November 10, 2014 – Week 0, Day 1 - Injury and Update

Again, I apologize for the lack of updates. Nothing posted since I’ve literally done nothing since my last workout. I did something to my ribcage on the left side that I started feeling a few hours after my last workout. Painful enough that I couldn’t sleep on that side and kept waking me up. The thing that bothers me the most is I don’t know what I did to cause it. Chiropractor said it was a subluxated rib head and it took two sessions to get it back in position. A lot of the pain was gone but still lingered so I went to an orthopedic doctor who forwent an x-ray and just squeezed my ribs to see if I was in pain and when I said no, declared it was an upper back muscle strain. Finally, had massage therapist work on the back muscles and chest (the pain would migrate depending on my posture) and while it helped, I knew it would be unwise to compete in Maryland’s Strongest Man. Really sucked with how much time I had put in to it. This is only the second show that I’ve had to withdraw from due to injury (first time was 2011 with the ruptured hamstring and I regret missing that show too). At least I got to cheer on my sister as she placed 3^rd at the same show and hit PRs on everything. This year official has sucked for me with the injuries. With that stated, I’m using the services of strength coach Josh Bryant to get me back on track. As such, I may not be able to provide as much details as I usually do with regard to insight into my training but I will post what I can as far as postings and videos. Real training resumes next week.

Dynamic Warm-ups

Barbell Strict Presses
45x10

95x5

145x5

145x5

145x5

Barbell Jerks

175x5

175x5

175x5

Incline Barbell Bench Presses
45x10
115x5

175x5
175x5
175x5
 
Barbell Bench Presses

155x5

215x5

215x5

215x5

Front Squats

45x10

135x5

210x5

210x5

210x5

Squats

185x5

275x5

275x5

275x5

Deadlifts/Sumo Deadlifts

135x5/5

225x5/5

325x5/5

325x5/5

325x5/5

Pull-ups

bwx5 (pronated grip)

bwx5 (neutral grip)

bwx5 (supinated grip)

27 Minutes of Stretching

Comments: Plan today was to test things out and see if anything hurt or if I couldn’t do some things. I was going to originally do 36%,45% and 54% of my 1rms (5/3/1 deload weights) but Mr. Bryant felt that at least 50% would be needed to really find out as anything below that would be too light. So I went with 3x5 with 54%. Hit all the big lifts. Started out with strict presses and that was fine, and moved on to jerks. On the strict presses, I wanted to see if my scapulae felt like it was catching it didn’t and on the jerks I wanted to make sure the “jolt” of getting under the weight didn’t bother me and it didn’t either. Then on to prone pressing. Started with incline and then on to plain benching. Two things I was checking on here; pain in my back and pectorals. Laying down with weights seemed to bug my back two weeks prior (and that was with 15lbs kettlebells) so I’d say the back pain issue is gone. I did feel some tenderness in my left pectoral muscle but no pain. Same deal with flat bench though the setup was a bit awkward since the one I was on can’t be adjusted so it was like doing a half press to start. On to lower body stuff from there. If I had no issues with pressing, I didn’t think I’d have an issue with front squats but had to check to make sure. Legs were very sore after this. Then back squats followed. I was really worried that these would aggravate the injury but no issues here, just awkward squatting. Since my conventional and sumo pull are pretty much the same at this point, I just alternated between them. Good little workout doing this. Finished up with alternating grips on pull-ups and good amount of stretching. Quite a bit of lactic acid soreness from inactivity but I guess that is what happens when the only thing you’ve been doing is walking and the heaviest lifting was picking up a cat or moving a potted plant.