And unto this...RONIN

[Ronin]

M1 4 eggs, bacon

M2 PWO Shake

M3 Chilli tuna melt

M4 Chilli tuna melt

M5 Half a chook

M6 Sludge

M7 Jelly Fluff

Weighed in at 87.6kg

Shoulders & Traps

Warmup row 1000m

Military Press (Smith Machine)

2 x 10 x 40kg

8 x 40kg

2 x 12 x 35kg

Single-arm Power Throw

8 x 33lb

2 x 8 x 40lb

Superset with

Lateral Raise

3 x 20 x 8kg (form was pretty dodgy by the end)

Bent-over Cable Pulls

2 x 12 x 30lb

12 x 40lb

DB Shrug & Swing

3 x 20 x 6kg

Superset with

Machine Shrugs

3 x 15 x 285lb (PB)

X-trainer, manual, lvl 9, 20min, 353cal

Had the weights area to myself right up til about 10 min from the end. Then downstairs for cardio and only one other dude there too. Way cool. I could definitely get used to it. Note to self...win powerball so I can buy my own gym.

[rose]

.

[Ronin]

Come back GYM RAT BABY :pray: No offense dude :shifty: :pfft:

Hear hear, I just can't do it :doh:

What's your aim?

Strength & mass. My ultimate goal remains unchanged...to one day step onstage wearing nothing m=but a speedo and a fake tan :shock: Herr PT is fully aware of this, so I was wondering if there is some deeper motive to putting these in. I don't doubt his ability to guide me in the right direction. Maybe something along the lines of build explosive strength will lead to greater squatting ability, or some other esoteric wisdom that I'm unaware of?

[Ronin]

M1 4 eggs, bacon

M2 Shake

M3 PWO Shake

M4 Tuna melt

M5 400g steak

M6 Sludge

M7 Jelly fluff

Was a bit light on the eats today, due to going to the gym later than usual. Kids. Can't train too soon after eating, so went for an extra shake between brekkie and training. Consequently, was runing a bit lower on energy than usual. Also, the gym was closing early in honour of some fat bastard that likes kids, so had to skip the cardio.

Weighed in at 87.6kg

Back, Bis, Tris

Warmup row 1000m

W/G Chins

2,2

W/G Chins (controlled negatives)

5,5

Superset with

Close Grip Pullups

3,3

Close Grip Pullups

2,2

Superset with

Seated Row

2 x 15 x 165lb

Seated Row

15 x 165lb

13 x 165lb

Superset with

Inc DB Curl

15 x 11kg

10 x 11kg

Inc DB Curl

10 x 11kg

13 x 8kg

Superset with

Hammer Curl

15 x 8kg

10 x 8kg

Hammer Curl

11 x 8kg

13 x 8kg

Superset with

Bench Dips

27, 25

Bench Dips

15,18

Superset with

Pressups

17,12

Pressups

14,15

Superset with

Pressdowns

12 x 60lb

10 x 60lb

Pressdowns

12 x 60lb

10 x 60lb

Was intending to be staunch through tomorrow and stick to the diet, but figured "f*ck it", I can do one day of carby goodness. Bring on the xmas fruit mince pies

Merry Xmas to all, and see you in the gym next week, burning off tomorrow :grin:

[Ronin]

Forgive me Father (and Mother Rose) it has been too long since my last confession.

Well, after my last entry, there were 5 days of non-training due to the gym being closed for 4 of them, and little people being underfoot for the other. And 3 of those days were spent eating crap. Diet has been fully back on track since Mon 28/12. And I only had 1 beer on NYE. Only managed one gym session between Xmas & NY, on the 30th, and then gym was closed again until yesterday, so managed another sesh then. Closed again today, but back into full swing tomorrow.

At weigh in on 30th, I was at 90.0kg, so up 2.4 since 24th. Yesterday, I'd dropped to 89kg, with absolutely no exercise in the interim, so 1kg on diet alone.

Now for the bad news. In the weeks leading up to Xmas, my left shoulder had been a bit niggly. Nothing too major, and it didn't seem to affect my training, so I figured I'd just train through it, harden up and it would come right. It never seemed to hurt during training, more in everyday stuff. Nothing consistent, just every now and then I'd move my arm or shoulder and get a bit of pain. But can't really pinpoint exactly what movements cause the problem. The pain seems to be localised to the point where the trap joins the shoulder, but more like it's on the bone than the muscle. Really just between the trap and the medial head of the delt. Secondary to that is some pain at the top of the front delt, but only on certain movements. Eg, I can do front raises fine, but last time I did bench dips, the stretch was getting pretty sore.

Lately, the pain has been getting worse during non-gym time, and I've taken to using a hot wheat bag on it while sitting around. Then yesterday, while doing incline bench the front delt pain really started kicking in and I had to drop the weight by 20kg to be able to do anything. Dips were a bit of a problem also, but all other exercises seemed fine. So now it's starting to affect training :evil: I admit to knowin SFA about shoulder injuries, but am dreading the mighty rotator-cuff that I keep hearing about. I'm told they take a very long time to recover from, and I doubt there's a lot of upper body training I can do without shoulders.

Anyway, today's a rest day, due to gym closure, tomorrow's legs, and Wednesday is cardio, before shoulders/traps on Thurs and back/bis/tris on Friday, so I have a couple of days before it gets hit again. There are a bunch of physios that operate out of my gym, so when I go in tomorrow I'll be making an appointment with one of them. In the meantime, has anyone had experience with a similar sounding problem, that might be able to give me some pointers?

And since I'm here, yesterday was:

Chest/tris/bis

Weighed in at 89.0kg

Warmup row 1000m

BB Inc Press

8 x 60kg

6 x 60kg Shoulder was really becoming a problem here

BB Inc Press

2 x 10 x 40kg

Superset with

Dips (b/w)

8,7

Dips (b/w)5,8

Superset with

Cable X-overs

2 x 15 x 60lb

Cable X-overs

2 x 15 x 50lb

Superset with

Skullcrushers, into press

2 x 10 x ezy bar + 15kg

Skullcrushers, into press

2 x 10 x ezy bar + 10kg

Superset with

Reverse Grip Pulldowns

2 x 15 x 40lb

Reverse Grip Pulldowns

2 x 15 x 40lb

Superset with

Barbell Curls

2 x 10 x 27.5kg

Barbell Curls

2 x 10 x 27.5kg

Superset with

Rope Curls

2 x 12 x 50lb

Rope Curls

2 x 12 x 50lb

Superset with

Ezy Bar Preachers

6 x bar + 10kg

15 x bar + 5kg

Ezy Bar Preachers

2 x 15 x bar + 5kg

[rose]

Hi Son :roll: I'm no shoulder expert, but it *sounds* like supraspinatus. Piddly little integral muscle, annoying when it gets strained. If it is that, physio will help sort it. Get them to show you some exes to strengthen it, and try horizontal rotations and dislocations.

http://stronglifts.com/shoulders-dislocations/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supraspinatus_muscle

Welcome back :grin:

[drizzt]

Ouch, doesn't sound good mate :? Fingers crossed it isn't the Rotator cuff, it affected my training for quite a chunk of last year.

Get better soon, looking forward to keeping up with your log :nod:

[Ronin]

No gym today, little people underfoot. Looks like I have that sorted for tomorrow at least, so it'll be either legs or cardio. But most importantly I'll be able to speak to a physio.

Todays eats went a little somethin' like this

M1 5 eggs (dammit, ran out of bacon :x )

M2 Chilli Tuna melt

M3 Sludge

M4 Half a chook (yep, skin and all :pfft: )

M5 Sludge

M6 Jelly fluff

Haven't bothered working out the cals on it yet, but it should definitely be below maintenance.

[Ronin]

M1 4 eggs, bacon

M2 PWO Shake

M3 200g chicken

M4 Chicken breast (with skin and melted cheese nom nom nom)

M5 Sludge

M6 Jelly fluff

Weighed in at 90.0kg

Legs

Warmup row 1000m

Hacksquats

12 x 100kg

12 x 120kg

3 x 12 x 130kg PB

Triset

Jumpsquats

3 x 20 x 20kg

^^^

Leg Curls

20 x 100lb

15/5 x 90lb/80lb (Managed to squeeze out 15, then had to drop to 80 to finish the set)

20 x 80lb

^^^

Wall Squats

52 sec

47 sec

1 min 1sec

Stair 50s

50/50/50

50/50/29

50/50/38

Calf Crunches

3 x 35

Dunno why, but it seems any time I go to the gym too long after eating, it's on a legs day. Must be some big conspiracy surrounding this. It's been 2 weeks since my last leg session, so was a bit dubious about how I'd go. Hence the lower start for the Hacks. But instead I ended up going heavier than I did last time, so kinda happy with that. Not so happy with the tri-set. Leg curls were kind of a disaster, and while doing the wall squats, my back was giving out before my quads. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong, or if I just need to let my lower back catch up. But then finished up with improvements in the calf exercises, so all in all, not too bad.

However, once again, I was thoroughly burned out by that point, and had to flag cardio. Really felt like I was gonna barf too, but nothing was coming up, and now I've had that burning feeling like acid is coming back up, for the rest of the day. So I'm thinking that may have been a result of not eating prior to training.

Oh, and I have a physio appointment tomorrow. Yay, fingers firmly crossed.

[rimma]

Good luck with the appointment man, hope you get that shoulder sussed. Otherwise you may have alot of legs days on the horizon

[Ronin]

Ok, had to blow off the appointment due to babysitter cancellation, dammit. So it won't be til next week now. Oh well, a few more days of deep heat and hot wheat bags it is :roll:

So no training today, just the eats.

M1 4 eggs, bacon

M2 Chilli tuna melt

M3 Chook boob

M4 3 chook thighs

M5 Sludge

M6 Jelly fluff

[Ronin]

M1 4 eggs, bacon

M2 Chilli tuna melt

M3 2 chicken thighs

M4 Sludge

M5 Jelly fluff

Light on the intake today, as I haven't been training for the last few days, so reduced calorie requirements.

Finally got sick of not being able to get to the gym and dug out some old weights that I had from ages back. Managed to fit 55kg on the wee bar and figured I could use it for legs and spare the shoulder, but then couldn't press it over the head to get it across my shoulders for squatting. So decided it was time to try the deadlift. 10 x 10 @ 55kg, not the most manly of efforts I'm sure, but hey, I've never done them before, so I'm not too worried.

Then, since I couldn't do anything else that I'd planned to do on my legs, I figured I could get away with some bi & tri exercises without needing to move my shoulder too much. I know it wasn't exactly a strict training plan, but I just needed to do something. Anyway, after 3 sets each of BBcurls, hammer curls and skullcrushers, I realised my shoulder was being used more than I really imagined. So now I'm sitting here with a heatpack on again, and stinking of deep heat.

Soooo, I've got a sitter for tomorrow, and will be doing a cardio session. Looks like that's about all that'll be featuring in my future for the next wee while :evil:

[Ronin]

M1 4 eggs, bacon

M2 PWO shake

M3 200g beef

M4 Chilli mince 400g (raw weight) w 50g cheese

M5 Sludge

M6 Jelly fluff

Eats for the week have been standard, pretty much the same as today's, except no shake on non-training days.

Made it to the gym on Tuesday as planned, got through a cardio session. But still haven't managed a physio appointment, so I'm taking it as easy as possible on the shoulder. In the meantime, I've been giving a bit of thought to what I should do, going forward. Obviously it's going to be a while til I can hit the upper body stuff again, so my options as I saw them were either concentrate on bulking the legs, or hit a shitload of cardio, and go for a cut.

So in the end I decided to compromise, and have a heavy legs day and 4 full-on cardio days each week. However, after receiving some very helpful PMs yeaterday from a particular member (merci beaucoup, you know who you are) it was suggested that 3 leg days might be a better option. Certainly an idea that has merit, and I may indeed incorporate several such weeks in the near future. But in the meantime, I think I would benefit from upping the cardio and burning off as much fat as possible while I'm physically restricted from upper body lifting. So at this stage I'm planning to have 2 days of good hard leg work and 3 of cardio, with the occasional week of 2 hard legs days, 2 cardio days, and 1 legs day concentrating on light weights & high, fast reps. Of course, as always, I will gladly accept and listen to any tips, advice or suggestions from the old school, and this plan (as all good plans are) is open to modification.

Oh and also, I've started working my way through The PMan's book. About 40 pages into it, and finding it a good read, one I'd happily recomend to others.

So with all that in mind, I made it to the gym today to do the following

Weighed in at 88.5kg

Deadlifts

10 x 60kg

10 x 80kg

5 x 90kg

10 x 90kg

2 x 7 x 100kg

4 x 120kg

3 x 130kg

1 x 140kg

1 x 150kg

missed twice at 160kg

Leg Press

10 x 160kg

10 x 200kg

3 x 10 x 240kg

Calf Raise

15 x 390lb + 20kg

10 x 390lb + 30kg (207kg)

8 x 207kg

7 x 207kg

8 x 207kg

Today was more about working out where my baseline was for the coming weeks, especially on the deads. Not including Monday (toy weights) this was my first time really trying them out, and I'm not too disappointed. On the third set my grip failed me but I knew I had plenty more to give, so borrowed some straps and got back into it. Actually, that's good, it'll give me 2 goals to push for, total dead and un-strapepd dead.

It's weird, I've been kinda "intimidated" by deads for so long, because they're one of THE exercises that all the old heads talk about so much, that I guess I was reluctant to have a crack and risk looking like a twat. But now that I've sucked it up and done it, it's like "Why the f*ck did I wait so long?" This is a great exercise!!! I just wanna deadlift everything I see now :pfft:

[Beef]

i've had the shoulder woes at the gym as well.. got a terrible pain in my shoulder whenever i did any chest exercise. went to the osteopath, found out that my rotator cuff was taking all the weight when i was lifting. apparently its a common problem that many lifters get

[Ronin]

Managed to get a sesh in today

M1 4 eggs, bacon

M2 PWO Shake

M3 200g beef

M4 400g Sirloin Steak

M5 Sludge

M6 Jelly fluff

Weighed in at 89.3kg

Deads

10 x 80kg

10 x 90kg

10 x 100kg

9 x 120kg

8 x 120kg

6 x 130kg

1 x 140kg

1 x 140kg

1 x 150kg

1 x 160kg

Missed a second single @ 160kg

Leg Press

10 x 200kg

10 x 240kg

3 x 10 x 260kg

Calf raise

15 x 207kg

12 x 207kg

2 x 10 x 207kg

8 x 207kg

Another one of those days where there was a big gap between breakfast (0830) and workout (1230), so the tum was grumbling a bit by the time I'd finished deads and was heading toward the Leg press. Still managed to beat previous weights though, so not gonna complain. And managed the first 3 sets without straps, so another improvement. Baby steps huh

Was quite happy to get the 160kg dead that I failed on last week. But when I tried for a second, got about half way up and felt a sudden, really intense pain through the left shoulder. If not for the straps, I would have dropped the bar straight away, as it was it went down with a hell of a crash. And that was the end of that. The calf raise later on was a bit if a struggle with the pad pressing on the shoulder, but managed to make it through.

Question...I'm feeling the deads in my lower back, but nothing in the hammies. Is this normal, or am I maybe not using correct technique?

[rose]

Check these out:

http://stronglifts.com/how-to-deadlift-with-proper-technique/

http://stronglifts.com/5-ways-to-avoid-lower-back-pain-from-deadlifts/

Look after that shoulder. You seen the physio yet?

[Ronin]

Ummm, no, not yet. :oops: But kids are back to school/kindy soon and my life will be returned to me, so I will be going in then.

Thanks for the links too

[Ronin]

Righty-o, back into it.

School went back last week, so I've been active again since last Tuesday. It's just that there hasn't been much to report, hence the lack of postage.

I finally made it to a physio on Thurs, and as suspected, it's the RC, but also the bicep tendon running up the inside of the front delt. So I've got some cute wee exercises to do, involving pulling the shoulder blades in and down, without expanding the chest, then playing incy-wincy-spider up a handy wall. Going back in a few days, and hopefully will progress to something a little less fruity.

So as a result, I've only done cardio for the last week. I figure I'll take this enforced opportunity to do a mini cut. Further, I've decided that while I'm doing so, I'll come off the Anabolic Diet, in favour of returning to straight Keto. I ditched the Sunday carb-up this weekend and have been on virtually no carbs for a week now. Between that and the cardio I've gone from 90.4kg last Tues to 88.0kg today.

Training-wise I'm planning on 5 days of cardio (6 on the weeks in which the kids are away) and will throw in 2 days of legs. I'm thinking one day of Deads & Leg Press, and one day of Squats and Standing Calf. If possible I'd like to throw in some upper body stuff within a couple of weeks, once I've worked out what I can get away with. I just hate the thought of not doing anything, and losing what meager gains I've made. Any suggestions on exercises that will still work chest, back and arms without aggravating the RC injury?

[Optimass]

I worked through all 3 RC injuries ... not the best approach but the first two were mild - the third was serious but came right 95%ish. (didn't want the surgery - too long off training)

I found working with d/bells easiest > could only go 20 - 30% ish weight wise and could rep out for too long and worked well for keeping muscles active.

longer rest periods. On the flat only as it agrovated on incline - declines were ok also. Obvously no flyes and dips made me nervous.

benching with a bar was a pathway to disaster - even light weights.

Cant recall having any issues with training back and I pretty much gave up training arms after the first injury for a couple of years and focused soley on compounds to deliver mass there.

[Ronin]

Pretty uneventful today

M1 4 eggs, bacon

M2 shake

M3 Chilli tuna Melt

M4 Chilli mince & cheese (med onion chopped in)

M5 Mousse (whipped cream & ww jelly)

M6 Jelly fluff

Weighed in at 87.8kg

30 min Xtrainer 570cal

5 min Bike cool down 47 cal

Thanks for the tips Optimass. It was incline BB that was the final straw, so flat DB could be worth a crack. I figure for back if I drop the weights back a bit and see what I can do safely, before trying to build them back up, I should be ok. Maybe pulldowns and seated rows. Combined with db bench, squats and deads, I shoiuld still be getting some benefits, yeah? Plus, like I said, I really wanna use this period to drop as much fat as poss, I'm just carrying too much still to be able to see anything.

[Ronin]

Today was one of those days that just didn't work, got to the gym and realised I'd left my shorts at home. And it was too hot for cardio in the trackies I had on, so decided to hit the weights. Started with Deadlifts and halfway through felt something go in the shoulder. Tried moving to standing calf but the pad pushing on the shoulder was pissing me off. So by then I'd had enough and packed it in. Which just pissed me off more because I felt like I'd given up :x

Anyway

M1 4 eggs, 100g salami

M2 1/2 a shake (the other half ended up on the floor, grrr)

M3 150g shredded chook

M4 Chilli mince w cheese

M5 Low carb cheesecake

M6 Jelly Fluff

Weighed in at 87.7kg

Deads

10 x 90kg

9 x 100kg (Shoulder twinged a bit so strapped up which appeared to help)

10 x 100kg

10 x 100kg

6 x 120kg (Shoulder said "No more")

CRASH (weights hitting floor)

Physio again today, which went well. A week of girly exercises seems to have helped, with a wider range of pain-free motion. A nice massage helped too :pfft:

Got some new exercises to work on, pushup against the wall, arm at 90degrees pushing fist into the wall, funny thing involving leaning on a bosu ball, and DB press with head and shoulders on swiss ball & core engaged. All with shoulder blades pulled in and down. She's told me I'm only allowed to use 2kg DBs, but we'll see :pfft:

I'm also allowed to do shrugs, lateral raises (either band or pulley w very low weight), rows and stiff-arm pulldowns, and DB curls. No mention of any tri exercises yet.

So at least I have a starting point for upper body work.

[Ronin]

Kids sick + me sick = no gym for me today :x

Is it wrong to be getting cold/flu this early in the fricken year?!

Eats

M1 4 eggs, bacon

M2 Chilli tuna melt

M3 2 chook thighs

M4 low carb cheesecake

M5 chilli tuna melt

M6 Jelly fluff

[Beef]

Kids sick + me sick = no gym for me today :x

Is it wrong to be getting cold/flu this early in the fricken year?!

Eats

M1 4 eggs, bacon

M2 Chilli tuna melt

M3 2 chook thighs

M4 low carb cheesecake

M5 chilli tuna melt

M6 Jelly fluff

sick at this time of the year? that's not right! well done for the eats considering you're sick, not always easy!

[Ronin]

Cheers mate, I figure if I can't train I can at least stay on top of the nutro.

Bearing that in mind

M1 4 eggs, bacon

M2 Shake

M3 Chilli tuna melt

M4 chilli mince w cheese (+ 1 onion as a concession to the vege police)

M5 Jelly fluff

M6 Jelly fluff

For a grand total of 2532 cal, 279g P, 25g C, 129g F

Got my new kitchen scale today after waiting a month and a half for Flybuys to deliver it, and am quite excited about being able to remove the guesswork from calorie counting and macros. Yep, I have a sheltered life these days :oops:

[rose]

Yep, I have a sheltered life these days :oops:

At least you have kids which serves as a feasible excuse :grin: Get better soon. If you are or have been puking and oozing try to drink an electrolyte replacement drink, I posted a basic as recipe in Mr Scratches journal. You don't have to worry about the dextrose, the cream of tartar and the baking soda + sea salt are what you want. Cream of tartar has a slight tang so it's not a gross concoction, it's an awesome no/low carb source of potassium (up to 730mg per teaspoon). Don't underestimate lost electrolytes.