Wolf's Log: From Cub to Direwolf

[Michael Wolf]

Leave the poor man alone.

This is giving me flashbacks to dealing with injuries in high school and college athletics. There was always some old fat hag who would come up to you after you had been rehabbing an injury for 6-12 months and say "These kids just want everything now. They can't be patient, rehab properly and stay within their limits." then, on the other side you would have ex athletes saying "I was ALWAYS playing injured. We were tougher back then. It is fine to push through it." In addition to that bullshit there were countless low-IQ dumb fucks offering you every kind of ridiculous advice as if you simply hadn't been trying hard enough to stay healthy or just didn't know what you were doing.

This made me chuckle, but really, it's OK, though I appreciate your umbrage on my behalf. I invited the conversation by continuing the dialogue instead of ignoring it, and while I didn't expect it would go on so long and create such a gap between logging of actual workouts, it's not a big deal.

What I've observed over the years is something along the lines of the following: When you're very familiar with a subject, know a lot about it - or at least think you do - and have had thousands of people look to you for expertise in that area, you often get too comfortable with your own assumptions. When someone comes along very confidently challenging them, there's an extremely good chance they're wrong, but there's a small chance they're right, and the new knowledge or perspective might be worth finding out. With me, specifically, I tend to be a little stubborn and sometimes a little self righteous, and I've learned that lesson several times already so though I fail sometimes like every other human, I try to keep that in mind.

Unfortunately in this case, as best I can tell: I was either trolled or else Chris is just wrong and doing what I outlined above and being so comfortable with his own assumptions that evidence to the contrary is hand waved away or ignored. In the specific case referenced above, I had worked with significantly lower intensity, somewhat lower volume, and slightly lower frequency (though was ramping that back up) in the months leading up to that incident (early May) since my last meet (mid-late January). I had been over 90% for exactly 1 rep during that whole 3.5 month period, and had quite a bit lower average volume and intensity throughout compared to the previous 3-4 months.

The other recent injury, which thankfully turned out to be a minor one that I was able to ramp back up from in a few weeks, was a pec strain that occurred while unracking a warm-up set of bench press at 75%. I'm guessing Chris would similarly say that that shows I'd overdone it in the gym. Except the same conditions obtained there, too: I had been working at significantly lower intensities, somewhat lower volumes, and slightly lower frequency for the approx couple months leading up to that than the previous 3-4.

Goalposts can be shifted, and it's an unfalsifiable claim, as I pointed out, because it can always fall back to "well it wasn't enough of an offset." But the offset was pretty large, by any reasonable standard. Chris is welcome to continue to confidently assert his opinion but I will not be spending any more time addressing it, as I re-examined my assumptions for the sake of attempted learning but found the assertion extremely lacking in likelihood.

If you were injured a lot in previous endeavours I have no way of knowing whether that was because you have some sort of structural fragility or whether you overdid things even back then (either is possible).

Getting injured at "weird" times is to me a pretty clear indicator that you've overdone it in the Gym...your back may "go" standing up from tying your shoelaces but it's almost certainly not due to it, unless you're *extremely* unlucky...

Chris, you haven't made a real argument here, just asserted. I thought about what you said, it doesn't match my history or experience with the relationship of injuries to my training, and I disagree that it explains all or even most of the situation. It may have something to do some some of the incidents in an acute sense, but as an overarching explanation of the whole situation, it doesn't match up. Since this is a training log and not a general forum, DM me if you want to continue to try to convince me, but otherwise I don't want to break up the flow of my training log with a topic I'm pretty well satisfied on already. Thanks.

[Michael Wolf]

Bench
335x3x3
Cocaine DL - 1.5" blocks
135x2, 145x2x6, 135x2
Notes: Bench was fine, uneventful. Kept ROM and intensity the same for the CDLs, added a tiny bit of volume.

DB 1-Arm Arnold Press
45x8, 55x8x3

Lat Chindown
5x6: 1 warmup, 1 easy work set, 3 solid work sets

Cable Bicep Curls
3x10
Plank
3x20s

Next week I will try the leg press again, I think it should be fine by then. I've been doing some unlogged BW squats over the past week or so and they've felt OK.

[Chris McCarthy]

It's OK Wolf, I'll not labour the point further if it's unwelcome...I guess we'll just see, won't we?

[Michael Wolf]

It's OK Wolf, I'll not labour the point further if it's unwelcome...

It's obviously pointless to try to change your mind, Chris, but the stats show a bunch of people still read this log, so it might be useful for others to show how your sausage is made.

1. Use vague language to make an off-topic assertion that begs a response - getting off topic, the response and resultant time wasting are the goal, not supposedly helping or informing.
2. Continue to use terse, vague language to distract from the topic-derailment and hopefully provoke further replies.
3. When pressed, clarify the assertion but provide no logic, reason, analysis, or evidence ("I've read your log for years" with no specific references or correlations).
4. Continue to reply tersely, with the goal of eliciting a longer reply that will waste the responder's time (it is much easier to tear down a house than to build one - the refutation requires much more time, effort, and background info than a simple assertion to the contrary).
And here's the key step:
5. When specific evidence to the contrary is offered: Completely ignore it, shift the conversation towards playing the victim* and pretending any future possible issue is still explained by your debunked thesis**.
* "Woe is me, 'My amazing insight is unwelcome!'" even after I've spent multiple times more time and text than you have, on my own training log, discussing the issue and why your amazing insight doesn't explain what you claim it does, and even offered to continue the conversation privately. But of course, since your goal was to waste my time, you win.
** "I guess we'll just see, won't we?" - implying, despite nothing but assertion, and evidence to the contrary, that whatever happens in the future can be explained by your unsubstantiated assertion.

Good job Chris. You're either a very good troll or not very intelligent, and either way, I lose.

[Chris McCarthy]

Oh, Ok then...if we're playing to the Crowd then please let me respond...

a) It's a bit beyond the scope of the comments on a training log to expect me to fix your training for you...I don't think it's outrageous for people to try and give you some ideas based on the close reading of your Log...it's better than reading people patting you on the head and going "aw, Poor Boy" every time you mention your woes, anyways...

b) You and I have had several discussions on here over the years (often about Olympic Lifting as I recall) where I've found you to have been, how shall we say, a little difficult to introduce new or alternate ideas to... didn't you once tell a story about how an Olympic Lifer once left the Gym mid-workout after a discussion with you?

c) It seems I've been commenting on your Log since Oct 2015 (which is something you could have found yourself) to I guess if I'm here to Troll you I've been playing a pretty long game...

d) I am kind of interested in how you feel you've debunked my theory when the very frame of reference you've used to consider the matter and reject it is the very thing I'm stating is what is causing you to get injured in the first place...

[Michael Wolf]

Haha there isn't much of a crowd here, Chris, but to the extent that I'm talking to the public and not you, it's because you've shown yourself to be a bad actor. You continue to do so and disparage me on my own log here, so this will be my last reply here. For example, you bring up the story I told in 2015 about the olympic lifting discussion in a way that implies I am an unreasonable, dogmatic adherent to bad ideas. Anyone is welcome to go back and find that story from summer, 2015, but here's the thing: I have several real-life friends and acquaintances who are actual olympic weightlifting coaches, some of pretty great renown, who strongly believe the high bar squat is the way to go for olympic lifters. We haven't avoided the topic, yet are somehow still good friends / get along fine. I will even give you some names: Frank Murray (5 time national medalist) and Nick Novack are good friends; Chad and Jodi Vaughn, Vanessa McCoy, and Mike Cerbus are very friendly acquaintances.

The guy yelled at me for a good while, and then stormed out of the gym when I didn't fold and acquiesce, even though my only position in that discussion, was the very soft claim, calmly delivered, was that there is a possibility that olympic weightlifters could benefit from low bar squats, too, and that it'd be interesting if more of them tried it so we could see what happened. His only counter argument was a very simplistic appeal to authority and history as an absolute check mate. Not a probability or likelihood, but the fact that it hasn't been done by the people who have medaled thus far absolutely 100% proves that it's wrong. I didn't agree, politely, and he yelled at me and stormed out.

That's the story. I'm actual friends in real life with olympic lifting coaches, some well known, who disagree - although actually Frank was pretty interested in running the experiment and Chad expressed some openness to the idea too - but broadly speaking, they're sticking with their high bar opinions. We get along fine. We're friends. We can have constructive, civil debates and disagreements. This guy was simply unhinged.

Yet you use that incident here to frame things in a way as if I'm a disagreeable, stubborn, asshole who chased an innocent reasonable person out of the gym.

I have no reason to waste any more of my log space on what appears to be a bad faith attempts to discredit me, especially when you haven't responded substantively to any of my points.

I will, however, continue privately if you wish to convince me and actually help: WolfStrengthInfo@gmail.com or DM me here. If you respond substantively in a way that changes my mind, I will absolutely come back here and publicly discuss it. But as of now, based on what I have to judge from, there's no reason to spend any more of my log space on this conversation.

As the Critical Drinker says: Go away now!

[Michael Wolf]

Bench Press
295x5, 315x5x2
Cocaine Deadlift - from the floor
135x2x8
Notes: BP was solid. Moved DL to the floor, dropped of 10 lbs, went fine. Since I started these a week ago, the severity and frequency of my back pain are both down significantly. Not anywhere near completely, but it's the only thing I've done that's even made a dent since it began. Since I've tried a number of other things that I was more optimistic about haven't helped at all, and was somewhat doubtful these would make a difference, I tend to think it's not a placebo and there's actually something to em.

DB Standing Press
50x10, 60x8x3
Leg Press
135x8, 225x8, 315x8x2
Notes: LP didn't hurt my back so I did go up to 315. At 315 I felt a very slight pressure, but no pain, so I held there and did a couple 8s.

Forgot to do pulldowns. Got distracted by Troupos' arrival. Womp.

DB Curls
35x8, 45x10, 8
Plank
3 x23s

Assault Bike
20/50 x8 - ramped up a little more.

[Ryan Arnold]

Got distracted by Troupos' arrival.

He is known to have that effect on people

[Michael Wolf]

Missed a few loggings, but nothing exceptional, just ramping back up at a moderate pace. BP ramp up to 325x5 for top set and 285x9 back-off, 215x5 and 235x1 press, and 205 for a few top triples in cocaine deads. Other assistance stuff proceeding apace. Back still doesn't feel "back to normal," but it does feel better than at any time since at least mid-April, possibly late March. It feels good enough to resume normal DL training, but I'm sticking with the CDs and ramping slowly since it was so bad for so long, it feels prudent to go slow with the ramp up. It doesn't hurt at all maybe about 15-20% of the time (Which is HUGE when compared with 100% of the time for 4 months straight), and when I do feel it, the intensity of the discomfort or pain is greatly reduced. Really happy with this development.

[Michael Wolf]

Bench
315x5, 335x5, 315x5
Cocaine DL
45x5, then 4s @: 135, 155, 175, 185x4 sets, 135
Notes: Bench a little slow for only 335 but recovering from Nick's bachelor weekend probably the main factor here. Added a rep and dropped 10% weight on the CDLs. 32 total weighted reps now, volume is way up since my first day doing them with 5 doubles at 135, 3 weeks ago.

Squat
45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x3x2, 135x5
DB 1-Arm Press
50x7, 65x7x3
Notes: Squatted to see if my back could tolerate it yet, and it felt fine during. Slightly more discomfort than usual this morning upon waking but not much, and can't be 100% sure yet that it was the squats did it. I'll be slow and careful here but it felt great to have a barbell on my back for the first time in 4-5 months.

Squat and Bench on IG


Wide Grip Lat Pulldown
5x10

DB Curls
40x9, 50x9x2

Doing some planks and stuff as well between pulldowns and curls, not sure if it's helping but it passes the time and isn't hurting.

Assault Bike
15/45 x8