5/15/21

Rest Day today as well as a full day of work (11 hour shift). The goal for today was to sit, relax, and recover for tomorrow's Leg session. I've been dealing with a Hip injury as well as some Bicep Tendonitis, so mobility/stability work has been a staple on most days over the past few weeks, but especially on Rest Days.

Trained Legs this morning and it was as good as it could be - I'm still not 100% over my Hip injury so I wasn't able to do any "real" Leg Pressing or Hack Squatting. Everything else I was able to do pain-free and took progressions over last sessions performance, so that's all I can really ask for at the moment. I still can't say with 100% confidence I know what this Hip injury is, but I have a few ideas: it's looking like Periformis Syndrome or a Hip Flexor strain. I'm experiencing pain in both my Glute Medius as well as my right Hip Flexor. For now it's about being consistent with my stretching/mobility/rehab work and if the problem doesn't go away I'm going to go get an MRI to get an official diagnosis.

Today's Session:

Cuffed Lateral Raise 1x14

Cable Curl 1x16

Adductor 1x12 w/ 3 count holds

Lying Ham Curl 1x13 w/ 3 count holds, 1x15

Leg Extension 1x15 w/ 3 count holds

Leg Press rehab work

Hack Squat rehab work

Glute Drive 1x11+1 w/ 3 count holds

Standing Calf Raise 1x13 DoggCrapp Style w/ 100 ct. Loaded Stretch

Hanging Leg Raise 1x18, 1x14, 1x11

Rest Day today following yesterday's Leg session. I got an extra hour of sleep this morning which is pretty typical post Legs: I find that the day after Legs I can always get more sleep than normal since Legs really beats the shit out of me.

Got some cooking and cleaning done around the house this morning and then had a busy afternoon at work. Two rounds of stretching and mobility work today (AM and PM) after my Hip felt very tight after Legs yesterday. I may have rushed into my Leg Press/Hack work a little early, which is frustrating, but "live and learn" I guess.

Push going down tomorrow morning and I'm pretty amped for it! I can't attack my Legs how I would like to right now so I look forward to any session where I can go 100%.

Really happy with this morning's Push session! The StarTrac Incline Press, which has been my primary movement for this rotation for the last 3-4 months, was broken when I came into the gym so I had to do a Mid-Incline Barbell Press instead. This is really frustrating as it seems like this gym's equipment is ALWAYS broken, but I tried not to let it bother me too much and tried to find an alternative.

I haven't done any free-weight pressing movements in probably over a year so the BB Press felt somewhat awkward. I didn't feel very stable while doing it and could feel that I wasn't 100% "in-tune" with the movement. In a weird way I'm looking forward to sticking with this movement and trying to get better at it, since I haven't done any Barbell Pressing in quite some time. I'd really like for the Machine Press to get fixed but if I'm forced to stick with the Barbell for a while I will make it work.

Full Session:

Mid Incline Barbell Press 1x8 w/ 1 RIR

Flat Machine Press 1x12

Machine OHP 1x10

Barbell Floor Press (Tricep-focused) 1x12

Standing Cuffed Lateral 1x9, 1x14

Seated Machine Lateral 1x13

Reverse Pec Dec 1x13, 1x12.5

Pec Dec Fly 1x15, 1x12

S/A Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x12

S/A Overhead Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x12

Rope Crunch 1x12, 1x12, 1x13

Solid Pull session this morning with some modifications: my Hip is still not ready to go full throttle yet so I decided to skip any and all exercises that loaded it. I typically do some Leg frequency work (Adductors, Leg Extensions, Calves) in this session but I decided to skip all of it today for the sake of trying to heal this hip up a little bit. I also skipped my SLDL's for the same reason. So this was definitely not an "ideal" session but I'm doing the best I can with the cards I've been dealt at this current time and that's all I can really do at the moment.

Full Session:

Low Cable Row 1x15, 1x13

Hammer High Row 1x12, 1x11.5, 1x12

S/A Cable Pulldown 1x20, 1x13

Plate Loaded Shrug 1x11, 1x14

DB Preacher Curl 1x12

S/A Cable Curl 1x11

Low Cable Curl 1x8

Rest Day today. Went and got groceries this morning and dropped some things off at the Post Office before coming home and spending most of the orning on the couch. Busy day at work, then home to relax a little before hitting the sheets.

Legs tomorrow which I'm kinda "ehh" about: it's hard for me to get geeked up over Leg workouts right now since I can't really Leg Press or Hack Squat so the Leg sessions just feel like a lot of fluffy bullshit. I've spent some time trying to strengthen my Glute Medius and stretching my Tensor Fascia Lattae (TFL) as that's where the problem lies in my Hip injuries. A combo of a overworked TFL plus a weak Glute Med is causing pain in my IT band and pain in the Hip area. I'm confident if I stay consistent with my rehab work I should be able to do some decent work on my leg compounds sometime soon. I'm really desperate to get back to training legs full force because my legs are (in my eyes) complete garbage right now.

This past weekend was one of the busiest weekends I've had in a while, if not ever. Going to backlog each of the past 4 days.

5/21 (Legs)

Yet another Leg session where I was unable to do legit work on my compound movements. I was optimistic going into this session that I'd be able to find a groove but it just wasn't there. The best part about this session was discovering new areas on my body that are sight and I can take that information going forward and continue to work on my bodies' fucked up areas lol.

Full Session:

Machine Lateral 1x14+partials

S/A DB Curl 1x17

Seated Ham Curl 1x11, 1x13.5

Leg Extension 1x15 w/ 3 count holds

Leg Press - rehab work

Hack Squat - rehab work

50* Hyper Extension - 1x13

Standing Calf Raise - 1x13

Decline Crunch - 1x13, 1x13, 1x8

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5/22 (Off)

We spent the day in Madison helping my sister and her boyfriend move in to their new apartment. Lots of walking and lifting heavy things up stairs so wasn't much of a "rest day" haha but still had a lot of fun spending time with family! Madison is a beautiful city with lots to do. I ate my first 3 meals as normal and then went a decent period of time without eating since we were out checking out the city. Went to Culver's before driving home and then McDonald's as we got home just to get some easy, dense calories as I had about 2500 cal to get caught up on.

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5/23 (Push)

Woke up Sunday morning with the absolute worst diarrhea I've had in a while, if not ever. Not sure if it was the grease from the burgers or what (which would be surprising since I've had McDonald's within the last month or so and didn't have digestive problems like this) but I was completely fucked up all day. I probably went to the bathroom 12 times within 2 hours of waking, not exaggerating. Went to the gym to train but digestion was so bad, combined with less sleep than normal plus the fatigue from moving and walking all day, that I decided to cut my session into a Deload session midway through. I basically got in, got what mattered the most done, and then left. Spent the rest of the day running errands and cleaning and preparing for the week ahead: we are going to Michigan for a wedding this weekend and have busy weeks so we only have so much time to prepare. Overall a very stressful day.

Full Session:

Flat Machine Press 1x11

Incline Machine Press 1x11

Machine OHP 1x10

Dip 1x10

Lying Cuffed Lateral 1x6*

Cuffed Rear Delt Fly 1x9

S/A Overhead Tricep Extension 1x11

(*I have been struggling to make consistent progressions on this movement for a month or so and I dropped 4 reps on it today, so this tells me that I've obviously hit a peak performance with this exercise as of this point in time. I will be switching this movement out for the same movement but on a different cable stack going forward, just to give me a different strength curve and resistance profile to contract my Delts against)

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5/24 (Off)

Rest Day today and a full 11 hour shift at work. AC is broken at work and it was 90 degrees today so I was basically roasting all day. Came home from work, did some rehab/mobility work on the hip, took a shower and prepped food for tomorrow. Pull session going down tomorrow morning and I'm ready to do what I can.

Got a really solid Pull session in this morning! Once again I didn't do any Leg frequency work or hip-hinges but everything else was bang on, progressions taken on everything today.

I have been religious about my Hip rehab and have been making some progress. If the pain continues without the pain going away I'm going to just bite the bullet and get an MRI: I'd rather spend the money and know for certain what the problem is than keep wasting time trying to figure it out on my own.

Full Session:

S/A Pulldown 1x13, 1x11

Chest Supported TBar 1x12.5, 1x9

S/A Low Row 1x14, 1x12

Plate Loaded Shrug 1x11, 1x13

Facing In Cable Curl 1x12

S/A Cable Curl 1x12

S/A Cable Hammer Curl 1x11

Machine Crunch 1x7, 1x11, 1x9

Going to recap the last week of not posting. If you've been paying attention to the log you're aware of the fact that my Hip has been bothering me for a while now. I have done many different types of rehab work to little avail and the only thing I hadn't tried was completely resting for a while. I had a 4 day vacation planned for a wedding this weekend where I knew I wouldn't be training so I decided to take a few days off prior to the vacation to give me a total of 6 days off the gym. Some of the pain and inflammation subsided so the break was useful, but there's still some pain in the area.

First session back after 6 days off and my body felt pretty refreshed. Every time I take some time off the gym and come back I feel refreshed and ready to roll again. The usual Incline Press I use at this gym is still broken so I was back on the Barbell Incline, but I'll more than likely be swapping that out for Dumbbells until the Machine is fixed. DB's give me a better ROM, better contraction and I feel safer than using a Barbell.

Full Session:

Cuffed Lateral 1x11, 1x14

Mid Incline BB Press 1x8*

Flat Machine Press 1x11

Machine OHP 1x10

BB Floor Press 1x12

Machine Lateral 1x14**

Reverse Pec Dec 2x15

Pec Dec Fly 1x13, 1x9

S/A Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x13

S/A Overhead " " 1x10

Rope Crunch 1x12, 1x13, 1x14

* Will be replaced with DB's going forward

**I'm going to remove this machine and do all 3 sets of Lateral Raised on the Cuffed Cables. I've been hammering away at this machine for almost a year and have just reached a point where I need to give something else a go for a little while.

Really solid Pull session went down this morning. I'm finally at a place where I'm comfortable with my exercise selection on this rotation, which has been a struggle for a while.

I have an MRI scheduled for tomorrow morning which excites me to finally figure out what this Hip pain is.

Full Session:

Donkey Calf Raise 1x14

Low Cable Row 1x14, 1x12

Hammer High Row 1x11, 1x11, 1x13

S/A Lat Pulldown 1x16, 1x12

Plate Loaded Shrug 1x12, 1x15

DB Preacher Curl 1x13

S/A Cable Curl 1x12

Low Cable Curl 1x10

6/4 - 6/7 Recap

6/4 (Legs)

Pretty frustrating Leg session today. I didn't feel confident enough to do any Leg Extension/Hamstring work as my Hip was bothering me, so I really only got my Bicep/Delt/Ab/Calf work in. Really frustrating but this was the best I could do on this day.

Full Session:

Arsenal Lateral Raise 1x13+7 partials

S/A DB Bicep Curl 1x17

Standing Calf Raise 1x14 DoggCrapp Style

Decline Crunches 1x13, 1x10

6/5 (Rest Day)

I was supposed to have my MRI today on my Hip but they rescheduled it until next Tuesday (6/8). This was really frustrating because I'm trying to get this injury sorted ASAP so I can get back to training at full capacity. Spent the rest of the day at work and resting.

6/6 (Push)

Got a really solid Push session in this morning, one of the better sessions I've had in a while! I have really been trying to drill the concept of "rooting my feet" into my head and today was a great day rooting-wise. I am still wiggling my feet somewhat during my Presses but it has decreased noticeably and that's all I can really ask for is progress!

Full Session:

Seated Calf Raise 1x9+1 DoggCrapp Style

Flat Flex Press 1x12

Incline Press 1x10

Machine OHP 1x10

Weighted Dips 1x10

Lying Cuffed Lateral 1x16, 1x11, 1x16

Cuffed Rear Delt Fly 1x7*

Incline Cable Fly 1x8**

Double Rope Tricep Extension 1x10+1

S/A Overhead Rope Tricep Extension 1x11

*This movement has not been progressing so I will be replacing it with a Rear Delt T Bar Row going forward

**My form has really slipped on this exercise lately and after doing a form reset I noticed I feel more comfortable on a Machine Fly instead of this particular cable system, so I will replace this with a Pec Dec Fly going forward

6/7 (Pull)

Incredible Pull session today, really starting to get my groove back. Now if I can get this hip rehabbed and be able to train Legs and deadlift I'll be ready to roll again!

Full Session:

S/A Cable Pulldown 1x13, 1x11

Upper Back Pulldown 1x9

S/A Machine Low Row 1x11, 1x9

Chest Supported T Bar Row 1x11, 1x7

Machine Shrug 1x11, 1x15

Facing In Cable Curl 1x13

S/A Cable Curl 1x14

S/A Cable Hammer Curl 1x13

Machine Crunch 1x8, 1x12, 1x11

6/8-6/12 Recap

Haven't updated this log in a few days so here's a recap of the past half-week or so!

6/8 (Rest Day)

This morning I (finally) had my Hip MRI, and was happy to get the results back within a few hours. It turns out my hip pain has been Tendinopathy in my Glute Medius, Glute Minimus, AND Hamstring origin. The MRI didn't say anything about my Adductor but I'm very confident I have Tendinopathy in that area as well. I am honestly really happy about this result, because I was worried I had done something serious to my Hip (I was thinking Labrum or a potential Sports Hernia). I have had pain in literally every direction my Hip can move for the past few weeks so the thought of a Labrum Tear wasn't completely out of the question for me. I pretty much spent the rest of the day researching Tendinopathies and planning my rehab routine, which I did for the first time that night.

6/9 (Legs)

After doing some research on Tendinopathies I learned that training the area as pain-free as you can is a much better plan for recovery than resting it, so this gave me the green light to be able to go and do an effective Leg session for the first time in a while. Based off the Tendinopathy research I read, it seems that eccentric training seems to be the best for rehabbing damaged tendons, and high reps with accentuated eccentrics was recommended so I have adjusted my Leg sessions a little bit to allow me to rehab my injuries and start to rebuild back to where I was pre-injury. Leg sessions will look a little difference for a little bit here but I'm very happy to finally get back on the road to recovery.

Full Session:

Cuffed Lateral Raise 1x15

Cable Bicep Curl 1x16

Adductor 2x30 w/ 4 count eccentrics

Lying Hamstring Curl 2x20 w/ 4 count eccentrics

Leg Extensions 1x13

Pivot Leg Press 1x20*

Rev. Banded Hack Squat 1x15*

Standing Calf Raise 1x14

Hanging Leg Raise 1x8, 1x10, 1x11

*This is what I consider "rehab work," I'll be sticking with a relatively "light weight" and build week on week in an attempt to rebuild my Compound movement strength while staying safe during this injury

6/10 (Rest Day)

I got to sleep in this morning (didn't have to train or be at work) and I ended up sleeping an extra 2 hours later than normal. Frustrating, but my body was obviously tired and I needed it. I went to the gym this morning and worked on more Tendinopathy work as well as worked on a new warmup routine that I'll be using going forward. Both the Adductor and Hamstring injury are repeat injuries that I've experienced before, which means that it's coming down to me executing poorly on my exercises in a way that forces those muscles to be over-exerted. So I've taken a lot of initiative in "re-teaching" myself how to lift with better execution and more fluid, safer movement. This will be something that will be a battle for me for a while as I've neglected mobility/stability work, but it's one that I welcome because I know it's going to elevate my game significantly.

6/11 (Push)

Such an awesome Push session this morning. I'm starting to get confident with my abilities to brace and use leg drive in my presses and I feel much more assertive through the bar when I'm lifting lately. This is something that I need to keep constant with. The normal Incline Press I use here is STILL broken so I decided to do Incline DB Press today. I was previously using a Barbell but I wasn't feeling very safe with it (scroll back to previous sessions to read) and decided to switch to DB's for both safety and contraction preferences. I was very happy with how the DB's felt today and I actually look forward to getting some solid work in on them in the coming weeks/months. I can honestly say I was not looking forward to Barbell pressing but I DO look forward to DB pressing.

Took the day off from rehab work as I've done it two days in a row and I don't want to re-aggrivate the injury.

Full Session:

Incline DB Press 1x8

Flat Chest Press 1x9

Neutral-Grip OHP 1x8

BB Floor Press 1x11

Cuffed Lateral Raise 1x12, 1x14, 1x9

Reverse Pec Dec 1x15, 1x13

S/A Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x14

S/A Overhead Cuffed Tricep Extension 1x11

Rope Crunch 1x13, 1x15, 1x10

6/12 (Rest Day)

No training today as I had to work an 11 hour shift at work. Came home from work and did some rehab work on the Tendinopathies, prepped food for tomorrow, and relaxed the rest of the night.

6/13-6/17 Recap

6/13 (Pull)

Today was Sunday which meant a day off from work (finally). Woke up this morning and got a good Pull session in and then spent the rest of the day doing laundry, getting groceries, prepping food, and doing all the bullshit I don't have time to do during the week. Carissa and I went to a local sub sandwich shop for dinner and got some subs, which were really good! We spent the rest of the night playing video games with our friends and relaxing in general.

Full Session:

Donkey Calf Raise 1x11

Low Cable Row 1x14, 1x12

Hammer High Row 1x13, 1x12, 1x10

S/A Cable Pulldown 2x10

Rack SLDL 1x10*

Machine Shrug 1x14, 1x11

DB Preacher Curl 1x14

S/A Cable Curl 1x13

Low Cable Curl 1x11

*This was my first attempt back at Hip-Hinging post injury. I'm in the same boat with this as I am with my Leg compounds; I'm slowly working my way back up to where I was pre-injury.

6/14 (Rest Day)

Rest Day today, went to the gym this morning and worked on some mobility/stability drills and then came home and took a nap before leaving to go to work. When I got home I cooked and prepped food and did some rehab work on my Tendinopathies.

6/15 (Legs)

I'm really starting to make some progress with my Leg training! I am still not back to 100% and probably won't be for another 4-8 weeks but it feels sooooo good to finally be able to get somewhat of a Leg pump. Leg Presses and Hack Squats were all pain free today so I will continue to build on what I've been doing and aim to get back to where I was pre-injury!

Full Session:

Machine Lateral 1x14

S/A DB Curl 1x9

Seated Ham Curl 1x16 w/ 1 RIR

Leg Extension 1x14

Leg Press 1x15*

Hack Squat 1x15*

40* Hyper (Glute focused) 1x10

Standing Calf Raise 1x15

Decline Crunch 1x15, 1x11

*Still working back up, these were not failure sets.

6/16 (Rest Day)

Another Rest Day today, did some mobility/stability drills in the AM and rehab work in the PM. Also got a small nap in this afternoon, which is something I'm trying to be religious about on Rest Days. I love me a good nap so you won't hear me complaining about extra sleep 🙂

6/17 (Push)

Really solid Push session this morning, I'm really starting to find a groove with this Push rotation. My Presses are slowly creeping upwards in weight and reps and isolation movements have been incredibly accurate and creeping up as well. This really is the name of the game for me, especially for Push, which are muscle groups where it takes me longer to progress on compared to Pull/Legs.

Full Session:

Seated Calf Raise 1x11

Flat Machine Press 1x12

Incline Machine Press 1x10

Machine Shoulder Press 1x10

Weighted Dips 1x10

Lying Cuffed Lateral 1x19, 1x16, 1x12

Rear Delt T Bar Row 1x14, 1x11

Pec Dec Fly 1x12, 1x11

Dual Rope Tricep Extension 1x12

S/A Overhead Rope Tricep Extension 1x12