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Getting my game back on


Dinahlady

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Wednesday:

Deadlift Day

  • Deadlift up to knees: 
    All sets of 3 reps: 
    40, 50, 60, 60, 70, 70, 75, 75, 75, 75
  • Was supposed to be Incline bench and dips for assistance but did some shoulder rehab stuff instead - ext rotation, side raises. Made it pretty quick as it was late. I could have done some incline but didn't feel inclined (LULS) 
  • Rack pulls at the knee (or slightly lower): 
    Warmup sets of 4 reps: 
    55, 65, 75, 75
    Working sets of 3 reps: 
    85, 85, 85, 85
  • Did a few superset of lunges and leg raises for assistance. 

This program is quite high volume for me but I love the challenge of getting through all the sets. 

Massage today yeaaah. Quads still hurt from squats :( 

Just trying to truck through on this program try not to take any days/weeks/months off or get injured lol.... but when does anything go to plan. 

Nutrition has been a bit shit been slack at prepping food so spending too much money on buying food even though its fairly cheap to get chicken/potato/salad at uni. Makes me sad :(. Will do better next week. Completely worn out from uni as its coming up to mid terms and all my lab reports etc are due wahhh. 

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Friday

It was Bench and Squat day Friday. Forgot how low the volume is in the beginning week or so compared to the final week. So fairly easy.

Did my squats first: 

50 x 5reps

55 x 4reps x 2 

60 x 3reps x 2

65 x 3reps x 5 

Felt good and to good depth. Flexibility feeling good despite being a bit slack with it. 

 

Did shoulder stuff afterwards; 

External rotation warm ups. a few sets with bands. 

Side raises: 
8 rep sets
3kg, 4kg, 4kg, 5kg. This is about as far as I can go before I start to feel my tight left trap start firing unneccessarily so I stop. But I'm improving which is what counts. A lot less crunchy crunchy with the movemnt now a days. 

Shoulder Db press: 
8 rep sets
4kg, 5kg, 6kg, 7kg. Haven't been practcing this for that long and left side trap again always starts creeping in so I have to stop. But again, improving. 

External rotation on cables slightly heavier for a few sets. 

Stretched out chest and did thoracic mobility afterwards. 

 

 

Finished the first week woo!

Pretty easy week.... Bring on the second! 

On my way to gainsville. 

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Great workouts, it is an interesting combination yoga and weights.

You have alot on your plate with study and training but it will be excellent for you. I will follow with interest.

 

Thanks Rebel! 

 

This week so far. 

Skipped my Monday workout because I had a massive Lab report due. I was kinda gutted I had to miss training but it turned out okay in the end. Didn't end up doing my session untill Thursday. I was going to do Weds but I'd just handed it in and felt worn out as f*ck, glad I didnt.

It was good because it meant I had a massage thurs - did one squat workout - had another massage tuesday and did a few stretching/mobility sessions at some pointwhich made for a really good session thursday, Got through all sets and reps with more in the tank.

  • Squat  
    • 40 x 5reps
    • 50 x 4 reps
    • 60 x 3 reps x 2sets
    • 67.5 x 2 reps x 5 sets. 
    • Using writs wraps for squats which is really helpful as I have a low bar squat and my arms and wrists get mangled behind me. 
  • External rotations
  • Side raises 
  • Cable flys 
  • Front squat
    • I really hate these - I'm so used to going so wide and having a really "good morning" style squat that I always try and sit back too far in my front squat and start feeling it in my low back. But I think I'm improving on staying upright - I can do it, just not used to it. 
    • 30kg x 2 sets  40kg x 2 sets 
  • Good mornings
    • Love this one now. 
    • 40kg x 5 x 2sets
    • 50kg x 5 x 2 
    • 55kg x 5 x 2
  • Stretched for about 30 mins but wasnt very focussed/serious stretching haha. 

 

Aiming to train again Saturday. But probably could go today If I wanted as I'm not really feeling that sore. 

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Ended up Training this eve as have some expo thing tomorrow with work and felt like it. When I started I realised I probably shouldnt have as my lower back felt a bit fatigued from the front squats yesterday and my right bicep tendon was randomly a bit sore. But I trucked on nonetheless as it didnt feel bad, made it a challenging one though!

  • Deadlift to knees
    • 40 x 4
    • 50 x 3
    • 60 x 3
    • 70 x 3 x 2
    • 75 x 2 x 5
       
  • External rotations, side raises etc. 
     
  • Deadlift from boxes (rack pulls from the knee or just below)
    • 30 x 4
    • 40 x 4
    • 50 x 4
    • 65 x 4
    • 75 x 4 x 2 
    • 80 x 4 x 4 

Doesn't seem like much on paper but was a hard one to get through. Was supposed to have lunges at the end but skipped it out and just stretched. 

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  • 2 months later...

So pretty much like a week after my last post I found out I do have an issue with one of the discs in my cervical spine. C5-C6. 

Since then I stopped getting massages etc and could tell that they had really been helping/masking my symptoms and have been having a lot of nerve pain and muscle tightness in my upper body (what I thought was just tight muscles from lifting before) 

They think it was probably caused over time due to studying and maybe lifting (contributing but not causing). But I guess overal predisposition. 

Had an MRI and saw orthopedic doctors but the bulge is fairly minor but am still getting symptoms from it - sore wrists, tingling in hands and weakness. They say its because there is a straightening out of the vertebra in my neck - which can be due to repeated spasms, weakness, or injury. 

I've probably had the injury since last year and would have gone through the whole of the gymnation challenge and all of my strength work with it. 

It explains a lot. especially as I have had wrist symptoms since November-ish time and havent benched since then. And also that I was feeling like there was something holding me back strenght wise - I felt I should be much stronger than I have been - especially with direct strength training. And I was confused about how my wrists were so sore and how my shoulder girdle could be that bad when for so long I had been trying to do prehab/rehab work. But I just brushed this off as inflated ego! 

Have been working with a really great, experienced physio for about a month now and have made progress. At first the pain was switching sides and was quite peripheral, and now it has more or less centralised. about a 10 days ago it had been the best it has... but since I have had exams its gotten slightly worse due to more studying and less breaks trying to cram for finals... But have time off now to try and work really hard on my exercises. 

I've tried a few times to work out but each time it has caused more pain so have just left it. Am planning on trying again after this 3 week break from uni. 

They've given me all sorts of cool drugs that i've tried. Currently on Nortryptaline low dose at 10mg per day. Which has been the best for my pain. NSAIDs have been ok but have gone through a fair bit now and am worried about my digestion so tried Norflex - a muscle relaxant (most of my symptoms are due to tight traps/pecs and pain from that) And man that made me so sleepy and floppy it was insane...  ob_dd9823_wolfwallst.png

Also codeine etc. All the good shit. 

Pretty keen to get my bodyweight down to mid-high 70s as I'm sure that would help a lot with recovery. Now that I havent lifted for over a month it could easily become even more of an issue. So from now I will be trying out an IIFYM style diet (around 80% traditionally "good" food and 20% "bad") at around 1800 cals, trying to get some cardio every day (10 mins at first to build the habit then will increase). I've never tried anything like this before and have always had meal plans to stick to so I'm looking forward to seeing if I can make this work and if it's a bit more realistic for me and my lifestyle (dat studyholic). 

Hopefully after around a month I can starting lifting again light and after 6-8 weeks or so I may raise my calories up to 2000 or so to help me get back into the lifting. hopefully by then I'll be hovering around low 80s and can eventually slip under 80 - I just weighed myself the other day and I was 87.7kg with clothes + shoes on in the evening (gotta see yourself at the worst - right?)

I'm also pretty excited to see what my mid 70s body looks like compared to the last time I was there (over a year ago). 

Next semester none of my papers have mid terms (woooohoo) so I have a bit longer to plan something like, from now, a 6-8 week loss by decreasing cals and increasing cardio and then a 4-6 week recovery time, increasing cals and dropping cardio slowly. As I dont want to push my weightloss all the way up to exam time then just gain it back when I have less time to fit everything in. 

The good thing is that I asked my physio if this slip would mean that I would always have to be careful of it and he said that if I work on stabilising the vertebra an correcting the imbalances and getting the nucleus of the disc to go back inside and I work hard theres no reason why I cant carry on doing weightlifting/powerlifting even doing something that may be dodgy for C spine like an extremely arched bench.... Just needs time and work... Which made me feel better as I thought he would definitely say not a chance!

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Managed to get out for a walk today which was purdyful (see pic). Been looking after mcmass as he's had his ACL re-done. So food has been good as I dont have that many bad influences/excuses.

I'll attach MFP data for what i've had - bearing in mind this is the first time i've tried IIFYM style dieting.... my first reaction is that it's kind of silly how people feel so bad about it as I still end up eating oats, rice, chicken, potatoes veggies... + some chocolate and ice cream here and there... I don't really understand what people get so caught up about. 

I'm not trying to compete or be the best ever at dieting... And I've known a heap of bodybuilders who get in such a tizz when theres times in their trainining careers when they aren't "on point" with diet. When I first started training and dieting I did "paleo" and practically did the same thing anyway - ate chicken veg and eggs all day then most evenings would eat a whole block of choc or something.... but still preached paleo this paleo that and basically tried to ignore the other stuff i was actually having..  I'm sure a lot of fitness personalities are the same.... 

Done my rehab exercises 4x today which includes chin tucking, neck extension, and neck strengthening:

Chin Tuck: I often use my hand to push even further back into tuck with this one. 

chintucks.jpg

Neck extension: I start this by going into chin tuck then extending. 

 cervical_extension.jpg

Neck strengthening - basically start seated and put head in this position (chin tuck but against the wall), then pull head away from wall by the smallest amount you can, can even be like <1mm. Not even enough for hair to leave wall. 

chin-retraction-start2.jpg

Stretched out hips twice as my lower back has been sore. I think maybe from muscle relaxant but not sure? 

Took half a norflex this eve after my walk as was worried about spasms that often happen after something like that, took half to try and not get so floppy and retarded but it does feel strange....

One note for diet is that I didnt include all the veggies I had, nor a little bit of olive oil spray for cooking some of the veg - as I pretty much couldnt be bothered to enter them - too fiddly... But would probably only add another 100 cals on max, which Is still sufficient for weight loss for me... As long as this is what I'm aiming for, and if i change it my practices like this probably wont change so its all relative. 

 

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theres no reason why I cant carry on doing weightlifting/powerlifting... Just needs time and work... Which made me feel better as I thought he would definitely say not a chance!

Good that you've got the problem identified. It's not the best of news, but it's good to hear it's fixable. Keep us updated, Dinah.

And yes... purdyful indeed. Is that a Dunners sunset?

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Thinking of doing a similar thing to you, now that my chiro has moved from adjusting my back to doing some fruity ass body tapping thing that isn't doing anything to me (it also includes postive chanting now) 

 

keep us updated on how you feel

I would def stay away from chiro's adjusting your neck. All my neck adjustments that I've had from chiros, or osteos, have been higher up than my issue (usually they had adjusted C2-3)  bringing extra mobility into C2-3 when the real mobility issue was in C5-C6 - the orthopedic doctor said that wouldnt have helped and could have worsened my hypomobility in C5-C6. Though some adjustments e.g. thoracic spine can be helpful. 

I found my physio through the uni/physio school as he has done a lot of research on cervical spine/disc issues and is involved high up in the mckenzie method (spine) institute of NZ. He's also a teacher at the physio school. So I'm pretty trusting that he knows his way around a cervical spine... 

A lot of therapists I've found seem to say "Oh I can fix you" and then give you a million and one things to do, or dont seem to have much direction other than persuading you to come back every x times per month/week.

This guy gives me one exercsie at a time and builds it up slowly and has been very realistic about the treatment, has explained alot about the antomy/physiology of my issue so increase my understanding, and has never once said "I'm going to fix you" (other than saying that it is possible that i can resume anything an everything at some point in time). 

 

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Did 10-15 minutes incline walk last night. Was fine.

This morning saw physio. Progressing exercises a bit - still doing the same chin tuck and neck extension  (see last post) but have two new exercises. First is a progression of the deep neck flexor exercise (strengthening the front of the neck) to laying down instead of sitting so there's more resistance. Second is a deep extensor exercise which is on all fours, looking at the ground between knees and letting head hang down, then lifting head but still looking in the same spot on the ground. 

He reckons only a month or so and I should be all good... So in a couple of weeks will be looking at trying some more gym stuff and seeing how it goes. Here's hoping.... 

Definitely have made crazy progress in the last month I've been seeing him with all the movements. Just have to keep things up and be strict with myself!

 

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Also cheekily weighed myself in the gym last night and was 86.3 kg so over 1.5kg down already, obviously evening weighing isn't very reliable and is dependent on how much food i've been eating etc. But I was surprised as its been <a week already. Will probably weigh again before Saturday as I'm going to Wellington then. Still plan to eat the same and do cardio when away. 

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  • 9 months later...

Haha it's been time. 

 

So after finishing with physio late last year I started training again. I had a few set backs with my neck since then and am seeing a neurologist early May as things are still awks.

 

I am getting stronger but can't push it "beast mode" still because of it. Just working slow and steady but starting to see strength results. 

My best lifts recently have been 110kg dead (fully switched to sumo now - much better on neck), 100kg squat, 55kg bench. 

 

Bench has been the hardest to get back as it seems to flare up my neck the most if I'm not conservative with sets/reps/weight most of the time. 

Keen to keep getting stronger and lifting some decent weight.

 

Just ordered a belt from getstrength and thinking about knee sleeves and squat shoes (adidas powerlift) but unsure if I am strong enough yet? (ntsrs lol) 

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