Yet another skinny guy

[Contrail]

Sunday 9/28/08 - I'm giving more detail on my warmup procedures, cause I'm bored and like typing. Or something.

1/2 mi jog
Stretches, static: toe touch, sideways lunge, seated butterfly, seated knee-to-chest
Stetches, dynamic: shoulder dislocations, leg kicks

Squat: Going into this workout, I was unsure how I'd do, as I had joint pain in my right knee and hip. At one point during my warmups, I started getting it in my left hip too, and then all pain went away. I think my squat form was at times better than ever today.
Bodyweight 5x10
44 lbs 2x5
65 lbs 1x5
85 lbs 1x3
105 lbs 1x2
125 lbs 3x5 - 130 was my pree-knee-trouble PR, so I'll try that again on Tuesday and hopefully go for 135 on Thursday.

Press
44 lbs 1x5
55 lbs 1x3
65 lbs 3x5 - last rep of last set was very slow, I might have cheated with a little bit of a back arch

Power clean: no problems
44 lbs 1x3
65 lbs 1x3
85 lbs 1x3
95 lbs 5x3

Pullups: 3/3/2 - I had hoped to get more here, but they feel a lot harder for me than chinups.

Abs: a new exercise for me. I added this because I feel my back getting a lot stronger from squat/deadlift, but my abs in front are only barely getting worked by overhead press, which is not much weight, cause my arms are twigs. Anyway, I did situps on the glute/ham setup, going from parallel to the ground to past vertical. For adding weight, I held a curl bar across my front shoulders.
Bodyweight 1x15
20 lbs 2x10 - planned to do a third set, but decided I didn't need it

[Contrail]

Tuesday 9/30/08

Squat - Couldn't do it. I hate my knee. I'm going to be conservative about what I try to do with it and just let it heal.

Bench press
105 lbs - 5/3/3 sets (1st failure)

Deadlift
176 lbs 1x5, no problem

Dips
5/0/0 too unmotivated and pissed off at my knee to continue

I haven't been able to get much sleep since Sunday's workout, so I still felt a little weak in general, and my abs were quite sore, so I'm dropping the abs from the workout for now, and I'll add them back in cautiously later.

I still haven't gained any weight or changed my body composition (within margin of error) since starting SS. I'm gonna up the milk.

[Locutus]

If you can do GHRs, back extensions, or the reverse hyper without pain those could be good to still hit your hams. Also, I wonder how massive doses of ibuprofen would affect the loading abilities. I think Mark actually recommends 5-7 days of 800mg four times a day for weird inflammation injuries.

I bet the bench press trouble was partly mental and partly rushed warmup. If you need to you can use smaller jumps via 0.5 and 0.25kg plates, too.

[Contrail]

Thursday 10-2-08

Squat: didn't do

Press: 70 lbs, 5/5/4 (1st failure at this weight) - I think my form is bad. In particular, grip too narrow. My hands are touching my shoulders in the rack position (like just my index finger overlapping my shoulder). I'll try a wider grip in the future.

Power cleans: 100 lbs 5x3, no problem

Pull ups: 6/5/4

[Contrail]

Friday 10-3-08: Donated blood. Perhaps not a SS-friendly activity, but I did it anyway. On that day, however, I set a Milk PR, at about 3/4 gallon (2%).

My knee feels pretty good, I'm planning to get back to squatting on Sunday!

[Contrail]

Sunday 10/5/08

Squats - nope. Argh.

Bench - 105 lbs 3x5, PR!

Deadlift - 187 lbs 1x5, PR!

Dips - 6/6/5 reps, PR!

Not much trouble on any of it.

[Contrail]

I WILL squat tomorrow. Any more waiting and I'll probably turn into [more of] a pussy.

Any suggestions how much I should deload from my previous PR after taking time off from the exercise?

[Locutus]

I'd just do the 125 again.

[Contrail]

I just got home and put away a stuffed-to-spillage burrito full of delicious fried stuff, tomatoes, onions, guacamole, cheese, hot sauce, etc. Then there was still food in my possession, so I had a few handfuls of nuts and a quarter of a honeydew. Did I mention the liter of milk?

My 5'5" 170 lbs (zero muscle) roommate had a root beer and two granola bars (ie Quaker chewy sugar bars) for dinner.

[Tuesday]

Just noticed your training log and you kind of remind me of me when I was younger. I was a competitive cyclist around when I was in college and for some time after. At my leanest I was 6'0" and 145, probably 6% bf. Right now I weigh about 100 lbs more than I did then with 15% bf, and I am far stronger than I ever thought I'd be.

Your knee is worrying and so is the way you're treating it -- trying to bypass treatment and recovery. That's a good way to ensure your problem becomes a long term issue.

You say you can deadlift and power clean fine, but if you squat below parallel, the pain gets so bad you can't put weight on the leg and that the pain is on the outside of the knee, right? You also say you're getting some associated hip pain with the knee pain when you squat, but at no other time, right? If your form is good, it sounds like it could be an iliotibial band issue.

First, because they aggravate your knee, accept that you're going to take some time off heavy squats, deads, and power cleans (yup, you're an upper-body-only guy for at least a week. Seated press (a sub for standing press), bench press, chins, and dips should be your only heavy lifts for a while). The stretching also probably hurts you more than it helps.

Then try a vicious massage on the vastus lateralis (the outermost quadriceps muscle) and surrounding muscles, particularly around the origin near the hip and insertion near the knee. Use your knuckles, a stout dowel, or a hard ball (or get your girlfriend or roommate to do it to you, if you think they might like to hurt you) and do your level best to leave bruises. It will hurt a lot when you do it, but it should loosen things up in your hip and knee. For a few days do this as often as you can tolerate it.

Some more ibuprofen would probably help, too. That's 4x200mg with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as before bed for a total of 16 tablets or 3200mg/day, not "a couple tablets."

As soon as you're able (i.e. you can air squat with weight on your knee, even if it still hurts a little) do the Starr rehab protocol with squats as detailed in the sticky from Mark's forum:
http://strengthmill.net/forum/showthread.php?t=700
After you've done that, add deads and cleans back in and work your way back up to your earlier weights.

However, if after a week of high-dose IB, RICE, and vicious massages your knee doesn't feel good enough to do the Starr rehab protocol, go see an MD. There's a good chance you really fucked something up in there and may need more substantial treatment.

Oh, and the Nike Frees / Puma H-Streets / Chuckies / Adidas Sambas are fine for mixed-mode CrossFit workouts, but if you lift heavy, like you do with the program you're on, you want weightlifting shoes:
http://www.dynamic-eleiko.com/sporti...ticles015.html