Squatted on Wednesday. Nothing crazy at all. 3 sets at 225, and then a quick set of biceps before jetting home.
Here are the sets.
6/27/12 - Wednesday
Squats - 3 sets
135x8 (warmup)
185x5 (warmup)
225x4
225x4
225x4
Bent Bar Bicep Curls - 1 set
60x10 (warmup)
80x8
Also, since this post is pretty weak, here are two cool links I read through yesterday.
First, a post on freetheanimal, where he talks about his love for deadlifts and his journey through injuries to where he is now.
http://freetheanimal.com/2012/06/how-do-i-love-thee-let-me-count-the-ways-deadlifts.html
Next, a post (link found on freetheanimal comments) about 9 things you might be doing incorrectly in your deadlifts. I break rule #7 a lot, slamming the weight.
http://davethomasperformance.com/2012/06/19/9-deadlift-corrections-to-a-safer-and-stronger-lift/
Tonight I plan on benching and maybe doing some chinups or shrugs.
Enjoy your weekend!
Stay Puft
Stay Puft has his game face on!
Friday, June 29, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
The full shoulder story
The saga of my shoulder problems continue. Get ready for a long story.
To sum up the whole experience up to this point, a while back (probably something like 6-8 months ago), I injured my shoulder somehow. I don't remember a specific event causing the injury, but I do remember one day I was doing seated overhead press, and when I went to rack the weight above and behind my head, I felt sharp pain in my right shoulder. It wasn't the pain of an injury happening, it was just pain as if I was aggravating something in there. The next week, I tried overhead shoulder press again, and again had the same problems racking and unracking the weight.
So, I switched to different shoulder exercises. It didn't hurt to press, so I continued to press, but not seated military. I would use dumbbells, or a machine, and even a standing press in the squat rack. Eventually, I noticed that I wasn't able to go up in weight. Literally, months of me barely pressing 125 lbs. No improvement. So I come up with this hypothesis that it's my shoulder, and I should let it rest. So I do.
I stopped doing any kind of shoulder specific lifts for about 2 months. But I still felt the pain in there whenever I did anything weird with my shoulder, like a throwing motion. Or stretching the my shoulder with my right arm above and behind my head.
Eventually, softball season comes around. At our first practice, if you could even call it that. My 1st throw of a softball was terrible extreme pain. I try to shake it off and "warm up." 10 throws in, and my arm is KILLING me. The rest of the practice I was underhand lobbing the balls in from the outfield.
The thought of not playing ball terrified me. I love baseball. Played it as a kid, played it as a young adult in highschool. And from 18 onward, I've played softball with my friends every year. And now I can't fucking throw a ball. So I began icing it every night. Then I tried trigger point therapy on myself. Then I tried stretching every day. I tried icing, stretching, and trigger point therapy all at the same time. No dice.
So, next I went the route of the doctors. 2 orthopedic surgeons, an MRI and an x-ray. Both orthopedists don't know what's wrong. Evidently my MRI and x-ray both look good.
Fast forward to now, about halfway through the softball season. I'm able to throw, but I have to do it like a girl. I throw with my elbow, not my shoulder. Anyone who played little league baseball might recognize the term "short-arming" it. It's able to bypass most of the pain.
According to the doctor, the next step is to put me through physical therapy for a month and see if my condition improves. If not, the next step is to inject me with dye to try and get a more accurate MRI done.
And if they STILL don't see a problem, they can begin to inject me with cortisone shots to see if it improves the pain, and helps them locate where it's coming from.
I'm reluctant to go to physical therapy. First, the Doctor wasn't sure it would even help. Second, I have to pay a $40 copay for each session. He wants me to do 8 sessions minimum, which adds up to 320 bucks. That's a lot of money to shell out for something I don't even know will work.
I've got another idea. Before I commit to that kind of a monetary investment, I'm going to give 2 weeks towards working out the "non-pressing" part of my shoulder and see if strengthening the muscles around where I'm feeling pain will help anything. Why? I don't know. Call it a last shot at something other than paying hundreds of dollars towards a possible fix. Plus, a while back my uncle (who's been lifting for over 20 years) gave me some sound advice about giving this a try. I didn't follow it then, but I'm going to follow it now.
At this point, who knows if it will help. But I'm willing to wait 2-3 more weeks before throwing $320 at the problem.
So, Monday started my weird shoulder workouts. I did rows first, nothing to do with shoulders, but I wanted to squeeze em in. As for the actual shoulder stuff, I used the universal machine, and brought one of the cables with a handle down to about chest height. From there, I either internally or externally pulled the cable away from the universal, either towards or away from my body.
For the internals, picture grabbing a cable to your right with your right arm and pulling the cable left across your chest, keeping your elbow at your side.
For the externals, picture grabbing a cable to your left with your right arm and pulling the cable right across your chest, keeping your elbow at your side.
Finally, I did 3 sets where I moved the cable to the floor, and pulled it up and away from my body. I'll call them shoulder pulls.
For the shoulder pulls, picture grabbing a cable from your left foot with your right arm and pulling it up and above your head.
Here are all of the sets from the day.
6/25/12 - Monday
Machine Cable Rows - 3 sets
90x8 (warmup)
120x8 (warmup)
165x8
180x7
165x8
External Rotator Cuff - 3 sets each arm
30x8
30x8
20x8
Internal Rotator Cuff - 3 sets each arm
30x8
30x8
20x8
Shoulder Pulls - 3 sets each arm
30x8
30x8
30x8
It's Wednesday, and while my shoulders both feel a little sore, my right one feels more sore than the left. I'm going to try throwing a ball on either Friday or Saturday, depending on how it feels. I'll throw VERY LIGHTLY, and again - see how I feel. I'll work out my shoulders this away again next Monday, and maybe one more time during next week before my next softball game. I want to see if doing this 2-4 times has any improvement on my level of pain and ability to throw. If not, I'll go the physical therapy route. If it helps, then great!
I'll keep you posted.
To sum up the whole experience up to this point, a while back (probably something like 6-8 months ago), I injured my shoulder somehow. I don't remember a specific event causing the injury, but I do remember one day I was doing seated overhead press, and when I went to rack the weight above and behind my head, I felt sharp pain in my right shoulder. It wasn't the pain of an injury happening, it was just pain as if I was aggravating something in there. The next week, I tried overhead shoulder press again, and again had the same problems racking and unracking the weight.
So, I switched to different shoulder exercises. It didn't hurt to press, so I continued to press, but not seated military. I would use dumbbells, or a machine, and even a standing press in the squat rack. Eventually, I noticed that I wasn't able to go up in weight. Literally, months of me barely pressing 125 lbs. No improvement. So I come up with this hypothesis that it's my shoulder, and I should let it rest. So I do.
I stopped doing any kind of shoulder specific lifts for about 2 months. But I still felt the pain in there whenever I did anything weird with my shoulder, like a throwing motion. Or stretching the my shoulder with my right arm above and behind my head.
Eventually, softball season comes around. At our first practice, if you could even call it that. My 1st throw of a softball was terrible extreme pain. I try to shake it off and "warm up." 10 throws in, and my arm is KILLING me. The rest of the practice I was underhand lobbing the balls in from the outfield.
The thought of not playing ball terrified me. I love baseball. Played it as a kid, played it as a young adult in highschool. And from 18 onward, I've played softball with my friends every year. And now I can't fucking throw a ball. So I began icing it every night. Then I tried trigger point therapy on myself. Then I tried stretching every day. I tried icing, stretching, and trigger point therapy all at the same time. No dice.
So, next I went the route of the doctors. 2 orthopedic surgeons, an MRI and an x-ray. Both orthopedists don't know what's wrong. Evidently my MRI and x-ray both look good.
Fast forward to now, about halfway through the softball season. I'm able to throw, but I have to do it like a girl. I throw with my elbow, not my shoulder. Anyone who played little league baseball might recognize the term "short-arming" it. It's able to bypass most of the pain.
According to the doctor, the next step is to put me through physical therapy for a month and see if my condition improves. If not, the next step is to inject me with dye to try and get a more accurate MRI done.
And if they STILL don't see a problem, they can begin to inject me with cortisone shots to see if it improves the pain, and helps them locate where it's coming from.
I'm reluctant to go to physical therapy. First, the Doctor wasn't sure it would even help. Second, I have to pay a $40 copay for each session. He wants me to do 8 sessions minimum, which adds up to 320 bucks. That's a lot of money to shell out for something I don't even know will work.
I've got another idea. Before I commit to that kind of a monetary investment, I'm going to give 2 weeks towards working out the "non-pressing" part of my shoulder and see if strengthening the muscles around where I'm feeling pain will help anything. Why? I don't know. Call it a last shot at something other than paying hundreds of dollars towards a possible fix. Plus, a while back my uncle (who's been lifting for over 20 years) gave me some sound advice about giving this a try. I didn't follow it then, but I'm going to follow it now.
At this point, who knows if it will help. But I'm willing to wait 2-3 more weeks before throwing $320 at the problem.
So, Monday started my weird shoulder workouts. I did rows first, nothing to do with shoulders, but I wanted to squeeze em in. As for the actual shoulder stuff, I used the universal machine, and brought one of the cables with a handle down to about chest height. From there, I either internally or externally pulled the cable away from the universal, either towards or away from my body.
For the internals, picture grabbing a cable to your right with your right arm and pulling the cable left across your chest, keeping your elbow at your side.
For the externals, picture grabbing a cable to your left with your right arm and pulling the cable right across your chest, keeping your elbow at your side.
Finally, I did 3 sets where I moved the cable to the floor, and pulled it up and away from my body. I'll call them shoulder pulls.
For the shoulder pulls, picture grabbing a cable from your left foot with your right arm and pulling it up and above your head.
Here are all of the sets from the day.
6/25/12 - Monday
Machine Cable Rows - 3 sets
90x8 (warmup)
120x8 (warmup)
165x8
180x7
165x8
External Rotator Cuff - 3 sets each arm
30x8
30x8
20x8
Internal Rotator Cuff - 3 sets each arm
30x8
30x8
20x8
Shoulder Pulls - 3 sets each arm
30x8
30x8
30x8
It's Wednesday, and while my shoulders both feel a little sore, my right one feels more sore than the left. I'm going to try throwing a ball on either Friday or Saturday, depending on how it feels. I'll throw VERY LIGHTLY, and again - see how I feel. I'll work out my shoulders this away again next Monday, and maybe one more time during next week before my next softball game. I want to see if doing this 2-4 times has any improvement on my level of pain and ability to throw. If not, I'll go the physical therapy route. If it helps, then great!
I'll keep you posted.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
The Coccyx
I'm trying to play catch-up here, so I'm a little behind with my posts. I also went to the gym on Saturday last week. It wasn't a good session. In fact, I'd barely call it a workout.
I was uncomfortable, slightly hungover, and felt some pain while warming up for deadlifts. Because of the pain in my first 2 warmup sets, I did a 3rd one, and it didn't feel right. I was feeling pain in my ass bone, aka the coccyx. I think it's from sitting too much during the day. Either way, I felt pain and decided to keep the weight low and just do some RDL's instead.
And then I went home. Here are the semi-sets that I did.
6/23/12 - Saturday
Deadlifts - 0 sets
135x8 (warmup)
225x5 (warmup)
225x4
RDL's - 2 sets
135x8
135x8
So - to sum it up. I warmed up for deadlifts, didn't do them, but did 2 sets of RDL's. And then went home. What a day.
Oh, here's the coccyx!
I was uncomfortable, slightly hungover, and felt some pain while warming up for deadlifts. Because of the pain in my first 2 warmup sets, I did a 3rd one, and it didn't feel right. I was feeling pain in my ass bone, aka the coccyx. I think it's from sitting too much during the day. Either way, I felt pain and decided to keep the weight low and just do some RDL's instead.
And then I went home. Here are the semi-sets that I did.
6/23/12 - Saturday
Deadlifts - 0 sets
135x8 (warmup)
225x5 (warmup)
225x4
RDL's - 2 sets
135x8
135x8
So - to sum it up. I warmed up for deadlifts, didn't do them, but did 2 sets of RDL's. And then went home. What a day.
Oh, here's the coccyx!
3 C's in Coccyx
I don't know if it's the bone that's really hurting me, it's just pain down there. I sit all day and work, and then come home and sit all evening playing games, eating dinner, and watching TV. Occasionally I'll go to the gym or do some activity, but really - I sit all the time.
Monday, June 25, 2012
The Wednesday Bench
Here's the quick rundown:
Benched Wednesday, felt pretty good. I ended up doing 4 working sets. I pushed the first up to185 for 3 reps, and slowly took weight off and increased reps over the next few sets. I also did some dips and I think 1 set of biceps.
Here are the sets.
6/20/12 - Wednesday
Bench Press - 4 sets
95x8 (warmup)
135x6 (warmup)
185x3
175x5
175x5
165x6
Dips - 2 sets
45lbs x 7
45lbs x 6
Bent Bar Bicep Curls - 1 set
50x10 (warmup)
80x8
Benched Wednesday, felt pretty good. I ended up doing 4 working sets. I pushed the first up to185 for 3 reps, and slowly took weight off and increased reps over the next few sets. I also did some dips and I think 1 set of biceps.
Here are the sets.
6/20/12 - Wednesday
Bench Press - 4 sets
95x8 (warmup)
135x6 (warmup)
185x3
175x5
175x5
165x6
Dips - 2 sets
45lbs x 7
45lbs x 6
Bent Bar Bicep Curls - 1 set
50x10 (warmup)
80x8
Thursday, June 21, 2012
More quick updates
Alright, today's Thursday and I haven't been to the gym since Saturday. I squatted Saturday, played softball on Sunday, and drank some beers Sunday afternoon for father's day.
Monday I was really sore, no chance for the gym. Tuesday I went to a Mets game with my brother and father. We had a great time! Wednesday I actually got home a little early from work, but was just not mentally ready for a trip to the gym.
Today, I'm doing bench. I let you know how it goes.
As for Saturday, here are my sets.
6/16/12 - Saturday
Squats - 3 sets
215x5
215x5
215x5
Dumbbell Shrugs - 3 sets
75x10
75x10
75x10
Felt good on squats, I'm going to just build them back up, nice and slowly. Shrugs, I dropped the weight because I hadn't done them in a while. And I just kind of went for reps with a very deep ROM.
Doing bench tonight.
Monday I was really sore, no chance for the gym. Tuesday I went to a Mets game with my brother and father. We had a great time! Wednesday I actually got home a little early from work, but was just not mentally ready for a trip to the gym.
Today, I'm doing bench. I let you know how it goes.
As for Saturday, here are my sets.
6/16/12 - Saturday
Squats - 3 sets
215x5
215x5
215x5
Dumbbell Shrugs - 3 sets
75x10
75x10
75x10
Felt good on squats, I'm going to just build them back up, nice and slowly. Shrugs, I dropped the weight because I hadn't done them in a while. And I just kind of went for reps with a very deep ROM.
Doing bench tonight.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Keeping up with the Chris's
In keeping pace (or lack thereof) with my workouts the past few weeks, I again declined to lift on Monday and Tuesday this week. Went Wednesday, and I planned on squatting. It didn't happen. Squat racks were taken when I got there, so I started out with some 1 handed rows. After these, one of the racks was open, but I was already fucking exhausted and figured I'd push ahead with a shitty back workout instead.
That night, I realized that I was starting to get sick. Throat was hurting, and Thursday morning I woke up feeling like shit. Worked really late Thursday night, and came home with a mild fever. Thankfully, today I don't have a fever, but my throat is still on fire. I'm trying to avoid another doctor visit.
Anyway, here are the sets from Wednesday.
6/13/12 - Wednesday
1 Handed Dumbbell Rows - 3 sets
65x8 (warmup)
100x7
100x6
95x8
Weighted Chinups (wide bar) - 5 sets, 20 reps
25x5
25x4
25x4
25x3
25x4 (eeked out the 4th)
Bent Bar Bicep Curls - 3 sets
70x8
70x8
70x8
That night, I realized that I was starting to get sick. Throat was hurting, and Thursday morning I woke up feeling like shit. Worked really late Thursday night, and came home with a mild fever. Thankfully, today I don't have a fever, but my throat is still on fire. I'm trying to avoid another doctor visit.
Anyway, here are the sets from Wednesday.
6/13/12 - Wednesday
1 Handed Dumbbell Rows - 3 sets
65x8 (warmup)
100x7
100x6
95x8
Weighted Chinups (wide bar) - 5 sets, 20 reps
25x5
25x4
25x4
25x3
25x4 (eeked out the 4th)
Bent Bar Bicep Curls - 3 sets
70x8
70x8
70x8
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
A return to flat bench
Before I get into the lifts, check out this video. Cracked me up bigtime!
Now that that's out of the way....
I've been doing incline bench for about a month now, with little progress. I'm stopping it because my shoulder has been hurting. Not during the lift, but during the recovery afterwards. And my ability to fake it during softball has gotten worse.
So, I went back to flat bench on Saturday. Nothing crazy, just a few sets of 5 at 175. Enough to get me cranking.
Here are the sets.
6/9/12 - Saturday
Bench Press - 3 sets
95x8 (warmup)
135x6 (warmup)
175x5
175x5
175x5
Tricep Cable Rope Pulldown - 1 set
60x7 - Didn't feel right, shoulder was weird so I stopped
Dips - 3 sets
Bodyweight x 10 x 10 x 10
Bent Bar Bicep Curls - 2 sets
50x8 (warmup)
80x8
80x7
Now that that's out of the way....
I've been doing incline bench for about a month now, with little progress. I'm stopping it because my shoulder has been hurting. Not during the lift, but during the recovery afterwards. And my ability to fake it during softball has gotten worse.
So, I went back to flat bench on Saturday. Nothing crazy, just a few sets of 5 at 175. Enough to get me cranking.
Here are the sets.
6/9/12 - Saturday
Bench Press - 3 sets
95x8 (warmup)
135x6 (warmup)
175x5
175x5
175x5
Tricep Cable Rope Pulldown - 1 set
60x7 - Didn't feel right, shoulder was weird so I stopped
Dips - 3 sets
Bodyweight x 10 x 10 x 10
Bent Bar Bicep Curls - 2 sets
50x8 (warmup)
80x8
80x7
Monday, June 11, 2012
A quick session of deadlifts
Alright, a quick update. Thursday afternoon I hit up the gym for the first time in almost a week. Did some nice warming up, and then deadlifted. Pushed it to 305, and it was surprisingly not as hard as I thought it would be. I was in a rush at the time, so that's all I did.
Here are the sets.
6/7/12 - Thursday
Deadlifts - 3 sets
135x8 (warmup)
225x5 (warmup)
305x4
295x5
285x6
I also did some chest, dips and bi's on Saturday, but I'll post up that workout tomorrow.
Monday, June 4, 2012
It's been a busy week
It's been a busy week, and I haven't updated since last Friday! I did get to the gym twice last week, and I'll post about both sessions below.
First off, my Memorial Day weekend was awesome. Spent time with the family at my parent's home upstate, and we had a blast. Fun times with my niece and nephew, playing on the ATV, and even enjoying a fire on Sunday night. And beers. Lots and lots of beers. We also installed 2 new windows in one of the bedrooms of the house. All in all it was a good combination of work, fun, and plain old good times with the family.
We left Monday morning, and missed most of the traffic getting back onto Long Island. But I was hurting. A weekend of drinking and working will do that to ya. Tuesday was back to work, and I ended up working a little late. No gym. Finally, Wednesday I made it, and at that point I was practically forcing myself to go.
Here are those sets.
5/30/12 - Wednesday
Incline Bench - 3 sets
95x8 (warmup)
115x5 (warmup)
155x6
155x5
155x5
Cable Rows - 4 sets
90x8 (warmup)
120x8 (warmup)
165x8
180x7
165x8
165x8
Tricep Cable - 3 sets
30x8 (warmup)
60x8
60x7
60x3
Bent Bar Bicep Curls - 2 sets
70x10
70x10
By the end, my arms were linguini. The Tricep cables did me in.
Thursday I started getting something in my throat, and Friday I woke up with my throat on fire. No fever, but I felt like shit. Called out from work and spent most of the day either in bed or playing some video games.
Saturday I felt much better and hit up the gym. Squatted and did some shrugs. Here are THOSE sets.
6/2/12 - Saturday
Squats - 3 sets
135x8 (warmup)
185x5 (warmup)
205x5
205x5
205x5
Machine Shrugs - 4 sets
90x10 (warmup)
180x10
270x8
270x8
180x10
Came home, did some bodyweight chinups and some generic "ab work." Then played softball on Sunday on my wobbly legs. All in all, a good weekend!
First off, my Memorial Day weekend was awesome. Spent time with the family at my parent's home upstate, and we had a blast. Fun times with my niece and nephew, playing on the ATV, and even enjoying a fire on Sunday night. And beers. Lots and lots of beers. We also installed 2 new windows in one of the bedrooms of the house. All in all it was a good combination of work, fun, and plain old good times with the family.
We left Monday morning, and missed most of the traffic getting back onto Long Island. But I was hurting. A weekend of drinking and working will do that to ya. Tuesday was back to work, and I ended up working a little late. No gym. Finally, Wednesday I made it, and at that point I was practically forcing myself to go.
Here are those sets.
5/30/12 - Wednesday
Incline Bench - 3 sets
95x8 (warmup)
115x5 (warmup)
155x6
155x5
155x5
Cable Rows - 4 sets
90x8 (warmup)
120x8 (warmup)
165x8
180x7
165x8
165x8
Tricep Cable - 3 sets
30x8 (warmup)
60x8
60x7
60x3
Bent Bar Bicep Curls - 2 sets
70x10
70x10
By the end, my arms were linguini. The Tricep cables did me in.
Thursday I started getting something in my throat, and Friday I woke up with my throat on fire. No fever, but I felt like shit. Called out from work and spent most of the day either in bed or playing some video games.
Saturday I felt much better and hit up the gym. Squatted and did some shrugs. Here are THOSE sets.
6/2/12 - Saturday
Squats - 3 sets
135x8 (warmup)
185x5 (warmup)
205x5
205x5
205x5
Machine Shrugs - 4 sets
90x10 (warmup)
180x10
270x8
270x8
180x10
Came home, did some bodyweight chinups and some generic "ab work." Then played softball on Sunday on my wobbly legs. All in all, a good weekend!
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