December 28, 2018 – Week 16, Day 2

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx30

Sumo Box Touches (10” Box)
BWx25

Regular Box Touches (10” Box)
BWx25

Superset: Band Rows/ Modified Angle Push-ups
MMBx20/BWx15
MMBx20/BWx15

Dumbbell Hammer Curl to Overhead Presses
15x’s10
25’sx5
35’sx5

12” Log Strict Presses
100x31

Precor Pec Flyes (3-0-2-1 tempo)
55x10
85x5
115x5
145x15

Cybex Eagle NX Rows (3-0-2-1 tempo)
70x10
100x5
120x5
140x15

Precor Converging Shoulder Presses (3-0-2-1 tempo)
45x10
65x5
85x5
95x15

Precor Biceps Curls (3-0-2-1 tempo)
25x10
45x5

65x9

Rope Triceps Pushdowns (3-0-2-1 tempo)
30x10
50x5
70x5
90x14

Wide Grip Bar Hang
bwx62.74 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Two workouts for this week. I wasn’t too sure how things were going to go as the medication for the inflammation is weaned off. I noticed that I was feeling some more aches and my eye twitch was coming back. I really wanted to do some training again. Lot of people this week had a stomach bug so I guess I should be thankful all I had was some brief indigestion. Workout was going to be similar to the past two workouts so it made more sense to do this at the Y rather than have to drive out to Lancaster on Saturday, especially with the Y being closed Tuesday. Can’t risk long drives at this point I think. AMT to warm-up. 150bpm highest reading so down a bit from the past two sessions. Didn’t feel as off in the hip like the last session. Calf work was easy, almost over that DOMS from the last session. Increased reps slightly on the box touches. I’ve been doing them on my off days using couch pillows so going to an actual box felt weird as it didn’t give under the weight haha. Band rows and modified push-ups were supersetted and for two sets. Just a little more reps and it feels like a lot. First up for the weights was some dumbbell stuff to get prepped for log press. I’ve done similar exercise but that was using momentum to get used to a clean and press, specifically viper press. Trying to stay control and no issues. Camera didn’t focus on the second set so really blurry. Biceps were feeling work on that last set. Then it was the moment of truth. Log strict press in the rack. Every new thing added had a disclaimer to do only if nothing was bothering me. I didn’t look like log press would be good as I accidentally set it up too high start and had to take the log back off the rack and put it back up there. I had wanted to use the adjustable rack as I didn’t want to be carrying the log far while I’m in this state. That didn’t really help that I had to move it around a lot to get it setup now does it. 100lbs and it was time to lift. Plan was a max rep set and stopping when I felt like I’d start to strain. It felt light and I managed to get 31 reps before I felt like I was going to start straining for the reps. That was a bit more than I was expecting to get. I could definitely tell that getting a little out of position on this would be a big problem. Then it was time for the tempo work. This time, it was set up so that I had some work up sets and then a max rep set with a weight. Tempo was adjusted to having the negatives only be 3 seconds. Even with the light workup sets on the pec flyes, I felt it was exhausting. I made a choice on the top set that I wasn’t going to try and keep track of the reps and just keep going until I felt I couldn’t do another in good form. I’d leave the rep counting for when I checked my camera later. I wasn’t sure how many reps I did but I felt beat, especially after all the log reps right beforehand. Rows had the weight increasing from what I did last time. I feel I did better on my work set compared to last time. I had some issues getting my body to be braced right for the work up sets. Next was the converging shoulder press machine. I didn’t really like this last time. I went with the neutral grip style this time and it felt a lot better. I had no idea what the reps were on the last set but I just kept telling myself to do another one. Biceps curls were next. These had the biggest jump in weight compared to last time I did upper body. These were tough. Ended up being the lowest amount of reps of the day. I started a tenth rep but I could feel that I wasn’t going to keep the form if I went for it. Rope triceps after that. The pull apart and hold is hard enough alone so these slow reps are really hard. I thought I had done more reps than I did but it was still good. Last thing for the day was a wide grip bar hang. Same idea as last time. Couldn’t hang on as long this time. But usually I don’t test it weekly and I had done some hangs for the abs earlier in the week. My hip flexors and abs were sore when I got set on this as I have to keep my legs tucked with how tall I am at the Y rack setup. Home for a late night of stretching, eating and recovery work.

December 24, 2018 – Week 16, Day 1

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx30

Sumo Box Touches (10” Box)
BWx20

Regular Box Touches (10” Box)
BWx20

Band Rows
MMBx20

Modified Angle Push-ups
BWx15

Precor Leg Extensions (4-0-2-1 tempo)
55x15
75x17
95x16
115x15

Precor Seated Leg Curls (4-0-2-1 tempo)
65x16
85x14
105x14
125x15

Cybex VR2 Glute Machine (4-0-2-1 tempo)
25x16/12
37.5x16/15
50x14/15

62.5x15/15

Precor Inner Thigh Machine (4-0-2-1 tempo)
75x15
95x16
115x15

Precor Outer Thigh Machine (4-0-2-1 tempo)
45x17
65x13
85x15

Seated Calf Raises (4-0-2-1 tempo)
+25x14
+45x17
+65x15

Hanging Knee Raises
bwx26

bwx26

bwx22

Stretching

Comments: Doing what I can. Walking 2 miles each day I’m not “lifting” and doing exercises and stretches as well as alternating heat, massage and icing. TENS unit I’ve been doing at least once a day for 40 minutes. Past few days I’ve used it twice a day since I’ve had off work Saturday and Sunday and only a half day Monday. I’ve fluctuated between thinking I can come back quick and that I’m over a year away from being where I needed to be if healthy for Arnold (log and deadlift). It’s tough when you feel you need more time to get stronger but want it to take less time to feel better. Spending a few hours watching videos and reading stuff on disc bulge issues. So many “instant fixes” with comments saying “it solved my years of back issues” when it does nothing for me and it looks like I need more time. Granted it has only been 11 days since the injury and a week since I started taking medication. But I think these thoughts. It was a good thing it was only a half day for work as the gym closed at 4. AMT again. I’m not too sure on the highest reading but it was between 156-159bpm. Joints were a little stiff today. Movement prep stuff was the same as last workout. Calf raises were ok. I think a little bit better than last time as it wasn’t so jarring to setup this time. Box touches feel good. I’ve been doing 80 of them a day on my off days so my hamstrings and hips are still getting work in. Band rwos and modified push ups also ok. Same as the calf raises. Today’s workout was lower body stuff with abs at the end. I can’t say I wasn’t a little disappointed it wasn’t back to the big stuff yet but I need to be patient. Tempo reps for even larger rep range was going to be interesting. It has been so long since I’ve done these machines that they had all been replaced from the last time I used them so I didn’t really know how they would feel right now. First up was leg extension. These can either feel good or make it feel like my knees are being peeled off my legs. They had two models but I knew the older one was the later so I had to chance it with the newer one. It felt good enough. With these, I was to lean forward to take pressure off the lumbar and feel the muscles working. 2 up, 1 hold and 4 down. This session made it abundantly clear that I can’t focus on three different groupings of numbers at the same time until it gets somewhat challenging and activity. The intention was to do 15 reps every set but that wasn’t always the case. I’ve done horrible things on leg extensions. Sets of 100 reps and doing reps/partials until I couldn’t move the weight at all and proceeded to puke. So my quads can generally take a fair amount of abuse. Last set of leg extensions, I could feel my quads trembling on the negatives. Leg curls after that. Again, varies machine to machine. Some I can barely move much weight at all and others I can keep up with the leg extensions. This one felt like it was too easy. I know from past leg curl stuff how sore they get from slow eccentrics and holding the contraction. Not bad here but I knew my legs would be sore. Now the next thing was to do seated calf raises but I saw all these different machines (some are kind of unique) so I kept sending them to Mike to see if they were a good idea so by this process, I ended up adding three more exercises to the workout. Older model of a glute raise, one leg at a time. That machine that every Instagram model tries to replicate on other equipment. It was hopefully a way to do some hip extension work without loading the spine as it had a pad to rest the torso on. It was not built for someone my size as the one side I had to lift the weight first before performing the exercise. This one took a while to do with the reps and I really lost count. Partially because there were to guys having an argument over the leg extension machine that ended with “Merry Christmas, hope you don’t go through the rest of your life this miserable”. At least I got the rep count right on the last set. Then on to the inner thigh and outer thigh machines. Always seem to come to these when I’m trying to “rehab” something. Saw Martins Licis talk about working these muscles in this training vlog so I thought they couldn’t hurt. This tends to be a popular station but for some reason, less people come around when there’s a large guy with a doo-rag on with a camera. When these were done, it was downstairs for seated calf raises. My calves can move a lot of weight when it comes to partial range of motion and using the “springy” nature of the stretch reflex. But slow and full range? Pathetically weak. I was shocked how tough a plate on the machine felt. Also really showed me how darn tight my right calf is, having to force it down (might be why that knee is usually achier than my left). Another thing that was going to be sore tomorrow. Last thing was hanging knee raises. People were taking up too much of the cable crossover area (the only place tall enough for me to hang with a  fixed bar) downstairs so I went upstairs. Even me being on it didn’t stop people from being in my personal space. The idea was to do these controlled. It felt easy that first set but my curling up was making my swing and I stopped when I just couldn’t stop myself from swinging with my wrists. So for the next set, I had my feet briefly stop my momentum at the bottom of each rep and that seemed to do the trick. I was able to focus more on the abs and less on the swinging. Home to stretch and recover.

December 20, 2018 – Week 15, Day 1

Last week didn’t end on a good note. I did nothing Sunday and waited to get a deep tissue massage after work on Monday. My hips weren’t set so hope was that would take care of it. It did not. I ended leaving work before lunch to go to the injury clinic to find out what I already knew; I had a disc bulge. Had x-rays and a physician’s assistant examine and tell me that it was L4-L5 (previous one was L5-S1). I asked what time frame I could expect doing normal activities (like putting on pants or socks without pain) and I was told tomorrow to three months as backs are tricky. I was told to do Pilates, hot yoga, see a chiropractor and setup physical therapy. Also given 12 days of Prednisone and muscle relaxer. I’ve been here before. I was not pleased with the answer I had gotten but to be expected. Last time it took 7 months. I had a lot of pent up stress that came out in anger and sadness that day. I don’t think this time is as bad as 2.5 years ago. I still got time. Best case scenario is that the medication to treat the inflammation does its thing and I only have to modify two weeks of training and get back on the saddle. That other possibility is there as well though. A longer road to recovery. Trying to stay positive but there is always the discussion on whether I should keep doing this thing I do. Should I be doing something else? I seem to find that whatever I’d end up doing, I’d do it with such focus, dedication and passion that it would be the same end result. Find what you like and let it kill you.

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx30

Sumo Box Touches (10” Box)
BWx20

Regular Box Touches (10” Box)
BWx20

Band Rows
MMBx20

Modified Angle Push-ups
BWx15

Precor Pec Flyes (4-0-2-1 tempo)
55x10
85x10
115x10
145x10

Cybex Eagle NX Rows (4-0-2-1 tempo)
70x16
100x10
130x10

Precor Converging Shoulder Presses (4-0-2-1 tempo)
45x10
65x10
85x10

Precor Biceps Curls (4-0-2-1 tempo)
25x11
45x10

Rope Triceps Pushdowns (4-0-2-1 tempo)
30x11
50x11
70x10
90x10

Wide Grip Bar Hang
bwx65.88 seconds PR+2.9 seconds

Stretching

Comments: So this workout was kind of a happy accident. Initially I was going to do nothing but recovery stuff and go for walks and work on maintaining my hamstring and hips flexibility. But I felt good enough for a workout. Only weight workout for this week and the parameters forced me to stay light. Idea for this workout was get blood flowing to help with my recovery. I figured that bike work wouldn’t be the best for right now and walking around the 1/16th mile track cuts the corners too tight for my knees going one way so I went with the old standby AMT so that I could get a full ROM in the hips with my strides and keep blood pumping to the lower back. 156bpm highest reading. It has been a while. Movement prep and warm-up was cut down. I kept in the ankle mobility stuff as I will be doing more walking for this week and possibly next week. Need to keep them supple. Brought back the box touches. Haven’t missed a beat on these. Keeping a lower box height so that it like I’m going down to the bar to deadlift. Band rows were fine and so were the modified push-ups. All upper body stuff on machines for this workout for higher reps and with set tempos. Tempo work just kills me but it also meant that I had to stay focused and couldn’t use weights that would cause strain on the disc bulge. Start light, each rep with a 2 second concentric, 1 second pause at contraction and 4 second eccentric. Stop if I felt I’d use body English on the next set or rep. First up was the pec fly. This piece of equipment is very busy so I knew I’d have to stay on it the whole time to get my sets in. This meant taking a little less than 30 seconds rest between sets. I just knew with every rep and set that the DOMS was going to be worse and worse with this. But this was a good start. Little bit of a hiccup with the chest supported rows. I didn’t want to use the plateloadable one as that meant I was more likely to do something to my back picking up weights compared to just moving the pins on the machines upstairs. Also had a relapse in pain when I did them not so strict 2.5 years ago. First machine option I didn’t fit in. My knees got in the way of the machine path and I couldn’t safely brace myself to keep from being moved around. The other machine was a bit better as I was able to brace. I lost count on the first set for the higher reps. I got fatigued on this way quicker than the pec flyes. Shoulder press after that. I had thought there was a lateral raise machine but I guess they got rid of it. I didn’t think dumbbells would be the best option to try that with having to worry about balance so seated machine shoulder press it was. I don’t care for the model as the arms converge at the top so it was a bit awkward. Little bit of that feeling I get in the right shoulder but the weight was light. My triceps got exhausted on these. Biceps curls were interesting. My biceps tend to fatigue quick when not actively trained and I’ve tried to minimize how much they take over in lifts after the pull a year ago. Almost didn’t fit in the seat for this one. I miscounted the first set. My left biceps just kept convulsing on the second set. Darn these torturous slow reps. Rope triceps weren’t as bad as I’ve done a few sessions with pauses on them at least. I took a little longer rests compared to the other exercises because this was downstairs and because I had forgotten to charge my camera’s batteries (both back-ups) so I had to keep switching them between sets. Last thing for the day was a wide grip bar hang. Been several months since I’ve done it on a barbell. Plan was to hold until I felt like I was going to lose my grip and then use my legs to get me settled back to earth gently. That wasn’t going to be a problem since the setup at the Y has my feet hovering above the ground with my legs bent so even going to the max wasn’t going to be too bad. My grip felt good but that made sense with the work I’ve been putting in and it shouldn’t be effected by the disc bulge. Actually ended up being a PR for bodyweight hold without a hook grip so happy with that. Home to stretch, eat and recover. Tried out the TENS unit I bought and that seems to be helping. Got to stay positive and forward thinking so I can get through this.

December 15, 2018 – Week 14, Day 3

5 Minutes Misc Stationary Bike

Leaning Calf Raises
BWx30

16” Goblet Box Squats
20x25

Shoestring Romanian Deadlifts
45x20

Band Rows
MMBx20

Modified Angled Push-ups
BWx15

Bodyweight Plank
20 Seconds

Biceps Stretches
20 Seconds
20 Seconds

Front to Back Hip Swings
BWx10/10

Side to Side Hip Swings
BWx10/10

Yoke
250x50’ in 5.38 seconds
340x50’ in 5.94 seconds
430x50’ in 6.06 seconds
520x50’ in 7.18 seconds
611x50’ in 7.70 seconds
705x50’ in 9.06 seconds
800x50’ in 10.35 seconds
660x50’ in 8.51 seconds

Sandbag Over Bar (60”)
200xpick

225xpick

250xpick

275xpick

EMOM

306x1

306x1

306x1

306x1

306x1

306x1

306x1

Mouser Block Carry

239x60’ in 10.82 seconds

280.5x60’ in 10.84 seconds

329x60’ in 14.89 seconds

Plate Pinch Hold
111x64.90 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Workout started out well but ended up a pyrrhic victory at the end. I was tired and slept in until like 9:00AM so didn’t get out to the gym until after 12:00PM. Brought wooden massager in case I needed any soft tissue work on my neck and traps on the right side with whatever is going on there from my mistake on incline log. Bike felt good today. Calves felt springy and easy. Knees were good today on goblet squats. I was expecting them to really suck today. Same with RDLs. Band rows were good. Modified push-ups were even better today. I wasn’t expecting that. Still not how I want them to feel but better. Plank felt ok, even after that situps on Thursday. Biceps stretches felt good. Really needed it today. Hip swings after that. Felt ok. Got some tension out of my hips. Yoke here again. I had to hope this would go better than last time as I didn’t have to travel and sleep on strange beds this week. Working up sets were changed as the it was to go off a heavier percentage. Only weight that was to be the same as last session was the last run, the down set. Not the best on some runs but still decent. Every run was better than last sessions for sure. I was definitely feeling fatigue in my lower back and hip on my left side after 611lbs run. Probably the most comfortable 800lbs has felt on my back. I made some bobbles on the run but still I think my best time with this weight for this distance ever. Down set it didn’t feel like I took any weight off from 800lbs to be honest. Felt just as heavy on my back. Not my fastest on this set but still faster than last session. Next was sandbag loads. Planned working set was the 306lbs bag for 7 singles this week. This was tough to load last session. My warm-up was different as I just do picks going up 25lbs and then got to the heavy one. The use seems to have gotten the lead shot to disperse in the bag a bit more evenly now. I was really surprised how easily I threw it over that first rep. I must have done something though as when I got down to get ready for the second one, I felt my left side of my lower back around my SI joint felt tense and tight. This was not good. I’ve had this before and as soon as I felt like continuing would make it worse, I would stop. I was about an hour away from home and it would just be something where I’d be given anti-inflammatories and told to rest. No place would be open to do an adjustment or massage and until swelling went down, that wouldn’t be wise anyways. I finished the exercise and every lift was better than my best load last time with this bag. At this point, just trying to keep positive and not let myself spiral down. I left all the weights out (I usually put them away between exercises as active rest) until the end so that I could try and get through the rest of the workout if I could. Brian had a makeshift theragun that I used. Yeah this was not going to be a quick fix. Mouser block carry was the next item. Replacing keg carry this week for more Arnold specificity. I’m good at carrying this thing for distance but trying to be quick with it was going to be tricky. First I needed to do some maintenance to the loading pins (bang on it with hammers). The small children at the gym thought it was a toy and that was the purpose (beat it with a hammer) so I quickly gathered a crowd. But the hammering worked and now a lot more plates can fit on them. Contest is 390lbs for 60’. The spot I had allowed me to start on rubber mat and run on turf. Plan was to start with between 200-225lbs and go up 50lbs or so a set for a top weight of 300-325lbs. First weight ended up being 239lbs so a bit heavier than planned. I changed my pick setup as I figure that it will take time getting the block setup like when I’ve done it before on my feet. And the sumoish stance probably saved my back a fair amount. Trying to not pull with the arms still. This style seemed to work for the first two sets and being able to pop it up and catch it and get moving. Even though I added weight on the second set, I was within .02 of a second. I may need to tape my wrists in the future. The top weight didn’t work as planned. I rushed it and I got off balance. Ended up being 4 seconds slower this time. Also would’ve been not good for contest as the block wasn’t balanced at the end of the run and it feel over so I’d have had to go and rest it back up on the mat. Good to figured it out in training. Last item for the day was plate pinch. I kept my rehband belt on to keep my lower back warm and provide some compression. I have those worries that I take it off and the pain would just engulf me. I didn’t think I had a good grip on it at the start but somehow I held fast and got very close to matching my time with 5lbs more from last session. I took my time putting stuff away and hung out a little bit to see if I could do anything to ease the pain I was feeling as I knew it was going to be a very uncomfortable drive home. Home to stretch and apply icy hot, take ibuprofen and try all the recovery stuff I could. My hope is that a long sleep will help. I’ve worked so hard for this year to get back to this point. I have massage therapy for Monday after work. I don’t know I can deal with this injury again if it becomes another relapse.