Modified Madcow 5x5 intermediate linear progression log

[idofxeno]

Back on Madcow's 5x5 intermediate lifter's program using linear progression. This is my second stint of this program, and I've made some modifications to the original program (mainly just added a lot more assistance work, which is actually just bodybuilding volume I decided to throw in). I originally came off of the program not due to a stall, but due to an injury that I wanted to get healed up. I switched to a bodybuilding routine coming back into the weight room after 2 weeks off, stuck with that for about 8 weeks, and have since been back on the Madcow kick. I had excellent gains from the first go 'round, and I expect this one to be more of the same. As a matter of fact, I'm already on my 5th week of the program, so I'll just update everything now (not going to put anything but the final 2 sets for Mondays and Wednesdays, and I'll include the last set of 5, the heavy triple, and the set of 8 for Fridays).

Current 5RMs (@ bodyweight = 170 lbs):
(ATG)Squat: 250 lbs
Bench: 205 lbs
Deadlift: 335 lbs
Rows: 190 lbs
Incline Bench: 180 lbs

GOAL: 1.5xBW Bench press
2.0xBW ATG Squat
2.5xBW deadlift
(I'd like to hit all of these @ 1RM, but if it's possible for me to hit them as 5RM, I plan on doing that as a longer term goal).

I'm definitely the strongest that I've ever been in my life and I'd definitely like to continue growing. I do have two problems right now that are starting to become an issue for me, and that is an incredibly annoying left hip flexor issue that only rears it's head when I'm at the lowest part of my squats ("the hole"), and what i believe to be a slight muscle strain on the right side of my lower back (basically where my kidney would be). The hip flexor thing incredibly painful, but it ONLY hurts during that portion of the lift, and after a day, the pain is completely gone and I feel normal again until the next day of squats. I'm not really sure what it is, but I don't want to take a week or two off especially when I'm setting new PRs every week. The back strain thing is really weird in that it does NOT hurt in the slightest when I'm actually squatting or deadlifting (or lifting in general), but just walking around the house or whatever on an off day I can feel something going on in that area. In any case, I'm half way tempted to just continue grinding through the hip flexor pain until I finally stall, then take a couple of weeks off from squats. I don't feel like the pain is weakening my ability to lift, but it does hurt like all hell.

In any case, today is Wednesday which is my deadlifting day and while I had originally talked myself into not deadlifting or squatting for the rest of the week, I'm going to go ahead and do it anyway because I'm ignorant like that. The deads don't hurt my hip flexor anyway, and the back thing is really more of an annoyance right now more than a real problem. If it gets any worse however, I'll have to probably lay off for a week or two. Oh and not that it matters, but I work nights and workout in the mornings after I get off of work at 7 AM, so I'll try to update this regularly once I get home from the gym.

[turkeyhawk]

In!

You need to start working on your hip mobility! I wouldn't keep plowing through the squats without doing anything about the pain. Hip injuries take forever to heal due to the low amount of blood flow in the area. I had a similar pain a while ago and found stretches that really pulled on the area. It hurt bad at first but could tell the results immediately. Like, do the stretches every day, and do them an hour or two before you workout. I had relief on my first workout after doing this. Not sure on the back pain, maybe just a strained muscle?

[lajoo]

Sub'd.Madcows is an awesome program

[GinjaNinja85]

Subbed from the old log. Hope the injury's feeling ok.

[idofxeno]

Late on the update, was busy immediately following the gym yesterday.
(weights are in pounds btw).

*Wednesday*

Squats: Skipped due to hip flexor issue, will be doing DeFranco's agile 8 hip mobility drills daily to hopefully get past this without hampering my training too much. Wednesday is a light day for squats anyway.

Incline Bench:
Warmup sets x 2
157x5
179x5
- Last set here was a real struggle. If I'm going to stall somewhere over the next few weeks, it'll definitely be here.

Deadlift:
Warmup sets x2
294x5
336x5
- I've always felt like deads have kinda been my thing, but wow this was easily the closest I've been to failing to hit all 5 reps since starting Madcows. Part of the reason may have been that my gym partner somehow got a towel stuck between the plates on the side of the barbell that he loaded. I came up with the weight and that took my focus away from the lift immediately. I sat it back down, removed the towel, and did the next 4 reps with much less focus than I should have. Just hoping I won't stall until at least week 9 (middle of week 5 currently).

Assistance Work
Alternating DB curls 3x35x10
Glute Ham Raise: 3xBWx5 (Done using pulldown station to hold legs down).


Workout notes: As you can see, I talked myself into doing deadlifts even with the minor back thing going on. It did not hurt at all during the lift and is no better or worse than it was before. I'm not even sure it's a muscle issue anymore, guess I'll head to the doc and see what he has to say. In addition, I normally don't do ANY assistance work on Wednesdays, but since I skipped squats I felt like I needed a little something extra. Mondays and Fridays are when I generally pile on a lot of assistance work. The GHR stuff was to hopefully help my deadlifts be a little easier next week. I do plan on squatting Friday, so we'll see how it goes. Hopefully the agile 8 stuff will work some sort of magic for me over the next few weeks.

[idofxeno]

In!

You need to start working on your hip mobility! I wouldn't keep plowing through the squats without doing anything about the pain. Hip injuries take forever to heal due to the low amount of blood flow in the area. I had a similar pain a while ago and found stretches that really pulled on the area. It hurt bad at first but could tell the results immediately. Like, do the stretches every day, and do them an hour or two before you workout. I had relief on my first workout after doing this. Not sure on the back pain, maybe just a strained muscle?

Definitely going to try to get this hip mobility in a decent spot. I'll have to start foam rolling and more aggressively stretching the hip flexor out and hopefully that will at least reduce the pain a bit. The back thing is a bit weird honestly. I mean I can kind of feel it when I walk, but like I said when I'm squatting or deadlifting, it's like there's nothing at all wrong with that part of my body. Hoping it's not something like a tumor on my kidney or something. Gonna go to the doc and get him to check it out. Problem with him though is that he's a bit of an idiot when it comes to injuries with me because instead of trying to figure out what's wrong and how I can help prevent the injury in the future, he's all like "don't lift at all and if you do, stick to high reps low weight and leave the heavy lifting to other people". Blasphemy I say.

[idofxeno]

Gotta take my car to the shop in a few, then heading to the gym (i would normally already be there but the car thing has messed up my schedule a bit for today). Kinda worried about the hip flexor, it feels decent now but I'm sure that won't last once squats start. I had talked myself out of doing them earlier in the night but talked myself back into doing them again. I haven't been doing any PT for it yet either, but I'll stretch it out really good before I start and foam roll it extensively when I get back home. Posting with results when I get back.

[idofxeno]

Horrible workout. Started out stretching the hell out of my hip flexor before tossing 135 on the squat rack just to see how things went. They went bad. Pain was pretty outrageous, definitely worse than it's been since it started happening, so after the 5th rep I just racked the weight and felt completely demotivated. I decided to completely stray from my workout since I was pissed. I did some flat bench dumbbell bench, then did some weighted pullups, then got the **** out of there. I'm mainly angry because I felt like I'd given the injury more rest this week than I have since I started back on this program, and it hurt WORSE than it has since I started. Makes no sense. At this rate, I'll be out for a month or more. Halfway thinking I just need to do more squatting instead of less, I dunno.

Squats:
135x5 (Unbearable hip flexor pain)

Dumbbell flat bench:
60x5
65x5
70x5
75x5
80x5
85x4
- Haven't done dummbells in a minute, so I think I would have done a little better (maybe 90x5) if my stabilizers were where they should have been. I'm surprised I got 85s up to be honest considering how the session started.

Pullups (weighted):
35+BW x 6
45+BW x 4
55+BW x 1.5

****ty day.

[turkeyhawk]

I'm mainly angry because I felt like I'd given the injury more rest this week than I have since I started back on this program, and it hurt WORSE than it has since I started. Makes no sense. At this rate, I'll be out for a month or more. Halfway thinking I just need to do more squatting instead of less, I dunno.

Man, I feel your frustration. If it's that bad, maybe it's time to go see a doc? My thing was tendonitis, maybe you tore or damaged something? If you think it's tendonitis, stretching and light weight/high rep exercise will help. Really anything that will increase blood flow to the area. Stick with it, remember training is a long term thing and it'll get better.

[idofxeno]

Man, I feel your frustration. If it's that bad, maybe it's time to go see a doc? My thing was tendonitis, maybe you tore or damaged something? If you think it's tendonitis, stretching and light weight/high rep exercise will help. Really anything that will increase blood flow to the area. Stick with it, remember training is a long term thing and it'll get better.

I did a little trial run of light squats again on Monday and while it still hurt pretty bad, it was definitely better than it was on Friday. The improvement was significant, and that's without any PT or ibuprofen regimen to reduce inflammation. I suppose if I started light rep work and started trying to tackle inflammation, I might be ok pretty soon. In any case, here's how Monday went.

Squats:
135x5 (testing hip flexor -- better, but not good enough yet)

Bench Press:
Warmup sets x 3
184x5
210x4 ***

Rows:
Warmup sets x 3
170x5
195x5

*Supplemental work*

Pullups:
BW + 35 x 5
BW x 13
BW + 22 x 6

Weighted Dips:
BW + 45 x 5
BW + 90 x 8
BW + 90 x 7

Shoulders -- some kind of weird **** my workout partner came up with. Probably won't waste time with this movement again.


Notes: This was officially the first workout that I've missed a rep on since I started madcows. I was pretty disappointed and disgusted by it quite honestly. I figured if I stalled on anything, it would be incline bench, but unfortunately it happened on flat bench so I'm a little bit embarrassed by it. I think the two main things that led to it are my ****ty workout last Friday, and the fact that I followed that workout up with a protein shake about 4 hours after the fact, and then didn't eat anything again until almost 12 hours later and that was only two slices of pizza and a lot more vodka than I normally drink (about 7 shots or so). I can make excuses why all day, but the fact of the matter is that I missed the last rep, so now I have to figure out what I want to do from here.

Tenatively, my plan is to eat like a complete animal until Friday to see if I can hit the heavy triple. If I can in fact hit the heavy triple, I'll continue on to week 7 as if I didn't miss any reps and hope that I can make the difference up. If I miss it, I'm going to stay on week 6 for bench and hope I can get my momentum going again.

An additional note I forgot to add, after the squat test I gave myself, I did 5 sets on the leg press with increasing weight. As the weight went up, so did the pain in my hip flexor, but not nearly to the point that squats bring it. I think maybe it was enough work to the area to get blood flow going, but not enough to damage any healing that has gone on, so maybe I'll continue that trend if things don't go well next Monday when I try to squat again.

[idofxeno]

Oh and one more thing, I'm starting to think the problem with my hip flexor is bursitis, but I won't know for sure until I either go to a doctor or rule everything else out. But all indications to me are that it is in fact bursitis (bursitis iliopectinea). If the injury gets any worse I'm going to go to the doctor and insist on an ultrasound on the region so we can be sure what the issue is and then hopefully get a cortisone injection if that'll fix the issue.

[idofxeno]

*Wednesday*

Squats:
N/A - hip flexor

Incline Bench:
Warmup sets x 2
162 x 5
184 x 3*
- Missed the last 2 reps on incline. I find it absurd that I went from hitting all 5 reps last week @ 179, yet dropping 2 reps on a 5 pound increase the following week. I'm sure some of it is technique, but in any case, this is the second time in as many workouts that I've stalled on something, so I'm not sure what the deal is.

Deadlift:
Warmup sets x 2
302 x 5
345 x 5
-Strangely, this is the lift I thought I'd have trouble with today more than any other, just because 336 was so difficult last week. All 5 reps were pretty easy, even the last one wasn't as slow as the the first one was last week, so at least I feel like I made progress somewhere and the week wasn't a complete waste.

*Supplemental work*

Straight bar curls:
95 x 3 x 8


Notes: I feel pretty neutral about Wednesday in general. While I'm pleased with the fact that I performed well on deads, I'm pretty discouraged by the incline bench results. My gym partner didn't have too much of an issue with the inclines today, and we were around the same strength level until this week, so I feel like I'm playing from behind right now. He does weigh 20 pounds more than me, so I know some of it has to do with that but I'm not going to let that be an excuse. Gotta eat more, gotta stretch and foam roll more, and need to work even harder.

[upswing]

Hey man, sucks about the hip flexor and not being able to squat. Have you thought about going with a different lift to give it time to heal? Leg press will probably put less strain on your flexors and while it's not the same as squatting you'll be able to still progress and get through your workout (and not get demotivated).

[idofxeno]

Hey man, sucks about the hip flexor and not being able to squat. Have you thought about going with a different lift to give it time to heal? Leg press will probably put less strain on your flexors and while it's not the same as squatting you'll be able to still progress and get through your workout (and not get demotivated).

Definitely going to be working some leg press in before I get back to squatting, mainly for the reason you mentioned (less stress on the injury). I did leg press on Monday, and while my injury bothered me a little bit during the lift, it wasn't nearly as bad for it as squatting has been, and it didn't bother me at all immediately following the workout or on any of the days after. I'll probably not do them today when I get off of work, but I'll 100% be doing them on Monday, if for no other reason than to test where I'm at. I've given it a lot of rest and some anti-inflammatories so hopefully I'll see some progress with it Monday. My inclination is that, provided the injury has healed enough, the leg press will give it enough work to help it heal even faster without putting enough stress on it to move me backwards in the healing process.

[idofxeno]

Late on updates as usual.

*Friday*

Squats: N/A (hip flexor)

Bench Press:
Warmup sets x 3
184 x 5
215 x 3
157 x 8
- I decided to stay on the pace of my original plan and see if I could make up the strength gains. I was able to successfully hit the triple @ 215 lbs, but not by much.

Rows:
Warmup sets x 3
170 x 5
200 x 3
146 x 8


*Supplemental work*
Pullups
BWx15
BWx12
BWx10

Dips:
90 + BW x 8
90 + BW x 7
BW x 30


Notes: Was ok with the performance today. I'll say the weighted dips really did a number on my upper chest -- felt like I was going to die for hours afterwards. Felt like I was bruised underneath my clavicle and I was generally uncomfortable for most of the day. After I woke up from my nap I felt a lot better, but was still a little slow to get moving.

[upswing]

Killer workout bro. Strong everything!

[idofxeno]

*Monday*

Squats:
135 x 5
152 x 5
184 x 5
212 x 5
no fifth set
-I still say people who think detraining takes an entire month are full of ****. I felt weak as all hell on the fourth set. I probably could have managed 245 for a couple of reps maybe, but I definitely didn't feel very good overall. As for the hip flexor, I definitely still had something going on there, but I took 4 advil about 2 hours before my workout so it wouldn't be quite as intense. The pain was kind of weird for me this time, it didn't hurt nearly as much as it used to, but at the same time it felt like without the ibuprofen I would have been in absolute agony. Not sure what to attribute to what honestly. I can say that today (Tuesday), my hip flexor is not bothering me in the slightest.

Bench Press:
108 x 5
135 x 5
162 x 5
188 x 5
215 x 3
-Extremely disappointed. This leads me to believe that there was 0 strength gain from last week to this week, which is a big problem for me. I'm not sure if the stall is from too much accessory work, or just me getting to the point where linear progression is no longer working for this lift, or what the deal is. The first thing I'm going to try is to cut out all accessory work except for pullups/chinups. I'll give that a couple of weeks, and if that doesn't work, I'll move back two weeks and see if I can get some momentum going. If that doesn't work, I have no ****ing clue what I'm going to do.

Rows:
102 x 5
128 x 5
153 x 5
179 x 5
205 x 5

*Supplemental work*
35 reps each leg Bulgarian split squats with bodyweight only


Notes: Very discouraged.

[idofxeno]

So i made a pretty interesting observation while I've been messing around here at work tonight. I was watching some videos on pistol squats (I can't do them because I have literally the worst lower back/glute/ham flexibility in the business) and saw a modified way you could do them (using a bench so you don't have to hold your other leg out straight) and decided to see if I could do one. Tried one with my right leg, no problem. After walking around for a few I felt like I was doing my left leg an injustice by not doing one to even the sides up, but I was concerned about my hip flexor causing a big issue. Finally I just manned up and did one and to my surprise, I had almost no hip flexor pain at all.

What I have noticed is this: Apparently as long as I have no external (maybe it's actually internal?) rotation of that joint, I can go into full hip flexion and not feel any real pain. The problem with this is that you really can't squat with your legs close together because you have no gap for your stomach and chest to go through at the bottom of the squat otherwise, so you have to spread your legs a bit (This is that "external rotation" of the joint if I understand it correctly). Hip flexion with legs apart and toes pointed slightly out seems to be what triggers pain in the site of my injury for me.

I'm hoping someone with way more understanding of the human anatomy can put this together and tell me what they believe the actual issue may be. I still think it's a case of bursitis, but I'm not 100% positive on that either.
Any insight at all would be greatly appreciated, thanks.