Putting me back together

[SilverSun]

Figured it's about time I start a journal after all of the lurking I do

Bit of background: I've spent a lot of time playing contact sports over the last 10 years or so, with some weight-lifting thrown in here and there. Never did the lifting seriously, which is a shame when I think of how much it could have helped to have a proper routine to support them...but such is life.

A long while back I started running SS and loved it. Saw the numbers go up nicely, moreso for my squat and deadlift because my upper body had a lot of catching up to do. Around the time I hit 140-150 lbs in my squat, I noticed I wasn't quite going parallel anymore. Oops. Reset lower, focusing on form, and started to climb back up. Then summer hit and, well, like any good trainee I took lots of time off for travelling and laying around with tasty sugary drinks

After the summer, I came back in Sept. and started from scratch to ease back into it. Hit some weird form problems that I worked out thanks to help from some wonderful ladies here and the numbers were getting close to before. Then I hurt my back/shoulder doing BB rows one day. Not that long after, I pulled my right hip flexors in an aerial silks class. Physio helped but I started compensating with my left leg more than I should have and re-ignited an old ham injury. I was a wreck In the last month, the hip flexors pretty much feel healed but my shoulder and ham flare up often if I'm not careful. This means I haven't added any weight since then and have dropped back a bit because my body can't handle it right now. Right now lifts are back down to:

squat - 120 lbs
bench - 80 lbs
rows - 85 lbs
ohp - 65 lbs
dl - 175 lbs

For my own sanity, I need to switch to a different program. I seem to be able to handle high reps with lower weight pretty well right now so I settled with HST. It looks like it's out of vogue these days, but my thinking is in one cycle I get 4 weeks of higher reps with lower weight before I'm back to sets of 5 reps again. Hopefully in that time I can slowly bring up my injured body parts, helped by stretching/rehabbing everything that's all tight now.

Spent this morning figuring out my 15 rep maxes for the lifts I'll be using. Will post them later. First thoughts: fuark that's a lot of reps! feels like forever by the time I hit 10 and realize I'm only 2/3 done the set. This will be interesting.

So yeah, that's that. And holy long post Batman! If you made it this far, I congratulate you

[thehobbes]

IN! Good luck getting healed up from those injuries, I know how much that can set somebody back. 15 rep sets...... lol that would be brutal for squats and DL, 4 weeks of that shouldn't be too bad though, form should straighten up a lot from doing that I'd think.

Yeah stretching all day erry day, brb breaking out into IT band stretches in the middle of Costco just because.

[SilverSun]

Yeah stretching all day erry day, brb breaking out into IT band stretches in the middle of Costco just because.

Haha preeeetty much. I work a desk job so should be stretching my legs/everything more than I do...have yet to think of a way to do it that wouldn't get met lots of stares from coworkers

[SilverSun]

For anyone interested, background on HST can be found here: http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_notes.html
This guy also had a clear journal where he recorded the process for him: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=112839161

Spent my gym time Wed and yesterday figuring out my 15 and 10 rep max's for the exercises I'll be doing:

squat - 70lbs x 15, 100 lbs x 10
bench press - 20lb db's x 15, 25lb db's x 10
SLDL - 85lbs x 15, 120lbs x 10
BB rows - 65lbs x 15, 75lbs x 10
leg curls - 65lbs x 15, 75 lbs x 10
ohp - 15lb db's x 15, 22.5lb db's x 10
bicep curls - 12.5lb db's x 15, 15lb db's x 10
tricep pushdowns - 20lbs x 15, 25 x 10

I already know my 5 RM from previous workouts so didn't spend time with those. Yesterday it became clear I won't be able to do the SLDLs and rows back-to-back...my lower back is fatigued by the time I start the rows so I may have them switch places with the ohp so there's some break in there.

This weekend it looks like I've taken a break from my cut as I've eaten way more food than normal. Walking around after dinner it felt like I was waddling and tomorrow's a family gathering so lots more food again. I'll be all energized come Monday!

[SilverSun]

Yesterday was the official Day 1

Squat: 50lbs x 2 x 15
BP: 15lbs x 2 x 15
SLDL: 60lbs x 2 x 15
BB rows: 45lbs x 2 x 15
Leg curls: 40lbs x 2 x 15
OHP: 10lbs x 2 x 15
Bicep curls: 10lbs x 2 x 15
Tricep pushdowns: 15lbs x 2 x 15

As before, bp, ohp, and bis all done with db's...

Initial thoughts: It felt like one of those workouts where you swallow your pride as you look at everyone else around you lifting way more. Super easy, except for a couple of the second sets where I start to get tired. But more of an "omg this is a lot of reps" tired vs. "omg no way I can lift this" tired. I can see this being more challenging as the weight goes up though.

Good news is back/shoulder felt good. Yay!
Bad news is left ham did not. Boo! I can feel the tightness in it vs. my right one when I do the SLDLs but otherwise it felt good throughout them. After the leg curls is when it started aching again. At the end I followed up with lots of stretching and foam rolling, which really helped a lot. My quads have been quite tight lately and releasing them seems to make my ham feel better than anything else does. Gotta find me some studies that look at the roles antagonistic muscles play in muscle pain...

[SilverSun]

I should probably take a moment to point out that I probably won't be able to write in here on a fixed schedule. I do a lot of activities outside of my house so when I'm actually home to relax I don't like to spend so much time on the computer. So much to do, so little time!

That said, here's the notes from my last two workouts:

HST Day 2 (Wednesday)

Squat: 55lbs x 2 x 15 (+5 lbs)
BP: 15lbs x 2 x 15
SLDL: 65lbs x 2 x 15 (+5 lbs)
BB rows: 50lbs x 2 x 15 (+5 lbs)
Leg curls: 45lbs x 2 x 15 (+5 lbs)
OHP: 10lbs x 2 x 15
Bicep curls: 10lbs x 2 x 15
Pushdowns: 15lbs x 2 x 15
(+ warmup where appropriate)

HST Day 3 (Friday)

Squat: 60lbs x 2 x 15 (+5 lbs)
BP: 17.5lbs x 2 x 15 (+2.5 lbs)
SLDL: 70lbs x 2 x 15 (+5 lbs)
BB rows: 55lbs x 2 x 15 (+5 lbs)
Leg curls: 50lbs x 2 x 15 (+5 lbs)
OHP: 12.5lbs x 2 x 15 (+2.5 lbs)
Bicep curls: 10lbs x 2 x 15
Pushdowns: 15lbs x 2 x 15
(+ warmup where appropriate)

I'm still flying through parts of the workout like with the rows, but others are slowing down a little. Friday I put in more warm-up sets for the SDL's and leg curls to help my hamstring ease into them. Seems to have worked for the most part, because I didn't walk away aching afterwards. It was tight after the work though, but loosened up again as the day went on. Lots of stretching both days with some foam rolling. My IT bands have stop making me want to cry when I foam roll them so I'm happy. Back is also happy. But then I go and slouch on my couch in random positions and it doesn't like that.

As a side note, my gym closes down 3 weeks from now and I still haven't decided where I'm going to go when that happens. I was pretty upset when I heard the news because it's very clean, the equipment is kept in great shape, and I can (almost) always find a free rack. The location is super convenient too and the other gyms they're encouraging members switch to are much further away. I'll have to spend some time this week or maybe next weekend touring them and making a decision. Ooorrrr I could cheap out and infiltrate the local student gym what to do what to do...