Continuing to experiment while on the shelf due to my ankle.

• Bench Press – Explosive
  • 45 x 5
  • 45 x 5
  • 95 x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 135 x 3
  • 155 x 3 x 8
• Close-grip Bench Press
  • 165 x 5 x 2
• Bench Press with 1″ pause off chest
  • 145 x 8 x 3
• Lat Pulldowns
  • 110 X 15
  • 110 X 15
  • 110 X 12
  • 100 X 10
• DB side raise
  • 15 x 10 x 3
• Band-assist chin-ups
  • bw x 3 x 3
• Foam Rolling

I go in for for the ankle MRI later today.

Meantime, I continue on doctor’s orders to do no lower-body work. So since it’s all upper, and since pressing is out, benching it is. I’ve been curious about The Cube Method for some time, but various reasons have kept me from going whole hog on it. I always said if I got injured, that’d be a good time to focus/specialize/experiment on something, so here I am.

The above session came right out of the 365 Strong book. It’s the “week 3 – Bench Explosive” from Cube Kingpin (née Cube Boss). So it’s the explosive bench session of the first rotation. I guessed a bit at the weights to use, but I think they were pretty close, especially for a “first rotation” (read: a wee light).

I liked it. It was different. I am sure I will get better simply due to repetition because my body will get more efficient at the explosive part. I don’t feel dead to the world after this session, but I do feel worked.

All in all, not bad. 🙂

My current feeling (and this could change depending upon circumstance) is once I’m off the fat loss train and start eating carbs regularly again, yeah… Cube. I may actually do a cycle or two of 5/3/1 to get back into the groove and reestablish my maxes, then Cube it. But I really want to give Cube a try.

But that’s later. Right now I have to deal with my ankle. So what to do the rest of this week? I don’t know. I thought I’d do “heavy bench” on Friday, and Wednesday I’d do some bodybuilding stuff. But am I wondering if I might be setting myself up for too much work to recover from (I keep thinking Texas Method here, and I know that’s a lot for an old fart like me… esp. one that’s working with a fat-loss-oriented diet, and an injury). Not sure, will think about it. Else maybe I’ll modify for now and go 2x week, going Thursday to bench heavy. I dunno. I’ll take it one day at a time and see.

Meantime, it’s MRI time.

Back in the saddle… sorta.

The Ankle Injury Sessions

• Work Set – Bench Press
  • 45 x 5
  • 45 x 5
  • 95 x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 135 x 3
  • 155 x 3
  • 175 x 3
  • 195 x 3
  • 215 x 3
• Face Pulls (superset with the bench press warm-up sets)
  • 40 x 15 x 5
• Close-grip Bench Press
  • 135 x 10 x 4
  • 135 x 8
• Seated cable rows (superset with the close-grip bench press)
  • 100 X 10 X 5
• Flared arm DB extensions
  • 30 x 12 x 4
• BB curls (superset with the extensions)
  • 50 x 10 x 4

First session back in the gym after my ankle injury. I did wear my brace boot, and also a running shoe because the boot has such a high sole and the running show gives a lot more evenness, tho it’s still shorter than the boot. Besides, why do I need a flat-shoed shoe? not like I’m doing any lower body work for a while.

Given that, I figured the best course of action for right now was to just go in and see what I could and couldn’t do. I’m healing decently since the initial injury a week ago, but things still aren’t stable. So I knew things like t-bar rows weren’t going to happen due to the pressure that’d put on my ankle. But seated cable rows weren’t so bad because the boot stablized most of it and there just isn’t the added pressure of the bar and my bodyweight.

I decided that I’d bench and just work up to a “heavy” triple. 215 is far from heavy, but I can’t tuck my feet nor generate much leg drive. I just opted to put X on the bar then go up in 20# increments. And I thought I could then try 225 but opted against it because 215 was a hair hard to get off my chest with no leg drive. No sense in pushing it.

Otherwise, the rest of the session went about normal, which was cool. I am liking the flared arm DB extensions.

You know I’ve been considering the Cube Method for a while. While now is not the time for Cube, I thought I could play with concepts some.

So my general approach — for now — is going to be: Monday bench dynamic, Friday bench heavy, Wednesday do some “light bodybuilding” stuff. All upper body, and doing what I have to do to keep pressure off the foot/ankle. Just going to wing it. I mean, I finally got the MRI scheduled, then that plus the post-MRI consult with the doc… maybe just a week left? So hey, winging it for a week is fine. Once I know more about what’s going on, I can make a better decision about exactly how I want to proceed with the lifting.

In other news… CarbNite.

I’m still frustrated, but I may see a glimmer of hope.

I still do not need any progress on the scale. That’s frustrating. Because while maybe I am losing fat and perhaps gaining muscle, the reality is if I am aiming to drop 40# of fat, there’s no way I’m going to put on 40# of muscle in exchange — just won’t happen. So I NEED to see some sort of actual drop in scale weight. So that I’m not is really getting to me.

But I’ve been taking weekly pictures and when I took one a couple days ago… well…. comparing to my start pictures, I swear there’s a difference. Looking at my torso, it looks like there’s not as much “roundness” on the sides. Wife looked and she sees it to.

So… that gives me some hope to carry on here. It’s only been a month, and I did expect more dramatic results by now, but well, even if it’s slow so long as it’s coming. I guess I’ll see where things are in another month.

Well, still no training.

I actually wanted to go to the gym today, but when I woke up it wasn’t happening. My ankle is getting better every day, but something just said “leave it” and give it a few more days to rest. Fair enough. I’m at a point where I’m nervous about what’s wrong, and really don’t want to risk making the problem worse. I really don’t want to have problems walking for the rest of my life, y’know? Hopefully it’s not that bad, but better safe than sorry.

That said, my plan was to wing it.

I am going to formally abandon 5/3/1 for now, tho I’m sure I’ll have principles still with me. I was going to just go in, bench press and work up to a “heavy” triple. No idea what that would be, because I don’t know how much lower body involvement I can have. Certainly can’t tuck my feet back and push into an arch. After that, probably do some close-grip benches, and see what back work I could do. I’m sure I can do pulldowns, but rows would depend. I thought maybe I could sit on a bench and do some seated shrugs with dumbbells. That’d be about it.

Point is, there wouldn’t be much structure to the session. It’d be more about figuring out what I can and cannot do.

I also thought if all I can really do is bench (as a main movement), I might start to try some Cube-inspired approach. I thought maybe Monday work up heavy, on Friday work on speed. Wednesday could be some sort of lighter rep day doing other things, like seated overhead presses or some such. I don’t know. It might be too much for me given the diet restriction. But at this point, it’s just temporary while I wait to see how the MRI goes. No long-term plans being made, just gotta get through until there’s more information.

Speaking of diet, I am frustrated. I just don’t feel like I’m shedding. I’m hovering at weight. Body doesn’t look much different. Clothing doesn’t feel much different. I’m annoyed and not sure what I’m failing at. But that all said, I’m staying the course with CarbNite. However, depending what the MRI shows, I may go off it. I mean, if I need surgery, I will need to focus on recovery there, and there’s no sense in depriving myself when my body will need it. But again, no plans, just thinking out loud.

We’ll see how things go.

Managed to see Dr. Arush K. Angriasa with the SW Orthopaedic Group. I figured a podiatrist would be the right person to see. I don’t know him from Adam, but searching around seemed to have a lot of positive review and comment and seems to be well-regarded. So why not.

Exactly what my problem is, hard to say at this time. But based upon the examination it’s one (or more) of three things:

1. some ligaments on the outside of my ankle are highly inflamed and could even be calcify.

2. there are some tendons that run down the back of the calf under the ankle, which could be in play.

3. I may have lost some cartilage between the end of my fibula and top of my foot. Can happen with martial arts, due to all the impact of kicking.

Please don’t quiz me on this… I could be getting some details wrong, but basically it’s some soft tissue problems. Massive swelling.  And yes, it’s probably my old injury coming back to haunt me.

For now, I have to wear one of those “boots” to restrict my movement. I’ll be getting an MRI done to see what it looks like, and based upon that, we’ll see where to go.

I asked about lifting. I can’t do anything lower body. Not even stupid leg extensions and curls. Nothing. Ugh. I even know some upper body work shouldn’t happen, like pressing (since that’s done standing). But I might modify it to use dumbbells and sit down, or try the smith machine or something. Ugh. I really don’t know yet what I’ll do and how I’ll modify things, but it’s safe to say I’m somewhat on the shelf for a bit. I will figure something out so I can at least do SOMETHING.

Really, now would be the time I’d do something like Smolov Jr and see about kicking my bench press into high gear. But with the diet focus, that won’t happen. It is enough to make me want to come off the diet. 😉

There is no training log. Not today.

About 8.5 years ago I had a nasty injury to my left ankle. It was back when I was doing Kuk Sool martial arts. It was a night of “endless” kicking. In particular, you do a jump 360º spin kick, then when you land  you drop all the way down to the ground and do the same down low. Well, after so many kicks I was exhausted and when I came down landed wrong on my left foot and crumpled to the ground. X-rays were taken and while no bones were broken, certainly there was ligament damage. I should have sought a better treatment option than what was offered to me, but whatever… water under the bridge.

My ankle has never been the same and never been fully “normal” since then. Most of the time it’s a non-issue. But every so often something happens to make it flare up (last I can remember was when I chased some coyotes from my front yard… hiking boots, pavement, too much stiff impact). And sometimes weird things just happen, like I cannot extend my foot all the way without pain, like a ligament is hung up on something; eventually goes away. I don’t think much of it any more, I just deal with the pain and issues when they crop up and they eventually go away.

For maybe the last month or so, the left foot has had pain. You can see the ankle is puffy and more swollen than the right foot/ankle. There’s also been a constant ache in my heel area. I figured to let it go, this stuff happens: ice, Advil, rest, and it’s usually gone. But this wasn’t going away so I was thinking about a doctor.

Then this past Saturday night, I’m lying in bed reading a book, rotated my left foot to do some “ankle circles” and a sharp pain shot through me. It went away, but a few minutes later when I stuck my toes under the sheets so I could scoot my foot under the covers, the pain shot through me again and didn’t go away. Despite a long night of rest and 4 Advil, the pain persisted in the morning. I cannot walk without pain, and have taken to walking with a cane. It’s that bad, it’s that debilitating.

So no deadlifting today. 🙂

I found a podiatrist that seems to be well-regarded. I reckon this type of thing is right up his alley, so we’ll see what comes of it. As of this writing no appointment has been made, but will be done. This is too painful, it cannot wait. Something is wrong.

The crazy part is that all I’m thinking about is how I’m going to handle lifting! Obviously I cannot squat nor deadlift. *sigh*  Are my lower body days going to be just stuff like leg extensions, leg curls, and hyperextensions? Ugh. I doubt I can overhead press. Even bench pressing could be difficult. I don’t know what I’ll do… it’ll depend in part on what the problem winds up being.

But I always said to myself that if I got injured, it would be a time to try alternative programs that allowed me to specialize. For example, doing Smolov Jr for bench press.

Of course, the problem with that is the whole CarbNite fat loss issue. There’s no way to do such a specialization program without eating big and resting big. And depending what’s wrong with me,  my body may well be happier to not be killed by lifting so instead it can focus on healing the ankle.

I must wonder if CarbNite is part of my problem. I’m depriving my body of a lot of things, and I can feel the effects. My joints are under a LOT more inflammation and pain throughout my body. Carbs can be anti-inflamatory. I even wondered with my heel pain if there’s some sort of gout-like issue going on due to the dietary change and consumption. I just don’t know. There’s no question I need to drop the weight, but who knows… it may have to go to a more Carb Backloading approach with VERY modest carb consumption, and stretching out the fat loss over the course of many more months.

I just don’t know. Right now I have more questions than answers. Not letting it bother me too much tho… gotta see what the doctor says first.

Once you reset (lower) your expectations, it’s not too bad…. I guess. 🙂

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 27, week 2

• Work Set – Squat
  • 45 x 5
  • 45 x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 140 x 5
  • 170 x 3
  • 200 x 3
  • 225 x 3
  • 255 x 5
• Moar Skwats
  • 140 x 10 x 5
• Crunches
  • BW x 12 x 3
• Foam Rolling

I have to remind myself — it’s about body weight not bar weight.

Going into today accepting the massive loss of strength, made things go a lot better. I expected to just get prescribed reps, but managed to get a couple more. Really lowered the 5×10 squat weight, and geez if 140# isn’t kicking my carb-depleated butt. But overall, things went as well as I could expect them to.

If nothing else, it affords me the opportunity to do more technique work. Really working on breaking at the hips first, sticking the butt out and going with that first, then on the way back up when I get to maybe like 85% upright ensuring to push the hips through. Don’t make it a purely quad thing, ensure the hips and glutes get pulled into the mix. Lighter weights but more reps? great… means more technique time.

Gotta find the positive. 🙂

Frustrated. Feeling dejected.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 27, week 1

• Work Set – Press
  • 45 x 5
  • 45 x 5
  • 60 x 5
  • 75 x 5
  • 90 x 3
  • 100 x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 130 x 7
• Close-grip pulldowns (neutral grip, superset with warm-up pressing sets)
  • 80 x 15 x 5
• Press
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 8
  • 85 x 8
  • 75 x 8
  • 65 x 10
• Wide, pronated grip pulldowns (superset with additional pressing sets)
  • 110 x 10 x 5
• Cable pressdowns (pin the elbows to the side)
  • 50 x 10 x 4
• Hammer curls (superset with pressdowns)
  • 30 x 10
  • 30 x 10
  • 30 x 8
  • 25 x 10

I’m feeling dejected.

Everything is going down, except that which should be going down. My weights are going down, my reps are going down, my strength is going down… but my bodyweight isn’t.

*sigh*

Yes I know. It’s only been 3 weeks on CarbNite, but I expected to see better results than this. I’m down around 5#, but I lost that at about the first week and have been hovering there ever since. Something is not right. I don’t know what it is yet, but it’s driving me crazy. I have some thoughts, and I just need to do some researching and reading. If nothing else, since I bought the CBL and CNS books, I have access to their forums and will post my questions there to seek input.

I mean, today was fine for what it was, but it’s evident I have no gas. I accept that, but I figured the trade-off would be seeing the fat loss. *sigh*

Just feeling dejected, but you keep going… who knows… maybe this is some greater cosmic test of will for me that I first must overcome.

Yeah… the gas tank has no gas.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 27, week 1

• Work Set – Deadlift
  • 160 x 5
  • 200 x 5
  • 240 x 3
  • 255 x 5
  • 295 x 5
  • 335 x 7
  • 255 x 8
  • 255 x 8
  • 255 x 5
• Foam Rolling

Even tho last night was my CarbNite, still, no gas. I am not totally surprised… takes some time to restore things. But no question… as I did my 335# set, I got to rep 5 and started to feel out of gas. When I hit 7 I couldn’t go any more. I felt like I had a few more in me in terms of my muscles fatiguing, but I just had no gas. That was it.

First-set-last-set’d it for 3 more sets, and that was good towards actually working my muscles more. But I’ve heard it said and it’s true… you just can’t get strong on a no-carb diet. Or if you can, give them carbs and they’ll get stronger.

Ah well. I know my technique was good. Really working on hone it. One thing was grip and ensuring to grip hard with my hands, but keep my arms “loose” so they remained straight with no attempt to “curl” the bar up or otherwise flex and put too much stress on my biceps.

I skipped the calf raises due to wanting to give my ankle more rest. It’s doing better with ice and Advil.

Starting the new year off right.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 27, week 1

• Work Set – Bench Press
  • 45 x 5
  • 45 x 5
  • 90 x 5
  • 110 x 5
  • 130 x 3
  • 145 x 5
  • 165 x 5
  • 185 x 10
• Face Pulls (superset with the bench press warm-up sets)
  • 40 x 15 x 5
• Close-grip Bench Press
  • 135 x 10
  • 135 x 10
  • 135 x 9
  • 135 x 6
  • 135 x 6
• T-Bar Rows (superset with the close-grip bench press)
  • 100 X 10 X 5
• Barbell Curls
  • 50 X 10 X 3
• Foam Rolling

Kiddos wanted to ring in the new year, so at 12:01 I headed to bed. I fully intended on still hitting the gym… was more important for me to get to the gym and keep with the program, than to stay up late and drink and party. My priorities. Alas, staying up to midnight is still WAY past my bedtime, so I knew I’d have to sleep a little later than usual… and I slept even later than that. Just couldn’t get out of bed, way too tired (listen to the body!). But eventually things felt good and off I went.

I am glad I did the full reset. I mean, I figured on my bench press that of all the lifts, that would be the one I would NOT need to reset because the way I was progressing there was still getting more than prescribed reps and doing well. I knew if I reset bench then my weights would really drop and my reps would fly up. Sure enough, only 185 today? Geez… that feels like a massive step back from doing 245 *sigh* And once I got to 10 reps, I just stopped. Oh well, I figure it’ll be good for me. 🙂 More reps, more time to work on technique, right? Find the positive.

That said, close-grips were at 125# last time and well… I was to do 130# but 130 is one of those weights I hate because man, I have a 45 and a 25 on the bar, now I have to strip everything off, then put everything on just to get 130. I’m OK with 125, but can I just skip 130 and go to 135? It’s easier to just strip that one 25 off. Yeah I know… lazy. Whatever. 🙂 So I went ahead and jumped to 135 for the close grips. I’m good with that and happy with how it went.

Opted to drop the seated cable rows. While CarbNite-ing, it’s just too much load.

Didn’t bother with any direct triceps work either… just hit some bb curls to continue working on bringing up my biceps.

Not a bad day, really…. but….

I’m still very sore from Monday’s squat session. That kicked my ass, literally. Shows what a difference eating makes when it comes to recovery. I’ll find a groove tho. One bummer is that somehow my old ankle injury reared up again, so it’s kinda painful to walk or put much weight on my left foot. Icing is helping, but you can see obvious swelling. This usually goes away with a little rest, but man… with the food deprivation and such, well… we’ll see. I am thinking if it keeps up like this, an MRI may be in my future… somehow this time around it’s bothering me enough to want to look into that.

CarbNite Solution…. I’m drained.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 27, week 1

• Work Set – Squat
  • 45 x 5
  • 45 x 5
  • 120 x 5
  • 150 x 5
  • 180 x 3
  • 195 x 5
  • 230 x 5
  • 260 x 5
• More Squats
  • 150 x 10
  • 150 x 10
  • 150 x 8
  • 150 x 8
  • 150 x 6
• Seated Calf Raises
  • 45 x 10 x 3
• Crunches (superset with calf raises)
  • BW x 12 x 3
• Foam Rolling

Today marked my first training session of 2014 (essentially), first of cycle 27, and first time back in the gym after starting CarbNite Solution. It’s been almost 2 weeks of ultra-low-carb… and it showed.

I had no gas.

I figured I would lose some strength and steam without carbs. Since I got a new 1RM (315#) I thought about doing a full-on recalculation of my percentages, full-on reset, and go from there. But I thought no, I should be alright… drop back a little, but I shouldn’t need to drop back THAT much.

I was wrong.

I dropped back 20#, but I just couldn’t go today. I just ran out of gas. I pushed hard, but any time I would stop it was because I didn’t have the gas to keep going. I just don’t have any glycogen. Makes sense, of course.

So I called some audibles. If I can’t do too much, then I better make the best of what I have. Instead of leg presses and leg curls — which were actually really helping — I just fell back to good old “boring but big” and did more squats. I figure that’s training economy here.

As I think about it all, I am going to fully reset everything. In part, one reason for my reluctance was working up to some good poundages, and now I’m going to lose it all and drop WAY back. But you know what? I have to get over it. Right now the numbers that matter aren’t the numbers on the bar, but the numbers on the scale, the numbers on the tape measure around my waist, and so on. That is what I have to focus on.

So, I’m going to do a full reset, and probably change up the routine a bit to adopt a more training-economic approach, which will probably fall back to good old “boring but big.”

That said tho… CarbNite Solution seems to be alright so far. I’ve only dropped around 5# so far, which is less than expected. But I know it’s not all about the scale. I can say I feel a lot better overall. I don’t feel that adominal bloat, I don’t feel so uncomfortable. I overall feel good. I’m working to find some ways to manage my need for sweets (trying out Virgil’s Zero Sodas… not a huge soda drinker anyways, but if popping one of these back now and again helps me overcome things, then fine; also trying almond flour/meal-based stuff too). I know this will be a process, and I have to remind myself that it will take time. Don’t care so much about weight losses and changes week to week, but look more month to month… it’s a slow process, so checking on a larger timeline will make the changes more evident.