Lazarus's Long Log

[dsc]

Lazarus
Excellent squats!

Re: your quote: "...I'm fairly confident I could pull 315 for 5, just paranoid about my form."

Don't think it's possible to be too focused or paranoid about form. The more focused you are on form the better!

[Lazarus]

today's workout:

Squats 1x8 135 lb
Squats 5x5 245 lb
OHP 5x5 85 lb

Sumo DL 2x5 245 lb These are feeling really natural, and I'm not feeling any pain or stiffness in the lower back afterwards. It's a bit discouraging thinking "If I can't do conventional-stance DL, how long will it take to be able to do SLDL's?", but this is much better than nothing.

Pullups 5/4/4 unweighted
One-leg Prone Bridges 2x40 seconds each leg

Overall was feeling low-energy due to the heat, just took extra rest time and persevered.

[Lazarus]

So I was only supposed to do a yoga class today, but I felt so strong that I decided to (practice failing)/(discover my 1RM) on the squat and deadlift, since I've never missed a lift on either.

DL (sumo)
1x5 135 lb
1x5 225 lb
1x3 245 lb
1x3 275 lb
1x2 295 lb
1x2 315 lb

Even with mixed grip, grip strength was still the issue here, so I quit here without going to failure. Now I know I need to add a bit more grip work.

Squats

1x5 bar
1x5 135 lb
1x5 225 lb
1x5 245 lb
1x3 275 lb
1x2 295 lb
1x0 315 lb

First time I've left a squat on the pins, was less dramatic than I thought it would be. I was kinda disappointed, I had the feeling afterwards that I had the lift in me, but psyched myself out of it somehow. Anyway, it was a fun experiment, although I'm definitely feeling the aftereffects, and something I think I'll do monthly.

[Lazarus]

Today's Workout

Squat: 1x5 135 lb
Squat: 5x5 250 lb

Bench: 130 lb 5x5
Power Clean 3x3 145 lb
Dips: 6/6/5
Reverse Crunches: 3x12

I do high bar squats, I think I go 4-5 inches down past parallel, as the weights climb I find that I can power back up to parellel no problem, and then hit this huge sticking point on the last 1-2 reps of each set, a few inches above parallel. I feel like my weight shifts forward a bit in my feet if I'm struggling there, and then I can finish the rep. I assume this is to switch from the PC to the AC. It's interesting, in that before I would feel like I was doing a hip drive, even though that's not really proper form for high bar, and as the weights climb my form is naturally switching to this.

[Lazarus]

Squats:
1x5 135 lb
3x5 255 lb

At this point I had enough soreness in my right groin/adductor area to cut the squats short, I had a mild pull in that area playing tennis 4 days ago, I thought it was just that, but post workout I'm getting similar but lesser pain in the same spot on my left thigh.

OHP 5x5 90 lb
pullups: 6/4/4
one leg prone bridges 4x30 sec

I guess I'll take some extra rest and repeat this workout in a few days.

[dsc]

your quote:.."At this point I had enough soreness in my right groin/adductor area to cut the squats short, I had a mild pull in that area playing tennis 4 days ago, I thought it was just that, but post workout I'm getting similar but lesser pain in the same spot on my left thigh."

You're squatting heavy weight Lazarus -close to 1.2x your BW - well done. It's going to get tougher as you progress. I can definitely relate to your description of a sticking point as you get to last reps. Why do you do high bar squats ?- just curious. I hope your groin injury is a minor thing and doesn't get in your way too much.

[Lazarus]

Well, I started doing high bar because I have flexibility issues, the same reason I had to switch to sumo DL. Now that I've read some more of Pendlay and Hatfield's writings about high bar vs. low bar, I think I'd probably stick with high bar for a while even if I fixed those flexibility issues soon. Basically, they claim that low bar allows you to shift more weight, but that the strength from high bar is more transferable, whether looking at other sports or just from high bar to low bar and vice versa. It's all academic at the moment until the flexibility improves, anyway.

The groin pull feels pretty minor, I'm going to rest it for a few days with just some slow jogging and cycling. If it bothers me again on Monday at my working weight, I'll have to back off and do rehab weights.

[Lazarus]

today's workout

squats
1x5 bar
1x5 135 lb
1x5 225 lb
3x5 255 lb My groin pull was still bothering me, so I ended the lower body portion of the workout here.

OHP 5x5 90 lbs

pullups 5/5/4

one leg prone bridges 4 x 30 sec


So, I did some cardio and ate big over the weekend, 3 days between workouts. The groin pull felt somewhat better, but still bad enough so that I cut the workout short. On the plus side, after 3 days of rest, 255 lb felt much lighter than I would have imagined.

Since 3 days of rest didn't eradicate the pull, I think I should do some of the light rehab stuff DSC is doing. However, I'm leaving on a 2 week vacation (camping on the california coast in the redwoods) on Friday, so that means this was my last SL workout until July 25. I'm planning on just doing bodyweight exercises, leg-elevated pushups,dips, pullups, pistols once my leg is rehabbed, etc. I feel like I'll be able to do enough BW exercises so that I can come back in 3 weeks without dropping my working weights at all, time will tell.

[dsc]

Have a great vacation. Hope the injury heals up and you come back stronger than ever. Really appreciate the quad rehab link you sent me - it has been a real help.

[Lazarus]

So, I'm back from a long vacation amidst the redwoods, which was amazing--containing the proper ratios of beautiful scenery, vigorous outdoors exercise, alcohol-enhanced hijinks, and attractive members of the opposite sex.

On the downside, I seem to have injured my right anterior deltoid, although I'm not sure how or when. It feels like a pull, but it's right at the insertion point at the upper humerus, which makes me think tendonitis, or tendon separation? I'll hit the gym tomorrow and see where I am on the lower body lifts, at least.

[Lazarus]

Did a fairly disorganized workout today, trying to figure out how much strength I lost in 3 weeks away from the bar, and how my shoulder injury would impact training.

Squats:

135 lb 1x12
205 lb 1x5
255 lb 1x5

Deadlift: (double overhand grip, focusing more on grip strength for a bit)

225 lb 2x5

OHP: 70 lb 3x5 This didn't hurt my shoulder noticeably, but is probably still too heavy for rehabbing it.

DB bench 30 lb 1x5 This had my shoulder screaming.

chins: 4,3,3

Dips: 5,4,4 These didn't impact my shoulder at all.

So, in conclusion, I feel like I lost 5-10% of my lower body strength during my 3-week vacation, and will do a 10% deload on those lifts accordingly. I plan to continue icing my shoulder, and will do very light weights, at perhaps 30-40% of my 5RM, for the upper body until it heals.

[Wooderson]

Good job after being away for a bit. I've had the same challenge, although my vacation from the gym was only about 11 days. Getting back is tougher than you think it will be.

[Lazarus]

Yea, you're not kidding. I've noticed that I lost more cardio conditioning than I lost strength, so after my workout yesterday I did some tabata intervals, stuff that 3 weeks ago would have been hard but not agonizing. I felt nauseated for hours afterwards. But, not to worry, it comes back fast.

Yesterday's workout:

Squats:

135 lb 1x10
245 lb 5x5

Leg seems fully healed.

OHP

70 lb 5x5 Right shoulder got slightly sore, will probably keep at 70 lb until the shoulder improves.

Power Cleans

135 lb 3,3,2 Pulled the left shoulder a tad, in a similar but slightly different place to my preexisting right shoulder pain. I think I was letting the bar get too far from my body, need to pay more attention to form on these.

skipped the dips for today

Prone bridges 1 leg: 4x30 sec

[Lazarus]

Today's Workout:

Squats:
135 lb 1x10
250 lb 5x5

Bench:
115 lb 5x5

Pullups: 3,3,2 These are so much harder than they were 3 weeks ago

Deadlift: (Double pronated grip)
235 lb 2x5

Reverse crunches 3x15

Been sleeping as much as possible, injuries seem much improved.

[Lazarus]

Today's Workout:

Squats:
135 lb 1x10
255 lb 5x5

OHP:
75 lb 5x5

Deadlifts: alternating grip (instead of cleans to take it easy on shoulders)
255 lb 2x5

skipped the dips

prone bridges 4x40 sec 1 legged

Was a good workout, especially the deads. The bar was just jumping off of the ground.