There is no spoon

[shaneinga]

I hate it when I eat something and it doesn't live up to expectations. Doubly so if it is BBQ. Luckily I have some damn good BBQ places near me and it doesn't happen often.

Good luck with your shoulder healing up and hopefully you can get back after on Monday after the rest.

[blue9steel]

I hate it when I eat something and it doesn't live up to expectations. Doubly so if it is BBQ. Luckily I have some damn good BBQ places near me and it doesn't happen often.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't amazing either. On the plus side, I tried some high ABV cider recently that was pretty decent. Twice the alcohol for the same calories:

https://2townsciderhouse.com/cider/the-bad-apple/

Good luck with your shoulder healing up and hopefully you can get back after on Monday after the rest.

Thanks. I most likely did it to myself. With the current amount of discomfort I don't think I tore anything so some rest and caution should take care of it. As I get stronger my problem areas tend to move around as I expose new weak points. A couple of years ago it was my knee that was really giving me a hard time.

[blue9steel]

Recumbent Bike-60m@15-476(336)cal on Friday morning.

I barely even notice my shoulder until I try and use it the wrong way (which includes sleeping on it) but the discomfort is definitely still there. Not comfortable if I raise my arm like a lateral raise, same thing with lateral or vertical rotation as I approach the limit as well as if I pick up anything with just the right arm that needs a fair bit of shoulder stability. Based on some online reading my best guess is rotator cuff tendinitis. I'm already on the right track by resting it, I'll do some reading on rehab and see if I'm up for that some time this weekend. I probably need to go through my routine and put in more work for my external rotators.

[blue9steel]

Recumbent Bike-60m@15-461(325)cal on Friday evening.
Recumbent Bike-60m@15-503(355)cal on Saturday evening.

[blue9steel]

Monday May 4 - Recovery Day A
--------------------------------------
SSB Squat 3x5x135
Bent Rows 3x8x95
GHR(Purple) 3xRP SETS: 5 5 5
Tribar Bench T+50xRP SETS: 10 10 10
Roman Situps 3xRP SETS: 10 10 10
Curls EZ+20xRP SETS: 12 12 12

Recumbent Bike-60m@15-523(369)cal on Sunday morning.

The good news is that my shoulder is improving, unfortunately it's going to take longer than I originally hoped. Until then I've decided to do recovery workouts to try and get the blood flowing without putting too much pressure on my shoulder. This morning I didn't try and push too hard weight wise, just ran through the exercises at a fairly easy pace. So far so good. I'll slowly increase the intensity and variety of exercises as I go.

[blue9steel]

Tuesday May 5 - Recovery Day A
--------------------------------------
SSB Squat 3x5x140
Bent Rows 3x8x100
GHR(Purple) 3xRP SETS: 6 6 6
Tribar Bench T+50xRP SETS: 11 11 11
Roman Situps 3xRP SETS: 11 11 11
Curls EZ+20xRP SETS: 13 13 13

Recumbent Bike-45m@15-377(266)cal on Monday night.

Shoulder continues to improve, going to put together a 2nd recovery workout to add some exercise variety.

[blue9steel]

Wednesday May 6 - Recovery Day A
-----------------------------------------
SSB Squat 3x5x145
Bent Rows 3x8x105
GHR(Purple) 3xRP SETS: 7 7 7
DB Hammer Bench 3x12DPx35 SETS: 10 10 10
Roman Situps 3xRP SETS: 12 12 12
Curls EZ+25-3x12DP SETS: 10 10 10

Recumbent Bike-45m@15-371(262)cal on Tuesday night.

Switched out the tricep bar bench for hammer grip dumbbell bench and upped the weight, that went well. My shoulder is making steady but slow progress, starting to look like it's going to be weeks instead of days until it's fully recovered. On the plus side the recumbent bike and lower calorie target are having a pretty positive impact on my weight.

[blue9steel]

Thursday May 7 - Recovery Day A
----------------------------------------
SSB Squat 3x5x150
Bent Rows 3x8x110
GHR(Purple) 3xRP SETS: 8 8 8
DB Hammer Bench 3x12DPx35 SETS: 11 11 11
Roman Situps 3xRP SETS: 13 13 13
Curls EZ+25-3x12DP SETS: 11 11 11

Felt a bit tired, no bike last night.

[blue9steel]

Friday May 8 - Recovery Day A
------------------------------------
SSB Squat 3x5x155
Bent Rows 3x8x115
GHR(Purple) 3xRP SETS: 9 9 9
DB Hammer Bench 3x12DPx35 SETS: 12 12 12
Roman Situps 3xRP SETS: 14 14 14
Curls EZ+25-3x12DP SETS: 12 12 12

Recumbent Bike-45m@15-368(260)cal on Thursday night.

[blue9steel]

Recumbent Bike-45m@15-355(250)cal on Friday night.
Recumbent Bike-60m@15-515(363)cal on Saturday morning.

My shoulder is making excellent progress, I'm going to cautiously start exploring other exercises next week at light weights to see how that goes. While I've been in recovery I've spent some time reading and I think it's time to redo my training program. I've pushed my current model about as far as it's going to go and gains have slowed down. I'm feeling pretty well rested this week which makes me believe I've been overreaching / under-recovering. After doing some reading and thinking basically I've come up with a program that is mostly a blend of beyond 5/3/1 & powerliftingtowin / Juggernaut with a bit of Westside / bodybuilding / olympic lifting sprinkles.

The original 5/3/1 template is pretty good but even Wendler admitted it had a few flaws and these are reasonably summarized by Narvaez:
1) Overall intensity is too low
2) Insufficient frequency for main lifts
3) Not enough volume
4) Deloads are too frequent for anyone who isn't an elite lifter
5) Not enough auto-regulation

Wendler suggested the following changes in Beyond 5/3/1 that address much of that:
1) Joker sets or singles from the powerlifting template, heavier assistance in some templates
2) First set last or BBB variation
3) Deloads every two meso cycles
4) Frequency is partially fixed on some templates but not others
5) Auto-regulation is partially addressed on Jokers/FSLs but somewhat haphazard and not very well explained

So abstracting out the main ideas, here's what I'm going to do:
1) It's a minor quibble but I think the idea of a training max is silly for anyone who doesn't compete so I translated the percentages to real maxes
2) All my calculations use the Brzycki Formula so I can easily plug it into a spreadsheet, weights are auto rounded down to the nearest quarter pound since I have fractional plates
3) Basic 5/3/1 wave progression at somewhat heavier percentages (80%, 85%, 90%, 60%) vs. (76.5%, 81.0%, 85.5%, 54.0%)
4) Warmups use plate math instead of percentages and are only as many sets as I feel like I need, which is usually one except for squats
5) Basic setup is Warmups -> AMRAP set -> Heavy set -> Backoff sets
6) Backoff sets are auto-regulated using RPE (8@9, 5@9, 3@9), so for 3@9 do triples until you can't get three with good form
7) To help with frequency but keep the weekly format I put in an assistance day and alternate exercises
8) I prefer pull/push over upper/lower so I reformatted with that
9) There will actually 8 main lifts in the progression scheme (2 per day except on assist day): Bench, OHP, Squat, Dead, Pullups, Bent Rows, SSB Squats, Romanian deadlifts.
10) Heavy sets will only be one set at fixed reps and +5% intensity (3@85%, 2@90%, 1@95%) so basically at the end of the cycle I'll set a new PR for each lift but at 95% it's only slightly heavier than the triples I've been doing so it's nothing crazy. Heavy sets only get done if you beat the AMRAP minimum, which should be nearly always but if for some reason I don't then they don't get done that week.
11) Instead of waiting till the end of week 3 and bumping by a fixed weight, each week will be auto-regulated using the AMRAP result from the previous week to adjust the max calculation
12) Deload only after two meso-cycles (6 weeks)

I'm still playing with the details a bit, but here's the initial exercise layout (not in order on each day yet):
Pull
---
Romanian Deadlift
Pullups
T-bar rows
wrist roller
trx rev flies

Push
---
SSB Squats
Bench
DB Pullovers
Calf Raises
incline laterals

Pull
---
Deadlift
Bent Rows
Chinups
Roman situps
face pulls

Push
---
Squat
OHP
Dips
band good mornings
external rotators

Assist
---
Power Clean / GHR
Front Squat
Banded Bench
V Pulldowns
plate raises

This should be interesting, I haven't actually done any percentage based training before but I'm going up slowly enough at this point I think it makes sense. Currently I'm not planning any block structure outside of the three week wave (like the Juggernaut program) as I don't think I need that level of complexity quite yet.

[blue9steel]

Apparently the recumbent bike is pretty awesome and their calorie calculator isn't nearly as optimistic as I assumed. Based on my weight loss since starting to bike regularly the adjustment factor looks a lot more like 1.2 than the 1.42 default I normally use for cardio gear. It's a more expensive unit, so that may be why. That is fantastic and means I'm going to have go to extra effort to ensure recumbent bike stays a regular part of my routine as it's very efficient time and effort wise for the amount of calories burned. Best guess I'll be back to my pre-quarantine weight by next weekend.

My calorie intake hasn't really improved much though my new target certainly makes it more obvious when I'm over, still averaging around 2250-2300 a day. Grubhub and my wife's continued baking certainly isn't helping. I've lost about a pound since I started using the bike regularly despite that.

Since the adjustment factor may vary I'm going to stop recording net bike calories and just put the meter reading in my log, adj numbers will only be in my spreadsheet.

[blue9steel]

Monday May 11 - Pull Day A
--------------------------------
Pullups(Blue) 3x5
TRX Rev Flies 3x5
T-bar Rows 3x5x45
Romanian Deadlift 3x5x95
Wrist Roller 3x3Ex25

RBIKE - 60m@15 - 547 - Sunday morning
RBIKE - 30m@15 - 262 - Monday morning

Ok, so the purpose of this week is to just run through the new exercise rotation with trivial weights. The intent is just to see how my shoulder reacts to the ranges of motion with some loading. Today went well, though I didn't feel like I was working very hard so I threw in some time on the bike afterwards. For exercises which are pretty shoulder safe like SSB Squats I'll push the pace a bit more and see how that goes. Hopefully next week I should be able to start being more aggressive and get at least up to warmup weights or very light training loads. At this point I'm itching to start moving some weight again as soon as it's safe.

[shaneinga]

Good luck with the shoulder. They are such a PITA sometimes. You should probably add in some light banded warm up work before you doing any OHPs. There are a ton of videos on youtube that have a lot good vids on these.

[blue9steel]

Good luck with the shoulder. They are such a PITA sometimes. You should probably add in some light banded warm up work before you doing any OHPs. There are a ton of videos on youtube that have a lot good vids on these.

It's recovering nicely thanks, I think I'll be back to normal in a few weeks. I agree on the banded work, figuring out the best way to do that now.

[blue9steel]

Tuesday May 12 - Push Day A
-----------------------------------
Calf Raises 3x20x95 (SS Bar today)
SSB Squats 3x95, 3x160, 3x165, 3x170
Bench 3x45, 3x65, 3x3x95
Incline Laterals, 3x5x5
DB Pullovers 3x5x15

I did vertical & horizontal band pull-aparts with the orange micro band after each set of all exercises (3 pulls each way). I can definitely feel the impact of that even in my good shoulder so I think I'm on the right track. I'm going to do a bit more reading but that's likely the model I'll use going forward is super-setting a different band work exercise with each lift.

My shoulder is getting better steadily. Laterals, pullovers and bench were a little uncomfortable but no real issues. For calf raises I could get under the bar , hurrah!, but it didn't feel like a good idea yet so I used the Safety Squat Bar instead.

[blue9steel]

Wednesday May 13 - Pull Day B
-------------------------------------
Chinups(Purple) 3x5
Roman Situps 3x15DPxBW SETS: 15 15 12/3
Bent Rows 3x8x120
Face Pulls 5x15DPx30 SETS: 10 10 10 10 10
Deadlift 5x135, 5x225, 3x315 Double Overhand, 3x315 Mixed Grip SETS 3/3 3/3

Also did some band work, mostly pull-aparts. Shoulder continues to recover nicely, started to feel more confident in ramping up the weights a bit but I'm still proceeding very cautiously. A bit of discomfort on chinups at the hang but not the pull along with some minor twinges using mixed grip on deadlifts but everything seemed to go well as I warmed up. Doing some additional research on how I want to program assistance work volume / intensity, looking into some auto-regulation possibilities but I haven't quite decided yet.

Oh, and I actually finished reading Wendler's 5/3/1 & Beyond 5/3/1 books. I've read lots pieces before but never the entire books.

[blue9steel]

Thursday May 14 - Push Day B
-----------------------------------
OHP 3x5x65w45
Squats 5x135, 5x175, 5x180, 5x185 *SS Bar today
DB Ext Rotators H&V 3x10Ex5
Band GM(Lg Purple) 3x5x45 *SS Bar today
Dips(Green) 3x5xbw

I did band work between most sets. OHP was fairly uncomfortable but doable, going to be extremely cautious with that. I was able to get under the bar for squats but it still didn't feel good enough to proceed. I did several practices of getting under the bar to warmup then switched to the SS Bar for the work on both Squats and Good Mornings. I'm not a fan of SSB Good Mornings, I'll be dropping that as soon as I can. A bit of discomfort on dips but it was ok using a band to keep the weight light.

I'm not sure I liked the DB External Rotator work, I felt like I was getting better results from the band work I was doing between sets of the other exercises. I may replace that exercise with something else.

I'm pretty sure I'll be able to use more weight on the majority of exercises next week as I continue to recover. Looks like full recovery is still a ways off though.

RBIKE - 60m@15 - 519 Monday evening.
RBIKE - 30m@15 - 251 Tuesday evening.
RBIKE - 45m@15 - 363 Wednesday evening.

[blue9steel]

Friday May 15 - Assistance Day
---------------
Front Squat 3x5x45
Banded Bench 3x5x45
Plate Raises 3x10x10
Power Clean / GHR(Lg Purple) 3x5x75 / 3xRP SETS: 10 10 10
V Pulldowns 3x12DPx80 SETS 10 10 10

Well the good news I'm back to doing all exercises except things that require a bar on my back and I was close on that. The goal for next week is to start ramping the weights, paying close attention to how my shoulder feels as I do that.

Did band work between sets, need to figure out how to record that properly.
RBIKE - 45m@15 - 387 Thursday evening.

[blue9steel]

RBIKE - 45m@15 - 365 Friday evening.
RBIKE - 60m@15 - 521 Saturday morning
RBIKE - 60m@15 - 527 Sunday morning

On the plus side all this cardio has helped me counteract my quarantine weight gain, I'm now back to where I was before the lock-down. I tend to watch YouTube while I'm cycling and at least half of that is training videos so I'm getting some extra education as well. Right now I'm watching a lot of Alexander Bromley from Empire Barbell, he seems to know what he's talking about and the videos are pretty easy to listen to.

[blue9steel]

Monday May 18 - Pull Day A
---------------------------------
Pullups 1x5 (Green) 1x5 (Lg Purple) 1x5 (Sm Purple) 3x5xbw
TRX Rev Flies 3xRP SETS: 6 6 6
T-bar Rows 1x5x95, 1x5x135, 3x5x180
Romanian Deadlift 1x5x135, 1x5x225, 3x5x315
Wrist Roller 1x3Ex50, 1x2Ex75, 2x3Ex65
Band Work (red) 2x3E4 **Was slacking a bit today and didn't remember till the end.

Shoulder is making great progress. I'm not back up to full weights yet, but at least it's no longer trivial loading. It felt like I actually had a workout today, though it was more like a deload than a normal session.

[ElrondHubbard]

Monday May 18 - Pull Day A
---------------------------------
Pullups 1x5 (Green) 1x5 (Lg Purple) 1x5 (Sm Purple) 3x5xbw
TRX Rev Flies 3xRP SETS: 6 6 6
T-bar Rows 1x5x95, 1x5x135, 3x5x180
Romanian Deadlift 1x5x135, 1x5x225, 3x5x315
Wrist Roller 1x3Ex50, 1x2Ex75, 2x3Ex65
Band Work (red) 2x3E4 **Was slacking a bit today and didn't remember till the end.

Shoulder is making great progress. I'm not back up to full weights yet, but at least it's no longer trivial loading. It felt like I actually had a workout today, though it was more like a deload than a normal session.

I like the systematic way you're handling this whole healing process. Quite well thought out and scientific, even.

[blue9steel]

I like the systematic way you're handling this whole healing process. Quite well thought out and scientific, even.

I'm looking at it as physical therapy, Marine Corps style. Movement is good, uncomfortable is ok and should be pushed through but if it hurts like you're injuring something don't do it. It's all a bit frustrating, but hey time is going to pass either way. I figure if I'm stupid now it'll cost me later so it's worth the effort to do it right.

[blue9steel]

Tuesday May 19th - Push Day A
------------------------------------
Calf Raises 5x135, 5x140, 5x145
SSB Squats 5x135, 5x175, 5x180, 5x185
Bench 5x45, 5x95, 5x100, 5x105, 5x110, 5x115
Incline Laterals, 8x8, 8x10, 8x12
DB Pullovers 8x15, 8x20, 8x25, 8x30, 8x35
Band Work (red) 9x3E4 (read that as 9 total sets, 3 reps per set each arm, four different exercises, horiz / vert pull-aparts and horiz / vert rotators)

I was able to get under the bar for calf raises today. It was uncomfortable but with a bit of warming up and sliding my grip out to the jhooks I was able to make it workable. Weights moved up cautiously on all exercises. I left some in the tank but things were going well and I didn't want to mess it up by getting too aggressive too soon.

[blue9steel]

Wednesday May 20th - Pull Day B
---------------------------------------
Chinups 5xLg Purple, 5xLt Purple, 5xbw, 5x5, 5x10
Roman Situps 3x15DPxBW SETS: 15 15 13/2
Bent Rows 8x95, 8x125, 8x130, 5x135, 5x140, 5x145
Face Pulls 5x15DPx40 SETS: 10 10 10 10 10
Deadlift 5x215, 5x315, 5x320, 5x325, 5x330
Band Work (red) 6x3E4

[blue9steel]

Thursday May 21st - Push Day B
--------------------------------------
OHP 5x45, 5x65, 5x75, 5x85, 5x95
Squats 5x45, 5x95, 5x135, 5x155, 5x175, 5x185
DB Shrugs 5x10x35
Band GM(red) 3x5x95
Dips 5xLg Purple, 5x5xSm Purple
Band Work (red) 6x3E4

OHP is still uncomfortable but less so than last week, was able to move up a bit. Getting under the bar is getting easier but my grip is still out at the J Hooks for squats / GMs. I was able to start moving some weight on real squats and band good mornings today, nothing like full load but headed in the right direction. Dips felt ok but a bit risky so I moved up slowly, that went well.

RBIKE - 45m@15 - 371 Monday evening.
RBIKE - 45m@15 - 384 Tuesday evening.
RBIKE - 45m@15 - 383 Wednesday evening.

[blue9steel]

Friday May 22nd - Assist Day
-------------------------------------
Front Squat 5x45, 5x65, 6x85, 5x95, 5x115, 5x135
Banded Bench (red) 5x45, 5x65, 3x5x95
Plate Raises 3x15DPx25 SETS: 10 10 10 10 10
Power Clean / GHR(Sm Purple) 5x95, 5x115, 3x5x135 / 3xRP SETS: 6 6 6
V Pulldowns 3x12DPx90 SETS 10 10 10
Band Work (red) 6x3E4

I'm pretty happy with my progress this week, loading is starting to come back up on most exercises. The plan for next week is to keep pushing the weights up back towards normal, though I expect that to take several more weeks.

RBIKE - 45m@15 - 368 Thursday evening.

[blue9steel]

Monday May 25 - Pull Day A
---------------------------------
Pullups 5xbw, 5x5, 5x10
TRX Rev Flies 3xRP SETS: 7 7 7
T-bar Rows 5x190, 5x195, 5x200
Romanian Deadlift 5x320, 5x325, 5x330
Wrist Roller 3x3Ex70w50
Band Work (red) 6x3E4

[blue9steel]

Tuesday May 26 - Push Day A
----------------------------------
Calf Raises 5x150, 5x155, 5x160
SSB Squats 5x135, 5x190, 5x195, 5x200
Bench 5x45, 5x95, 5x120, 5x125, 5x130, 5x135
Incline Laterals 5x10x12
DB Pullovers 8x40, 8x45, 8x50, 8x55
Band Work (red) 6x4E4

Making good progress across the board. I was able to get under the bar and do calf raises with a normal hand position today for one set but decided it was more comfortable with my hands out at the jhooks still so did that on the other others. Not much pain on bench today but I'm feeling clicking in my right shoulder so I'm still working that up slowly. Laterals felt better with more volume instead of more weight. Pullovers are going well.

I've been watching some videos by Mike Israetel lately, that guy really knows his stuff. Bought a copy of scientific principals of strength training and I'm working my way through that now. I've already figured out that my previous fatigue management system was setup ineffectively and that my planned new routine would have have just continued that problem. I'm going to mostly focus on recovery for a few weeks while I learn some more and figure out what I need to do next. The small amount I've already learned explains why I was so tired on my prior routine and feel so much better right now while I'm effectively deloading. I knew my periodization knowledge wasn't quite where it needed to be and now I'm starting to figure out some of the details I need to go to the next level.

RBIKE - 45m@15 - 354 Friday evening.
RBIKE - 45m@15 - 502 Saturday morning.
RBIKE - 45m@15 - 504 Sunday morning.
No bike on Monday, was busy at a social event.

[blue9steel]

Wednesday May 27 - Pull Day B
-------------------------------------
Chinups 5xbw, 5x15, 5x20, 5x25
Roman Situps 3x15DPxBW SETS: 15 15 11/4
Bent Rows 5x150, 5x155, 5x160
Face Pulls 5x15DPx50 SETS: 10 10 10 10 10
Deadlift 3Ex315, 5x335, 5x340, 5x345
Band Work (red) 6x3E4

Weights continue to move back up, recovery is going well. Fatigue levels are starting to rise as well, keeping an eye on that.

RBIKE - 45m@15 - 404 Tuesday evening.

[blue9steel]

My wife woke up in the middle of night Wednesday with extreme nausea, by Thursday morning I was sick too. Had a nasty headache and was exhausted all day, no training. Friday I'm feeling a bit better though still tired. Best guess we caught something at the party earlier in the week. If I feel up to it I may do some light biking over the weekend but likely no weights until Monday.