Dan's log

[elVarouza]

02/23/15 Monday

Gym was closed Saturday due to 4 whole inches of snow.

Squat:

45x10x2
135x10
225x5
315x2
365x1 (belt)
405x1
435x1
465x5 (PR)

2nd and 3rd reps were high, others were better. Form was not great. you can see in the vid I was really coming forward at the bottom. Made all the reps much harder. I believe this was caused by my stance being narrower than usual, not allowing my hips to get down in between my legs. All reps were insanely slow, everyone made fun of me after the set lol. The first rep was not a great way to start a set of 5, you can see the spotter was concerned haha. Oh well, got it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6KZhXRMiBs


Bench:

45x15x3
135x10x2
185x5
225x3
255x1
285x1
305x4x2
305x2

Tore my pec on set 3. Plan was 305x4x3, bar was moving well, tore my left pec coming up on rep 3 of the final set. No bruising but it's swollen. Will start the Starr rehab probably tomorrow (Wednesday) although I want to start it today. Felt pretty similar to my quad tear last August so hopefully it can get better within 4 weeks.

My left pec has given me trouble since June/July 2013. When I first hurt it I wasn't sure if it was a tear or not so I mostly laid off it, which in hindsight is probably why I keep having problems with it. This is like the 4th time it's been hurt, or at least the 3rd. Now, it's very clearly torn, so I'm hoping that it tore away all the scar tissue or w/e and when I heal it properly with the Starr rehab it can get back to 100%.

Either way, I really, REALLY need to learn to listen to my body. Last week I was thinking "I should deload on bench because my pec is feeling iffy" but went and hit a PR. Yesterday I was thinking "okay, now I should REALLY deload" but decided to go heavy again. It's so tempting to go heavy when things are feeling good, but I need to stop being so stupid in the future.

[Meshuggah]

That sucks, I hope you heal quickly. Like I've said before, The Bench Press is Evil.

[Bryan Dobson]

Sorry to hear about the pec. Ice that sucker and get ready to rehab.

Good perseverance on the squats.

[Vince Cifani]

Oh crap. Sorry to hear about the pec tear. It's so hard to back off when you're still nailing PRs.

But nice job on the squats. You and I are about neck-and-neck.

[elVarouza]

Thanks for the support guys. I've been icing the pec pretty regularly and it's still a little swollen but feeling much better during the day.

Last night (Wednesday 02/25) I did some bench with the empty bar, 45x25x3. Felt worse than I expected and I still had a decent amount of pain. It feels like there's a 2-3 inch gash across my pec judging by the location of the pain (I can't physically feel it with my finger, that'd be really disturbing hah). May have been a little too early to start the rehab but I don't really know. I'll likely do the same thing tonight, 45x25x3, and not try to increase the weight.

I'm not sure what exercises I can really do at the moment. Low bar squats I feel will be painful since the chest gets stretched a lot in that position. Front squats are probably okay, and maybe high bar squats are. Overhead stuff is out because of the stretch on the pec, so that includes overhead press, chins, and even ab wheel. Overhead triceps extension are out too. I could probably do a form of tricep pushdown if I'm careful about keeping my pec out of it. Maybe I could do DB rows for some back work.

[elVarouza]

02/27/15 Friday

Bench: 45x25x3

Still hurting.

02/28/15 Saturday

Squat:

45x10x2
135x10
225x5
315x5

Was able to get the bar low enough if I bent my wrists back a little. That seemed to take some of the strain off my chest. My back is still tweaked from Tuesday's DLs (which I never wrote down...I just did warmups and tweaked my back on one of them, lol), so every rep at 315 was painful. But whatever, it should be back to normal in a week or so.

Bench: 45x25x2, 55x25

Actually felt much better than yesterday. Maybe it's because I was already warmed up, but hopefully it's a sign of improvement.

Hammer curls: 40x5, 50x10x3

[elVarouza]

03/01/15 Sunday

Bench: 45x10x2, 45x25, 55x25, 65x25

03/02/15 Monday

SSB squat:

45x10x2
135x8
225x3, 225x5x2

Squats are really agitating this back tweak thing. Icing it right now.

Bench: 45x10x2, 45x25, 60x25, 75x25

The 45x25 actually didn't feel very good, but 60 and 75 did. I'm gonna stick with the plan and go up slowly, 10lbs each time. The pec feels substantially better during the day. The first couple days it was hurting doing ordinary things.

Box jumps (lol): 3 boxes x 6, 4 boxes x 6x3

I've been told to do these to work on explosiveness, so why the hell not when I can't squat or DL heavy.

[Bryan Dobson]

keep up the good work on the rehab. It is lifters purgatory.

[elVarouza]

Thanks Bryan. Yeah, rehab is pretty boring.

03/03/15 Tuesday

Deadlift (in kgs):

60x5x3
100x4
140x2
180x1
185x5x2 (belt, straps)

That's about as much as I can do right now without my back/glute thing hurting a ton. It actually hurt quite a bit on reps 4 and 5 of these sets so I stopped after 2 sets. Oh well, at least it's something, and > 70% intensity isn't too bad.

Bench: 45x10x2, 45x25, 65x25, 85x25
Had some twinges on the 85.

One-arm cable triceps extensions: few sets of 10, don't remember the weight

Trying to find something to do for upper body that won't aggravate my chest.

03/04/15 Wednesday

Bench: 45x10, 45x25, 70x25, 95x25
45 and 70 felt great, but 95 started hurting after rep 15. Asked Rip in his Q&A and it sounds like I'm pushing the weight up too fast.

03/05/15 Thursday

Squat:

45x10x3
135x10
225x5
315x2
365x5x2 (belt)

Speed was great out of the hole but the back/glute thing was hurting. It actually made the top half of the reps the hardest part because I couldn't stay in good position due to the pain. Oh well, at least it's feeling better each time, and 365 is a moderately decent weight, about 70%.

Bench: 45x10x2, 45x25, 60x25, 75x25, 85x25
Backed off the weight a little. 75 felt good up through rep 20 then started hurting, but it seemed to be due more to form breakdown from doing a 25 rep set than from a fundamental injury problem. I decided to wait awhile, try 85, and really focus on consistent speed and form and touch a little lower. I didn't want to leave the gym on a bad note. All 25 reps of the 85 felt fine.

Hammer curls: 40x5, 50x10x3

[elVarouza]

03/06/15 Friday

Bench: 45x10x2, 45x25, 70x25, 95x25
95 still hurt a little on the last 5-6 reps even if I touched lower.

03/07/15 Saturday

Bench: 45x10x2, 45x25, 65x25, 85x25, 90x25
All of these felt fine. Got in a rhythm and went a little faster through the set. Decided I should touch the bar in my normal spot since I won't be touching super low when my pec is better anyway.

BB front raise: 45x8, 65x8x3

Was supposed to squat light but had zero motivation with all this pec stuff going on.

03/08/15 Sunday

Bench: 45x10x2, 70x25, 95x25

Finally, 95x25 felt good.

As I mentioned in the Q&A post I'm looking at adding 5lbs/day instead of 10, which seems like it's too much for me to handle at this point. After another week or so of 5lbs I'll drop the reps and see if I can tolerate bigger jumps. Or maybe earlier if it feels better.