 35e x 8
  • 35e x 7
• Rope Pushdowns
  • 25 x 100
• 20 minutes on the elliptical
• Foam Rolling

This weekend was… off for me. My body screamed at me pretty hard. I’ve been feeling very beat up. I slept a LOT over the weekend — not by choice, but because my body demanded it. Sit on the couch? next thing I know I’m waking up 2 hours later. I also ate with some level of abandon. I think I am doing too much… the increased tempo of the lifting sessions (e.g. about a minute rest between every set), the elliptical… it’s all not much, but it’s enough. Despite the high protein intake, yes, I’ve been adding a wee bit of carbs into the diet and it’s paying off with better training sessions (imagine that!), but I think it was still too low and the body was screaming. So I answered.

Back on the wagon now and if I follow this sort of calorie control guide, yeah… carbs with most meals but only “one handful”. Keep the meats lean, keep the fats within control, and while this might be slower well… I reckon it may be more beneficial. And things like allowing myself more carbs say post-workout (e.g. having 2 handfuls), but off-days keeping it there but less (1 handful).

Time will tell. I do think that I’m on a better dietary track than anything extreme like CarbNite (which just was not working). That sort of thing really is intended for folks that don’t exercise and just want diet to improve them. Some people talk about great gains in leaning out while liting, but I’m finding more often than not that it doesn’t really work. I also keep going back to my touchstone of bodybuilders — people that probably more than anyone care about body composition and being lean, and it’s about having ample protein, reasonable fats, then modulating carbs depending on what you’re trying to do — but rare are they carbless.

And so….

We’ll see. The struggle continues. 😉 But it’s a good learning experience for me regardless.

Hopefully these diet tweaks will pay off.

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

• Chins
  • BW x 2
  • BW x 1
  • BW x 1
  • BW x 1
  • BW x 1
• BB Rows
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
• Shrugs
  • 155 x 20
  • 155 x 20
  • 155 x 20
  • 155 x 20
• Chin-up-grip Pulldowns
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 10
• Incline DB Curls
  • 20 x 10
  • 20 x 10
  • 20 x 8
• BB Curls
  • 20 x 50
• 20 minutes on the elliptical

With the diet changes, I’m feeling a LOT better in the gym… still going to take time before I know how much it’s helping (or hurting) my leaning out. But at least I’m enjoying my gym sessions again.

Going to keep on this program, but yeah… the weights can go up more. Again, diet I’m sure is playing a part.

And yeah…. the elliptical. Geez… if I can use it as a time to get some reading in, I’m kinda enjoying that. I started reading “The Pragmatic Programmer”. A little career improvement is always good.

I can’t wait for my ankle to be better.

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
  • 135 x 10
  • 165 x 10
  • 185 x 2
  • 225 x 1
• Stiff Leg Deadlift
  • 155 x 8
  • 155 x 8
  • 155 x 8
• One-Leg Split Squats
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 6
• Leg Press
  • 95 x 15
  • Sled x 20
  • Sled x 20
  • Sled x 20
  • Sled x 20
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 20 x 15
  • 20 x 15
  • 20 x 15
• 20 minutes on the elliptical

My ankle is feeling much better. Almost feels normal. So of course, if you’ve been around the block enough times, you know that means you still got at least 2 weeks to go. 🙂 Now is not the time to really get at it. But, I am wanting to change up because I do feel I’m over the initial issues and do want my body to adjust and adapt to heavier loads again. So on a whim today I did a double with 185 and a single with 225. Hardly heavy, but heavier than I’ve been doing and my ankle was fine with it all.

I think come next week I’ll shift from the “sets of 10” to following Paul’s 5,4,3,2,1,8-15+50% approach. This will get me into that groove, but weights will remain light, like working up to 225. Slowly I’ll increase and work my way up to a proper working weight over the coming weeks.