Wolf's Log: From Cub to Direwolf

[quad]

He hurt his back 3 months ago. Also free of charge.

[Michael Wolf]

My back still bothered me low level, like it has for the last while, most of the weekend and this morning but once again didn't get any worse during or right after squatting. Actually felt a little better during, in fact. Very odd, but right now I'm not complaining. SO happy to be able to do some lifting again.

Squat - belt, each weight done both low and high bar
135x5, 185x3, 225x3, 265x3, 295x3, 315x3
Notes: Felt good. Super easy. Felt like a warm-up even though it's been months. 3 wheels bruh.

Press 1.5 - belt
95x5, 135x5, 165x5, 185x5, 200x5x3 @7

Sumo DL
185x5, 275x3, 365x3, 405x3x2
DL
275x8
Notes: Sumo just feels so weird. Had some trouble finding the right grip width, and keeping the bar close. 405 was still easy, of course, but feels awkward. 275x8 conventional backoff set felt fine so maybe I'll be able to return to that soon.

Also, since I was pulling sumo first, I had my shoes off. This was the first time in who knows how long that I pulled conventional shoeless and liked it. Might stick with it for now and see.

KB Swing + Pushup
24 kg x 15 russian swing + BWx10 pushups back to back, 1 min rest, 4 sets.
Notes: Crossfit.

[Ryan Arnold]

Crossfit.

When I left I knew a saw a large fellow with a man bun on his way out the door with a communist bumper plate for a lap around the block

[Michael Wolf]

When I left I knew a saw a large fellow with a man bun on his way out the door with a communist bumper plate for a lap around the block

Was the man-bun ginger???

[Ryan Arnold]

Was the man-bun ginger???

It was most certainly ginger. And the wearer of said Man-Bun was clearly among the fittest on earth

[Michael Wolf]

Wolf's Disease is fucking real and I am the most snakebit, unlucky SOB to ever lift weights. My body is an enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in my own ponytail.

So. Tweak my back in early January, seems small and the pain is only low grade that is more or less constantly annoying but doesn't fuck with any activities of daily living stuff like putting on socks, like bad back tweaks often do, but the thing hardly improves at all for 3 months. Just starts to feel better last Friday and by today, only 5 days later, it's already back to 80-85%. Way more movement in 5 days than in the previous 50 combined. For no reason that I can tell whatsoever. No lessons learned, no wisdom gained about what to do next time to avoid it or make it better faster. But at least it's finally getting better.

Start squatting today and everything feels great. Super easy, super fast. But I've done this dance before, I know to be conservative and not ramp up too quickly, so I put a hard cap on 345 as my heaviest weight I'll do today, even if everything feels great and perfect. 345 is just about 55% of what I estimate my 1RM was when I last squatted heavy before injury. Sure it's a slightly higher % today, after three months off, but the point is, it's still a low fucking percentage.

I work up triples through 325, super fast super easy. Go to 345 for the last set, and on the very first rep, something on the goddamn other side of my back goes out. FML. Seriously just FML.

Hopefully without sounding like an arrogant asshole, I lift with better technique than 99.9% of people lifting weights. Maybe more than that. Though I am sometimes aggressive in training with weights, I'm never reckless and never use weights that are clearly more than I can handle. In many cases, like today, I was using a light weight that I could probably have done for 20 reps, even after a 3 month layoff. And yet I am the most goddamn injured lifter I have ever heard of. The people I coach almost never get hurt, and when they do (as is inevitable if you train enough people for a long enough time), it's a small tweak and they're quickly back under the bar My training partners and close friends who lift, rarely get anything more than little tweaks. If people I coached got hurt at 1/4 the rate I do, I'd be out of a job. The vast majority of these people don't lift with technique as consistent and good as I do. Yet here I am, hurt again for no clear reason while everyone else trains without a problem.

This is just so goddamn stupid. Fuck everything.

Squat - belt
45x10x2, 135x5, 185x4, 225x3, 265x3, 295x3, 325x3, 345 x fuckit.

Bench Press
135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 255x5, 285x5 305x5, 325x5x2 @7
2 Ct Paused Bench
275x4,4,4,5 @7
Notes: Easy, felt good, pec felt better than last week's CGBP.

Chins
BWx4x9
BWx6 @8
Notes: Short rests.

[Sean Herbison]

Huh. That sucks.

[Ryan Arnold]

Not fun

[Michael Wolf]

Not fun

Huh. That sucks.

Yerp. I'll recover from this one too. It's just frustrating as all hell.

[Chris McCarthy]

Wolf,

Some time ago I asked you what thoughts you'd had about looking at fixing this back long-term and you answered in the affirmative...care to share?

I reckon some kind of Shamanistic-Charm might be effective in your Case.