War Among Worlds

[DOMSPOWER]

Yesterday's conditioning in the quarry was awesome. Focus on as vertical as possible shins on the way up helps more than I know.

Walk up and down hill 15 minutes straight

Walk back up stairs and then down and up twice with rest between

Back down and walk around enjoying the views for 15-20 minutes

Walk back up and all the way up then over to some bars where I did a few pull ups and push ups which revealed that my left serratus is really tight now.

It probably just need to adapt to working the loose and weak right side serratus.. mininalism will be key.

So today I replaced an arm day with home work, then had to help a friend and just now before bedtime I did this:

Band rows with fairly high elbows 3x15

Band kick back a little bit 3x15

Every set followed by 20 bent leg raises lying on the floor

Tomorrow I'm thinking deadlift and bit of arms. This better help me get right and the serratus better be good by then

[DOMSPOWER]

Today has better quality and feel, so the heavy weights are incoming

Deadlift
5x3x60
3x90
8x2x110 in 7 minutes

Seated Leg Curls 3x10x70lbs

Incline Curls
8x6
2 supersets of 8x12 and then with hammer grip 15x6

Getting the stretch with different load ranges and targeting my weak fragile long head bicep more with the lighter weight sure ****ed me up good. I believe this may be a new secret, as well as a great way to tear the bicep off the bone if one has too much ego.

[DOMSPOWER]

Today was a screw around and heal session

Dead hangs 3 sets 3 different grips

Oblique coaster 3x12x20kg

Lying cable front raises all the way overhead 3x20 with 3 different grips randomly spread out

Stationary bike 15min

Back raises 2x14

I honestly think that was it because of how beat up my serratus, lats and hams are

[DOMSPOWER]

Today I squatted some weight again

Barbell 3x10
Very high box, higher than halfway down
2x5xbar
8x60
3x80
2x100
5x120 little free PR LOL

All the way down doesn't have pain but feels kinda off. Low range of motion helped me feel out little wrong doings and fix them. Extremely useful for my legs even as my serratus made my torso wonky

My way of working on that:
Band neck extensions
5kg flat dumbbell bench
3x10 supersets

It's very hard to get my right top serratus in the game and keep it in, but she's still satisfied

[DOMSPOWER]

Today is a day for reflection. I sat for longer, trained later and then ended up training longer.

Band Rows 6x15

Band leg lifts side and back 10 reps but only 5 reps for the adductor where I felt a small weak spot up high in the left leg. This explains why it often seem like my left glute is weak when it's actually strong

Lying leg and elbow lift with band against my feet 2x10

Then walked to the store and bought a 2L diet orange soda, walked to the park and trained some more

3 supersets:
Underhand grip Inverted Rows 5reps
Walking Lunges 3, 4, 5 reps

Felt much better than expected so added these 3 supersets:

8 rows same kind
Run one lap around the park
Probably less than 200 meters combined running but it was great to move like that again after so long without it



Follow the message that lies deep within.

[DOMSPOWER]

Today's session was 2 hours and maybe bit more, cos I'm coming up again

Goodmornings with some arch some neutral spine
5x8xbar
2x5x40
2x5x60
5x80 great arch maybe a PR since I'm not doing the power version these days
5x85 broke form on almost all reps

Arch is hard and my weak hamstring makes it hard to work on that, unless maybe I try a seated style and also the last exercise went a long ways with this issue

Seated Leg Curls 3x10x70lbs

Side Bends 3x15x12

Suitcase walk 25+ steps over and back 3x20kg

Still had over half an hour to go before I could catch my bus so I tried Phelps Rows

Phelps Rows is an exercise where you allow your chest to cave, then force it back out to extend your upper back again

I did it with an SSB
15xbar
15x40 much easier than I thought it would be
8 sets of 15x80kg

I thought it would be good for maybe 3 sets and ended up doing 80

I firmly believe I might never get a spine injury again

Knees to elbows 3x10 in 2 minutes

I feel great

[DOMSPOWER]

I'm feeling my serratus both sides after yesterday, but they're actually doing better in spite of that. Or because of that.

Warm up back raises, reverse flies and dead hangs

Bench narrow grip
10xbar
Close grip
2x10xbar much better positioning and feel
2x5x40
3x60 eeeaaasyyy
2x80
90

Very easy but smaller muscles in my shoulders need to adapt to the weight so I can control it better and touch low enough not to over tuck

Incline Dumbbell Front Raises 10x10x3
Awesome exercise

Cable Rows 5x12x8 plates

Reverse grip Pushdowns
50x6 plates
22x8
25x9
16x10

10min on the bike cos I wanna use my legs and am bored lol

[DOMSPOWER]

Today called for quarry work and avoidance of serratus loading

Walk up and down hill few times
Run 3 times
Sprint once

I think my cardiovascular endurance is a lot worse than I thought. When speed fell my body wanted to just stop immediately.

Back up the stairs and then 3 sets of down and up

I was a wind winded after that.

But I'm ready to run for pastime

[DOMSPOWER]

Yesterday I did some bike, lat recovery, light shrugs, hit the bag for 15 minutes (it was awesome) and 5 sets of forearms. Today I did so well I stopped early cos I don't wanna risk messing it up.

Squats
3x5 slow and neat
High box (but closer to parallel this time)
5xbar
5x60 great control
3x80
2x100
3x120 PR? Since I've only done singles here I think

Toes curl together sometimes and so knees caved just a little bit on the last rep. Easy otherwise.

Leg Press on my toes 5-6x5 no weight and slow

Pull ups
6-7x2 slow and making a point to not "dislocate" the shoulders and to tuck the elbows over the lats

Made me feel great all over my torso!!

Leg Curls 3x10x70lbs

I might also do slow 5's on bench and cut out the heavy single altogether for a while so I can really triple down on the muscle connection and work capacity part of it all

[DOMSPOWER]

Today was a bit slow and bench was the slowest. It turns out that when I can feel all moving parts, I can also feel and heavily use the weakest most fragile parts like I'm supposed to

Pull ups 7x2

Bench
3x10xbar not so slow
5x5x30 slooooow

Decline flys 3x12x2

Machine rows 3x10x30

Reverse flys 3x10x7

[DOMSPOWER]

Today was very slow again, specially on deads which ended on 4-5 sec up and down on almost all reps

Pull ups 6x2

Deadlift
3x5x60
3x3x90

Slant board Arched back Goodmornings
3x8xbar
3x8x40

Side Bends 3x10x16
- this is the best a side bend has ever hit me

Hanging knee raises 3x5

I'm starting up my previous training split next week and squatting twice a week.

[DOMSPOWER]

Today is a good day

Pull ups 6x2

Bench
5x5xbar
4x5x25

Roared lightly on that last slow rep

Reverse flies 4x10x7
- damn effective for regaining movement in my shoulder

Reverse grip Pushdowns
13x3 plates
2x12x6
Felt it a lot in my ribs

Incline Hammer Curls 3x10x5
The fatigue in my long head down into my elbow and forearm was surprising. Then again, this is the exact muscle that bothers me.

Going slow sure does make a difference

[DOMSPOWER]

Had a date last night. She was very sweet and agreeing over text and very disagreeing face to face.. this morning I looked and was blocked LOL.

Good riddance

High elbow band rows 5x5

Neck extensions 2x10
- much harder since going slow the past several workouts has been tough on my neck muscles

Band shrugs 4x12

Band hips 3 ways 3x10

Didn't do abs cos they're so affected by all the great improvements, they actually felt a bit like I had done ab stuff after these exercise were done.

[DOMSPOWER]

Man it's hard to get off the box without momentum. But the control over the right muscles and the healing effect is unreal.

Pull ups 6x2 at 7:30am and then online class and I arrived in the gym at 1:30pm

Squat
5xbar
High box
2x5xbar
5x5x40

Deadlift 3x5x60

Like 3-6 seconds up and down every single rep on both exercises. And higher end almost every rep.

Calf to toe Press 3x5xno weight on the leg press machine and damn I got a calf cramp in my first set

Side Bends 3x10x18

Hanging bent leg raises 3x5

I left the workout looking back at all the times over a number of years when I'd have great workouts like these with light weights and more control, no pain, great recovery and then go straight back to chasing records and make excuses that this time the pain will go away.

[DOMSPOWER]

Today I really got a hold of that weak part of my serratus and realized it happens most with correct upper back technique, so the decline flies are kinda useless now with all the time under tension that spot is getting just from the upper back and bench work.

Reverse fly 3x10x15lbs

Pull ups 6x2 getting better and better now

Bench
3x5xbar
5-7 sets depending on whether I counted very right or very wrong x31,1kg

I was ****ing shaking going slow while holding tension in the right places

Machine Rows 3x10x30

[DOMSPOWER]

I'm doing better and better now, as today I only had to walk the hill once before I could run it once and then sprint it thrice

Walked back up the stairs, then down and up again with short rest and that was it

But when I walked the steps up out of the quarry, and I saw the improvements in my technique while feeling the fatigue in the right way in my legs, I knew that I didn't stop early today.

I stopped right on time.

[DOMSPOWER]

I'm starting to get used to going slow, so today only took an hour. Since my body is doing better, it's beginning to feel like the baby weights they actually are and it's harder to keep speed down on bench. On incline curls i felt tons of fatigue in my right arm in part of the reps, and each set had it go further into the forearm.

Reverse flys 3x10x15lbs

Pull ups 6x2

Bench
3x5xbar
5x5x25

Reverse grip Pushdowns
15x6 plates PR
2x10x7 PR

Incline Hammer Curls 3x10x5

[DOMSPOWER]

The safety squat bar is a lot easier to get below parallel while keeping shins vertical with, and it feels very healthy for my knees to pause without a box due to the tension in the inner thighs

Pull ups 6x2

Paused SSB Squats
3x5xbar
5x5x30 funny how the last two sets were off sometimes when that didn't happen on box squats 4 days ago

Slant board Goodmornings
3x5xbar
3x5x30

This is hard on the shoulders and gets to my weak leg spots without the need to stretch hard and **** my hams up

Side Bends 3x10x20
Funny how the weight I need keeps missing and then I have to use a heavier one

Hanging bent leg raises 3x5
- making it harder every time by bending less on more of the reps

Calf to toe Press 3x10xno weight and it was much better this time

All this time I've been trying to find ways to go heavy and turns out I'm not even ready to go fast

[DOMSPOWER]

Tonight I slept only 4 hours and I had a bit of uneven lifting, but I can also tell my left lat is getting brought up proper and fast, and I don't have to go quiet as slow beyond removing momentum these last few days, so I'm very happy with today's work.

Reverse fly 3x10x15lbs

Pull ups 6x2 so good

Paused Bench Press
4x5xbar
5x5x32,5

Very good idea to do tiny weight jumps instead of just repeat the same weight both Monday and Friday with a 2,5kg jump

Machine Rows 30kg x10, 10, 12 good progress in coordination

You all know how I'm training and progressing now, so I'll keep at it for about a month now. During this time I might add in a bit of weekly arm and shoulder work, and I might have a small home workout on the four main days to help speed up recovery and the volume adaptation process. Then I'll work up to some kind of single at normal speed or at least not as slow and get back in here with the result.

[PhDPepper1111]

Glad to hear of the recovery - totally hear you on the sleep struggles!

[DOMSPOWER]

Glad to hear of the recovery - totally hear you on the sleep struggles!

Thanks but I don't think I struggle that much with sleep deprivation. Most times I just work slower, ha

Today I squatted 120kg for a double on high box squat and it definitely wasn't a max

Then arched back Goodmornings 8x60 and 2x8x80 for good feels

Squatting below parallel and benching more than once a week probably isn't a great idea for me, but sled pulling, shoulder press lockouts, overhead walks and rotator cuff work is!

[DOMSPOWER]

My torso needs a break so I thought I'd go light today, but no apparently I'm stronger but just need to do fewer sets per exercise

Reverse fly 2x20x14lbs no more need to go super slow for 10's

Bench
2x10xbar
2x5x40
5x50
3x60
1x
70
80

Apparently my shoulders do a lot better with barely any reps with even as low as just 5 reps

2x15 machine rows and underhand pulldowns to get some rest from the deadhangs

Then I finished off with perhaps THE greatest exercise for my recovery

6-7 or maybe even 8 walks with a 4kg kettlebell held to shoulder height with just one arm at a time

The good feeling they gave me in my shoulders and ribs is incomparable to any other exercise, and I was sore as hell in my upper chest about a half hour later. That's apparently how light I've needed to go to build back my shoulder stability in the bottom of all presses

[DOMSPOWER]

Moving boxes and sprinkling in a little bit of hill sprints, sled pulls and assist exercises on week days to then go hard on barbell work in the weekend is working extremely well this first week

Yesterday:

Deadlift
3x5x60
3x110
1x
140
140 - fixed hip shift that had bothered me a lot of the day
160
180

4 plates came off the ground when I did an aggressive pull to get my lats tight before actually starting the lift

Very high box squats 4-5x6x40 to feel good

Gave one of the biggest strongest guys some help and now he asked when I'm training and if he can join me

Saw him two years ago when he asked for a spot on bench with under 3 plates and just recently he said he got 4 in spite of a bad shoulder that he ended up getting an injection in a week ago

Today:

Deadhangs 4x15 count

Bench
3x5xbar
5x5x40

Finally got a hold of my pec attachment in a way that is actually healthy and now everything is MUCH better including my gait

Seated very steep incline lockouts
10xbar
5x40
3x5x50

Plenty time spent holding the weight as well. Extra sec or two here and there, 10-15 count of the last rep on every set

Semi supinated chins 6x2

Machine Rows 4x12x50

Much easier to have my hands low on my torso on both bench and row today after I began using my pec the right way

Reverse fly 3x12x14lbs
- just not much left to fire with

10 minutes working the bag, some high kicks quickly loosened my adductor a lot

[DOMSPOWER]

The two past workouts were amazing

Yesterday:

Pike push ups bend until a tough position and hold for 10-15 count

Superset 12 band rows going half way or bit more, stopping when lats say stop to maintain tension in the right spot

3 supersets ending deep on pikes and 15 reps on rows

Then high elbow row with lighter cable 2x12

Simple and extremely effective

Made me feel so much better at work today after which I did this with my 4 plate bench friend:

Sled pulls 25kg
Walk with dead stops one way and walk kinda fast back the other way
3 sets

Showed him the importance of hip hinge and helped him tap into his hamstrings with empty bar RDL's to make the rest of the workout better (he's coming back from some pain and injury issues)

One legged kick back machine 3x5x30lbs
Going slow and intense hold and the top with even hips and ALL the way up plus going slower when it gets hard
Extremely underrated, it really taps into glutes, hams and even quads

Leg Curls 3x10-15x20, 20 and 25kg

I just wanted some blood in the hams and bit of wellness for weak spots to keep some skin in the knee for work, but he teased me by pushing against me on the last set to get back at me for doing it on him.... And it felt surprisingly comfortable, like a more consistent strength curve that the muscles and tendons could relate to

What I had him do was this:
Leg curls 10+ reps
Knee extensions 10+ reps
Hip flexor stretch which I did with him

I resisted the weight to make it a lot harder on the way down and towards the end I also lifted it up for him. it was torture. He had to stop because he knew I was gonna take the sets all the way that he could possibly endure

And I encouraged him to do so, cos he's been training less recently while recovering and I want him to come back better from the light blood flow and endurance demand

[DOMSPOWER]

I'm really getting some use out of the weak muscles in the bad leg these days

High box Squat
3x5xbar
3x5x40 basically just flushing out soreness with extra warmup
5x60
5x2x80

Endurance lacks far more than strength in weak spots, but this was actually comfortable vs the 2x120kg which was uncomfortable

SSB Goodmornings
8xbar
8x40
5x60
5x70

My hamstring was running low so better to stop fast than to force a fake illusion of progress

Leg Extensions 2x12x30lbs wellness
Superset Side Bends 2x10x24 ****ing hell on my ribs

It's funny how I'm lifting things at work in a warehouse 3-4 days a week, but I don't think I've felt fatigue in my abs even once. Ab work is harder on ribs and left hip flexor than my abs. So I haven't trained them for like 3 weeks until now, and I must say the weak spot in my rib cage is absolutely destroyed now. Also, I'm doing dips sometimes at work now, it's getting closer and closer to safe and natural.

[DOMSPOWER]

Ribs are still ****ed but my body is moving so much better from tapping into those fibers

Deadhangs 3x10 count

Bench
3x10xbar
5x5x42,5

Seated Press Lockouts
8xbar
5x40
3x5x52,5

Machine Rows 2x15x55