The Road to 405

[Ryan Arnold]

Good luck. I was positive I had a hernia during my LP and didn't lift heavy for a long time while I was getting insurance sorted out. I had pain in my balls and everything, but they scanned me and I didn't have a hernia. Hope you get good news.

Did the problem just go away? Did you ever figure out what it was?

I'm struggling with this right now. I've been reading up on this as much as I can and talked to my doc about it a bit as well. While the chances aren't super high of the hernia becoming incarcerated or strangulated, that would be a really bad deal. Tomorrow's VD squats should really let me know where I'm at. I suppose I could try to keep training with greatly reduced squat volume and just take a conservative attempt at the Meet, but that doesn't seem like a great plan either. Hernias suck

[Anthony King]

Did the problem just go away? Did you ever figure out what it was?

I'm struggling with this right now. I've been reading up on this as much as I can and talked to my doc about it a bit as well. While the chances aren't super high of the hernia becoming incarcerated or strangulated, that would be a really bad deal. Tomorrow's VD squats should really let me know where I'm at. I suppose I could try to keep training with greatly reduced squat volume and just take a conservative attempt at the Meet, but that doesn't seem like a great plan either. Hernias suck

I honestly never figured out with certainty what it was. It started after playing soccer when I was about a month or two into my novice LP. At the time I didn't know whether it was from soccer of squatting, but I finally figured out that squatting wasn't the primary irritant. One day I even woke up with a painful bulge that I pressed back into my body (was right above my hip crease on the right side). That never happened again. Cutting firewood with a chainsaw, shovelling snow, stuff like that would make it very bad for a couple of days, and it would hurt in my right testicle sometimes, so I figured it was a small inguinal hernia. With a lot of stops and starts, I was able to finish my LP, do a little intermediate work, then it flared up again badly. So I basically did (olympic) weightlifting and kept my squat around 300 and deads around 380 for awhile. Got insurance during that time and the doc felt all around and couldn't feel anything w/ certainty, so we did an scan (ultrasound, I think, can' t remember now). After the scan the surgeon said he was certain there was no hernia. He said it was probably something muscular and offered to refer me to a PT but I declined. By this time I'd laid off everything that aggravated it for so long and had been lifting moderately heavy weights consistently that I rehabbed whatever it was pretty well. So I starting trying to push PR's again.

A couple of weeks ago I aggravated the injury a little bit while shoveling snow. My best description is some muscle or tendon in my groin area becomes inflamed by repetitive "bending over" activity. I've learned if I have two hours of chainsaw work to do I have to break it into hour chunks, and take a long break in between. Shoveling snow really screws with it.

The only thing that I can't explain consistently was the bulge I pushed back in that one morning.

But if I did get a hernia diagnosis, I'd have it surgically repaired asap. I did a lot of reading when I was sure I had one, and the consensus was that you can work around it for years, but it will impede your training significantly and eventually need to be repaired anyway, so you might as well go through the hassle, the layoff, the rehab, and then lift heavy with confidence.

[Ryan Arnold]

Thanks for the input Anthony. Tough to make of what's going on with your situation as well. Def sounds like an inguinal hernia, but since the bulge did not return maybe not. Either way I'm sure its frustrating. Yeah right now I'm starting to mentally prepare for having the surgery. Will know for sure in a couple days I think

[Ryan Arnold]

2/15/16

Squat VD: 285x5x5
Bench ID: 275x2x3, 235x6 - first two reps paused
Chins: BWx8x4 - 32 reps

Today I had a great workout accompanied by some pretty bad hernia pain. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. So I'm calling tomorrow to get a surgery date. Really knocks the wind out of my sails as things were really starting to click in training. But I definitely can't train through this level of pain much longer - certainly not 10 more weeks leading up to the Meet. Very frustrating but there's nothing I can do about it. Trying to train through it would be a very risky situation.

Anyway - squats felt great and I'm happy my volume day weight is finally on the move, even though it will come to a halt whether I like it or not
Was not expecting doubles with 275 on bench - a PR - so that was nice as well.
Hernia was hurting near the end and I ran out of time so only got 32 chins in, but that's fine.

[Ryan Arnold]

2/17/16

Press: 172x5, 155x5x2
DL: 415x3
Chins: BWx8,8,8,10 - 34 reps

Back to microloading Press but that will be shortlived, as I'm changing programming next week due to hernia. PR was nice though.
Back to DL'ing in Chucks. Not a huge difference but they do feel a bit better and allow me to get a slightly better squeeze.
Cut off chins when hernia started bothering me.

So I have a theory that the hernia is not bothered so much by the amount of weight I happen to be lifting, but that its the amount of time my body is under stress. It tends to start bothering me towards the end of my workouts. Obviously I'm not positive this is even correct but I'm going to make some program changes based on my expert opinion anyway. And if anyone with an actual expert opinion wants to weigh in that would be much appreciated.

I have a doctor appointment March 8th. Its the soonest I could get in. So that's 3 weeks from now, meaning the EARLIEST I could have surgery is 5 weeks from now, but due to life circumstances I'll really not be able to do it until April or May. The thought of me not training (or modifying severely) until then is pretty disheartening so I hope I can figure out a way to train through this without putting myself at risk.

Starting next week I'll move to a 1 lift a day plan. Will research the best layout but if I can be in and out in under and hour i might be able to avoid most of the discomfort I'm currently experiencing. Since volume will be cut way back I'll likely use this as an opportunity to lose some bodyfat as well. Off the top of my head I'm thinking:

Monday: Bench, Chins
Tuesday: Squat, BB Row, Conditioning
Thursday: Press, Chins
Friday: Light Squat, DL, Arms/Dips/Bro stuff, Conditioning

Will have to figure out how to decide rep ranges. Probably cycle them a bit. Then some assistance, conditioning and done in an hour.
I'll have to re-wire my brain to accept that this is the hand I've been dealt at the moment and I just have to work with it. Hopefully this system buys me some time before surgery.

[Ryan Arnold]

2/19/15

Squat ID: 350x3x2

350x3 - YouTube

Bench VD: 245x5x3

Had some issues today and ran out of time. But I also kind of planned to shorten the workout due to hernia. It became a little bothersome during bench but tolerable. I probably would have tried some BB Rows had I not ran out of time. I'm happy with the squats. They felt hard but good.

I kind of feel like I've just reached a new level of discomfort with the hernia, but it also doesn't feel "unsafe" to keep lifting. My hope is that with the program modifications I can ride out this current level until surgery eventually happens. Program is not ideal for gainz. Its definitely a bit sub-optimal but its certainly better than not training or continuing as is.

[Ryan Arnold]

2/22/16

Squat VD: 290x5x3
Bench ID: 277x2x3, 240x8

Tight reps. I think that's the key to training with a hernia that is starting to get bothersome. I changed squat volume from 5x5 to 3x5 today and felt no hernia discomfort whatsoever. With bench I felt it stretch a bit on the last rep of the back off set, likely because I wasn't as tight as I was on the previous reps. 8 reps is too much to guarantee technical proficiency I think. So this led me down a couple roads of thinking:

I'm still not sure how to program optimally right now. I guess no matter what I do it won't be optimal since sets over 5, chins, and most assistance are out.

My intuition tells me that intra-abdominal pressure not only aids in keeping the groin area tight, but strengthens it too; particularly the area of the bulge where my hernia is. Therefore doing heavy, tight reps may be the best thing I can do right now leading up to eventual surgery. There is probably a limit to this though, as I'm still trying to decide how detrimental failing a squat would be if I were to lose tightness during the event. My guess is that it could be a little risky. But I don't see moderate volume using 80-95% being an issue at all.

I also think any significant stretch to the area would be a bad thing. Whether its a static stretch or a stretch that occurs during an explosive movement (clean, KB snatch, etc), either would be worse than say doing a heavy push or pull and staying tight. I saw in some previous hernia threads that some people had problems with chins before or after hernia surgery. This makes sense to me too since chins not only stretch that area, but adding a stretch reflex at the bottom would exacerbate it further I would think. I'm also thinking if I wear a belt for BB Rows and keep reps under 5, I can keep them in the program.

I also think the area eventually gets fatigued and that's why it starts aching/burning near the end of workouts. So they definitely have to be cut when or before that happens (60-90mins)

So I think I've got some good information here, its just a matter of applying it best I can. I think I will switch back to a 4 day TM split with no assistance work. My body does not like training on back to back days but hopefully it will be ok with reduced volume. I think it makes sense to give this a shot for a few weeks and see if I can still progress. If I start getting pain or current discomfort gets worse I'll switch to 1 lift a day plan and just go into maintenance mode for however long until surgery. So I can transition right into the new program this week but I'll just do another Squat VD on Friday. It will look like this:

Monday - Bench ID, Press VD
Tuesday - Squat ID, BB Row
Thursday - Press ID, Bench VD
Friday - Squat VD, DL

That should keep workouts under 90mins and allow me to progress (I hope). I may institute a no failing squats rule to be safe but we'll see

[Ryan Arnold]

2/25/16

Surgery March 10th. I was in pretty good pain Tuesday night so that was the last straw. Bugged the doc to get me in asap. So that's that. I'm getting over the "this really sucks" stage and have moved on to "it is what it is." Just have to hope the operation is successful and with a little luck get back under the bar sooner than last time. First surgery I didn't lift for a full 7 weeks post op. I think ideal scenario I could be back under the bar in 4-5 weeks. In the grand scheme of things that's really not a big deal. Its disappointing I won't be able to compete May 1st and my Road to 405 will take a bit longer than expected, but that's life. The break should allow me to tighten up my diet, as well as hopefully come back with zero elbow or knee tendonitis

[John Petrizzo]

2/25/16

Surgery March 10th. I was in pretty good pain Tuesday night so that was the last straw. Bugged the doc to get me in asap. So that's that. I'm getting over the "this really sucks" stage and have moved on to "it is what it is." Just have to hope the operation is successful and with a little luck get back under the bar sooner than last time. First surgery I didn't lift for a full 7 weeks post op. I think ideal scenario I could be back under the bar in 4-5 weeks. In the grand scheme of things that's really not a big deal. Its disappointing I won't be able to compete May 1st and my Road to 405 will take a bit longer than expected, but that's life. The break should allow me to tighten up my diet, as well as hopefully come back with zero elbow or knee tendonitis

Sorry to hear about your upcoming surgery, Ryan. I hope you have a speedy recovery!

[Ryan Arnold]

Sorry to hear about your upcoming surgery, Ryan. I hope you have a speedy recovery!

Thanks John!