David's back rehab and lifting

[Talltobig]

Your back must be starting to feel pretty good, yates rows and front squats FTW. Looking good in here David. Your Pats won another one yesterday, and Brady just looks like he is mad at the world and out to prove something.

Thanks for the props on the Falcons, I am very happy considering how bad we were the last 2 years.

Keep after it man!

Thanks! The back feels good, and the only setback has been these last couple of weeks with less rest and more stress. Loving the front squats. The Yates are much better for me than Pendlays and the RDLs are working great. I can't do a dead stop deadlift right now, but from the RDLs my back gets a workout and the hammies get a stretch for free. I like that you can go deeper and deeper with each rep.

[Talltobig]

Today:

1. WU

2. Front Squats 115lb 4x8

3. GMs 45lb 2x10

4. Bench 155lb 5x5

5. OA DB row 55lb 3x8

6. Standing BB curl 80lb 3x5

7. Pushups 1x31


Hopefully I wasn't stupid with the front squats, but I want to push forward a bit. Feels fine for now...

Felt good to do a 5x5 on the bench again. I will try to progress to my old 165lb 5x5 PR

[Talltobig]

This will be included in my new 5-week cycle (exercises are grouped by category not WO day):

Legs:
front squats 115lb start at 4x8 and progress to 4x12
front squats 95lb 3x10 stay the same
Reverse lunge 90lb 2x16 stay the same

Back:
RDLs 135lb start at 3x8 and progress to 3x12
GMs 45lb 2x10 stay the same (two times per week)

Press:
Bench 5x5 start at 155lb and progress to 165lb
Bench 145lb 2x8 stay the same
Seated DB OH press 40lb start at 3x8 and progress to 3x12

Pull:
Yates rows 95lb start at 3x8 and progress to 3x12
Yates rows 115lb 3x5 stay the same
OA DB row 55lb start at 3x8 and progress to 3x12
OA DB row 55lb 3x8 stay the same
Pull-ups (as many sets as needed to complete the reps) start at 26 reps and progress to 30 reps
Standing BB curl 65lb start at 3x8 and progress to 3x12
Standing BB curl 80lb 3x5 stay the same

Supersets:
Pull-up/dips 2x8/2x10 stay the same
Inverse rows/push-ups 2x15/2x25 stay the same


Ideas behind it:
Squat high reps (Dan John's mass gain method). Reverse lunge will be a good complement to the front squat.
RDLs for hamstring mobility and back strength. GMs on recovery days (I do these with a 45lb plate against my chest)
Bench 5x5 to get the form back. 2x8 to keep volume up. OH press is only needed one day a week.
For every push lift exercise, do at least two pull exercises. Keep tightening up the back and avoid inward rotation.
Pull-ups at the end of back WO days. Good for core, back and arms. BB curls for the arms.
Super sets: maybe not the most logical, but I enjoy them and they give a pump. If someone thinks they are dumb I will consider taking them away.
Push-ups: something tells me these are really good for the back and the whole body.

[Talltobig]

Today:

1. WU

2. Front squats 95lb 3x10

3. GMs 45lb 2x10

4. Bench 145lb 2x8

5. Yates 95lb 3x8

6. SS Pull-ups/dips 2x8/2x10

7. SS Inverse rows/push-ups x15/x25

[shaneinga]

Nice workout David! Pendlays and conventional deads are rough with the dead stop on each of them. It is great you have found suitable replacements, and both are great exercises.

Front squats are killer, and I still need to find a place to put them in on my routine.

Keep after it, it looks like you have a great plan in place!

[Talltobig]

Today:

1. WU

2. Reverse lunge 90lb 2x16

3. RDL 135lb 3x8

4. Seated OH DB 40lb 3x8

5. Yates 115lb 3x8

6. OA DB row 55lb 3x8

7. Pull-ups 26 reps (used 5 sets)

8. Standing BB curl 65lb 3x8

Getting to be very long between workouts and I'm still busy at work. I'll get to do another one on Monday cause I have the day off.

Good workout.

[Talltobig]

Nice workout David! Pendlays and conventional deads are rough with the dead stop on each of them. It is great you have found suitable replacements, and both are great exercises.

Front squats are killer, and I still need to find a place to put them in on my routine.

Keep after it, it looks like you have a great plan in place!

Thanks for checking in Shane! looking forward to getting into a more regular pace soon. Front squats are great. They'll put more pressure on your knees though, cause you bend them more than in back squats.

[raynerd]

Nice work David, new plan looks great. Hope things slow down a bit for you, but looks like you are making the best of the time you have

[JediRN]

checking in. You're making some nice progress.

Did you ever say what your back injury was?

[Talltobig]

Today:

1. WU

2. Front squats 115lb 3x9 (wanted 4 sets)

3. GMs 45lb 1x10

4. Bench 157.5lb 2x5 (going for 5x5 but stopped there)


Something is not working right.
Back pain returns, so I've been pushing it too soon and not really being honest about the signals my body was sending. Today, I was feeling something was off and then my benching was interrupted by severe headache, maybe from lack of sleep or maybe from back tensions radiating up.

Time to backtrack and see what I can do without hurting my back (this is what having an online journal can be good for). When I was limiting myself to 95lb, I was feeling my best. Maybe I just need to go even slower than I had planned. No big jumps forward.

I'm really annoyed . After giving up squatting in the spring, I dropped 7 precious pounds and I haven't been able to gain them back. I noticed some weight coming back after dialing up the front squat numbers lately, but my priority has to be feeling no pain in the back, because when I do, I just feel like crap. Just dial it back and move slowly I guess...

If the back isn't feeling good it just takes the fun out of training. I also feel like my training has become kind of randomized lately. Time to rethink things again!

I've been swamped in work the last month too. That should settle down now...

[shaneinga]

That sucks David. I am sure you will get it sorted and will find a way to get through it. Sometimes to get the square peg in the round hole, you just need a bigger hammer.

Good luck!

[Talltobig]

Nice work David, new plan looks great. Hope things slow down a bit for you, but looks like you are making the best of the time you have

Thanks Shawn! Should have more time moving forward from here.

checking in. You're making some nice progress.

Did you ever say what your back injury was?

Hi Jedi. Thanks!

A stupid hunched over lift of a heavy and awkwardly shaped object last spring. What I learned from reading up on it afterwards is that the real injury is actually years of incorrect movement patterns, tightness in some muscles and weakness in others. The back gets misaligned and then when the pain comes from lifting something heavy, it is actually more of a symptom of the injury than the actual injury itself.

I couldn't back squat afterwards. Things got worse and I had to drop the DL and all kinds of weighted squats. I started a back rehab program based on stretching the hams a lot and building up back strength with bodyweight exercises. Then I gradually started doing more stuff with weights and now it looks like I have to slow it down a bit.

[Talltobig]

That sucks David. I am sure you will get it sorted and will find a way to get through it. Sometimes to get the square peg in the round hole, you just need a bigger hammer.

Good luck!

Thanks Shane!

Psyched about your Falcons tonight? Looks like you have a great team this year!

[shaneinga]

Thanks Shane!

Psyched about your Falcons tonight? Looks like you have a great team this year!

Thanks David. I am ready for some football tonight, no doubt about that! Hopefully we can beat the Saints tonight. It is always a tough game between these 2 teams, but hopefully we can get out of there with a win.

[Talltobig]

Ok, so I looked through this journal to try to figure things out. It looks like I just bumped everything up to much at the same time with weight and reps.

This is a rough timeline:

Late July - late August (back felt ok during this time):
Incorporated Goblets, KB swings and after a while front squats with the bar. At the end I started doing GMs at 35lb. I was still doing a lot of the back rehab program at this point.

Late August - late September (back felt great during this time):
Incorporated lunges 70lb, Yates 65lb and upped the front squats to 65lb. I did a lot less of the back rehab program now, but replaced it with light weighted exercises. I was suddenly able to front squat 95lb and had no back pain from it. I added RDLs 95lb and upped the Yates to 95lb.

Early October (back pain came back):
I increased the reps on everything and the weight on most things and I put too many high rep exercises into the same WO days. I guess I was too excited from the progress in the previous cycle.


How to fix it:
Some back rehab first.
Then, do what I did in September and start increasing at a slower rate.


My bodyweight is 187lb. Maybe I have to accept that for now and maybe that will be my weight this fall. My first priority has to be the back and then I can take it from there.

[JediRN]

Thanks Shawn! Should have more time moving forward from here.



Hi Jedi. Thanks!

A stupid hunched over lift of a heavy and awkwardly shaped object last spring. What I learned from reading up on it afterwards is that the real injury is actually years of incorrect movement patterns, tightness in some muscles and weakness in others. The back gets misaligned and then when the pain comes from lifting something heavy, it is actually more of a symptom of the injury than the actual injury itself.

I have so much to learn.

[Talltobig]

Checking in to my own journal . I didn't stop training or anything, but after some setbacks I had to go back to some basic rehab and that doesn't make interesting journal entries.

I will pick up this journal again when I have some more specific goals. Right now it's more random and I'm figuring things out.

Some kind of interesting notes: I stopped using protein power (I used to take in 40g of protein per day that way) and didn't loose any weight. I guess it makes me hungrier to not drink it so it offsets any potential benefits.

I have to keep up training with more variety. Every second workout should be for mobility and health. I realized that I can keep up my bodybuilding goals without complications this way, because the "soft" day in between will just aid recovery from workout days and I can hit it harder on those days.

I will return to the forums later when I have some more things figured out

[shaneinga]

Good luck David! I am sure you will get it sorted and come back with a good plan.

[Talltobig]

Good luck David! I am sure you will get it sorted and come back with a good plan.

Thanks Shane!

Dang it, my response got accidentally deleted. I was saying something about how the things I though I knew about training are being turned upside down. For instance, after not benching for 14 days, I increased my weight on 5x5 bench. Funny to be in this child-like state where I realize that I really don't know as much as I thought.