Tiggerwool's Muscletech Clear Muscle Log

[Tiggerwool]

Great to hear you are back at it and feeling better. those stomach bugs can really take it out of you.

It's brutal! I can't think of much worse...

[Tiggerwool]

Another good workout yesterday, though again I did not have enough time to complete the Friday marathon. Just got the big three in

Squats
315x3x3

Bench
185x5x3. My shoulder is still acting up. I don't dare push it.

Deadlift
315x3x3. I can do much more here, but the nausea crept up on me.

You know, after nearly 2 weeks of not having a 100% effort workout, and the crazy body aches...I still don't get any DOMS worth mentioning. Certainly the sell point of ClearMuscle.

[Tiggerwool]

Moved the normal Monday workout to Tuesday due to conflict with my workout partner. Also significantly lightened the weights as I have been getting a bit nauseous during workouts lately. I just have simply not recovered from what I had a couple of weeks ago.

Some other notes…On Saturday a very old friend, my son, his girlfriend and I went on a hike in the Uintah Mountains. A beautiful place less than an hour from my house known as Alta Ski Resort – the only place in America (maybe the world) that only allows skiers. Snowboarders pack down the snow and make it less desireable than without boarders. Anyway, the hike is normally only 300 feet in elevation, however the trail head parking lot was full, and the bus that takes folks from the base to the trailhead was taking forever, so we started at the base. Base elevation is 8350 feet. Cecret Lake is at 9750, so a pretty good hike in about an hour. The whole thing, hike up, enjoy the view, hike back, drive the jeep back up the trail to pick up son and girlfriend because she was getting blisters, etc. took about 3 hours. Great day and a pretty decent workout, even though we were used to ~4200 ft in Salt Lake. The out of towners were easy to spot.

Anyway, I had seen my chiropractor the week prior and mentioned my shoulder issues. When she checked it out she thought it might actually be the top of by biceps tendon. Strange that it manifests itself during dips, bench, military presses, but not on curls or chins. So I took that with a grain of salt. Well, this old friend of mine is a medical doc, specializing in pain, usually spinal. He checked it out and said the same thing – that the pain is certainly coming from where the biceps tendon attaches, but after a quick ‘move your arm this way, put pressure here’ check-up on the trail, he said I wasn’t exhibiting any biceps issues. When I mentioned military presses he just about blew a fuse. “Never, ever, ever, lift anything above your head”…he went on and on. “Develop the shoulders through shrugs, rotator cuff stuff, lateral raises, etc” Now, this guy is one of the brightest guys I know, and he’s not your typical “I believe the crap they spewed in Med school” doc. Again, grain of salt. But for now, I’m doing bench dips instead of real dips. Significantly cutting back on the weight on benches, and cutting the military presses out completely until this thing heals. On to the workout…

-all with 60 secs rest-
Squats
185lbs X 8 reps X 3 sets

Bench
135lbs X 8 reps X 3 sets

Dead
185lbs X 8 reps X 3 sets

Assisted pullups/bench dip superset
3 reps X 3 sets, 8 reps X 3 sets I felt SUPER strong on the pullups. Should have done 5-8 instead. Will fix that next time

Curl/tri pushdown superset
50lbs X 8 reps X 3 sets, 50lbs X 8 reps X 3 sets

Bent over rows
95lbs X 8 reps X 3 sets

Due to the lowered weights and removal of military presses I was able to complete the workout in 31 minutes, a full 10 minutes faster than ever before. The workout felt great though. Feels good to (almost) get back to where I was before.

[Tiggerwool]

My workouts lately have been subpar unless Drod is there to motivate me (damn shoulder is just depressing). So, we moved Wednesday's workout to Thursday, so this is that update (apologies for how late this is). Speed day. Just 5 sets of 5 reps as fast as you can...Squat, Bench, Dead, with 3 minutes rest in between sets.

Squats -
185lbs X 5 X 5. Reduced these a bit.

Bench -
135lbs X 5 X 5. This will be the last bench I do for a while. My shoulder is so inflamed that the only thing I can do that resembles a push is pushups with my elbows tucked into my ribs. Unfortunate

Dead
225 X 5 X 5. These felt great.

[Tiggerwool]

As I mentioned in the last post, I did the Wednesday workout on Thursday, but I kept the Friday workout on Friday. I'm 45, and there is no way I can workout back to back unless I'm rotating push/pull or upper body/lower body...doing isolations, etc. However, I have had no problem doing back to back workouts while using Clear Muscle. You just don't get DOMS. I did notice a bit of strength loss on squats, though. Also, the normal Friday workout is nearly 2 hours if done right. I had 30 minutes, so I had to just stick to Squats and Deads....with a few pushups mixed in, as I can't do bench until this shoulder heals.

Squats
315 X 3 X 3. I think had I not worked out yesterda I might have been able to raise this weight.

Some elbows to ribs pushups. I didn't count. Just did them slow and controlled, ensuring that my shoulder was not involved at all

Deads
315 X 3
365 X 3
385 X 3. Just a few weeks ago I could only do 1 rep here. Now I can do 3...however I did have straps yesterday where I didn't when I attempted it last.

[Tiggerwool]

On Tuesday we once again did the Monday workout. Really pushed it this time, drenched in sweat by the time we were finished. Once again I avoided the military press, and substituted the bench and dip:

Squat:
185 X 8 X 3

Elbows to ribs pushups –
BW X 12 X 3

Deads:
240 X 8 X 3

Assisted pullups/bench dips
5 P/U, 8 bench dips X 3 Getting stronger on the pullups

Rows:
95 X 8 X 3 – keeping the weight light and concentrating in the lats

Tri Pushdowns / cable curl superset
50lbs X 8 x 3

For the next two days both my hams and lats were sore, probably because of doing 24 reps of 240lb deads in about 3 minutes. It’s the first DOMS I’ve experienced on ClearMuscle since week 2, I think.

[Tiggerwool]

Did the “Wednesday” workout yesterday, no workout partner. As a reminder, reps are done powerfully, as quickly as possible, keeping weight around 50% of max, while resting 3 minutes between sets.

Squat:
205 X 5 X 5

Elbows to rib pushups:
BW X 5 X 5 (I know…hey, with the way my shoulder feels, it’s good just to get the blood through it)

Deads:
225 X 5 X 5

Simple, quick workout. Went to the Chiropractor this morning, and she could feel the difference in my shoulder. The swelling has reduced significantly, and so has the pain. But there is no way I am going 100% until this shoulder is 100%. Overall feeling very good though. Pulling and legs feel as good as they ever have.

[emergency]

good plan not going all out until the shoulder is 100% nice weight on the squats and deads

[Tiggerwool]

Went to the Chiropractor again Friday morning. #1 complaint is still the shoulder, so they spent most of the time on one of those tense unit things. Feels great. For the first time in a while, left enough time in the schedule for the Friday workout, but that gets easy when you do pushups instead of max bench, bench dips instead of real dips, and skip military presses all together. Sigh....

Squat
315 X 3
325 X 3
335 X 3
Best I've done in a while

Just a few sets of pushups to get some blood i to the shoulder

Deads
315 X 3
365 X 3
395 X 3
I don't think I've ever done 395 X 3...since my previous 1rm was 410...

3 sets of 8 assisted pullups and 8 bench dips

Rows
135 X 3
165 X 3 X 2

EZ bar curls w/ back against wall and skull crusher superset:
3 sets of 95lbs, 5 reps each

Overall this was a great workout. Her I am typing this up Monday morning from my Friday workout log, and I didn't have any DOMs all weekend. Saturday and Sunday my shoulder felt much worse though. Better today.

[Tiggerwool]

good plan not going all out until the shoulder is 100% nice weight on the squats and deads

Thanks, E! Did even better in Friday.

[Tiggerwool]

So, I take stock of how much ClearMuscle I have left and realize that I'm almost out! That I haven't written my review or posted pics! CRAP! I will get on that today

Here I am starting week 9, where we get a big shake up. Instead of 3 workouts per week, we now have 6 (kind of). 5 straight days of the brutal, 60 sec rest, 'Monday' workouts. There are a few small changes, but since I can't do anything with chest I've been modifying what I can do anyway

Yesterday's workout started great, then quickly went all to hell:

Squats
185 X 8 X 3

3 sets of 12 elbows to ribs push-ups

Deadlifts
240 x 8 x 2
240 x 2
And there you have it. My lower back locked completely up and would not release for the remainder of the workout. So not only did I not do bench, dip, or military presses, but
I couldn't do rows either

Pull-ups/ bench dips
BW x 8 x 3

Tri push downs/ cable curls
50lbs X 8 x 2
60lbs x 8

I've seen this happen in a couple other logs. Does anyone have a workthrough? Should. I be stretching more to start? Foam rolling after it happened seem to be the best resolution.

[Tiggerwool]

Tonight, I did the exact same workout as last night, except this time not only did my lower back seize up, but so did my triceps. I had only completed the first set of pushups! So, why did I cramp up in the last two workouts and the first few 8 weeks ago, but not in between? Them it hits me.... CARBS! When I started this log, I was low carb. I hadn't had any carbs before tonight's workout (except for leafy greens) in about 20 hours. Same thing last night.

So, to prove/disprove my theory that you have to have pre-workout carbs for ClearMuscle to do it's thing, I'll have so e oats a few hours before tomorrow's workout.

[emergency]

Tonight, I did the exact same workout as last night, except this time not only did my lower back seize up, but so did my triceps. I had only completed the first set of pushups! So, why did I cramp up in the last two workouts and the first few 8 weeks ago, but not in between? Them it hits me.... CARBS! When I started this log, I was low carb. I hadn't had any carbs before tonight's workout (except for leafy greens) in about 20 hours. Same thing last night.

So, to prove/disprove my theory that you have to have pre-workout carbs for ClearMuscle to do it's thing, I'll have so e oats a few hours before tomorrow's workout.

Hope you get things worked out in the carb dept.