Getting back into it

[caveman]

Thanks Oldster. I was pretty happy with the experience this morning. He's a fairly big dude, and seemed to know what he was talking about, so I have high hopes that I will get more out of this than just feeling better. Though I look forward to being pain free. this blows.

Body weight 200.4 Not sure if this is going down for limiting pumpkin pie consumption or because I haven't squatted in a while and my legs are shrinking....

Bench press 225 for 5, 5, AND 5! PR! Noice! Last two reps of the third set were slow and slower and I think I was cross-eyed for a bit after the last one. But this was 225 and I wanted it.

Chins at bodyweight. Only 8. Short rest time after benching which was fairly taxing. Plus it is cold in the garage and my hip/back were unhappy about the whole bench max effort thing. It was worth it. Think I'll start throwing in random chins throughout the day. I know I have 10 in me. I've done more than that before at this bodyweight.

I'll do some planks later today.

[caveman]

It's been a while so I thought I would check in. Haven't done much in a while. Knee, hip, or glute pain, has made life miserable for a while now. Though I think I may have finally turned the corner. I haven't had to limp at all today, which is a huge improvement. I"ve been doing chin ups here and there, and alot of lower body specific mobility work. Doing a variety of glute stretches as well as taking a rolling pin to my quad made the most improvement.

After I hurt my hip flexor, squatting and deadlifting heavy the following week must have caused some fairly serious damage to the surrounding muscles. Even though I felt fine during those lifts. I guess I'll chalk that up to experience and do things differently next go around. In any event, I'm going to place more importance on the soft tissue work and post workout stretching than I have before. I used to be able to do the splits and now it's just embarassing.

[caveman]

Saw the doctor yesterday and he agreed that the hip flexor was strained and then the surrounding muscles were strained. PT starts next Tuesday. Planning on laying low for a while...

[caveman]

3 months?!! Really?!! Ugh. So here's the deal. I haven't lifted a lick in that time, apparently 3 whole months. Shortly after my leg/glute felt better I came down with bronchitis. In fact, I'm still coughing as I write this. It's got to be 7 or 8 weeks that I have had this now, with the middle three being rather unpleasant. Besides the coughing I feel mostly normal now at least. I've tried to take advantage of the extra time available with knocking items off of my honey-do list. I've almost finished fabricating the chin up bar addition to my smith half cage. I also decided to relocate the lat pull down attachment because it was taking up valuable chin up bar real estate and also was in the way of overhead pressing. It more than doubled the amount of work required, but I think it will be worth it in the end. And as an added bonus I found out that my whole rack was tilted about a 1/2" because of the garage drain. Getting the chin up bar level highlighted that error which has now been corrected. Pictures to follow.

Next fab project is a dip station that will fit into the accessory attachment area of my bench. Then a deadlift jack. Then a whole lot of cleaning. I forgot how messy metal working can be.

[caveman]

And I'm back! I have pictures of my newly made goodies, just need to upload them. Chin up bar/lat bar relocation is working out awesome so far. Dip bar attachment is pretty good, though I need to put a counterweight on the other end of the bench to keep it from tipping. Finally my smith bar and pussy pad have a use! I only built the mini-deadlift jack for now. Space is a premium and this is smaller. This is also working great, though it's a little tippy when there are no weights on one side of the barbell. I'm not going to change anything just yet. I can make the base a bit wider if needed.

On to the good stuff
Body weight 191

Overhead press worked up to a set of 5 at 105
Squat worked up to a set of 185 for 5. Probably could have got more, but I am trying to avoid getting ridiculously sore
Benchpress worked up to a set of 185 for 5. This was hard.
Deadlifts worked up to a set of 275 for 5. This was also challenging and my left hand grip was having difficulties.
Chins 9 at bodyweight. I've been doing 10, so this is a minor let down.
Ab rollouts. Kneeling for 10. this was easy, but trying not to over do it.

Not a bad session for the first one back after such a long lay off. Everything is done about 20% with squats being down 30%, (though that number would have been 20% if I had done another set at 205, which I'm pretty sure i could have gotten).

I plan on resuming the programming I was doing before I stopped. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to use these numbers for 3 sets of 5 or back off everything slightly and start with linear progression. My current thinking is to back off, which will pad the AMRAP set and just taking larger increases until everything starts getting challenging.

Felt good to be back under the iron, and not to have gotten as weak as I thought I had. 300, 400, 500 here I come...

[Juice80]

Caveman -

Good to have you back...I'd been following your log for awhile as we're about the same build and in a similar spot in the program. I like having something to gauge my progress against, so welcome back. You'll be back to your previous numbers in no time. I have dealt with several bumps in the road since I found SS, but I've gotten on a pretty consistent path since the new year. Stay healthy and keep pluggin away.

[caveman]

Thanks Juice! It definitely adds some motivation when I know someone is watching. Looks like I have a lot of catching up to do.

From Monday
As expected I was fairly sore throughout Sunday and Monday. I restarted all of my supplements and doubled/tripled the BCAA consumption which I think, maybe, helped speed up and minimize the soreness. The supplements I'm taking now are fish oil, glucosamine/chondroitin, BCAA's, creatine, and optimum nutritions gold whey powder. I also bought some caffeine pills a while ago, but I don't think those will get tested for a while.

Body weight 193.6 (2 pound increase from Friday??)

Overhead press 95 for 5, 5, 8. I did an additional deload because I want to make use of the AMRAP and not just be stuck at 5's across. Plus I'm also trying to take it a little easy this week.

Squats 185 for 5, 5, 5. I did more stretching and warmups than usual because the backs of my legs were SORE. I don't feel comfortable with this movement yet. A little too far forward, not setting my back properly, knees caving in, chest caving down, looking up. I had some combination of all these errors, but the weight is light enough that I can power through. I stopped at 5, probably could have done 7 or 8. I will repeat this weight on Friday and then start with linear progression next week.

Chins 10 and 4. The new pullup bar is awesome.

Dips 8 and 3'ish (can't remember the 2nd set count). The dip station is a litte more wobbly than I would prefer, I have an idea of how to minimize it, but it's good enough for now, and I'm very happy to be able to include this exercise in my lineup.

Ab rollouts, kneeling 12. Easy. I was going to do another set, but then my abs were feeling a little sore/weird so I called it.

I'm not nearly as sore today (Tuesday), I only feel it in my legs and that's mostly after sitting at my desk for a while.

[caveman]

From yesterday

Body weight 193.6

Bench 175 for 5, 5, 6. With the additional deload I was hoping for more like 8 on the AMRAP set. Oh well. Haven't decided if I want to go up by 2.5 or 5 for a while yet.

Deadlift 255 for 9. All DOH grip, no chalk. These were hard and easy at the same time. In an event I'm happy with 9 and could of got 10 if there was a compelling reason to get it.

One arm dumbell rows 46 for 8. 8, 8. First set was easy, last set of was hard.

Ab rollouts kneeling from doubled up pad. 1 set of 15.

I was going to throw in a light set of squats, but I just ran out of time. In general I still don't feel comfortable around the bar. I need to work on my setups and getting/staying tighter. I have the "good" kind of sore today, so that's encouraging.

[caveman]

Missed a couple of workouts for a variety of reasons. Sick kids, mother's day, making some extra money on the side, etc...

From today
Bodyweight 193'ish. I didn't follow my usual weighing routine this morning.

Overhead press 97.5 for 5, 5, and 8. I thought I could get 10, but it was obvious that 8 would be the last one.

Squats 190 for 5, 5, and 5. I still don't like squats and I definitely haven't found my groove yet. I could have probably got 7 or 8 on the last set, but I'm not ready to knock out any grinders until I feel more comfortable under the bar. It's getting better for sure, but still a far ways away from what I would like.

Chins 10 and 6.

Dips 10

Ab rollouts 12

A great workout with the exception of squats. I dislike those.

[caveman]

From 5/17/13

Bench press 180 for 5, 5, and 6

Deadlift 265 for 10. Crushed it. Could have done 2 or 3 more but the grip was starting to go. Pleased with this.

Chins at bodyweight for 10.

Ab rollouts for 15.

From tonight
Body weight 194 (too many homemade cookies and port wine) hmph.

Press 100 for 5, 5, and 8. Easy. Triple digits for press. Yay me.

Squats 195 for 5, 5, and 7. Easy, though I got pinned on the 3rd rep of the 1st set. I have no idea how this happened. WTF. Besides that, these actually felt pretty decent. I need to take some video for review, I think I'm going too deep. First AMRAP for squats and I had a few more in the tank. Bodyweight squat...CHECK. Double yay me.

Dumbbell row 46 for 8, 50 for 8 and then 10. Surprisingly easy.

Dips at body weight for 10 and 6. Still need to work on fixing the wobble.

Assorted planks. Not much though.

Definitely the best workout since returning.