Keeping myself honest

[Christopher John]

Unfortunately, mine isn't really an injury. It's multiple congenital defects that cause all manner of problems with my back. It is what it is.

Let me know how the ol' med school thing goes. If you have any questions about applying or such, don't hesitate to ask. I pissed on just about every electric fence to learn the hard way so I know what not to do.

Have you found lifting helps your back at all?

[vanslix]

Week 2, Workout A
Weight 259 -> 251.8
Waist 45 -> 44

Light Squats - 150x5x3
Press - 137.25x3x3
DL - 235x3
Assisted chins 4,4,4

Starting to get a feel for my macros. Around 2500-2600 kcal at 40/35/25 is isocaloric for me at this point. Not a lot of wiggle room there to progress and lean out.

[vanslix]

Have you found lifting helps your back at all?

In order to keep thread derailments going.....

My back is a perplexing and bewildering thing. Been to family doc (he's the one that put me on the right track), spinal orthopedist, neurosurgeon, three different chiros, three different rehabs, two pain management docs, masseuses, and finally acupuncturists. My neurosurgeon looked at my MRI and said, "huh, I've never seen that before". And this is at a tertiary center at the largest medical center in the world. I have three extra vertebrae, ie transitional vertebrae. One at L6 is not uncommon and does not always cause pain. But three? None of my doctors have seen three before. Andy at Kingwood Strength has been the most help. I actually need to get back in there to see him again.

So the long answer is confusing. Short answer is sometimes lifting helps, and sometimes it hurts. Overall, I'd say it's been a net wash for my pain. At the end of the day, my take is I'd rather be stronger (relatively speaking) and in pain than weaker and in pain.

[vanslix]

Week 2 HIIT
Still using bike sprints 20:100 seconds x 5. Not going very fast during the sprint and not recovering much during the rest. Going to have to pull out my HR monitor just because I'm a data geek. Decades of being a research scientist will do that to you.

Rest a day or two.

Week 2 Workout B
Squats 215x5x1. Back felt good with less volume.
Bench 230x3x3. I probably could've squeezed out some more linear progress on my bench press but I like to keep it simple so I decided to make all the programming match up. Less confusing on the gray matter....white matter...wait, which?

[vanslix]

Week 2 HIIT second session
20:100 seconds x 5 rounds. Heart rate gets up into mid 160s by the end of sprint and only recovers to the upper 140s to lower 150s during the rest depending if the wind is against or behind me. All that tells me is what I already knew. My capacity to recover from a cardiopulmonary perspective sucks. I know there's a lot of debate about the utility of HR as a measure on one of the other threads. For me individually, I think the recovery part does give some measure of progress. That's why in football, conditioning was always trained on a game clock at my college. It was the recovery that determined how useful your skills were. Who cares if someone runs a 4.4 forty if they can't still hit close to that speed and acceleration in the 4th quarter. This is especially true among pass rushers.

[vanslix]

Week 3 Workout A
Weight 259 ----> 251.8 -> 249.8
Waist 45 ----> 44 -> 43.75

Light squats 157.5x5x3. I know. Why the hell don't I round it to 155 or 160, especially on squats where it doesn't matter. Because I have Dan's micro plates and think they're very impressively machined so it gives me an excuse to use them. It also forces me to do math in my head while winded. Kind of liking deciding a dose of a drug after the 23rd hour of a 28 hour shift. Keeps my mind on it's toes.

Press 140x2x3. With only two reps, this puts me in a conundrum I had not anticipated. I prefer Press 1.0. My back definitely prefers it. Andy coached me on it. I'm better at because I'm used to it. But the first rep is Press 2.0 by default. In sets of 5s across, this didn't matter. For only 2 reps on 3 sets it feels very weird because it's 50/50. Hard to get into that zen rhythm. Very unsatisfactory, especially since I enjoy the upper body lifts more given my back. Oh well, next month this weight will be for 3x3.

DL - 245x2. Felt easy going up, as it should as my PR is 315 for I forget how many reps. I know I could just make the jumps bigger than 10 pounds/month and get back up there more quickly. But experience tells me es no bueno. I first tweaked and reset at 195. Then at 245. Then at 295. Then at 315. I've spent too much time doing massive deloads because I don't anticipate my back. It's one thing to listen. It's another to learn to anticipate and sense the slightest sign of impending fuckery. And sure enough, later that night it began to hurt. Could've been the deads. Could've been the weather. Who knows. But caution is prudent. I've laid out my programming with Andy's help and I'm not going to second guess it. The tortoise wins the race.

[vanslix]

Week 3 Workout B
Squats - 225x5x1. This weight feels as heavy as 275 did on my back. Definitely taking the weight up slowly. Instead of waiting for the disastrous tweak with it's concomitant deload, I'll repeat a cycle to see if that helps delay the inevitable.

Bench - 235x3x2. 150x8 back off set. First set felt a bit heavy but on the last two sets, I definitely had room for another rep on each set. No problem advancing this one another cycle.

Assisted neutral grip chins 5x2. These actually felt easier today. Not sure why.

Also still doing the HIIT x 5 cycles twice a week on the day after lifting. It's been two weeks and isn't changing the waistline much while eating at 2500 kcal. Instead of cutting calories, I may add another cycle to see if that budges things. Of course this all goes out the window tomorrow.

[vanslix]

Week 3 HIIT Session 2
As my waist isn't really moving much, I went from 5 cycles to 6. I also pushed myself harder during the sprint part. Heart rate went up to upper 160s to lower 170s. Recovery still only about 15 beats lower in the 150s to low 160s. And I hardly was able to pedal enough to keep upright during the rest. Lungs and thighs were on fire. I was gasping like a fish out of water. I may keep it at 6 for a couple of weeks to see what my waist does before trying 7 or 8.

[vanslix]

Have you found lifting helps your back at all?

End of Cycle 1 Pain Observations

Derailing is good. I've been pondering how to reduce my pain for quite some time, unsuccessfully I might add. Last night a pain spike began and continued on into today. Trigger wasn't lifting. Trigger wasn't weather. Just came out of nowhere. Damn thing began before Thanksgiving dinner! No specific trigger at all. But I decided to reach back into my past and pull out an activity I haven't done for awhile. Yoga. Blasphemy! But 10-15 years ago when my back hurt less, but still hurt, I seem to recall yoga reducing the frequency of pain flares. So I cranked up the space heater in my garage and did some yoga. It felt good. Will it help in long term? Who knows. But it did in the short term so I'm going to add this to my routine on my off days.

Deadlift - hasn't hurt my back at these weights. I must keep impeccable form which is amenable to my limitations. So far, so good.

Squats - definitely can feel the strain no matter what weight. I tried lessening the hip drive and that felt better. But I know that won't help strengthen my back. Something to keep an eye on.

[vanslix]

Cycle 2
Since I already went through a major deload, I figured I could skip my prescripted every 4th week deload this time.

Week 1 Workout A
Weight 259 ----> 249.8 -> 246.2
Waist 45 ----> 43.75 -> 43.125

Light Squats - 150x5x3

Press -137.5x5x3. Last two reps of the last set were a bit of a grind. More fatigue than anything. Didn't eat properly yesterday and it probably came back to bite me with respect to performance.

DL - 235x5. No problem with the weight. Made sure form was impeccable and back responded well to it. Just feeling gassed. Too little protein and calories yesterday and this morning.

Assisted neutral grip chins 5,4,4. These actually felt easier surprisingly.

Still trying to dial in the right combination of diet composition, progression and HIIT to lose fat while retaining as much strength/skeletal muscle as possible. Going to be a moving target, I'm sure.