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
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.
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.
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