04/22
Front squat: 4 x 315x5
Bench: 5 x 135x20
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04/22
Front squat: 4 x 315x5
Bench: 5 x 135x20
04/25
Single-leg front squat to box: 5 x 55x5 w/ slow, controlled eccentric
A piece of my rehab puzzle, here. At first I could do these easily on my good side and barely on my bad side. After doing some warm up and activation and careful cueing, I was able to do a working set on my bad side. By the fifth set, they were fairly easy. Still noticeably easier on the good side.
[i]If I had to guess[/i], I've got some hip tightness and issues caused by instability, not immobility, and working these hard today 'opened up' some of that good hip health.
Now, my plan is to work the single leg squat until my hips seem stable again, alongside t-spine mobilization and core work (anti-flexion, rotation, and anti-lateral flexion). Unfortunately this may not address issues like compensations (like TFL) but I actually don't know and I'm skeptical of more clam shells and x-band walks.
04/30
Bench: 2 x 225x10
Incline: 5 x 205x5
Beltless RDL: 315x5, 405x1, 3 x 315x10
RDLs weren't happening today. I'm starting to lose my will, here. I can't believe how subtly debilitating this injury has been.
05/02
Belt squat: 115x10, 160x10, 205x10, 215x10, 220x10, 3 x 250x10
Front squat unrack: 4 x 405x(30 seconds)
Strict DB row: 3 x 100x8
Palloff press and raise: 3 x (black band)x8
05/03
Hypers: 5 x BWx20
CG w/ feet off bench: 3 x 225x8
Super set with:
Face pulls: (old red band)x15, 2 x (old red band)x10
Super set with:
Lu raises: 3 x 10x8
One arm DB OHP: 70x5, 2 x 70x4
05/04
Hip belt squats: 3 x 255x10
Wide grip RDL above knees: 3 x 225x20
Hypers: 3 x BWx20
05/06
Hip belt squats: 260x8, 3 x 260x10
Hypers: 5 x BWx20 + 20ct hold
Bench: 2 x 230x10
Incline: 5 x 210x5
Face pulls: 3 x (old red band)x12
05/09
Hip belt squat: 3 x 265x10
Single-leg SLDL: 45x10, 95x10, 115x10, 135x10, 155x10, 3 x 175x10
Hyper hold w/ twists: 3 x BWx(60 seconds)
05/10
Rehab squat w/ 3-ct pause: 45x5, 3 x 135x5
Rehab squat: 3 x 135x10
I think this is huge. I had a big epiphany with my hip issue. I set these up with a band pulling my bad knee forwards fairly hard. These were tough even at such a low weight.
05/11
Rehab front squat w/ 2-ct pause: 225x3, 225x3, 245x3, 275x3, 315x3
05/13
Bench: 2 x 240x8
Incline bench: 5 x 215x5
Front squat: 185x6, 205x6, 225x6, 245x6, 5 x 185x8
Round back SLDL: 3 x 45x30
Side plank: 3 x BWx(60 seconds)
Messing around with weight and form to look for pain-free squatting. Modest luck, not great.
The round back SLDLing is a new attempt to clean up the mess that is my low back and hips. I felt great after and had a ton of new hamstring mobility, so I'll see how I feel after some sleep.
05/14
Band assisted Nordic curls: 3 x BWx10
Round back SLDL: 45x30, 3 x 55x30
05/15
Split squat: 3 x 185x10
Round back SLDL: 3 x 65x30
Super set with:
Side plank with leg raise: 4 x BWx10, BWx15
05/17
Bench: 3 x 185x20
Split squat: 3 x 195x10
Band assisted Nordic curls: 3 x BWx10 -- last time (0D0H), this time (1D2H)
Round back SLDL: 45x15, 3 x 75x25
+ a bunch of hollow core work
Silly Nordic curl code is just a shorthand for my future reference, since these are technically getting harder over time and it'd be nice to see how I'm improving. First is how many notches down from the top band anchor (0 down is 0D, 1 down is 1D, etc.), and the second is how many hand-widths I'm choked up on the band (the edge is 0H, one hand up is 1H). The anchor point makes a huge difference, so I plan on dropping it and moving a couple hand widths up, until I can do it from the edge and drop the anchor again.
I don't think it'll be too hard to build up to these unassisted.
05/21
Bench: 2 x 250x8
Incline bench: 5 x 220x5
Neutral pelvis and glute warm up
Beltless highbar: 225x3, 275x3, 3 x 315x4, 315x5
05/22
Neutral pelvis and glute warm up
Beltless highbar: 3 x 235x5, plus some other work at 225 and 275 to feel out form
Beltless RDL: 3 x 225x15
05/23
Beltless lowbar: 3 x 315x6
Pull ups: 3 x BWx12
I have a really nice rehab routine now. Basically my strategy is to gently warm up/use hip musculature to relieve tightness and try to achieve some balance, then I load it. Very little stretching because I'm starting believe things seize from dis-/mis-use and weakness, not mechanical stiffness.
It changes day to day, but right now it's: supine psoas march (TVA/core & psoas), cook hip lift (glutes), seated band adduction (adductors), and seated band abduction (abductors). It's feeling really good and I think this will finally pull me out of this injury. These squats lately haven't been heavy but they have been pain free and consistent, which I couldn't say about the other rare attempted squats in the past half year.
05/24
Beltless highbar: 225x3, 2 x 275x5, 275x10
Beltless highbar w/ band around knees: 235x3, 315x4, 225x3, 245x3
Beltless highbar w/ band pulling sideways: 245x3, 3 x 275x3
Playing around with addressing the shifting. Looks like the 245 with band pulling sideways is my sweet spot for now.
It happens regardless of weight, though, so something is up other than strength. Maybe a side-effect from nursing my hip injury for so long (avoiding loading the leg).
05/25
Overhead press: 4 x 155x5, 155x8
Some quick upper work, it was too late yesterday. Leaving for the weekend, next squats will be on Sunday evening. Going to try something like 3x5 with 225-245 with the band pulling left to see how clean it looks. I'll probably squat daily for the next four or five days following, still aiming to clean up the pattern post-injury. Still doing core/pelvis rehab twice a day.
05/26
Glute bridge w/ 5-ct pause: 130x3, 3 x 230x5
Glute bridge: 230x10
Tempo glute bridge (2,2,2): 230x10
05/27
Bench: 2 x 265x5
Incline: 5 x 225x5
Tempo glute bridge w/ band around knees: 3 x 225x5
Beltless highbar: 135x5
Beltess highbar w/ band pulling left and 3-ct pause: 2 x 135x5
Beltless highbar w/ 3-ct pause: 135x5, 225x8
I'm getting shifting even with the bar, and even with the band, so building up at low weight won't fix this. I'm suspecting it's either a serious mobility issue after the injury, or an issue I've always had injury-or-no (so maybe structural etc.).
I've got some ideas, but this is a tough one. I don't think that I should be squatting any decent weight until I figure this out though.
I've been doing a bunch of squatting, but nothing worth logging. It's not coming together and my will is flagging a bit again.
Anyway, keeping my head down and doing what I can.
06/03
Bench: 2 x 275x5
Incline: 225x5, 225x4
Saw another sports med. Not supposed to do any lower work for a few weeks. This time it's looking fairly promising, fingers crossed.
Larsen press: 6 x 255x2
Pull ups: 3 x BWx10
And some deadbugs and adductor stretching.
Still having a lot of issues squatting, but I'm going to try to build it up again...
Last week I did beltless RDL at 3 x 315x10 and some benching with 225.
08/09
Beltless low bar to high box: 2 x 315x5, 315x10
08/10
Bench: 3 x 225x10
I found a bad area in my right QL that might be contributing to my squat issues. Hit it with the Therecane and it feels pretty good. Hopefully this and partial ROM, careful squatting—and a boatload more patience—will help.
08/11
Decided it made more sense to use a belt for now. Rebuild with as many factors controlled as possible, and go from there.
Low bar to high box: 2 x 315x8, 315x15
Doing rehab with someone new, not logging because it's incredibly boring. I think things are improving as incredibly slowly as always.
I am cleared to RDL and bench.
09/17
Rehab stuff
Beltless RDL w/ straps: 3 x 315x5
09/18
Rehab stuff
Bench: 3 x 225x8
09/26
Rehab stuff
Beltless RDL w/ straps: 2 x 315x8, 315x9
09/27
Rehab stuff
Bench: 3 x 225x8