The Thinking Strongman

Week 5, Day 3

2012-01-28T14:55:00.000-08:00

Tired today, quite tired. Couldn't seem to get out of first gear. Finally, after much procrastination, forced myself to train at 4PM. Warmed up with band stretching for forearms and biceps, did some bodyweight squats, and then hit the 210lb stone. Did 3 sets of 5-7 reps of squats; these felt pretty darned good, to be honest - good pop out of the hole, nice consistent drive, and a good roll up the chest at the end. Decided to hop in...

Stones (48"): 1x3x310/Fail;1x3x275/Fail
Well, this was a fiasco. Tacky froze; arm sleeves pulled off, you name it, it went south in a hurry. Got 2 solid reps at each weight, but missed the 3rd on each set.

Pulldowns: worked up to 1x10x215/9, and called it done

EZ bar curls: worked up to 1x7x115/9, called it done

I was completely spent and frustrated after stones, combined with being tired, and really couldn't bring myself to add any more stress to my body today. It felt good to get out of the gheyrage, and shower up.

Week 5, Prehab 2

2012-01-27T15:28:00.000-08:00

Feeling amazingly good after yesterday's training; figured I'd be a lot more tired / sore. The only things really bugging me are shoulders, the usual RC aches, and a little upper back & traps. So, I geared today's session towards that:

Band Pull Aparts
Band Dislocates
Light Chest Supported Rows
Internal and External Band RC Extensions
Band Forearm and Bicep stretching
Doorway stretches
Lat Stretches

Done. Kept everything high (40-50) reps, just trying to get loosened up and encourage blood flow. Don't know if we'll hike tonight; we're back to rain, and inches of mud. Really pretty disgusting around here this winter.

Week 5, Day 2: Learning

2012-01-26T15:47:00.000-08:00

Lots of lessons today. First was out of the gym: lots of leg cramps this morning, just walking around the office and computer room. Left leg especially, and plenty of weird twitching going on as I was sitting. Had eaten my normal no-carb breakfast. 30 minutes after I ate a big lunch, including plenty of carbs, the cramping ceased. Not sure what to make of this. I'm well-hydrated. Doubt that it's an electrolyte imbalance - especially when eating lunch fixes the issue within such a short time.

Finally made it home, stress levels unbelievably high. Got out to the gheyrage, and warmed up by slamming a green Monster and reciting my custom RPE chart in one big, long, tasty belch. Hopped in.

Conv DL: 1x20x135,1x10x135,1x3x225,315,405,515/9-10,475/9-ish
Lady deadlift opened the kimono a bit today, but I'm not quite sure what I saw. 515: first rep was a bit ugly, some leg shake; rep 2 was much better; rep 3 - well, it got grindy, and as I got mid-thigh, I started to twist, the bar got way out in front of me on the left side, my hips were all uneven and confused. Stupid me - I should have dropped the bar, but I locked it out, and held it for a few seconds to restore calm to the universe.

Not sure if this is a strength issue, a proprioception issue, or a combination. Not sure what the best way is to address it. I decided to drop a little over my prescribed fatigue percent, to 475, just to be safe. These reps felt nice and clean.

Then warmed up with some pressing to get the shoulders mobile; tried an Olympic bar, but it felt all weird, so I just went with the axle, wrist be damned.

Axle Press (rack, w/minis): 1x2x75,75,125,145,165/10,155/10
Well, completely screwed the pooch on either RPE estimate (don't think so) or technique (yep), on the initial drive and force transfer off the racked position. In any event, I'm pretty happy with these numbers.

Farmer's Shrugs: 1x10x185,225/10,225/9
Too lazy to change weights after the first set at 225, honestly. The shrugging itself wasn't a 10, but rather, I lost trunk stability around rep 8, and was fighting to maintain a stable position. Second set at 225 I really focused on stability from the get-go, and it went much, much better.

Pretty good session - and a fooler, as I would have sworn it would suck coming into it. I was tired, I was stressed to the point of distraction, and everything was pointing to a terrible time training. Just goes to show you, I guess, that you never know until you try.

Week 5, Prehab 1

2012-01-25T15:53:00.000-08:00

Man, stress is through the roof. Going to have to find a way to control this.

Shoulder focus today, trying to get things recovered a bit from yesterday's pressing emphasis. After hitting some standing ab crunches:

Band PullAparts
Band Dislocates
Flye Stretches
Doorway Stretches
Shoulder Horn
Rotater RC Stretches

Upcoming Seminar: March 24-25

2012-01-24T17:33:00.000-08:00

Practical Strength for Trainers is putting on a seminar at Malvern Prep, near Philadelphia, PA.

I'll be giving talks on autoregulation using RPE's, and training through & around injuries. I'm really excited to be involved with this outstanding group of people.

For more information on the seminar:

http://www.practicalstrengthfortrainers.com/p/seminar-information.html

Hope to see you there.

Week 5, Day 1

2012-01-24T17:20:00.000-08:00

Not much sleep last night, and virtually none of it quality sleep; not sure what the problem was, as I felt exhausted at 8PM, but couldn't get into a deep sleep state. Finally gave up at 10:30, got up, and caught up with some email until 12:30AM, then tried again, was up at 2:30, wide awake, and then when I had to get up at 5:30, felt like death, sunny-side up. Not a great predictor for success in the gheyrage, but, dragged myself out, and got to it, Monster in hand, and capsaicin cream on shoulders.

Warmed up with band dislocates, dynamic stretching for hip flexors and hammies, and then did some various log cleans and pressing.

Log C&P:(each rep from floor):somexlotsx120;1x2x170,190,210/9,200,200/9
Not terrible. Really paid strict attention to my cues and form; felt much better than last week. Introduced a slight twist in breathing, and I think it will pay off. Again, that old adage from motorcycle days pays off: don't worry about fast, worry about smooth, and you'll be fast.

Snatch Grip RDL: 1x10x135,225/9,225/9
These hit the back hard, and I decided to just stay at 225 rather than try to move more weight. I think keeping these in the program for a while might be a good idea.

Arnold Presses: 1x5x20,20,25,35,45,55,70/9-10,65/9-10
Pretty much toast by this time, and the shoulders felt like burning toast.

Finished up with a 2 mile hike. Kept a decent pace, pretty nice evening, upper 20's.

Sunday Rambling

2012-01-22T05:56:00.000-08:00

Slept well last night, thankfully - 8 solid hours. I was quite dehyrdated by yesterday evening, as I drank 3/4 gallon of water with dinner, and only got up to pee 1 time during the night. Happens even in winter. Am leading a group on a 5 mile hike later today.

I look back to 1 year ago: I was unable to be on my feet for more than 1 hour at a time without taking heavy duty pain meds. The pinched nerve was just debilitating. I was unable to walk effectively; I was just swinging the left leg from the hip, and planting it, and hoping for the best. I was in so much pain after hiking or training that I couldn't do anything else.

Here I am today, after being fairly active yesterday - hiking, shovelling snow, training stones hard - and after hitting 500x3 on pulling just a couple days ago, ready to lead a group hike.

All this after driving 2300 miles in 5 days a week ago.

As hard as this past year has been, with all the setbacks, this is good, solid, measureable, progress. Progress that I can feel. Progress in those areas which matter to me.

Don't let go. Keep pushing. Listen to your body. Listen to your heart.

Week 4, Day 3

2012-01-21T14:01:00.000-08:00

Whew - skipped everything yesterday, I was just wiped out, completely. Am getting back into the nightly routine of hitting the percussive massager just before bed, trying to get things to let go, so that's good. Part of the reason I skipped yesterday was knowing what today would bring: overnight, 6" of snow. So, 3 hours of shovelling first thing this morning; then, out for the standard 2-1/2 mile hike with the grrlz, and finally training - by which time I was pretty fatigued, but nothing that 2 Monsters couldn't help overcome, at least temporarily.

Warmed up with some curls, band stretching for forearms and biceps, and bodyweight squats. Then hit the 210lb 21" stone for a set of 6 reps of stone squats.

Stones (48"): 1x3x275,310/9,275/9
Good news: I'm slinging more weight earlier in the year than ever before. Bad news: technique sucks, and I'm slow. Really need to work on my cues - I figured this out on the last rep, when I remembered the cue to lock my scaps back (not that I can move that much, but it's something), and the stone flew over the bar.

Pulldowns: 1x12x135,185,225/9,215/9
Well, not terrible. Have a feeling I'm going to hurt tomorrow.

Curls: 1x10x45,45(barbell);1x10x60,80,100/9,95/9(EZ curl)
Thought I was tearing my right wrist apart using the straight bar; I realize it's only a pinched nerve or something, but the level of pain was too high to block, so switched to the EZ curl bar. Even there, I had to wrap the wrist tightly to block pain.

I see that there's another qualified (at least on paper) ART practitioner about 45 minutes from me. I'm thinking about getting some time with him, see if he can help me out with these nagging shoulder pains and wrist pain. It's starting to get in the way just a bit too much.

Good session. Definitely brought some intensity to the platform today - noticed that on stones. No hip / lumbar / sciatic issues at all, so that area is starting to rebound nicely.

Wish I could say that I was just lounging tomorrow, but I somehow got involved with a 5 mile hike, so at least I'm getting some conditioning work this weekend.

Week 4, Day 2: Mixed Bag

2012-01-19T15:25:00.000-08:00

Intensity / stress is creeping up in the template; so far, so good. Other areas of life are slowly coming under better control - either that or I've quit caring.

Stayed pretty warm all day, wearing tights, jeans, a capilene base shirt, and a heavy sweater while working from home. Figured I'd keep a little sweat going to keep the joints happy. Hit the gheyrage, and did some barbell hip complex stuff, then hit it.

DL: 1x3x135,135,225,315,405,500/9,475/9
Well, as much as I hate to be relearning and starting from scratch on this lift, I will grudgingly admit that I'm fortunate to be doing just this. All sets done with a complete hands-off reset between reps. Top set pointed out the left side weakness a bit, but, the bar came up ok.

Axle Press (from rack, +minis): 1x3x75,75,125;1x3x145/fail;1x3x140/9;1x3x130,130/9
Took a little time to do some band dislocates, and various reps with no bands prior to hopping in, trying to give the shoulders a fighting chance. The bands added about 8lbs of resistance at the top, the gheyrage was a little colder, and the bands stiffer than normal.

Farmers Shrugs: 1x12x135,185/9
No fatigue work; I was just so wiped at this point, and the left sciatic nerve was starting to act up, that I just cut it. If I just didn't have to pick them up off the floor, more sets would have been mine!

All in all, I'm OK with this session. Pulling 500 for a triple was nice. Axle work is doing OK.

Finally getting some snow. Of course, it's going up to 40 degrees or some such shit on Sunday, so it's not like January in Cleveland...wait a minute.

Week 4, Prehab / Accessory 1

2012-01-18T14:26:00.000-08:00

Crappy sleep last night; woke up after 2 hours, stayed up for a while, ended up running on 5 hours sleep today. Stressful day as well. Soon, the stress will be much more controllable.

45 minute nap pre-training.

Reverse Hyper: 2x20x250lb

Standing ab crunches, 1x40
db Flye Stretches - way too tight
Band forearm / bicep stretches
Internal RC stretching
Shoulder horn: 1x30x5lb - right RC was quite painful today, just trying to get some blood flowing.

15 minutes or so.

The plan is to get everybody out on a hike after dark, we have a little snow down finally, should be a nice evening hike. We'll do the standard 2-1/2 miles, and I'll count this as conditioning work.

Week 4, Day 1 and a recap

2012-01-17T14:12:00.000-08:00

Not in the greatest place for training today, but still looked forward to it and was eager to hop in. More on that later...warmed up with dynamic stretching (lunges, walking hammie stretches), some band dislocates, and some general moving stuff around in the gheyrage. Did some log presses, and cleans, getting more specific warm ups going. These really didn't feel all that great, but, hopped in.

Log Clean & Press (each rep from floor): 1x3x120,170,170,190,190/9,180/9
I know, weird progression: my technique sucked. I was all over the place, lacking stability, timing of the drive was off. This was ugly. 170 was so ugly I did another set at that weight. 190 was so ugly, and getting close to a 9RPE, that I figured just stay there. 180 was better, and might have been just shy of a 9, but was good enough for today.

Zercher Pulls: 1x10x135,singles,1x10x225; bunch of singles after that.
Well, a little better: did 225 without a belt and without the Rehband belly band, and that helped withthe weird pain in the lumbar region. Felt that pain a bit at 135, so I played around with singles trying to find the best way to minimize that pain. Still felt it enough by rep 10 with 225 that I stopped there. Ditto with the singles after the top set. I need to go back to old videos and get an idea of my foot placement. Today, it seemed like the wider I placed my feet, the more pain I encountered in the back, but I was better able to utilize my hips. Anyhow, some improvement over past weeks.

Arnold Presses: 1xlotsx15;1x6x40,45,50/9,45/9
Meh. Shoulders were achy, just happy to get these done.

So, not a great session, but not terrible, and about what I expected, honestly. Spending much of last week in the truck driving didn't do me any favors in terms of readiness; however, it was deload week, and I got to spend time with people important to me, so well worth it.

On Wednesday of last week, I drove to Chicago for a business meeting, and then hung out with Matt & Julia Ladewski for a bit. Matt critiqued my deadlift form, comparing my sumo form to "humping a football" - ouch - and offering up numerous suggestions on how to change my conventional form to get better pulling levers. My thinking is that this is the time to do it, since I'm essentially learning the deadlift from scratch after not pulling from the floor for so long. I'm going to start to incorporate Matt's advice this week. Thanks for helping me, Matt - I'm grateful.

That was the sole training I did, but it was enough; didn't keep track, but did quite a few singles at 315 and 405, and one at 497. Next day, I drove from Chicago to Fargo, ND, and then Friday was back to Cokato, MN, and then Saturday back to Chicago, and finally back home on Sunday. The drive from Chicago to Fargo was 12 hours of road time, and there was a pretty heavy snowstorm in Wisconsin. I was driving in tough conditions basically through that whole state - saw many cars off the road, and was thankful for the 4 wheel drive Tundra.

Oh, and if anybody would've told me that I'd be training with the doors up, in shorts and a tank, on Jan 17, I'd have said you're nuts. But that's what I did today.

Week 3, Day 3: Accumulation

2012-01-08T12:12:00.000-08:00

Decided to train today, with no rest day in between sessions. Figured it's a good way to push myself a bit, and fits in better with my upcoming schedule. Warmed up with walking lunges & hammie stretches, some shrugs, some hammer curls, some band stretches for forearm and biceps. Hips were, for whatever reason, remarkably mobile - did some bodyweight squats, and was moving fluidly for a fat cripple. Hopped into work.

Stone Squats: 1x5x210,275,310/9,275,275/9
Good news: progress. Bad news: pretty strong sciatic pain on the last set, a little bit on the first fatigue set. Good news: no pain up until then. Despite the fact that I really worked hard on bracing abs, and maintaining strict form, I wonder if something is getting fatigued, and allowing the nerve to get rubbed. The pain was most notable during the top 1/4 of the motion - right where thoracic extension comes into play, of which I have next to none.

Barbell Shrugs: 1x12x135,225,315,405,455/9,425/9
455 was pretty draining; had to take a 10-15 breather at rep 10. Was just getting gassed.

Hammer Curls: 1x10x60,65/9,60/9
Forearms and grip were pretty toasty by this time.

Well, not a bad session at all - brought some intensity to the platform today, and feel like I worked fairly hard.

Week 3, Day 2

2012-01-07T11:34:00.000-08:00

Not a complete bust, but, not great. Woke up at 5AM, with pretty bad pain down the left side, and problems walking. Went back to bad, sleeping on the right side, for a couple hours, and that seemed to let things settle down. Got rolling, and did a 2-1/2 mile hike with the family. Lounged for a bit, then hit it: warmed up with walking lunges, walking hammie stretches, shoulder dislocates, and then did 2 rounds of the hip mobility complex with the bar.

DL: 1x5x225,315,405/8
405 did not feel great; it came up OK, but the left leg side was lagging quite a bit, and there was some sciatic pain. I tried 455 and 425, but I couldn't even get into the start position without having so much pain that it just inhibited pulling.

Seated Rack Press (chin height): 1x20xbar;1x3x95,135,185,200/10(PR),185/2-1/2/fail
Sure is nice to get a PR. 185 felt light enough on the run up that I decided to just go for 200, sort of a big psychological number for me, and I did it, but overshot RPE.

Farmers Picks: 1x3x225, 275/9
Again, enough sciatic pain on the left side that 275 was more about tolerance than strength. Dropped down to 265, but it just hurt too much getting into position that I couldn't block the pain mentally and pull through it.

Called it a day. Not bad, though - while I didn't make the progress I wanted on DL, pressing went well, and Farmers Picks are coming back.

Hope this nerve issue clears up soon.

Week 3: Prehab, Etc

2012-01-05T15:25:00.000-08:00

Did some core work, increasing tension on the band crunches, which were supersetted with side bends.

Then did some shoulder health stuff: band dislocates, doorway stretches, - oh my - Rotater Stretches, and then hit the shoulder horn, which proved my RC complex is indeed, sore.

Stretched out a bit: band stretches for forearms, then focused on lower body. Calves remain problematic, but: good news is that some of the weird issues I typically have with them (like waking up in the morning and being so locked up it hurts to walk) are subsiding with the Lyrica, so maybe I can actually improve flexibility a bit.

Maybe 20 minutes. Boom. Done, enough for today.

Week 3, Day 1...Learned something

2012-01-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

Starting to feel recovered, but still fatigued, from the food poisoning. Decided to push through and train today, and see what happened. Warmed up with some band dislocates, bodyweight squatting, light pressing, and then dug in.

Axle Press (bands): 1x4x75,75,125,135/10,130/10
Not terrible. I'm starting to feel like I'm getting a bit better with drive.

Zerchers: 1x10x135,225/10;1x1x185,135,135
Weird progression, huh? The backstory: 225 was easy weight, but hurt. A lot. In my low back/SI region. I mean really hurt. Gutted it out, but wow - and didn't make sense. Dropped to 185; same pain. Dropped to 135 - yeah, same pain. This made no sense. My setup was the same, feet positioned the same, same...wait a minute. I moved my belt up a couple inches prior to the first set at 225. Moved it back down, and immediately, much better. But after having that much pain, I decided to just consider this a lesson learned for next time.

3.0.3.0 tempo seated military: 1x6x45,45,95,135/9,130/9
Man, these still kick my butt.

Quick session, not the best, but I learned something, so not all bad.

Update: got out for a 2 mile hike. Sometimes slow - trails were icy, but good for my ankle proprioceptive development - and sometimes fast, when we found a stretch of close to 3/4 mile where the trail was relatively ice-free.

Week 2, Day 3

2012-01-02T15:17:00.000-08:00

Didn't eat yesterday, basically - a few crackers with PB, and then some rice and a couple ounces of chicken for dinner. Decided to catch some downtime today, since it was snowing. Got the dogs out for a nice 2.5 mile hike, kept up a brisk pace. That's the first time since Mishka was very young that I took all 4 by myself; they're good, though, and we quickly fell into a rhythm. No issues while walking.

Ate some crackers and PB for lunch. Decided to train, and finish out last week. I'll then train on Wed, Fri, and Sun - or Thu, Sat, and Tue as an alternate. At least this way I'm not missing any primary sessions.

Warmed up with some ab work, hammer curls, band stretches for forearms and biceps, bodyweight hip mobility stuff. Hopped in.

Stone Squats: 1x8x190,190,255,275/9;1x255x4/fail
Started to cramp up pretty badly in the low back and hammies. Body is still out of whack. All things considered, this was a decent performance - making a little headway under these circumstances counts for a lot.

Barbell Shrugs: 1x10x135,225,315,405/10,365/9
Overshot RPE on this, not surprised, and not concerned. Dropped 10% and hit a solid set to finish.

Hammer Curls: 1x12x55,60/9,55/9

Not terrible, all things considered. GI tract still not healthy; loperamide is keeping things in place for now. Pretty sure I picked up salmonella. Not going to speculate where, that's pointless.

I'm a few days into the Lyrica. So far, liking it a lot - my whole body still seems to have less pain. No weird sides so far, no dopey feeling at all.

Week 2: Wrap Up

2012-01-01T15:01:00.000-08:00

That stomach bug is still lingering, and in a nasty way. Not only was I unable to train today, but I'm also afraid to eat. I ate a heatlhy lunch and dinner yesterday, didn't partake of anything too terrible (2 glasses of wine with dinner), was in bed at 11PM, and up at 3AM doing a 60 minute timed set. In those 60 minutes, I was unable to leave the bathroom; every time I stood up, flushed, washed my hands, put my hand on the doorknob - boom, there was a gurgling sound, and I just turned around to find the toilet.

The stench in the bathroom became unbearable by about 3:15AM, so I opened the windows. My wife has this stuff called "Just A Drop" which is an enzyme solution designed to make your shit not stink; supposedly, you put a drop in the bowl before you drop in the bowl, and the odor is eliminated. I decided to try it, but thought I'd start with 10 drops to be sure. As I released a powerful blast into the toilet, I'm pretty sure I heard a little scream of defeat. I can say for sure that it did nothing to eliminate the odor; my body carries some powerful magik within my bowels.

Finally let up at 4AM, and I was able to get 3 more hours of sleep before it hit again. Has hit about 1/hour at the minimum all day today.

I managed to eat some crackers and peanut butter at lunch. I'm honestly afraid to eat dinner. Trying to keep fluid intake up, drinking lots of Gatorade to get some calories.

Stone squats would have been a really, really bad idea today. Pretty sure I would've had to replace the lifting platform.

Week 2, Day 2

2011-12-30T16:54:00.000-08:00

Stomach bug hit me late Tuesday night/Wed AM (12:30A). The bad news: from 12:30A to 2PM the following afternoon, I hit the shitter 17 times, despite taking 12 Imodium by 3AM. The good news: I have indoor plumbing; I didn't miss even one time, and there was minimal splashback. Felt terrible all day, skipped any training. Thursday was better, but felt so depleted that I skipped training, and just made it out for a nice 2 mile hike. Still have some GI upset today (Friday), but decided to rub some Mangisil on my achy parts and get to it.

Warmed up with some hip mobility complex, then dug in.

DL: 1x8x225, 315,405/9,385/9
Starting to click. Drop set was absolutely brutal, but worthwhile: left side showed up as definitely weaker, to the point where I even thought I had misloaded the bar. The good news is that I didn't notice that on the top work set, so, it's probably a function of work capacity / strength in the left leg / hip / lumbar region.

Seated Rack Press (Chin Height): 1x20xbar,1x10xbar;1x3x95,135,185/9,175/9
These felt good. No - I mean none - shoulder aches.

Famer Picks: 1x4x225
Just too gassed to do more.

Moving forward on the DL at a good pace.

Visited my neurologist on Thursday. New drug on board (Lyrica), to help ease the nerve pain. Theoretically, I won't feel any effects for a week, but something has changed - I dug in pretty hard pulling, no spasms, no pain - I definitely felt like I didn't have to hold back. While I hate to get my hopes up, I'm really hoping that I'm moving in a good direction now.

Week 2, Day 1: Accumulation

2011-12-27T17:10:00.000-08:00

More stress. Have to practice putting it behind me. Long day at a client site, home, napped for 20 minutes, then out to the gheyrage. Warmed up with some light SLDL's, band dislocates, and light pressing. Not quite recovered from Sunday, but close enough - main problem area seemed to be the back; especially noticeable on the upper back, and showed up on pressing. Took things slow.

Axle Press (bands): 1x5x75,75, 95,125,135,145/10,140/10
A bit of improvement from last week, and I'm happy enough with this performance.

Snatch Grip SLDL: 1x8x135,185;1x3x225/10...
Well, these did not go well at all. Either I'm going to have to keep the weights really low on this for a while, or try subbing in something else, maybe RDL? Anyhow; back started feeling squirrelly on 185, but nothing terrible. 225 was a different story: weight moved easily enough, but I got partway up on the 3 rep, and a lot of pain from the mid-lower back. Dropped the bar; didn't seem to be any last damage. Tried 225 again, 1 or 2 reps, same thing. Same story dropping back to 185. Don't know if the extra ROM is killing me, but...this was not "good" pain.

3-0-3-0 Tempo Seated Military: 1x5x45,45,95,135,155/10,150/10
Happy enough here as well - much smoother than last week, and it's funny how I have to resist the urge to explode the concentric.

Anyhow. Not sure what to make of the SLDL stuff, but pressing seems to be remaining on track for now.

Week 1, Day 3

2011-12-25T17:11:00.000-08:00

Opted for an extra day's rest before this session, and glad I did; yesterday I was just wiped out, and that left muscle group was pretty grabby. I did make it out for a decent hike on Saturday evening, covering about 4 miles.

Today I felt pretty good. Warmed up with some band dislocates, some light shrugs, some bodyweight squats and hip mobility stuff, then hopped in.

Stone Squats: 1x6x190,210,255,275/9,255,255/9
Aside from almost a slow-motion backwards tipover with 275 off the ground, and the fact that 275 feels like it's busting my ass in so many different ways by rep 4, fairly normal stuff.

Barbell Shrugs: 1x12x135,135,225,315,405/9,405/9

Hammer curls: 1x10x55,60,65/9,60/9

I guess all I can say is that this seemed like a lot more work when I was doing it.

Week 1, Day 2

2011-12-22T16:01:00.000-08:00

Stress filled day. Need to remember who I am, work the plan, and things will be things.

Bittersweet workout. Warmed up with band dislocates, and a few supersets of the hip mobility barbell complex. All felt OK - that one muscle group on the left side is a little grabby, but...not a big deal.

DL (dead stop, hands off): 1x10x135,225,315/9,315/9
Sweet in that I completed these with relatively little discomfort; bitter in that I can't help but remember how much I've lost, and how this weight should be soooo easy. On the plus side: rep 10 came up just as fast as rep 1, but I was breathing way harder.

Rack press (from chin, seated, dead stop): 1x4x45,45,95,115,135,155,175,185/9,175/9
Good work here; hitting 185 is a good sign.

Farmer Picks: 1x5x185,225/?
Left side started to really spasm up after 225. Actually was going to move to 275 - strength was fine - but the spasms hit hard enough on adding plates that I decided to pussy out.

This is definitely a tough period - trying to come back to what I once, 18 months ago, considered a light, warmup workout on pulls and picks. Hopefully I can keep my mind in a good place, continue to acknowledge that I have a long ways to go, and continue to see progress come my way. That's going to be key over the next 12 weeks.

Week 1, Accessory / Etc

2011-12-21T15:42:00.000-08:00

Crazy day, crazy times, crazy man.

Banged out some core work (standing ab crunches supersetted with weighted side bends), band dislocates, internat/external band rotation, and then stretched out.

Then out for the usual 2 mile hike. Mobility is pretty good.

Only thing to note: left side is definitely lagging. Doing weighted sides, there's a noticeable difference, and this exercise hits the exact muscle group that gets all twitchy, painful, and spasmodic during pulls these days. But: that's a nice sign, because if I'm hitting the group directly with side bends, I tend to think that I have a pretty minor soft tissue tweak /weakness coming into play.

Week 1, Day 1: Welcome to VaJayJay land

2011-12-20T14:01:00.000-08:00

Decided it was time to get out of "rehab" mode, and start pushing things more. The big goal over the first three block is to pace myself, and hang in there until deload week. That's one step towards being a pussy.

Warmed up with some ab work, band dislocates, some axle pressing, and then dug in.

Axle Press (+minis): 1x6x75,75,95,125/10,120/10
Not quite in VaJayJay land, but nothing redeeming. The bands added at least 7.2lbs of resistance at the top.

Zercher Pulls: 1x12x45,95,135;1x1x225;1x12x185/9
One exercise, and made the final crossing into VJJ ville. 135 felt really, really good - not just light, but good. So, decided to see what 225 felt like; it felt OK in terms of weight, but something in my hips didn't like it, so I dropped to 185; another step out of warrior territory. 185 started OK, but by rep 7 didn't feel so great; finished the set no problem, but decided to not do any drop sets, and I could hear my Internet Tough Guy Club membership revocation email hitting my 'dRoid, dude.

3.0.3.0 Tempo Military: 1x7x45,95,115/10,110/10
These are ridiculously difficult. How am I supposed to count off three seconds on the concentric, three seconds on the eccentric, AND keep track of my reps? My head was spinning, and I was thoroughly humiliated.

Sure enough, I looked at my phone, and there was an email waiting for me from Jimmy Windy and Craven Taters, telling me that I had strayed way too far south of vag, and that I was no longer a certified Internet Tough Guy, and that I could no longer subscribe to the EliteWTF RSS MyFace Page.

Crushed, to be sure, I am.

Week 34, Deload Day 2

2011-12-17T17:37:00.000-08:00

Decided to take the show on the road, and headed over to just blow off some steam with friends.

Highlights:

Pulled 500x1, conventional, belt only. Felt pretty good - good enough that I was really, really tempted to go for more, but decided to stop there.

Axle press: 185x6, 200x3.

Front Squat: 225x2 or 3.

Felt pretty happy about all this; no big weights yet, but a 500 pull is a huge mental marker for me. Back felt ok afterward, a little tightness in that same spot on the left side, but nothing terrible at all.

Week 34: Deload

2011-12-14T14:58:00.000-08:00

I never realize how much I need the deload until I'm a couple days into it.

Played with stone squats today.

210: 1x7
275: 1x4, 1x3

Discovered - you'd think by this age I would've learned - that assumption is a harsh mistress. I assumed that the new adjustable stone would accomodate all my standard chains to add weight. Had visions of just stuffing a 5/8" chain in, then another, then a 3/4", then another...only to discover that the hole is too small. So, I'm onto plan B.

Also discovered that I've definitely lost some "oomph" on heaving the stones around.

Week 33, Day 3

2011-12-10T09:08:00.000-08:00

First off: slacked off on yesterday's accessory training. My excuses: well, got out for a nice, brisk 2 mile hike after training on Thursday evening, so there was my conditioning. Didn't sleep well at all Thursday evening, and Friday was an incredibly stressful and draining day with work that just left me completely drained. Got home, played with the dogs, and that's all I had the energy to do. Hit some percussive massage at bedtime, got a good night's sleep.

Up nice and early this morning; not too early - maybe an hour before dawn. The full moon looked great hanging over the ravine. Dogs were ready to go. Got everybody fed, and then out for the 2 mile hike, kept a good pace. Made it home, did some ab work, stretching, band dislocates, pressing with the empty Gordo, and then got down to it.

Axle Press (+20c**): 1x2x75,125,145,175/9,165/9
**Well, 20lbs of chain - not so much. Couldn't figure out why my numbers have been relatively low on this exerice, especially today - everything felt good, my form felt as good as it gets, and still, 175 really cranked on me, especially at the lockout. So, had Sharon take pics of the chains at lockout, and well, I'm leaving about 5 links on the ground on each side - so really, this is one of those cases where 20 is closer to 40, which fits the picture better.

Famers Shrugs: 1x12/185/9ish,185
Tough time gauging RPE on this one. Everything felt good, including the pick.

Flyes: 1x20x25,1x15x25,1x10x25,1x8x30,40,50/9,45
Decided to go sans bands, so that I could use a little more static weight, and ease into a better stretch at the bottom. Probably a wise choice - that's definitely my glaring weakness right now, and oh, it hurt.

Decent session - happy with the axle work, my technique and form are improving here and there, and I think I'm getting better drive all through the force curve. Hopefully the numbers will start following.

Thought about adding in some stone squats, but honestly, I was pretty spent after this, so: next week is a deload week, and I think one day I'm going to play around with stones. I want to get an idea of what I can do with the adjustable weight stone in preparation for starting a new training cycle. I might also pull on gear and see how it feels on conventional pulls - again, just to start to get ready for the cycle.

Week 33, Day 2 + Accessory Day 1

2011-12-08T14:44:00.000-08:00

Not much to report on accessory day; got in a nice ~3 mile hike, varied pace, and everything felt just fine - low back a little tight, but nothing I'd call pain. Got home, stretched out, and then hit the percussive massager. Which reminds me: I'm shifting the daily percussive massage routine to bedtime - I have a theory, and, when I was training my hardest and moving the most weight, that's what I was doing. We'll see how this change goes.

Today: really stressed out. Just need to adapt to the stressors, and remember who I am. Finally got ready to train; hit the percussive massage on shoulders, upper back, hips to loosen up, pulled on Rehband shorts, and did some reverse hypers. Then moved out to the GheyRage, and hit some band dislocates, and pressing with just the Gordo bar.

Axle Press (1 clean): 1x2x125,165,185/9(?),175
Probably wasn't quite a 9 on the top set, but: my form and technique felt so spot-on, that I decided to stop there, even if I was 10lbs shy of a 9RPE. Huge improvement in form, speed, everything over last week. Right now, I think it's important to get positive experiences built up.

DL: 1x2x135,225,315,405/8,405
Again, just a belt, and as above, much better than last week. Pulls came up much faster, and there was significantly less lumbar bitching. Debated about sneaking on another 10-20lbs, but decided to just do my drop set at the same weight; second set was even better than the first. Another positive.

Farmers Holds (225/hand): 1x45sec,1x40sec
Wasn't too sure about these, as I did have tightness in the lumbar region, but amazingly, once I committted to the pick and did it, any pain just vanished, and I felt great standing and holding, able to focus on technique a bit.

Still moving pussy weight, but I'm moving it better. For now, that will suffice.

Week 33, Day 1

2011-12-07T04:31:00.000-08:00

Easy day, very low stress training session - not a bad thing, I'm still not fully recovered from Sunday's training. Traps are still wicked sore and tight; a little bit of low back tightness lingers. It's been pouring rain here, so no outside walking.

Warmed up with some rolling thunder, band dislocates, and light db benching with fat gripz in place.

Arnold Press: 1x15x20;1x6x25,30,35,55,60,65/9,65/9.5

Crucifix Hold: 20lb, 10 sec; 27.5lb: 30sec,25sec

That was that.

Week 32, Day 3 and some catch up

2011-12-04T10:09:00.000-08:00

Thought for the day: if the only time you've competed is over a year ago as a novice, you're not a strongman competitor.

Thursday's session - the first conventional deadlift session in well over a year - left me a bit sore and twitchy in the lumbar region. Friday - an accessory day - was pretty much given over to just percussive massage, stretching, and getting out for a nice 2 mile walk that evening.

Woke up Saturday feeling much better, but the lumbar region was touchy enough that I decided to get an extra day of recovery; did a short walk, and spent the afternoon on my feet doing a "Santa's Snowdogs" event with one of my grrlz, Shina - who was just a rock star. She met kids ranging in age from < 1yr up to 70+ years old, and treated them all gently & affectionately. I'm guessing well over 100 people petted her.

So, anyhow, slept well Saturday night, up decently early Sunday, and out for a 3 mile hike. Then a little lounging around, and finally time for the gheyrage. Warmed up with some Rolling Thunder, FatGripz db benching, some axle pressing with Gordo, that sort of thing. Upper back has calmed down, which means the shoulder impingement no longer is - hips are decent. Did wear the Rehband back support the entire time, trying to keep that lumbar region warm.

Axle Press (20c): 1x4x75,75,125(belt),165/9-ish,155,155
Well, the numbers might not be great, but I feel like I got in some excellent work here, and brought some intensity to the platform.

Farmer's Shrugs: 1x7x225/hand,225,255
All at an RPE of 9-ish. Picks felt pretty good; I was a little hesitant, but once I committed, no problem.

db Bench: 1x6x55,75,100/9,95,95
FatGripz for the first set. Upper back was definitely in a better state than a week ago; I was able to lay down on the bench, get my scaps somewhat retracted and pulled down, and get into a decent position (about as good as I can ever manage) for the work. Forearms were mega-pumped after this - the combination of the shrugs followed up with db work just did it.

Well - think I confirmed this week that too much upper back work in the form of rows & pulldowns is not just what the doctor ordered. This has been a decent week; it was nice to pull again, and I think my hips are back in working order. Still thinking that the hip issue has been tied to running to much of a carb (or caloric) deficit for too long. That's the big change I've made, and feel much better.

Week 32 Day 2

2011-12-01T15:20:00.000-08:00

Well, a little bit better, maybe. I'll know for sure tomorrow.

Warmed up with some band dislocates, some bodyweight stuff, just moving around, then broke out the axle. Did quite a few hang cleans and presses with it before getting any weight on the bar.

Axle Press (1 clean): 1x3x125,165,185/9+,175,175
Well, not terrible. Decided to put my hips through a little more work this week, and do a clean from the floor. That was interesting; had no problems with the pull and getting it on my belly double overhand, but the "clean" was hard, and a limiting factor.

DL: 1x3x225,315,405/8,365
Been a long time since I pulled "from the floor"; like over a year. I'm trying hard not to think about the fact that in May 2010, I was able to pull 420 for 15 reps in 60 seconds - oops, so much for not thinking about that. This was definitely work for me, something around the SI joint wasn't really happy with that - by the time I setup for a second drop set, things didn't feel settled at all, so I cut it short.

Farmers Holds (225): 1x50-some seconds.
Well, the pick was painful, and for once, my grip didn't fail - but the SI/lumbar region just started doing this weird sort of spasm while I was standing there, with enough attendant pain that I decided to let go.

Seems like the low back / SI / hips are still the limiting factor. Hopefully, I didn't push things too far today, and I'll be able to hop back in just fine on Saturday.

Week 32, Accessory 1

2011-11-30T14:57:00.001-08:00

Well...really didn't do much. Shoulder was pretty sore / tight again (pulldowns, probably), so I didn't want to put more load on the upper back. Spent some time hitting the shoulder, pec, subscap, etc with the percussive massager. Then did some ab work, and some oblique work, then really light shoulder rehab stuff, just to get some blood flowing, and then easy RC stretches.

Hope to get out for a longer walk tonight. Hips are a little tight, but, maybe doable.

Speaking of the hips. This is just crazy, but I'm thinking something is tied to diet. I didn't do anything different last week (except for one thing), and suddenly on Friday the hips were pain free. They were good on Saturday as well.

So - what was different? Well, Thursday I ate a lot, and a lot of carbs. Friday I ate quite a bit as well, and then got back "on track" Saturday, and Sunday ate like I've been doing for some time: whey for breakfast, no lunch, then a moderate dinner.

Guess what? The hips hurt on Sunday. Nothing terrible, but it was there.

I kept the diet in check Monday and Tuesday pretty well; today, the hips are achy.

I wonder if I just need more carbs for some reason? Weird.

Week 32, Day 1

2011-11-29T15:37:00.000-08:00

Not a great day - a little better than Sunday in a couple respects. First, not as much pain - enough that it got in the way, but better. Second: I'm pretty sure that what sets this shoulder off is something to do with rowing. That's what I changed last week, getting pretty aggressive - to be sure, the rows felt great as I was doing them. Sunday night was tough, the shoulder woke me up 10 times or so.

Yesterday evening, we worked on my back with the percussive massager, and that helped immensely. Slept through the night, much better ROM, much less pain.

Anyhow. Warmed up with a lot of light pulldowns, and these really hurt for the first 20-30 reps; tossed in some band dislocates, which felt fine.

Arnold Press: 1x10x20lb,25;1x5x30,35,40,55/9;50,50
Meh. There's one point in the ROM that hurts.

Pulldowns: 1x6x135,185,210/9,210,210
See above.

Crucifix Hold
Couldn't even beging to get a weight into position with the left arm; just too much pain inhibiting that motion. Tried 20lbs, which should be trivial, and when that was a no-go, I just bagged the session.

Week 31 Day 3

2011-11-27T14:44:00.000-08:00

Well, the week is over. That's the best I can say about this session.

Axle Press +20c

Farmer Shrug

Flyes

Not even going to list numbers; what should have been warm up weights were immovable objects. Body hurts: think it's stemming from the t-spine region, as when I made it to flyes, I had significant difficulty in even laying down on the bench, accompanied by plenty of pain, stiffness, and lack of scapular mobility.

Hopefully, this is a quick one-day issue, and I'll be back on track for Tuesday's session.

Week 31: Accessory 2

2011-11-26T15:07:00.000-08:00

Up early, out with the grrlz at first light; the male was over at a dog show, so it was like old times. Hustled along at a good pace for about 2-1/2 miles, which brings up an interesting point: sometime yesteryday, after doing a relatively strenuous hike, my hips completely stopped hurting. Makes absolutely no sense; especially in light of the fact that I was woken up with hamstring cramps last night, so it's not like I was left loose and flexible. Anyhow, the hips felt fine today as well - leaving me relatively clueless about the whole thing. After today's walk, I caught up with Sharon, Mishka, Leesa, and Asik down at the show ring, took some photos, got to talk dogs a bit.

Rehab / accessory was pretty much a repeat of Tuesday, caught up with at the end of the day.

Standing Ab Crunches
Ab Wheel
Light flyes to stretch out pecs / subscap
Internal & External Band Rotation
Seated Rows (+2 black bands): 2x10x180 (oof)
Attempted upper back good mornings, just trying to move that t-spine a bit
RC stretches

I'm really tempted to hop in and go balls out with hip dominant work - there's just no trace of pain. However, I think I'm going to hold back quite a bit, and still ease into things.

Still need to get the last training day of the week slotted; looks like I might have to train early in the morning, which is not ideal, but I'll get the session done.

Week 31, Day 2

2011-11-25T13:01:00.000-08:00

Postponed training a day due to holiday, and prepping / cooking the big meal.

Made it out early this morning for a nice 2-3 mile hike, over challenging terrain - the StairWay to Heaven section of the trail. Uphill, I'm good - I can crank along just fine. Downhill - iffy. Still lacking control of the left ankle / foot, and something down there, just above the ankle joint, starts to ache pretty quickly when I'm going down anything steep.

Incline Press (TFS): Somexlotsxbar; 1x5x135,185,200/9,190
Different warm up strategy today; lots of time, maybe 50-70 reps total, with the bar, then skipped up to 135. 200 felt pretty good, a little out of the groove, but I really couldn't tell until the drop set, which just felt like poetry in motion.

DB Rows: 1x10x55;1x6x130,150/9,140

Crucifix Hold (30lbs) 47sec;42sec

Rolling Thunder: 2x10x100/hand;singles at 125; 1x10x100/hand

Week 31, Prehab

2011-11-23T14:53:00.000-08:00

Hips ached last night, but not bad enough that I required anything more than sleep's opiates; this morning I down 800mg ibuprofen, but only one dose, and that about 12-1/2hrs ago. A little discomfort now, but, nothing single malt can't ease.

Warmed up with some wood splits and carries, then hit

Standing Ab Crunches, 1x 25
Ab Wheel, 3x10 - ooohhh, these felt good
Upper Back Good Mornings - empty SSB, ROM is very limited due to t-spine issues, but...felt them
Seated 3ct Rows (Orange Band): 2x10x135, nice tension at the finish of this
External Shoulder Rotation + Stretches

I'm hopeful that I can start to get back into full bore training mode, and out of rehab mode over the next few weeks. Tired of feeling weak.

Week 31, Day 1

2011-11-22T15:57:00.000-08:00

So it trudges onward, the fire within burning dimly, but still burning.

Warmed up with some hip mobility stuff, some shoulder mobility stuff, and then hopped in with 18" DLs. Just playing around at this point. Highlights included pulling 315 for 7 reps, and a single at 455; none of this particularly strenuous, and perhaps, in equal proportion, unsatisfying: but I don't know what else to do to find my way at this point. Hips ached a little by the time I pulled the single, so I stopped there.

Axle Press (from rack): lots of warmups with 75, and 125; 1x1x165,205,220/10(PR)
Hips / SI were complaining a bit, so I took the PR and skipped further work.

Farmers Hold (225): 1x45sec, 45sec
Took these until grip failed, which was the left hand, starting with the little finger slipping both times.

That was that.

Weird. I'm not feeling great about that PR at all. Mind is definitely in a weird place. I'll get a video uploaded and linked later.

Week 30: Deload

2011-11-20T14:26:00.000-08:00

Didn't train this week until Saturday; had enough hip / low back / sciatic issues that I just didn't want to aggravate it, and my shoulders really liked the break. Achiness has completely subsided, which is great!

Have largely kept up walking on a regular basis, and have worked in some reverse hypers here and there, along with soft-tissue work, and some stretching.

Trained briefly this morning; couldn't hold back any longer. Warmed up with a short walk, some dynamic stretching, and then (of all things) jogging back and forth from the truck to the garage, unloading the $500 worth of dog food I bought yesterday, lol.

Stone Squats: 1x10x190,190/7,210,210/7

Kept the RPE low and got some volume. Funny thing...the 210 is a new stone, 20". The 190 is 18". I swear the 210 feels much, much lighter coming off the ground than the 190. I had that feeling on both sets. Don't know if (a) the extra diameter just suits my pick style better or (b) I was more careful / lucky in my setup.

Rolling Thunder: singles and doubles at 130lb until I couldn't do them anymore

Log Press (1 clean): 1x10x120;1x8x170/7-8
Felt pretty good.

Week 29, Day 3

2011-11-12T11:51:00.000-08:00

Out for a 2 mile hike first thing this morning, then back to clean the gym and kennels a bit before training. Turned into a nice day; after the first snowfall of the year yesterday, it warmed back up to the mid-50's, sunny, nice breeze. Did a lot of seated overhead presses with just the bar to get the shoulders moving, then dug in.

Seated OH Pin Press (Chin): 1x3x95,115,135,165,175/9(PR),165
Well. Finally able to bring some focus and intensity to the gym; since I took it easy on the shoulder rehab work yesterday, I didn't ache - huge help. Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, I ate a lot of food - and I actually woke up this morning not feeling fatigued.

Lateral Raises: 1x6x25,35,40/9,35

Flyes (+red bands)1x6x25,40/9,35
Set the bands up with a little more tension.

Played around with the Rolling Thunder, trying to find my 1RM for each hand. Sadly: 130(L),125(R).

Week 29, Rehab/Accessory

2011-11-11T14:51:00.000-08:00

Made it out for a 2 mile hike last night - SI region was pretty sore, it was a push, but I was able to keep up a brisk pace. Gorgeous night out, full moon, clear, crisp. I'm basically counting all the hiking and log splitting as my conditioning work, and not going to push harder on that front for now.

Shoulders have been achy, so rehab day was modified: did some abs, skipped shoulder rotation work, did some RC stretching, and then played around with seated rows, with a twist: I got two green bands choked around a leg of the power rack, and then slipped around the weight arm, and then pulled and did a static hold - 3 reps, about 15 seconds each, and I was spent.

Week 29, Day 2

2011-11-10T15:11:00.000-08:00

Warmed up carrying some wood, then band dislocates, some hip mobility drills, and some light incline pressing.

Crucifix Hold (35lbs): 10sec, 10sec
35 is way heavy, I'll give it that much.

Incline (TFS): 1x5x95,115,135,160,185/9,175

Pulldowns: 1x7x95,150,210,210

Finished up with some wood splitting, and loading up the makeshift sled and dragging the split wood over to the house, made 2 pretty good trips.

SI / Lumbar region is pretty sore and tight today. Not bad enough to take any meds, but definitely sore; I'm thinking this is just because I've not pulled in so long, and it's just muscular. We'll see how it feels tomorrow.

Accessory

2011-11-09T13:29:00.000-08:00

Started off with percussive massage, then

Reverse Hyper
Standing Ab Crunches
Seated Rows
RC stretching with The Rotater
Shoulder horn

Hips were a little tight, and a little tender - not just sore from training - today, but that largely eased up with the percussive massage. Not enough pain to warrant taking even Advil, so - good. SI joint/lumbar region was likewise very tight, but after the reverse hyper, AOK.

So, I think the plan is to re-introduce, gradually, hip dominant work. Probably won't do much more this week; yesterday's pulls are enough, I think.

Week 29, Day 1: Itchy Scratchy

2011-11-08T14:08:00.000-08:00

Well. Not a great day, but probably as good as I could hope for at this point. Warmed up with some standing ab crunches, walking lunges, and walking hammie stretches, then decided to scratch that itch.

18" DL: 1x3x135,135,135,135,225,315,405/7-8sh(straps),405
So, no belt on these. Decided to limit myself (for the most part) by skipping any supportive gear, and also I'm pretty fatigued from running a big caloric deficit for a couple weeks now. I did try to hit 500, but it would have required straining - which I'm not ready to do.

Everything felt pretty good - hip joints and SI joint were just a little bit sore after this, but nothing show-stopping. What was kind of bizarre: I felt sluggish, or something, for all of this, until rep 2 of the last set, and I could feel something "click", and I had one of those zen moments.

Axle Press (rack): 1x4x75,75,75,95,125,165,185/10,165
Ok, not terrible. Wore the belt, a little bit higher (navel). Form at 185 was fugly; really noticed that because my form on the last set was so nice in comparison.

Farmers Hold 275/hand: 1x33sec/10-ish
Well. Pick sucked - hips were definitely fatigued, and did not feel good at all. I lost some focus because of that, didn't get my upper body set quite right until I was 10 seconds into the hold, otherwise, I think I would have had more time in me, maybe another 5-10 seconds.

Decided to take it easy on my hips, and cut the work there.

I think what I want to do is introduce 18" DL back into Tuesday's sessions, but take it easy, keeping stress and intensity in check for a bit. Leave everything else the same for a few weeks, so try to ease back into the hip-dominant work.

Some testing

2011-11-07T14:47:00.000-08:00

Itchy, and have to scratch - can't ignore it any longer. Just can't. Comes a point in a man's life where he can't deny himself any longer. Not healthy, despite what other folks might tell him.

Made a sled out of a 4'x6' 3/4" thick sheet of plywood. Drilled a hole in the center of one end, clipped a carabiner through it, attached the dragging strap, piled a bunch of firewood I cut and split on it, and dragged it out of the woods, over to the house.

Got to the point on cutting up the big old oak tree downed in 2009 (perfectly aged and dry now) where I had to get her up on blocks so I had ground clearance to save the Stihl from my clumsy ass saw handling. Got out the pry bar, the 5' length of 1/2 pipe, and a nice "Y" piece. Levered that bitch on the Y, using good pulling form and putting plenty of ass into it.

Guessing tomorrow will tell me how the hips have healed up. If the news is good, I'm going to gear up and pull for real.

I can't tell how much I'm looking forward to a good outcome from today.

Some itches just got to get scratched.

Week 28, Day 3

2011-11-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

Moving slow today, but, whatever. Warmed up with some yardwork, a short walk, and then hopped into it. Did some specific shoulder warming up, basically just lots and lots of reps of pressing the empty bar; I should note that my shoulders are achy - as they always are the day after rehab work. Didn't take too long to find the groove.

Seated Military Pin Press (Chin Height): 1x4x95,115,135,145,155/9

Lateral Raises: 1x12x25,30,35/9

db Bench: 1x8x55,55,75;1x7x100/fail
Everything about this hurt for some reason; it was largely a question of how well I could block pain from various points as opposed to just strength in the movement. Even with a tight wrist wrap, the right thumb felt like it was being pulled out of the socket midway through each rep. My mid-back hurt just lying on the bench. Just one of those days.

Week 28: Rehab, Accessory

2011-11-04T14:58:00.000-07:00

Warmed up with some old-fashioned log carry-and-split using the big maul. Cooler day out, winter is on the way.

Did some of fix-me-up type stuff: abs, obliques, internal/external rotation for shoulders, and some seated rows - took it easy on this, 2x10x225.

Finished up with a 2 mile walk, brisk pace.

Week 28 Day 2

2011-11-04T05:49:00.000-07:00

Don't know if I'm coming down with a flu or something, but Wednesday I was trashed - coughing, congested, sneezing, and just wiped out. Got home from work and just slept. Felt better Thursday, so got some work in. Warmed up with some ab stuff, then some band dislocates.

Crucifix Hold (33lbs): 1x30sec
Not terrible; not great. Certainly better than last week, though. Started off by picking up a pair of pink db's, and figuring out where most of the pain in the left shoulder was hitting; based on this, did a bunch of light db rows to get the blood flowing, and then hopped in.

Arnold Presses: 1x6x35,40,45,50,55/9
Still getting a feel for this movement.

db Rows: 1x12x100/9

Quick session, followed up by a 2 mile hike, and some yardwork. Managing to keep the diet in check, and pulling off a little more from the waistline.

Week 28, Day 1

2011-11-02T04:55:00.000-07:00

Little bit of a struggle to not be pissed off at all this; I hate not training the way I like to train.

Log Press: 1x3x120,120,120,120,170,190,210/9.5
Slight misjudge of the RPE for the top set, last rep was a little slower than I would have liked ideally.

Farmers Hold (275lb): 1x30sec
Playing around with grip a bit. I'll probably have more to say on this subject in a couple weeks.

Out for the normal 2 mile walk post-training and dinner. Beautiful night, clear, plenty of stars. Makes me want to get someplace with less pollution so that I can really see the Milky Way again.

Week 27, Day 3

2011-10-30T14:06:00.000-07:00

Today was better than yesterday. Made the decision to only do Day 3's programming, and just suck up the fact that Day 2 was forever lost to laziness / life. The day started off cold; heavy, dense, cold fog moved in overnight, and it was in the mid-30's when I got the started at 6AM. The pack is settling down nicely after all the recent upset; we went out for a night hike last night, and once the sun burned off the fog today, for the most part they laid around soaking up some rays. Put Mishka in a weight pulling harness for the first time; he did OK.

Warmed up with some percussive massage for the shoulders, and supporting muscles. I'm still feeling an impingement on the left side, this helped to ease it up. Then did a lot of seated pressing with just the bar, making sure that things felt like they were moving.

Seated Military (+20c): 1x3x95,115,135,145/9,135,135
I'm pretty OK with this; I stuck with it through some grind, and did pretty well. As always, I don't know if I really have 20lbs of chain, but I'm consistent with where I load the chains; given that fact, this is very, very close to a PR.

Lateral Raise: 1x6x20,35,45/9,43,43

Flyes (+red band): 1x6x30,35/9,30,30

Finished off with some rolling thunder, 100lbs, and just doing reps until I hit a "10", then switching hands. Got around 20 reps / hand at my best.

Week 27: Washing Out So Far

2011-10-29T14:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I knew this would be a difficult week for training, as I had some out of time with absolutely no time to train. Got back home last evening. Tried training today; basically warmed up, and just didn't feel the love, so rather than force it, I just called it a day.

Hips are a little sore - I think primarily from a 3 hour car ride yesterday. They did fine while out of town, and I was on my feet nearly all day. The left shoulder, however, hurt enough that it woke me up a few times every night in the hotel; it's pretty darned sore today, so I'm going to spend some time with self-massage, and hopefully get out for a nice nighttime hike, and pick things up tomorrow hoping for better results.

Week 27, Day 1

2011-10-25T18:00:00.000-07:00

Started off with a 2 mile walk to get moving; that went really well - nice, sunny, low 60's - no pain, everytning felt pretty loose. Got back home, decided to dig in.

Axle Press: 3xlotsxbar;1x5x95,125,145,165,185/10,175,175
Nothing terrible; nothing great - not sure if the top set was a true "10". On rep 4, I screwed up technique, got the bar out too far in front of me, and hit a sticking point pretty quickly. Redid that rep, and rep 5, and I was done. So, the screwup definitely cost me.

Farmers Hold (225lbs) 1x40sec,37sec,37sec
My idea for an elevated pick didn't quite work, so I just did a normal pick - and that felt amazingly good, the best it's felt in a long, long time.

And that was it.

Week 26: Day 3 & Some rehab

2011-10-24T04:31:00.000-07:00

Writing this ex post facto; had a busy, but good busy, couple days that fragmented training a bit - which is going to happen again this week. Got some decent walking in, not enough, and nothing out of the ordinary routes, but the big thing I have to note here is that I'm not impaired to the point where I can't get out and walk, and even descending a fairly steep hill isn't causing me much trouble. I do think the left side nerves are coming back, and starting to fire and give me control of the leg.

Picked up an adjustable weight stone from a buddy (thanks Chris!) on Saturday, along with a pair of farmer's handles that will go another buddy who I just introduced to this sport. Which brings to something else I have to note: I trust Chris's take on things - he's a straight shooter if ever there was one - and he pointed out to me that just standing around in a relaxed state I'm holding myself noticeably less rigidly, and I look like I can move. The last time we saw each other was back in March, so, this is worthy of note.

Partly to keep stress down, partly through laziness, and partly to do an experiment, I skipped the prescribed accessory / rehab days this week; the conditioning portion was completed with various walked over the course of the week, no worries there.

Which brings me to

Day 3:

seated military (+20c): 1x10xbar,bar;1x4x95,115,135/9,130

Rolling Thunder: worked up to 1x2x125(l&r);1x1x130(l),1x0x130(r)
My thought here is that yes, the RT requires some hip activation, but given my crappy grip, it's going to be pretty much "everyday household" loads, so, I'll take this opportunity to work it a bit.

Tossed in some standing ab crunches - I'm starting to feeling noticeably stronger here - and finished off with shoulder rotation (internal & external).

Quick session, maybe 30 minutes total. Felt good, though.

I was rewarded with a pretty sore shoulder during the night, woke me up a couple times - so I think there's a couple issues at play. First is an impingement, which flares up here and there due to muscular imbalances, and which I have largely fixed; this is most noticeable during training. No big deal, just need to work through it.

But it seems as though every time I hit a certain amount of volume, and it doesn't have to be heavy work, I have this "deeper" RC pain. I'm a bit more concerned about this.

Have to make some decisions about how to handle training this coming week. Scheduled to be out of town with no access to a gym Wed afternoon through Friday evening. I should get plenty of walking in, which is good.

Week 26: Day 1 & 2

2011-10-20T17:17:00.000-07:00

Kept up pretty well with 2 mile walks, hitting Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Day 1 - Tuesday

Not great; hips felt a little "catchy" all day leading up to training, nothing terrible, so I decided to give it a whirl. On the bright side (and you can tell I'm somewhat struggling to see some light) I think I learned something, maybe important.

18" DL: worked up to 3x400(raw).
Then whatever goes wrong went wrong. Felt OK standing up straight, but as soon as I got into position to lift, the pain was pretty inhibiting: SI region, sciatic nerve, low back (?). Couldn't even begin to push through this inhibition and pick up 455; inhibition is the best way I can describe it.

Arnold Presses: 1x6x25,30,35,40,45/9-ish
I actually like these, a lot - never tried them before, but I think they can play an important role in teaching me rear shoulder / upper back activation on pressing. Unfortunately, there was enough pain in the hips while doing these that I didn't do any drop sets.

That was it - I made a judgment call to not even try anything else.

Short walk afterwards.

Prehab/Rehab: skipped entirely, combo of hip pain and a family crisis.

Day 2 - Thursday
Talked with Big Mike today, and we decided to pull back and drop any hip-dominant work for a period, and see if I can heal up. I'm doing what I can to modify exercises to remove hip involvement, and Mike will take a look at programming for the future. Today wasn't a great day all around for the hips; starting around 6AM, they were troublesome.

Log Press (racked): 1xnx120,120,120;1x3x170,210/9,190
Felt OK, if a bit awkward, working in the rack, but got a good position and eliminated the clean, doing just a teeny squat to get under the log.

Crucifix Hold, 27lbs (90% of comp weight): fail. 20lbs: 1x47, 1x45
Couldn't even get the 27lbs into position - left shoulder hurt way too much in this position. Hopefully I'll be able to work into a better weight.

dB Row: 1x8x85,130,150/9,130

dB bench: 1x8x55,75,85/9
Skipped the drop set - just needed to stop slinging weight.

Finished off with some standing ab crunches.

Week 25, Day 2

2011-10-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

Just when I think I have something figured out...so, hips were starting to bug me yesterday, with some sciatic pain in the left leg, down to the calf. Tuesday was the short log pressing session, and an fast walk on easy terrain of about 2 miles; so, I've been thinking that, even using the hips to that small degree on log cleans was too much. This morning was pretty bad, fairly intense sciatic pain on the left side, and the hips were extremely tight.

One thing I have not been doing is percussive massage or any other self-treatment; I thought maybe I was somehow irritating things. I've eliminated that variable. Did some massage this morning, and got some immediate relief, but it still felt like something was "hung up" in the left hip. Sciatic returned on and off throughout the day.

Got home, did some yardwork, broke a sweat, and then hit band dislocates. Felt OK, so started light work with the axle, just taking my time. Hips were pretty sore by now, and sciatic pain was flaring up. I honestly thought it might be wise to stop.

Axle Press: 1x1x165,185,220/10(PR)
220 was definitely a 10, and about halfway up, I heard something in my body snap; not incredibly loud, but audible. However, no pain, so I stayed with it, completed the rep, felt ok - and then realized that my hips felt quite a bit better, and the sciatic pain was largely gone.

When in doubt, go for the PR.

I wish I had a clue.

Week 25, Day 1

2011-10-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

Deload week - kind of weird, training only upper body for the past bit, and now taking a deload. But hey, when your middle name is "pussy", it all kind of falls into place.

Warm, humid - lots of color change in the trees in the past week, and the rain will start tonight; very cloudy, and almost preternaturally still. Yes, my middle name might be "pussy", but check out the vocabulary on this bitch.

Anyhow, hips were a little sore all day, nothing too bad, so I decided to try and train - at least go through a warmup and see how the mangina ached. Did some dynamic stretching - walking lunges, and walking hammies - which felt amazingly good, although my bitch-dizzy self had balance issues. Band dislocates were fine, and then I hopped onto light log pressing, doing 2 sets of 10-15 reps, then settled down into a progression:

Log Clean & Press: 1x?x120;1x1x170,210,230/9-10
Have a feeling that my technique wasn't quite there on the top set - I think I screwed the pooch on timing of the leg drive and the press. If so, this was about a 9; otherwise, a 10. Either way, happy enough with this; this is pushing up against the PR ceiling on this exercise, all things considered, proper perspective, etc., etc., that's OK.

Did you hear that? Did you? That was the fat lady singing.

Week 24, Day 3

2011-10-09T14:44:00.000-07:00

The dry weather continues; nice break - leaves are changing color rapidly, starting to drop. The saplings are bare; starting to be able to look through the woods and see for some distance again. Little warmed than ideal; but cool enough at night and in the morning so I can get out with the dogs, which I did again last night, knocking out a nice 2 mile hike.

Today's training was brief. Warmed up with some band dislocates and light axle pressing.

Axle press (from rack): 1x8x95,125,165/8
Last set was push pressing. Still, pretty easy, and felt fine.

db Row: 1x10x130

That was it. Really quick, easy session - but that makes the 3rd upper body session this week, along with a fully body session (albeit light). All of which adds up to enough.

Week 24: Catching up

2011-10-07T15:39:00.003-07:00

Well, it's been an interesting week...pretty much good, but working within limits. After training upper on Tuesday, we made it out for a couple mile hike, kept up a decent pace, and the good news is that my hips were fine.

Wednesday was fun: one of the managers at a client site approached me a couple months ago, and asked me if I could introduce him to strongman training. I said sure; since he's based in Philly, we said that the next time he was in my area, with good weather, we'd do it - which turned out to be Wednesday.

Ended up doing Incline Log, Log Clean & Press, Farmers Walk, Tire Flip, and Atlas stones.

I let him pick the weights, did not push him at all in that regard - so, for example, Farmers were 135/hand. That worked out well for me, keeping my hips from doing too much, and we focused on speed, technique, and safety. It turned out well for him, because he's hooked, and is buying farmers handles and a log. I gave him a 250lb stone I had laying around that was intended to be given to somebody just starting out, so...he's going to have a nice little setup at home to supplement his normal gym time.

After that, we made it out for a nice 2 mile hike with the dogs, kept up a good pace.

Thursday, I was actually pretty sore in the triceps and pecs from Tuesday's session, and was pretty tired, so we just hiked. Again, hips are hanging in there quite well for this.

Which brings me up to today. Again, upper body.

Seated Axle: worked up to 1x2x185/10. I don't believe that I've done seated axle without bands prior to this week, so nothing to really compare this against, but for me, this is a good performance.

Flyes + red Band: worked up to 1x6x40lbs/9

Shrugs: worked up to 1x5x495. Kept clocking myself in the junk. Definitely prefer trap bar shrugs. Need to figure out how to get the trap bar up to height so I can use it without doing a full pick. I have a couple ideas...

Seated Chest Support rows: up to 1x10x315/10

Another decent session; hate being restricted to upper body, but...it's great to complete a session, it's great to not have the disabling pain, so I'll take it.

Week 24: Day 1

2011-10-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

Finally, a nice day: sunny, dry, and mid-60's. Still taking it easy on my hips - and I think this is a good move. Hiked a bit on Sunday; there were a few times when I was hurting, but nothing terrible, and overall am not experiencing the levels of pain I was living with - nice. So, upper body for a bit.

Incline Log Press: 1x20x120;1x6x170,210,260/9
This might just be a rep-PR. It was interesting: probably the most grindy set I've ever done, starting at rep 3, but I was able to stay with it where normally I would have been done. While it's tough for me to pick the RPE - this set just felt so different from normal - I'm pretty sure of the 9.

Seated Chest Supported Row: 1x5x135,225,315,405/10
Well, at least for me, some fairly serious weight. Didn't expect the 10 to sneak up on me that way, but, all things considered, OK.

Seated Axle Press: 1x15x75;1x3x125,145,165/9
Again - not too bad at all. These felt good as well, I seem to really be getting a better bar path, and much better upper back activation.

Pulldowns: 1x10x135,185,225,250/10

Wrapped up with some tricep pushdowns, and then some seated incline db curls.

Despite any frustration at keeping hips out of training, basically eliminating big compound lifts, it was absolutely great to make it through a workout with no pain.

Week 23, Day 2: So close, yet so very far away

2011-09-29T14:32:00.000-07:00

One of those days that seriously has me thinking about taking a break from picking up heavy things, and focusing only on hiking; my level of frustration right now is almost indescribably high. I want to break things.

Rewinding 24 hours or so: after working with my chiro, John Livingston, yesterday (who, by the way, is quite good - and can be found here ) and giving my hips a couple hours to calm down, I made it out on a decent hike, covering a couple pretty challenging miles of a local trail. Kept up a good pace except on downhills; I'm still not 100% sure of my left leg, so... . Anyhow, it was great to complete something, and not be in terrible pain. I did have some pain last night, but nothing terrible.

Today: some pain, again, nothing terrible - but I could tell that my hips were not right, and getting tight. So, I started off slow: hit the percussive massager for about 30 minutes to get everything nice and loose. Then did some reverse-hypers, nice and easy, just getting things moving a bit. That all went OK, and then did some light incline log pressing, then some log presses, then some band dislocates, then more log pressing.

Log Clean & Press (1 clean): 1x2x170,210,220/10,200,200/9
The good news: oh, my, if I stay tight, focused, and have my timing down, these feel much more natural, and I feel like I'm starting to make headway again. Slightly misjudged the RPE and what I had left jumping to 220, but I'm not worried about that. Left shoulder didn't complain at all - more good news.

The bad news: the clean - I start in a pretty deep squat, with the log on my lap, like a stone, and really focus on popping the hips through hard - killed my hips. The left hip glute complex started to tighten down so badly that I couldn't bear the sciatic pain whenever I got into position to pick something up, even picking up a 45 lb plate was agony. Most of the pain presented low, near the ankle. I struggled to get the farmer's handles loaded up, but after multiple attempts and 5+ minutes, realized that I was trying to feed my ego, and quit.

Week 23, Day 1 and Rehab 1

2011-09-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

Well, training yesterday was close to a complete bust: left hip was bothering me again, started on Sunday night - bothersome to the point where I didn't want to be up and about on Monday. Monday night saw some improvement, woke up Tuesday, and felt OK - but then by mid-morning, it was back to hurting. It was a flip of the coin on how training would go, but I decided to give it a shot. Warmed up with dynamic stretching, and the barbell mobility complex: all felt fine, except for sumo pulls. Weird tension through the hips.

18" DL: 1x2x135,135,225,315,407,497,547/no way
Pain was pretty bad by the time I hit 407; really hitting the sciatic nerve just to get down to the bar. Sucked it up and managed to get 497, but couldn't fight the pain to do anything more.

Tried to keep pushing, got setup with Inline Log, started warming up, but the pain was just too much every time I stood, so I cut the session short. Called the chiropractor.

Met with the chiro today. He doesn't think that the pain is caused by any disc issue - which is somewhat good news. He tends to agree that what's going is starting with the connective tissue at the end of the piriformis, and the piriformis ends up tightening down, and pulling the SI joint out place. He reset the SI, and then dug in on the end of the piriformis; that really, really hurt. But, yeah, I think that might be a problem - now, how to fix it.

Ended up making it out for a nice, brisk 2 mile hike over pretty challenging terrain. Hips are done afterwards, but, damn, it felt good to move.

Week 22, Day 3

2011-09-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

First, I did basically nothing for accessory / rehab day 2: I did get out after training day 2 for what was a nice 2 mile hike, up to the mile 1 mark where we got sprayed by a skunk. My hips were pretty sore when we made it back to the truck, and after talking with my coach, I'm cutting back on the hip mobility work - thinking that might be the cause of the pulling problem. Left shoulder hurt a lot Thursday night, and during the day Friday, so I instead of doing anything, I just hit some extra percussive massage and laser treatment.

Anyhow, training: woke up feeling pretty fresh for the first time in a long while. Did some chores, drove up to the gas station and got a MegaMonster, got home, and started getting prepped. Cleaned up the gheyrage from Thursday's session, then hopped in on the 190 lb stone, doing a few singles, taking my time, finding my groove. That got me moving ok.

Stones (50"): 1x4x190 (30sec);1x4x275(2 misses, 90sec);1x2x275/fail;1x4x255(60sec)
Not terrible; I moved pretty well on the 190 and 255. The 275lb, 21" diameter stone is just a tough nut to crack, no matter what - that extra diameter which normally only comes when you get to the 350lb range is a great training tool.

Incline db press: 1x5x55,55,75,80/9.5,72.5/9
Slight misjudging of RPE/weight on the top set - 80 was a little bit too much, probably should have put on the microplates and hit 77.5. So, dropped to 72.5 for the final set, and yeah, I was done. Interesting observation this time out: it seemed as though the left shoulder lacks some strength/control on lower the bell - the concentric is just fine, but about halfway down, it feels like the weight just drops to the starting position.

Seated Military Pin Press: 1x10xbar,bar;1x7x95,135/9,125/9
Set the pins so that the bar was just at about my starting position when working normally; full stop and unload on each rep.

Anyhow, some video of the stones.

Week 22, Day 2

2011-09-22T15:29:00.000-07:00

Tough day; came close to just throwing in the towel during warmups - left shoulder was so sore and weak I had problems pressing a bare Olympic bar at the start. Instead, I took the proverbial deep breath, and focused on warming up: took my time, did some lunges, walking hammie stretches, windmills, band pull aparts, and was finally able to move the bare bar for 15 reps. Decided that I would jump over to the log at this point.

Log Press: 1x10x120;1x2x140,170,190,210/9,200/9
So, not too bad after all. Nothing much to say here, other than the left shoulder, the right wrist, and hips were pretty hurting. That's troublesome, but...

Farmers Hold (265lb,time focus): 1x30sec,1x25sec
Not so great, but at least did it. The first pick was pretty tough.

Cambered Bar Squat: 1x3x165,255,345,435,485/9,455/9
Depth was pretty sucky on the top set - first two reps were not great at all, third rep was OK. But at least I'm hovering around the 500 mark. Happy enough with this that I was glad I gutted out the pain and forced myself to train. Used loose briefs, no compression shorts underneath - not getting much out of them as far as carryover, but they give some support to my hips. Had to wrap my right wrist to block the pain - not a good sign.

Log Row (3 ct pause): 1x6x120,170,220,240/9,230/9
Not bad, and my low back was toast at the end.

I have a feeling I'm going to pay hard for this tomorrow. Such is life. I at least feel like I got some work in, and I needed that feeling. I had another one of those thoughts: I had a bowl of ice cream last night. I wonder if all this joint stiffness and pain is tied to that?

Week 22, Rehab 1

2011-09-21T15:44:00.000-07:00

Not sure whether I had a thought or just a brain fart: as I was getting ready to hit the gheyrage, it occurred to me that my pulling problems started sometime after I began doing a lot of hip mobility work. While my hip mobility has clearly improved over the past couple months, I wonder if this change has brought about some negative impact: like maybe I'm doing too much with the hips? Only way to learn is to lay off this work for a bit.

Reverse Hyper: 1x30x250.

Standing ab & side bend supersets.

db rows: 2x10x130

Still testing the waters with the shoulder, so kept the rowing to a minimum.

Finished up with RC work, internal and external band rotation and stretching.

2 mile walk last night, moderate - brisk pace.

Week 22, Day 1

2011-09-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

Fall weather is here - finally.

Warmed up with the hip mobility complex. Felt pretty good.

18" DL + doubled mini:1x3x135,225,225(briefs),315;1x0x315,1x3x315,315
So. Since (a) my head wasn't in the gym today and (b) my DL has been tanking, I decided to work up to somewhere around a 7 or 8, and then play. Started the entire fiasco by changing my position a little bit, getting 1-2" back from the bar on setup. That felt fine, at least out of the gate. The first set at 315 was quite easy, my 7-ish. So, I decided to suit up, and that's when things got weird. First, tried the Metal suit, and that was just so absurdly loose that I peeled it off before doing anything; apparently, I'm still losing some fat.

Then went with my 38 Inzer; still loose, but felt like it was tight enough. Couldn't even break the bar from the blocks. Felt like I had lost all strength. Peeled the suit off, hit another set in briefs, and it was a little harder than the first set, but not terribly so.

Took that to it's logical conclusion, and hit the last set rawdog. Maybe learned something here: had quite a bit of SI pain immediately. I'm wondering if there's something nerve-related going on, causing some weakness, and the tighter the gear, the less pain I feel, but that also stops the nerves from firing properly. I know, I'm pulling this out of my ass. But the way this SI joint feels, I'm going to hit the chiropractor ASAP.

Incline Log: 1x12x120,140,170,200/9,190/9
My pressing is, at least, asserting it's former level of suckitude, and isn't completely frustrating me. Bad day when my pressing is the bright spot, eh?

Shoulder was good for this.

Seated Log Press: 1x4x120,140,170,180/9,175/9
Not bad, and had one of those Homer Simpson moments of utter clarity: there's a way to use the power rack on this exercise to help me with learning the bar path. My problem, in a nutshell: the further back I can press the log, the more upper back I can involve, and the more weight I can press. However, if I get the log too far back, I lose it. Since I don't have a spotter, and not a lot of open space, this is an issue.

Seated, in the rack, I can position the bench so that when I'm at lockout, the log is touching the rear uprights. Voila, I has spotter for my weak point.

Shoulder was good for this.

Pulldowns: 1x12x160;1x9x230/10
Shoulder felt just a little bitchy at the end, so I cut things short.

Week 21, Day 3

2011-09-15T17:47:00.000-07:00

Trained. Thanks for that, if nothing else.

Warmed up cleaning up the gym a bit, then playing with the 190lb stone, just looking for a groove, having some trouble finding it, and not sure I really did - wasn't coming close to a smooth one motion which should be happening without a second thought.

Stones (50"): 1x8x190, 1x1x275,1x10x220/10
Well, this was just killer - especially off the floor, felt like it took everything my hips had to hoist the stones into my lap. Decided to hit the 275 for a rep, just to try to wake things up. Then I misread the programmed reps, and instead of doing 8 reps, did 10 - but I had to pause for 15 seconds at rep 9 and again 10, I was just done. Of course, I missed rep 10 by an inch, and had to redo it - and I was completely toast by the end.

db Incline: 1x8x55,70,75/9

Seated Military (+40c): 1x6xbar,bar,65,95,115/8-ish
Cut this short; shoulder was really not happy, especially during the unrack, pretty significant pain - but I'm hoping that I got a clue: there was a lot of tension coming up through my armpit, and across the pec region. So, I'm thinking that I need to dig in and do something with the subscapularis; that's going to be fun.

Got out afterwards for the normal loop down by the river, maintained a brisk pace most of the time.

Stress level is high, that's for sure. This played into the decision to not do any drop sets today.

Week 21, Day 2

2011-09-13T16:20:00.000-07:00

Mixed bag today. Warmed up with band dislocates for shoulders, then the barbell hip mobility complex; shoulders felt pretty tight, especially the left. Hips were OK. Then did some log pressing sans chains to get in the groove.

Log Press (+chains, D6L): 1x3x120;1x1x170/fail,170,190,210/fail,200/10,190/10
Took me a bit to get into this; not sure why - 170 was ugly out of the gate. I think my mind just wasn't there. Gave myself the mental pep talk, got focused, and ended up doing not terrible. I knew 210 was going to be questionable, and it almost went up - just couldn't quite get past the sticking point with the chain weight increasing.

Farmers Hold (275lb): 1x1x30sec,1x1x25sec
Not terrible; not good - left hand gave out first.

SSB Squat: 1x3x165,165,255,255,345,395/fail
345 was pretty easy; I'd probably rate it a 7. Moving up to 395 was a no-brainer; but feeling how my SI joint complained when I unracked it made stopping the set right there and racking the bar an even bigger no-brainer.

Pulldowns: 1x10x135,185,225
Left shoulder started to complain - so cut things here.

Well, overall, could've been worse. Hopefully the hip thing is settling down. Made it out last night for the normal loop down by the river, pretty fast pace.

Week 21, Day 1: A lost week

2011-09-10T18:17:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought my deadlift tanking was the worst thing on the training horizon, my body reminded me otherwise. Labor Day, I worked from home, getting some odds and ends done on a neat automation project; did nothing out of the ordinary. During dinner, I felt my hips twinging a bit, but didn't think anything of it; went out afterwards for a 20 minute walk, slow pace, just enjoying the evening, then home to bed.

Two hours later, woken up in horrendous pain from my SI joint to my ankles. Pain that left me unable to sleep, unable to walk more than a few steps, and which just exhausted me. It finally started to ease up on Wednesday evening; I managed to pull off 4 hours of sleep in the recliner; Thursday was better still, and I slept in bed for 7 hours that night. Friday, I managed to do some hip mobility work, and was surprised that I was still largely mobile - sumo's caused some weird pulling, but deficit DL's were fine.

Which puzzles me.

Anyhow, I decided to write off the past week as lost, call it an early deload, and pick up my training template where I left off. Add in the fact that I have an engagement next Saturday, and I decided to train today if at all possible, and then Tuesday and Thursday.

Anyhow, enough backstory and whining.

Warmed up with the hip mobility barbell complex, substituting standard pulls for deficits. Wore compression shorts, even though it was plenty warm. Really wanted to keep the hips happy, if possible.

18" DL: 1x2x225;1x2x225;1x1x315,315,405,495,545/10-ish,535/10-ish
Tugged on briefs and suit at 315. The good news is that I pulled 545; the bad news is that I pulled 545, and was close to maxed out. Trying not to think about this.

Incline Log: 1x6x120,170,190,210,220/10,210/10

Seated Axle (+mini bands): 1x2x75,75,95,115,125/8,120/8

Trap Bar Shrugs: 1x7x315,405
Hips were starting to complain, so called it. I might make this up tomorrow in the rack with a straight bar, so that I don't have to pick up the load from the floor.

Could've been worse, I guess. Certainly wish it had been better.

Week 19, PRehab 2

2011-09-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

Stinking hot, mid-90's, terrible humidity. One last gasp of putrid summer before things break, I hope.

Started off with the reverse hyper, 1x50x240lb - felt great.

Did a circuit:

Ab Crunches
Hip mobility complex
Ab Crunches
Weighted side bends

Everything felt pretty good. Hips are moving pretty fluidly, I seem to have decent flexibility in the posterior chain. This really helped to kick-start recovery from the heavy SSB work the day before; by the end of this session, the posterior chain was sore, but in a good way.

Hit some light pulldowns. Left shoulder doesn't like these.

Did some internal and external band rotations for the shoulders, some stretching, and called it done.

Week 19, Day 3

2011-09-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

Hard getting out of 1st gear today; pretty much dead-dog tired. Finally dragged ass out to train at about 4PM; another extremely hot & humid day.

Stones (50"): 1x10x190,220/10,220/10
The challenge, like last week, was to not practice projectile vomiting while doing stones; since it was much hotter today, I deliberately paced myself, and did fairly good. I didn't puke, I finished sets, and I think I got in some decent work and some decent practice on technique, working through a couple problem areas.

Flyes (+red band): 1x8x25,35,45/9,40/9

Seated Military (+40c): 1x7xbar,bar,65,95,115;1x5x125/fail
These went ok, and the left shoulder didn't really protest - until things got a little grindy at 125, then it started to bark. Given that, and given that I was wiped out, I called it done at this point.

Week 19, Day 2

2011-09-01T15:32:00.000-07:00

Mixed bag of a day all around, although Mojo did post some up some good news, which put a smile across my mug for at least a minute or two. Pretty tired; I think it's a side effect of some pretty high stress levels on the career side - my typical response to stress when it hits a certain level is to run away and sleep.

Be that as it may, I forced myself out to the gheyrage to do my thing, for better or worse. My left shoulder barked seriously - a deep, unrestrained bark hinting at authority only dreamed of - yesterday after light training. It's never barked that way before; distinctly moving down into towards the brachialis to a greater degree. Hit the barbell hip mobility complex - I love this complex, and my hips are doing unexpectedly well - which felt fine. Then, with some trepidation, band dislocates, which, at a certain point in the ROM, elicited warning twinges.

Log press (+chain, D6L): 4x2x120;1x2x140,170,190/9,180/9
Well, I think I'm getting close to something here; one of those sessions where there was a palpable sense of progress, despite numbers remaining stagnated. Flat out, I just felt stronger doing these, stronger all around. The left shoulder twinged, growled, and yipped; but no barks issued forth.

Amusing start to this: I grabbed the chains off the rack, and I had previously used them for, I think, seated OHP - and had the links attached to the feeder chains accordingly. I tossed the chains on the log, and struggled with the clean, wondering if it was going to be one of those days; the press, with no additional weight, felt heavy and unstable. I did a couple sets like this, and then realized I had the chains so far up that they were completely leaving the ground when I cleaned the log.

Farmers Hold: 110% of comp weight, time focus, 245x35sec (warmup), 275lb x20sec/10
Terrible, and I blame the left shoulder / brachialis - 275 started to slip out of the left hand as soon as I picked it up. I was unable to activate biceps on this, which shot me down before I left the blocks, so to speak.

SSB Squat: 1x3x165,255,345,435/9,415/9
Well, then there was the SSB work; this ties a PR I set 2 years ago. For whatever reason, I was able to get my back set properly, and my upper back held together. Definite bright spot.

Pulldowns: 1x6x90,145
Didn't even attempt to get serious; the left shoulder starts to growl as soon as I warm up on this exercise. This still has me leaning in the direction that something is going with the upper back, and throwing the shoulder out of alignment.

Well, a mixed bag - great news on the SSB squatting, obviously. I'll leave it at that.

Week 19, PRehab 1

2011-08-31T16:50:00.000-07:00

Extremely tired today. Shoulder barked way too much last night. Hit stuff with the laser this morning, and then more laser and percussive this evening.

Accessory Work: hit some band dislocates to get started.

2 circuits through, no rest:

1. Hip Mobility Complex (135lbx10 of RDL, Sumo, Deficit)
2. Core - standing ab crunches (50 reps, 30 reps), side bends (85lb)

Forearms: fat gripz hammers, wrist roller - pumpitudinous, dude!

Pulldowns
Rotater Stretches
Shoulder Horn
Band External Rotation

Pretty quick in-n-out.

I finally started a diet break last Friday night. I've been eating quite a bit, relatively speaking: I'm not sure which path to follow. While I don't mind any of the hunger issues associated with dieting, I'm not real motivated by having such big drops in strength as I seem to be having. For now, I'm going to try to eat more the rest of this week, and see where that leaves me.

Week 19, Day 1

2011-08-31T16:30:00.000-07:00

Yowza. Nearly 20 weeks out from resuming training post getting my back fixed up. Time flies and all that fun.

Warmed up with barbell complex for hip mobility.

18" DL: 1x10x135;1x3x225,315,405,495,605/fail,585/fail,545/fail;495/8-9
Tough day. Warm-ups went well; the first set at 495 felt easy, just like it should. Everything above that was just nailed to the blocks; again, not sure if I'm going through a mental block (but I've pulled 605 recently), or if diet is taking a toll. I just couldn't stay with the lift and pull through any difficulties. Spent way too much time on this, trying various things, multiple attempts per failed set, and just plain wasn't strong enough.

Incline Log Press: 1x11x120,140,170,180,190,200/fail,180/10
Got 8 reps at 200; I suspect 195 would have been the correct weight. This is not terrible - after all, hitting 11 reps.

Seated Axle + Mini: 1x3x75,75,95,125/fail,115/fail,95/fail
Failed final 3 sets at 2 reps; by the time I tried 95 again, my left shoulder was barking. Loudly. Stopped things there.

Trap Bar Shrugs: 1x6x315,405/8
Shoulder barked enough that I took the hint and called it a night.

Terrible night afterwards in terms of sleep; the shoulder was barking quite loudly all night, meaning that I got very little shut-eye even though I scheduled plenty of rack time. Prior to hitting the rack, got a short, slow walk with the family, and at least my lower body felt like it was in one piece.

Week 18, Day 3

2011-08-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

Morning Session.

Felt OK heading into this; pretty hot and humid - probably worse than I expected, and I battled this on stones. Warmed up with the hip mobility barbell complex, some fat grip hammer curls, band stretching for forearms and biceps, and then brought down the hammer.

Atlas Stones (51"): 1x8x190,220/10,220/10
Scheduled called for 50", but because of adding some plywood, etc., to the platform, I could hit either 49" or 51". Decided to go for broke. Watching the video: the first set, I maintained a barely acceptable pace of 5 reps/minute. I think I'm hesitating at the start of each pick, unconsciously sort of "testing" my low back before I commit. Need to work through that.

Be that as it may, that pace really drove me hard - I finished up the set, and seriously thought I would puke. I consciously dropped the pace on the second set, hitting 3 reps/minute, and I got to 6 reps, and had to take a break or I would have puked.

I realized I was seriously overheated, as the sweat was puddling on the floor between my feet. I cleaned up, and got an icepack on my head, drank a lot, but after 15 minutes concluded that today would give me the opportunity to split my training into multiple sessions, and that the first session had just wrapped up.

Afternoon Session.

With the hard stuff out of the way in the morning, I headed into the afternoon session not too worried about the heat. Warmed up with some band dislocates, and light db benching, then got to it.

db Bench: 1x5x75,85,95,102.5/9,100/9
Left shoulder held up OK for this; a little unhappy, but nothing that screamed "stop" - which made me happy. I'm definitely going to have to figure out heavier dumbbells, as I used the 100's and added the micro-loading fractionals; considering that it's been a while since I've done this exercise, I'm assuming that I'll just be adding more weight in the future - which I don't have.

Seated Military +40c: 1x12xbar,bar,65,85,105/fail and done
Made 10 reps at 105, and just hit the wall BOOM. Got some good grinding in on reps 9 and 10, however. At this point, my left shoulder was starting to complain, so, I called the session.

Had some great BBQ for dinner, and then out for about a 1.5 mile walk with the dogs, nice slow pace, after dark, just enjoying the somewhat cooler temps and being with my family.

The shoulder was bad during the night: woke me up several times with pretty severe pain. I'm glad I called the session done when I did, wonder if I shouldn't have pushed so hard on db benching.

Week 18: PRehab, Accessory

2011-08-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

Left shoulder was pretty danged painful post-training last night, and all day Friday. Really had the itch for a nice, light training session.

This is what it ended up looking like - one big non-stop circuit:

Band Dislocates: 1x30reps
Log Press: 1x20x120lb
Hip Mobility Barbell Complex: 135x 10 on RDL, Sumo, Deficit DL
Core work: Standing Ab (50 reps),Sidebends 1x15x75lb, Pulldowns (50 reps),Standing Ab (50 reps)

Then I did some forearm stuff: wrist roller and db hammer curls with Fat Gripz. Forearms were pumped from this.

Shoulder health: rotater stretches, internal and external, and then some shoulder horn (10lbs, rep until failure)

Band stretching for forearms and biceps.

Wrapped up with reverse hypers, 1 set of 30 reps with 240lbs. These felt really good.

Everything felt really mobile, especially hips. I was quite pleased with this. The left shoulder twinged here and there, not badly, but I wanted to hit the pulldowns to get a lot of blood moving to whatever area is giving me the problem.

After a relaxing dinner and low-key walk with the dogs, I spent some additional time on tissue treatment. I'm hitting a particular region of each soleus with the cold laser, and that would appear to be helping immensely: since forever, I've had pain centered around the SI joint - like somebody drew a circle there, and said "let there be pain." It varies in intensity, following no pattern I can discern; when it dials up high enough, that seems to be when things start to fall apart in a cascade effect.

Well, guess what? Treating this part of the soleus of each leg seems to have reduced the SI region pain to nothing. Maybe it's coincidence, but it doesn't feel that way.

After that, I hit the left pec major with the cold laser, that one knotted area that seems to be involved in the whole shoulder impingement mess. Then spent 10 minutes with the percussive massager working out the left shoulder regions.

Week 18: Day 2

2011-08-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

Getting the groove back. Training improved from Tuesday (of course, that's not saying much - anything would have been an improvement from Tuesday), and even had a couple bright spots. Warmed up with the barbell hip mobility complex, some band dislocates, and light log pressing. All warm-ups were fine; hip mobility stuff was back to normal.

Log Press, +chains D3L: 1x3x120,170,190/fail,190/9,180,180/9
Lot of form & technique issues here - the first set at 190 was just a technique travesty, and getting too close to max to just muscle it out. Left shoulder a little twitchy, and that was part of the problem: just a little bit afraid to really explode up. Hips did pretty good, cleans were solidly there.

Farmers Hold (Time Focus, 100% comp weight): 1x240x50sec/9;1x240x45sec/10
Starting to come around with this - this is the best I've done this cycle, and bodes well. Second set, the left hand started to lose it around 40 seconds, but I managed to ride out the final 5 second goal.

SSB Squat: 1x3x165,165,165 (briefs),255(belt),345,365/fail,325/fail
Well...as seems to be the case, the SSB kicked my ass - or more precisely, my upper back. 345 was easy from a squatting perspective; I stayed tight, no issues. But my back was fatigued enough that when I unracked the 365, I knew it was going to happen, I couldn't maintain the arch at all, and was transferring stress to the low back. 325 was slightly better - actually walked that out, and did some 1/4 squats, but still felt too much low back stress.

Pulldowns: warmed up
OK, this lit up the left shoulder in a major way. Form was great; first warmup set felt pretty good, and I really liked the way I my back was moving. Second warmup set - yeah, all that, but the left shoulder felt like I was getting kicked by a mule.

Writing this up a couple hours later: the left shoulder is really hurting, and I have a lot of tension running up through the left scalenes.

Progress on rehab: I'm pretty sure I have two related issues with the shoulder - basically the upper back, and the pecs. During yesterday's rehab session, I dug around and found a big knot in the left pec. I don't know if the trigger in the back is causing the pec issue, or the other way around, but they're both adding up to cause a shoulder impingment. I treated the pec last night and again this morning, and the shoulder felt pretty good all day.

Hips: pretty solidly convinced that the issue is with the calves. Worked on a couple knots in each soleus, and the SI pain is gone. So there's a chain there, and this chain causes all kinds of issues. Once the pain in the SI reaches a certain level, the piriformis seems to clamp down to protect the SI; but this causes more pain with the sciatic nerve.

Even if I'm wrong in this diagnosis, I'm making progress in putting stuff together and figuring it all out. I'm also making progress on the practical level: it's been months since I had hip pain to the point where I couldn't sleep. I'm pretty happy about this, on a couple levels - the obvious one aside, I'm proud that I'm making more progress in treating my own issues than other professionals have.

Week 18, Rehab

2011-08-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

Top priority today: figuring out pain.

Did my usual morning routine with percussive massage, calves, then hips / IT band, low back, obliques, QL region - the typical routine. Added in some laser work, focused on the left shoulder where it actually hurts.

Hip pain / ab pain was much better today all day; at rest, the shoulder felt OK. Tested when I got home just with some incline bench (bar only), and no go - still that same sharp, sharp pain at a certain point in the ROM.

Last night, Sharon worked over my back with the percussive massager, so I figured that wasn't the answer. Tried e-stim instead, about 30 minutes, felt things relax a little more, but nothing dramatic. Retested, and the pain was a little bit lessened, but not enough that I would feel comfortable working up to any kind of intensity.

So, back to the drawing board. I had reviewed trigger point training materials while doing the e-stim treatment, and started digging through the left pic. I found some decent size knots; worked those out with the percussive massager, then continued on and hit the left lat, and up to the rear delt, some oblique, and a little side delt.

Retested, and the pain was greatly subsided. So, progress.

Then, I started digging through the calves looking for any trigger points. Found a couple suspected regions of tightness, about the same place on both calves, so I treated those with the laser - and I think it helped. Especially the left side, I could feel my SI region relaxing after a couple minutes of treatment. So, maybe progress here as well.

That was the extent of the attention I got to pay to myself today. It was a long day at work, consumed with a terribly difficult planning meeting that lasted nearly all day. Tough decisions, and a lot of opportunity await.

Week 18, Day 1

2011-08-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

Well, today sucked.

I noticed some weird ab pain and hip discomfort starting last Friday; this got really bad after pulling on Saturday - even though I didn't hit anywhere near what I can pull. Sunday, my abs were very painful. They started to calm down Monday, and I only had moderate pain a couple times today - but my hips started to lock up, and the SI joint was very sore.

I decided to train, but to really play it by ear. Warmed up with the hip mobility bar complex; had problems getting a full ROM on the deficit pulls. Not a good sign.

Moved onto 18" DL. Basically made it partway through warming up, and was done - there was just too much hip / SI pain and no drive off the floor.

Then tried incline bench. Left shoulder hurt quite a bit with just the bar, so I took my time, and did 30-40 reps. Things loosened up a bit, but I noticed that whenever I paused, my upper back would spasm a bit. Continued warming, put 95lbs on the bar, and on the first rep, my left shoulder made this noise that I would prefer to never had heard, and I had plenty of pain.

Decided that I would prefer to live to train another day, and called it.

I'm thinking that it's time for a full week diet break - I have the feeling that I'm just not recovering from the past couple week's training. While sleep hasn't been great, it hasn't been that bad - so I'm going to focus on getting more food into me for a bit, and see if things turn around.

We found a huge knot on my lat last night - so large that Sharon was quite upset when she felt it. I think that's either a cause of the shoulder problem, or somehow closely related. So I'm going to focus on that, and the rest of the mid-upper back, and see if I can make some headway there.

Week 17, Day 2

2011-08-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

Really tired today - started off well enough, short early morning hike, about 2-1/2 miles at a fast pace, but that seemed to be all I had in me. Afterwards, just felt like I couldn't get moving. Relaxed for a while, and then hit the garage.

Warmed up with band dislocates, and then a lot of light log work.

Log Press: 1x2x170,190/8.5
Not great, by any measure. Some pain in the left shoulder at one point in the press, but I still think this is caused by back issues.

18" DL: warmups, then 1x1x405,405,495,605/fail,555/9-ish
Blah. Couldn't move any weight at all, like it was nailed to the floor. Form looked good coming off the floor, just no strength; on 555, I used way too much bicep / trap partway into the lockout.

Fatigue could be from dieting, or relatively poor sleep through the week. Seems like no matter how tired I am, I've been waking up between 3 and 3:30A, unable to get back to sleep.

Week 17, Day 1

2011-08-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

Took yesterday completely off from any physical stuff; left shoulder & upper back were just too painful. Spent about an hour on the upper back with the percussive massager and Answer Self Massage tool, made some headway. Found many huge knots, got them somewhat broken up, but couldn't everything to let go. Then had Sharon wire me for sound with 4 stim pads tightly spaced, and kept that going for another 1-1/2 hours, varying intensity, and huzza - I could feel the back just fighting to let go.

Which it finally did. Hit the Skelaxin + Mobic + Ethanol cocktail, and woke up in significantly less pain today, but with an itch: and itch for stones. Since it's deload week, I get to scratch my itches.

Warmed up with the 190 stone, maybe 10 reps total. Enough to get the blood flowing, the muscle tissue primed, and some heavy breathing started.

Stones (48"): 1x1x275,310/8-ish;365 - fail; 1x3x275/7-ish
365 came up a little higher, I think - but, yeah, not even close. 275 was amazingly easy, and 310 was an effort, but not hard. Would have done more reps on the final set, but my arm sleeve gave out.

Quick session, as befitting a deload, 10-15 minutes including warm-up.

I'm convincing myself, slowly but surely, to cough up the cash and the drive time, and buy an adjustable stone from Steve Slater. They start at 310 empty, which would seem to be perfect.

Speaking of spending money, I ordered a cold laser from VetroLaser.Com so that I can expand my soft tissue self-treatment. I'm hoping this helps keeps me healthy.

Week 17, PRehab 1

2011-08-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

Deload week for a couple reasons; one, to align some scheduling, and two, because of the left shoulder.

Speaking of: it's still pretty painful; I still think it's from a bunch of knotted muscle in the upper back. So, working to address that with percussive massage and the Answer.

Did some core work, some forearm work, and some shoulder stretching. Definitely getting stronger on the standing ab crunches; hope that translates to more stability and power transfer on overhead work.

Came across the following, and was stunned. Apparently, Rebook is endorsing activities which needlessly endanger children:

Please, reblog this, and boycott Reebok -- and think twice about the brains behind Crossfit, ok?

Week 16: Day 3

2011-08-15T15:23:00.000-07:00

Finally knocked out day 3 of training, a couple days late. Post- Day 2, my left shoulder hurt enough that I didn't even want to do rehab work on Friday; Saturday I helped out with Oil Region's Strongest Man, which was an 11 hour day for me; Sunday, my shoulder still wasn't pain free enough to train...but we did get out for a nice walk with the dogs.

Anyhow...this week is a deload week, so, putting off a day's training until Monday fits.

Warmed up with the hip mobility barbell complex, some dynamic stretching, light keg squats, and then hopped in, deciding to keep stress low.

Keg Loads (52"): 1x5x275/8
Gave the 300lb keg a couple attempts, but...no go, for a couple reasons. One is that the keg has just become so hammered from drops that on portions of the bottom there's no place to grip. One of my tasks for this week is to get a new heavy keg put together. Interestingly, left shoulder felt better after these.

db flyes: 1x8x20,25,30(mini band);1x8x40(red band)
Left shoulder OK. Mid-upper back: very uncomfortable on bench.

Pin Press: 1x12xbar;1x8x95,135/8.5
Ow. Ow. Ow. Left shoulder really hurt on these, especially the warmup set. There's something pulling the capsule out of place, causing some nice grindage.

Then it was dinner, and then out for a fast paced hike with the dogs. Which brings up a great observation: I think it was about a year ago that I came to the conclusion that I could either train or hike in a given day, but that I couldn't do both - my hips would just be too painful afterwards. Certainly not the case these days, so, if nothing else, that's a step in the right direction.

Week 16, Day 2

2011-08-12T03:44:00.000-07:00

Warmed up with band dislocates, light (75 & 95lb) axle pressing, high reps, just to get things moving.

Axle Press: 1x2x125,145,165,185,205,215/10(PR),205/10
Well, finally some headway, but...on the final rep, something tweaked in the left shoulder in a really weird way. Not sure what's going on, but it's tied to the upper back stuff. I spent some time afterwards trying to work stuff out, and found all kinds of hard knots in the upper back / rear shoulder region which hurt and trigger pain on the front of the shoulder.

Farmer's Hold (225): 1x45sec/8;1x41sec/8
Progress, at least a bit. Felt stronger on these; numbers might not have changed all that much, but something makes me think that I'm going to have a breakthrough on this exercise relatively shortly.

Front Squat: 1x4x135,225,275/9;1x3x255Not great - always tough to FS when there's an upper back issue, and I just couldn't get comfortable under the bar at all. Went from plenty of upper back / shoulder pain on the left side to choking myself out and couldn't find a bar position that really worked.

Log Row (+3ct hold):1x4x120,210,230/9,210/9
Meh.

Week 16, Rehab 1

2011-08-10T20:15:00.000-07:00

Skipped hip work today; getting plenty of hip mobility work during main sessions.

Core:
Standing Ab Crunch, Green Band: 2x40
Ab Wheel: 1x20
Side Bends: 1x20x80lb

Shoulder:
Band dislocates
Rotater Stretching
Shoulder Horn 1x30x10lb

Posterior Chain:
Reverse hype, 1x40x150lb

Out for a brisk walk, about 25-30 minutes, 2 miles.

Week 16, Day 1

2011-08-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

Middle of the road day overall. I hate pulling against bands; they make me feel weak.

Warmed up with dynamic stretching, and the barbell complex for hip mobility.

18" DL, doubled minis: 1x3x135;1x1x225,315,315,365,365/8,335,335,335,335/8
Took a bit of time and played with some technique tweaks. Don' t that they helped all that much.

Incline Bench: 1x10xbar,bar;1x5x95,135,155,185/9;175/9
Of all things, my back was very unhappy with this movement, going into spasms upon completion of each set.

Log Press (Chains D3L): 1x3x120,170/8,160/8

Face Pulls: 1x7xsomething,something and done.
Just fried by this time; back was really protesting sitting upright on the floor.

Made it out for a nice 45 minute, moderate-brisk paced walk with the dogs afterwards, just beating out a t-storm.

Week 15: Day 3 and Prehab Day 2

2011-08-07T13:36:00.000-07:00

So-so ending to the week; back was starting to complain again by Friday, to the point where walking was becoming an iffy proposition. Took it easy, just did some stretching and core work, and once warmed up, I felt better. Then it quickly went to shit again.

Saturday was no better; instead of trying to gut it out, I skipped training, and spent some extra time with the percussive massager and sleeping. Sunday morning was a bit better; after percussive massage work, I was able to walk fairly normally, with no spasms.

Headed out to the garage; warmed up with the barbell hip mobility complex, and then a light keg.

Keg Load (53"): 1x4x275/8,275/8

Flies: 1x12x25,25,30,35/9-ish
Skipped drop sets, right wrist was starting to hurt.

Seated OHP off pins: 1x12xbar,bar,95,135/9.5
Skipped drop sets because I felt like a pussy.

Well, at least I trained, and can't feel too guilty.

Week 15, Day 2

2011-08-04T16:22:00.000-07:00

Tired; must not have slept deeply enough last night as I struggled to stay awake today. Got an hour nap after work that seemed like I had just closed my eyes when the alarm went off.

Warmed up with band dislocates, the hip mobility barbell complex, and then dug in.

Axle Press: 1x10x75;1x3x125,145,165,185,195/9,187/9
Not having done this in a while, I'm OK with the numbers and the things felt; seemed like maybe, just maybe, I'm getting the axle further up / back with leg drive, and am slowing down much closer to lockout.

Did these from the rack, so no clean.

Farmer's Holds: 135x~60sec;225x40sec;250x30sec
A couple things here: first, I'm stuck - I just can't get my hold over 30 seconds once I hit the 250lb range. Second, I had it in my head that 260-265 would be the comp weight; I went back and checked prior year's comps, and it may end up being 240. That's some good news; the bad news is that last year, a gorilla held on for ~80sec for first place, followed by 3 guys breaking 70 seconds. I know I have some time, and want to figure out what to do to at least break a minute.

Front Squat: 1x3x135,225,275/8-9;1x1x275;1x3x275/9
Well, at least I can say that on any given day I can front squat a bit over my bodyweight for 3 reps. Struggled to find a good groove; the single rep at 275 was me trying a new technique for grip, which I immediately rejected, and went back to my trusted gay genie style.

Log Row (3 ct at chest): 1x6x120,170,190,210/9,205/9
For some reason I felt a bit more solid than usual on these.

A little leaner this week; probably down to the 260-265 region. That's part of the fatigue I'm experiencing, I'm sure. But, still plenty of lard to peel off the ass, so, going to keep pushing. I figure I'll try to keep a sane level of loss going through mid-September-ish, and then allow myself about 8 weeks to focus on recovering strength prior to the comp.

Week 15, Prehab 1

2011-08-03T15:29:00.000-07:00

Humid day, really bad. Not so hot, but feels like I'm swimming. Need to work on gills.

Warmed up with reverse hyper, 30-40 reps w/ 150lbs

3 sets, no rest:

RDL 135x10
Sumo 135x10
Deficit DL 135x10
Standing Ab Crunch greenx30
Side Bends 55x15

That killed a couple birds: conditioning, hip mobility, and core.

Forearm health: hammer curls

Shoulder health: band dislocates, Rotater stretches, Shoulder horn

Finished up with some ab wheel, and called it a day.

Week 15, Day 1

2011-08-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

Wasn't expecting much today; that's because yesterday went to shit in a relative hurry. I was out hiking the dogs, nothing strenuous, a few minutes into it, and my mid-upper back started to go into spasms, at first nothing terrible, but swiftly worsened. Ended up turning around, only walked for maybe 20 minutes - and I was down the rest of the day. Took muscle relaxants, NSAIDs, etc., and found little relief; with every deep breath, I'd get a spasm that pretty much put me on my ass.

So, today, it was better - a lot of soreness in one region, but no spasms.

Made it through a warm-up, consisting of light 18" pulls, followed by my barbell hip mobility complex, and wasn't dying, so forged ahead. Decided I needed more erector support than anything, so opted for a tight Inzer Max DL suit - size 37. Couldn't have fit into this a couple months ago, it was tight, and did the trick.

18" DL (+ double mini): 1x3x225,315,405/8-9,365/8-9
Not quite the numbers I wanted, but got it done. Honestly couldn't tell if I had 1 or 2 reps left in the tank today. Might have overshot the RPE goal of 8, but maybe not.

Incline bench: 1x10xbar,bar,1x4x95,115,135,155/9,150,150,150/9
Probably made a mistake in trying a slightly wider grip on the top set - that threw me off enough, I think, that the set was way harder than I anticipated. Not happy with these numbers, but at least I got a little volume in on the drop work.

Log Press (chain, D-link 3): 1x120,170,175/8-9,170/8-9
Today was the day for having problems judging RPE, I guess. On the bright side, cleans were very snappy. Back twinged on the initial pick, and when I used leg drive - but nothing that threw me off.

Face Pulls: 1x7x90,115,140/10
By this time, I was done.

Sat in the fan with an ice pack on my head for 15 minutes or so, getting cooled down to an acceptable degree.

All in all, I'm surprised that I was able to train today, considering that I couldn't move yesterday. I guess I can't be too disappointed in the numbers I moved around, eh?

Week 14, Day 2

2011-07-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

Another day of play. Warmed up with the hip mobility complex, then started in with light 18" pulls.

18" DL, Round 1: 1x315,405,495,585/8

18" DL, Round 2: 1x315,405,495,585/9.5

Round 1: Ace Briefs, Metal King Pro, Belt, Straps

Round 2: Ace Briefs, Inzer Max DL, Belt,Straps

Not sure this proved anything; I was a little fatigued by time Round 2 made it up to top weight - not terribly, but it was there. Briefs and suits were pretty loose; I suspect this impacts the Inzer's contribution more than the Metal.

Potentially mitigating factors aside, the Metal combo definitely gave me more pop out of the hole, got the bar moving faster sooner, and more than makes up for what it lacks it lumbar support and lockout assistance.

Next time, I'll try the Inzer + Ace first.

Anyhow, I've been itching to try this, and finally did.

Week 14, Day 1

2011-07-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

Ah, I need this deload week - more than I thought. Ended up being so wiped out on Tuesday that I did nothing. Wednesday I finally felt like playing around, so I did some stone work. Warmed up with my barbell hip mobility complex, and some dynamic stretching, then hit the 190lb stone for warmups, then jumped to the 310.

Had problems getting enough hip drive - just too sluggish. Couldn't get 310 over the bar, and I knew it before I started out of the hole. Tried two times, scrubbed it, dropped to 275.

Missed the first at 275, then got the second one, but clearly having problems getting the stone up high enough.

Between the heat & the puppy, I'm not getting quite enough sleep - and I'm in a pretty big deficit from weeks prior. Then, I managed to blow my diet, and really underfed for a few days. I'm pretty confident this was a big factor, as I ate a lot after training yesterday, and today feel much better.

Nothing like hindsight.

Good news on the hip front: things have calmed down considerably. I think there's a connection to the calf tightness / immobility.

Anyhow, some video.

Week 14: Perspective Time

2011-07-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

So, I started a new numbering of weeks after getting officially clear to train 100% by my doctor after having my discs repaired. By the end of week 13, I've managed to:

Squat 3x507 for the first time in my life
Pull 607x2 in the 18" DL
Heft the 310lb stone over a 52" bar, another first
Get my log pressing back to my best ever
Get a new technique down for keg loads, and tie previous PR's
Figure out quite a few issues about pain in this old body
Dropped at least 25lbs

Along the way, the nerves in my left leg have showed marked regeneration. I'm getting back to full-on hiking on fairly demanding terrain; I still have some control issues with the lower left leg and foot, and don't quite trust myself to compete in loaded walking events, but, overall, huge progress healing.

It's been a good 13 or so weeks.

I'm hoping that I've put together another piece of the puzzle, and that a lot of my hip pain / tightness is actually caused by the calves. I know it's reading a lot into it, but: the left hip is always worse - much pain, much tightness. The left leg was the one with the worst nerve damage, with EMG readings showing the nerve was non-functional on foot eversion - the lower leg. I think it makes sense that I'm going to go through some muscle tightness that's just wacky as that nerve comes back online. This feels like it fits.

This week is a fun deload week. I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to try.

Week 13, Day 3 and Rehab Day 2

2011-07-23T15:33:00.000-07:00

Day 3 Training

Still extremely hot. Did something new today, and am hoping that I finally figured out another piece in the puzzle. Prior to hitting the garage, I spent some time with the percussive massager on my calves, really working them out. Now, it might be in my mind, but I swear a feel a distinct difference in my hips - less pulling, less pain, and everything just moves better.

Warmed up with some light keg picks, squats, and loads. Trying out my new loading technique as well, best described as a controlled toss rather than placing the keg onto the platform.

Kegs (52"): 1x5x275,1x5x300/10,1x5x275/10
Progress, for sure; missed reps 4 & 5 on the 300, but not so much because of height, but because I slightly miscalculated, and the way I'm doing the load now means that I can't recover if I miss.

Like the new technique. It's really explosive.

Incline db: 1x10x55,75/9,72.5/9
Meh.

Seated Military (+40c): 1x10xbar;1x6x95,115,135/fail,125/fail
Failed on the final rep, got about 3/4 of the way up, and just stalled, couldn't grind it out.

Ice pack on the head in between sets; drank plenty of water before, during, after. Tossed down a Monster as well during kegs. Starting to get a bit more acclimated to the heat / humidity.

Rehab Day 2

Didn't do much; it was storming, again, and didn't feel like doing anything in the closed garage in this heat. Decided, instead, to take the time and do extra fascial release stuff. That's when I discovered the calf / hip link, and that validated my decision. I'm really hoping that this answers some of my ongoing issues.

Need to work on various trigger points for upper body as well. Things are starting to tighten up with the increased (and necessary) emphasis on upper back work.

Week 13, Day 2

2011-07-21T16:21:00.000-07:00

Brutally hot. Paced myself, sat with an icepack on my head between sets, tried to pound fluids. Warmed up with some hip mobility, some JS Band dislocates for shoulders, some hip mobility, some log cleans, and then dug in for some fun.

Log Clean & Press: 1x1x170,190,210,220,220,225/10,220,220/10
Went OK, not great, but I'm happy with performing close to PR levels given circumstances.

Farmers Hold (250/hand,time) 1x27sec, 1x20sec
Terrible performance. Going to blame it on shovelling gravel the day before; hands / forearms are sore and tired. Mangina needs some ManGisil.

Camber Bar Squat: 1x3x165,255,345,435,507/9(PR) and done
Depth not great. Low back was toast after the top set; tried to do a drop set at 487, and just wasn't happening.

db Rows: 1x4x130,150/9,150/9
Felt better than last week. There might be hope for me after all.

Temp was 97 degrees, high humidity - so I'm happy enough that I hung in there, got a PR squatting, and can explain away the sub-par performance related to grip.

Week 13, Conditioning / Accessory 1

2011-07-20T16:20:00.000-07:00

Today was different; I worked on the driveway. Collected 3 truck beds full of gravel that slid down the hill, redistributed to the biggest washouts. Worked for about 2 hours in the heat.

That was enough.

Week 13, Day 1

2011-07-20T07:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been avoiding this writeup, largely because this training session sucked hard.

Numbers aren't even worth noting. Didn't even finish the session, just gave up.

Could be a lot of things, but I think first and foremost is not having a good night's sleep in a long time. I'm just exhausted, and running on stress; stress levels are high, which means I'm running, but not well.

We flooded pretty hard Monday night. Have to pull just about everything out of the garage this weekend, power wash mats, etc. Don't know quite how I'm going to manage this. Damn lifting platform is going to be a bitch; I could probably come up with a way to pull it out with the truck, but getting it back in would be an issue.

Oh, and the driveway is pretty much gone. There's now an 18" deep ditch down the center. Gotta figure out a way to fix that in my spare time.

That is what 6-1/2" of rain in a 2 hour period will do for you.

Week 12, Day 3

2011-07-16T18:09:00.000-07:00

Tired. Dragging. Made it out for a nice 2-3 mile hike over rough terrain this morning with the crew; great way to start the day. Decided to just eat a lot today, whatever I wanted, so, yeah I did that, and got in a nap in addition to puppy class and chores. Finally, around 3PM, I slammed a 24oz Monster, and started to get my act together.

Topped off the 250lb keg with about 25-30lbs of more fine gravel. That brings it up to a solid fighting weight - something that I found really had to be taken seriously.

Keg Load (52"): 1xnx70;1x5x275/9,1x5x275/9
Second set at 275, I only got 3 loads - the other two were just a little bit shy on height, but really close, within an inch. Trying out a slightly new technique; basically changing up my hand positioning off the lap to get a little more rotation. Works. These were hard, though, and left me pretty drained.

Incline db: 1x6x55,70,80/9,75,75/8.5

Seated Military (+40c): 1x6xbar,1x8xbar,1x8x95/9
By this point, I was done - between the heat/humidity and just plain tired, I found myself sitting on the bench, wondering how long I'd been sitting on the bench. So, I got out the big ice pack, put it around my neck, and started slamming fluids.

Happy enough with the keg loads.

Week 12: Accessory 2

2011-07-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

Oh, just wiped today - very little sleep last night, or so it seems. My abs are sore from pulling on Tuesday; my upper back is extremely sore from all the work - but nothing about this is "pain", which is good. Based on all this, I wanted to hit some GPP that was quick, intense, and to the point: it had to hit hips, to keep mobility there, and had to get upper back. Sounds like...time for a tire and a sledgehammer.

Conditioning
5 hits per hand with 10lb sledge
5 tire flips
repeated non-stop until I racked up 30 tire flips.

After cooling down, I actually felt much better - upper back was much looser. Pretty sure my HR maxed out on this one.

Core Work
Standing Ab: 1x50xgreen band
Side Bends: 2x15x55lb

Finished off with band dislocates and Rotater Stretching, then hit the reverse hyper, 40 reps with 150lbs.

Quick, dirty, and done.

Week 12, Day 2 Video: Log press

2011-07-15T04:21:00.000-07:00

Crappy camera angle. Still, something to be learned about ME work here.

Week 12, Day 2

2011-07-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

Tired, depleted, and generally feeling run over; not a great night for sleep. I'll be glad when the puppy is a couple months older. Dieting is leaving me feel depleted. I'm such a pussy.

After a long day, I finally made it to the garage and got started. Warm up consisted of getting crap moved around so I had space to work. Since it was 80 degrees, that seemed ok, and for whatever reason, I was itching to lift. So I did.

Log Press: 1x2x120,120,120,170;1x1x210,230/fail,220/9.5,215,215/9.5
Somewhat tough time on this - hip pop wasn't really happening.

Farmer Hold, 265lb, time focus: 1x31sec/9,1x29sec/9
Still feeling awkward on the pick. Really hope my grip starts coming around, begining to be frustrated here. Might have to pull some tricks out of the hat.

Camber Bar Squat: 1x4x165,255,345,435/8.5,415/8.5
Wore briefs, which didn't go well. No matter how tight I cranked my belt, no matter how well seated the briefs, as soon as I would hit below 1/2 squat, the belt would start to ride up in the back. Combined with hips not popping, this wasn't stellar - but it's an improvement over, say, 4 weeks ago, so I'll take it.

db rows: 1x4x125,175/10,125
175 was ugly; I'm having problems getting into position for some reason. Again - that initial pick from the floor, no matter what exercise, just seems wrong. Gotta be something mental, eh?

Well, it's been a mediocre couple days for hips, and that showed in this training. Despite percussive massage, things are tightening up, and everything just felt raw, tender, and abraded this morning - this is usually the precursor to the entire hip complex tightening up, pinching the sciatic nerve, and giving me grief. So, I put on a pair of Lidocaine pain patches before leaving the house; that seemed to keep things at bay - no serious tightening up. But I think I paid a price for dulling those nerves, and lost some pop.

Despite this, managed to turn in a decent performance, at least for me.

Dumb(ER) or Smart(ER): the choice is yours

2011-07-14T05:54:00.000-07:00

A recent EliteFTS article strikes me as extremely wrongheaded, so I thought I'd rant about it a bit.

The article has a very "hardcore" looking picture at the top: a lifter, in a bench shirt, with blood on his face and neck. The pic is obviously PhotoChopped; the model is posed, and the only colorization in the pic is the blood. I guess this is the reader's signal that we're about to read something really extreme, which will help us in our lifting. How fitting that digital manipulation is used to deceive.

The article pounds us with such wisdom as

"What I discovered is something that I feel to be one of the keys to success in anything you do."

This key?

Well, it seems to amount to you need to stop being a pussy, "ball up" (sorry, ladies), and accept pain as a necessary requirement to be good:

"Most people fear the pain they are suffering and are scared of any potentially negative outcomes. This is normal. The ones who move forward through the pain see the positives of what it can bring.

Embrace the Pain!"

I can see the t-shirt sales now: Embrace the Pain, become Strong(er).

I don't claim to be an elite lifter or strongman; I'll let my training related entries, my competition record, and my best lifts speak for themselves. As a Masters' Strongman, as anybody who has read this blog can tell you, I've dealt with my share of pain, ranging from minor to major. I've consistently trained, and competed, despite this pain.

The concept of embracing your pain is Dumb(ER). Pain is a signal that something is wrong, and that something needs fixed. It's not a badge you wear with pride; it's not something you boast about. It's something you learn to listen to, you learn to fix it, and you learn to eradicate it so that it doesn't hinder your performance and lead, perhaps, to further injury.

Yes, as an athlete you will sustain injury. That's part of the game.

I've been told by more than a couple people that I've shown, repeatedly, how tough I am. The funny thing is, I don't feel tough. When I look back on the pain I've tried to push through, my only thought is "I wish I could have resolved that sooner, so I would have progressed faster."

As an example, I trained and competed from August of 2009 through December of 2010 with literally crippling pain in my hips, legs, and feet. I would get out of bed in the morning, and not be able to walk. I'd get out of the car after driving 20 minutes, and not be able to walk. I was trying to be smart about it: I was working with a team of doctors, but nothing seemed to help.

My training was perpetually 1 step forward, and 3 steps back.

Somewhere around January of 2011 marked a turning point. I was in the garage, I had just started a new training cycle. I was in such immense pain during week 1, that I knew it would be literally impossible for me to make it through 20 weeks of this hell. Another event prompted me to get a new action plan.

I was out hiking, and I nearly found myself stranded, virtually unable to move my left leg. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get it to move. The snow was deep, it was cold out, and I realized I was, in fact, being Dumb(ER).

All that pain in my lower body was caused by a pinched nerve. We treated that, and, the pain is gone. My training is back on track.

Likewise, for 2 years, I would sporadically suffer terrible pain in my right hand; pain so debilitating that I couldn't even turn a doorknob, or hold a plate, or a drinking glass. Think about how that impacted my upper body work.

For two years, I had many mis-diagnoses. Nothing helped.

Then I learned something. I put some concepts together, from work done by Tom Myers and Perry Nickleston, and figured something out: there was a hard lump of muscle on my right, upper & inner pec. Felt like a bone, but it was bound up muscle. I worked that out, and suddenly the pain in my right hand is gone.

Don't be Dumb(ER). Don't embrace your pain.

Be Smart(ER) - that's our big evolutionary advantage. Eradicate your pain.