Witty log title

2.5.3

Front Squat
60 2x5
80 3x5

Done as a DL primer

Conv. DL
70 2x5
110 x5
130 x3

Nope...

Pendlays
70 4x10

Pull Ups
BW 3x8

30 min of banded hip stretches

Was supposed to hit 165 x1-4 deadlift but that wasn't happening. My lower back has been incredibly fatigued for the past week or more, just right at the very top of my glutes, almost behind my glutes below and either side of my tailbone. I've been denying it to myself for the past week but no more. So ... I'm going to have to take a forced week off. There's no pain, nothing acute, just a dull tiredness. My quads and especially my glutes are knotted to shít as well so that isn't helping.

So the plan for the week is to do 3 upper days with no movements that put any strain on the lower back—bench, pull-ups, chest supported rows, and maybe some light pressing—and spend the other 4 days doing mountains and mountains of hip mobility and core work. I had Alf's recovery running through my head as I was about to do my next deadlift warm-up set, so thanks Alf: you might have saved me!

If any one has any good core activation drills I'm all ears.

Alf Veedersane

I do a lot of stretches for lower back now as well but the likes of bird dogs, ASLRs etc are good for before deadlifts.

Any of the list of exercises I did on Wednesday and Friday in my log would be good core exercises

Alf Veedersane

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

I do a lot of stretches for lower back now as well but the likes of bird dogs, ASLRs etc are good for before deadlifts.

Any of the list of exercises I did on Wednesday and Friday in my log would be good core exercises

What confuses me is that rolling out my glutes with a baseball gives me relief, so I'm not sure it's even my back that's the problem. Seems to be around my L5/sacrum so better safe than sorry. God I wish I could afford a physio.

Alf Veedersane

gvn wrote: »

What confuses me is that rolling out my glutes with a baseball gives me relief, so I'm not sure it's even my back that's the problem. Seems to be around my L5/sacrum so better safe than sorry. God I wish I could afford a physio.

That's pretty much what I injured.

Alf Veedersane

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

That's pretty much what I injured.

Good wake up call I'm sure. Something I need to be woken up to myself.

Alf Veedersane

gvn wrote: »

Good wake up call I'm sure. Something I need to be woken up to myself.

Was just a function of not taking a week of no sleep and living on coffee and cookies and not taking the consequent fatigue into account.

Alf Veedersane

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Was just a function of not taking a week of no sleep and living on coffee and cookies

A new baby will do that! Belated congratulations, by the way.

Alf Veedersane

I'd definitely recommend the core work though. I'll be keeping them involved at least once a week when I'm back in the swing of things

Bench
All paused
110 x2
100 3x4

Press
65 3x5

DB Bench
30kg DBs 3x12

Plan is to hit my back with plenty of volume tomorrow, possibly test my bench on Friday, more back volume on Saturday, then kick off the programme again on Monday. Lower back is feeling 90% better. Still a little fragile.

Pull Ups
+25kg 3x5
+15kg 3x6
BW 3x8

Plate-loaded Row
Wide grip 50kg e/s 3x12 e/s
Narrow grip 50kg e/s 3x12 e/s

Rear delts 7.5kg DBs 5x12
Face pulls pin 90 5x15
Pull aparts x100 total

Mid back was DOMS'd to bits from yesterday's benching. Surprising...

Bought 2 tubs of Ben and Jerry's. Ate 2 tubs of Ben and Jerry's in about 15 minutes. Oops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuxvsXAewhA

90s-tastic series by Ed Coan (there's one for each of the lifts). Makes for some good watching.

Fry rashers in a pan.

Remove rashers, add a generous slice of butter (~20g), and fry some veg in the rasher grease and butter goodness. Dice rashers and throw in with veg (I use spinach, peppers, onion, mushroom).

Remove veg. Scramble 6 eggs in the rasher grease + butter + veg juice goodness. When the eggs are scrambled, throw everything else back in.

Throw on plate, top with some diced avocado and some hot salsa.

The result:



~1300kcal, 75p, 87f, 48c of deliciousness.

Bench
All paused
117.5 x1 ... easy 5kg PB

Press
60 3x8

Pull Ups
+20kg 5x5

Face pulls - pin90 3x20

Bench is feeling very very stable and solid: 117.5 moved smoothly and felt light in my hands. Aim was to hit 115 before Christmas but I think I can optimistically revise that to 122.5 with the way things are feeling. Bit of a milestone too: weight in raw was 93.5kg so that's 1.25x BW.

Back is feeling 100% again so gonna do some light squats and deathlifts on Monday.

Conzy-inspired-ridiculously-oversized-burger-gains.



From bottom to top: fried spinach and red onion, burger, cheese, rasher, burger, fried egg, reggae reggae sauce. x2. Calories = I've no idea. Protein = a lot. Carbs = enough.

coffee_cake

DROOL

I may have to make one tomorrow

Squat
120 3x5

Front Squat
90 3x5

DL
120 2x5

First time squatting or deadlifting in about 2 weeks so kept it light. Felt grand. Squats felt a bit heavy but smooth.

Did a session with COH this morning. An hour on the benefits of seated calf raises vs. standing calf raises. Plenty of food for thought.

In reality though, I now know how to brace. Humbling experience—working up a sweat with an empty bar. Bit shocked at the realisation of how little I was actually bracing before this. I'm amazed I haven't blown out my spine before now to be honest!

conzy

That standing calf raise in raw is a one way ticket to snap city!

Alf Veedersane

conzy wrote: »

That standing calf raise in raw is a one way ticket to snap city!

The seated one...well, I won't go into specifics but suffice to say I once had too much weight on it and tried for One. More. Rep. and got kinda stuck and raising it back so I could put the bar under it took a bit of time.

That said, it was good for lolz. Even for me.

Waste of a session today. Squatted 135 x2, deadlifted 140 x1, front squatted 115 x2, and did some roll outs. Squat feels completely different so it's going to take a little while to get up to speed with it. Low, low back felt strained deadlifting so I had to stop, but any strain was completely alleviated by the front squats and roll-outs, funnily. Can't wait to get back on to a programme from Tuesday. Diet has been completely shíte and will remain shíte until Tuesday. I blame supervalu and their €3 tubs of Ben and Jerry's. That should be illegal. And I say this as I'm stuffing my face with cookie dough.

Back on the wagon.

1.1

Squat
120 4x6

Deads
127.5 2x6

Front Squat
100 4x6

GHR
BW 3x12

Tried to do some rollouts but my core felt like it was going to rip in two. No lower back pain so that's a good sign... I could actually deadlift more than 60kg this time without it feeling like my lower back was going to explode.

Did an experiment and dropped creatine for about a week and a half. Lost 1.5kg and about 1.5cm from my thighs. Madness! Decided I'm going to bulk properly now and aim to get as close to 100kg as I can. I'll start with 4000kcal per day and see where that gets me.

conzy

gvn wrote: »

Back on the wagon.
Did an experiment and dropped creatine for about a week and a half. Lost 1.5kg and about 1.5cm from my thighs. Madness! Decided I'm going to bulk properly now and aim to get as close to 100kg as I can. I'll start with 4000kcal per day and see where that gets me.

Nice! I haven't been regimental with my creatine supplementation recently, need to start sticking it in my PWO shake so I remember it. 4000 cals, feels good man..

Im thinking of eating more on training days just so that there is only 4 days a week where I have to stuff myself and I can eat like a "normal" person the other 3

1.2

Bench
All paused
60 x10
80 x10
87.5 x8
90 x6

Pendlays
70 2x10
72.5 x8
75 x6

Press
50 2x12
52.5 x10
55 x8

Pull Ups
+15kg 3x5

Face pulls
Pull aparts

Bench was tough, press was very, very tough. Startling how quickly strength can disappear.

conzy

conzy wrote: »

Nice! I haven't been regimental with my creatine supplementation recently, need to start sticking it in my PWO shake so I remember it. 4000 cals, feels good man..

Im thinking of eating more on training days just so that there is only 4 days a week where I have to stuff myself and I can eat like a "normal" person the other 3

Definitely use it consistently. I was pretty amazed that I dropped about 1.4% BW by dropping it out for a week!

That's what I used to do. I'd eat about 4300 on training days and 3800 on rest days. At one stage earlier this year I was losing weight on 4500 calories so I'm kind of half afraid that I'll have to eat about 5000 to gain anything...

1.3

Bench
All paused
60 x10
80 x10
87.5 x8
90 x6

Pendlays
70 2x10
72.5 x8
75 x10

Press
50 2x12
52.5 x10
55 x8

Pull Ups
+16.25kg 3x5

Facepulls - pin100 5x20
Pullaparts - 5x20

1.4

Squat
105 4x8

Deads
110 2x8

Front Squat
102.5 2x6

GHR - BW 3x15
45 Degree Back Extensions - BW 3x20

Squats feel solid. Still can't brace properly deadlifting ... I mean I can brace strongly for the first rep, but after that it's gone. I've tried re-bracing at the top and bottom but it just doesn't seem to work. Only solution might be to reset entirely between reps.

Something went pop in my left lat/rhomboid area when I unracked for the 3rd (of a programmed 4) set of front squats. No pain, just a bit of discomfort. Fingers crossed for no paralysis in the morning. I'll put off tomorrow's planned upper day until Tuesday just to be sure.

I think my pelvis is out of whack. gymfreak mentioned in her thread about a pelvis reset. Flicked through Supple Leopard and did the test and my right side is about 1.5 inches higher than my left... this could explain how for the past 4 weeks I've had a) low back discomfort/pain b) right knee pain when deadlifting, and c) how my upper back went boom unracking the front squat earlier. So simple if it's the case. Tried one round of the manual reset and it feels very unusual and a bit uncomfortable. Going to try it again now and pray for the pop. If that doesn't work I might take a trip to a physio.

Did the "fixes" for about 15 minutes, also did some banded distraction, and the previously constant lower back strain immediately cleared up by probably 90%. Pelvis is still out of alignment though. Going to bite the bullet and book a physio appointment. Only hope is that I'm not told to avoid squats and deadlifts for a period of time...

coffee_cake

hope it's something minor!

Alf Veedersane

A good investment.