Vlad's training log

[Vlad]

25 Feb 2009. Workout 19

Squat: 63.5 kg (140 lb) - 5x5 (wu: bw - 2x5, 21 kg - 2x5, 31 kg -3, 41 kg - 3, 51 kg -3, 56 kg -1, 61 kg -1)

My lower back became very sore after the last workout and was still sore today. So I was not sure if it was a good idea to train today. I know that training through soreness is OK whem it concerns legs, arms, shoulders, but with lower back one should probably be more carefull. Anyway I desided to train and see what happens.

Squat was OK, starting to feel hard, but there was no decrease in the speed of getting up even on the last set. Lower back felt OK: no sign of soreness after the warm-up. Let's see how it will be tomorrow.

I used to train on Sat, Mon, Wed, but I want to transition to the usual Mon, Wed and Fri (do not want to train on Sat: family time). Today was supposed to be my deadlift/OHP session (workout III of my modified SL program), but I would like to do this session on Fidays so that I have more recovery time after it (the whole weekend). This is why I chose to do only squat today. On Friday I will continue as usual with my new routine.

[Vlad]

27 Feb 2009. Workout 20.

DL: 120 kg (264 lb) - 1x5 (old PR)
Warm-up for DL
Squat - 20 kg - 2x5, 30 kg - 3
DL - 60 kg - 5, 80 kg - 3, 90 kg - 2, 100 kg - 2, 110 kg - 1, 115 kg - 1.

OHP: 31.2 kg (69 lb) - 5x5
Warm for OHP
I/O exercises
OHP: 11 kg - 3x5, 16 kg - 5, 21 kg - 5, 26 kg - 3, 28.5 kg - 2

Pull-ups: 4/5 range - 4x1, 4, 3, 3 (14 in total)

Today I have finally reached after a heavy deload my previous best reasult in DL. I was very exited to see how this weight would feel now. It was difficult, but the weight went up quickly 5 times without problems. Last time, it was much more difficult, and the last rep was very slow. So I am definately stronger now. Looking forward to see new weights on the bar.

I did a thorough warm-up of shoulders with the I/O exercises before pressing. The shoulders felt good, but I was a little tired after such a warm-up. On the working sets the bar went up quickly and actually somewhat quicker with every subsequent set. So on the last set, the bar was just flying up, and the set seemed to be the easiest of the 5. Today OHP actually seemed easier than last time.

I increased my range on the pull-ups to 80%. So I start now with just slightly bent elbows, and I went all the way down in the negative phase without any shoulder pain in the bottom position. After the pull-ups I hang on the pull-up bar 3 times for a minute or so, and there was no pain in my left shoulder. I think I will soon be able to do full range pull-ups without pain.

Very glad with the workout today

[guru]

Congratulations Vlad on the DL. I see that the strength is being carried over to your pull ups too. Keep moving them up. Apparently your experiment is working fine, though it's early to tell.

BTW, off topic here, but I've developed an elbow pain since about a week. It pains all around the outer side of the elbow & it's aggravated when worked upon (like working out, lifting something at home etc.) I'm on a week off now & intend to fix it before I hit the gym on Monday. If I use the tennis ball on it, it hurts a lot & then feels better, but it's not going away. I feel that if I start working out, it will bounce back hard. Do you have anything to suggest here? I thought you are the best person to ask about this, so hijacking your log.

[nburge]

Cracking result Vlad!!! Looking forward to reading about subsequent PL's!

Thanks for the advice again too - always appreciated.

[Vlad]

Congratulations Vlad on the DL. I see that the strength is being carried over to your pull ups too. Keep moving them up. Apparently your experiment is working fine, though it's early to tell.

BTW, off topic here, but I've developed an elbow pain since about a week. It pains all around the outer side of the elbow & it's aggravated when worked upon (like working out, lifting something at home etc.) I'm on a week off now & intend to fix it before I hit the gym on Monday. If I use the tennis ball on it, it hurts a lot & then feels better, but it's not going away. I feel that if I start working out, it will bounce back hard. Do you have anything to suggest here? I thought you are the best person to ask about this, so hijacking your log.

Thanks, Guru! The most obvious cause for the elbow pain is triggerpoints in the forearms, biceps and triceps. Let's treat them first (there could also be other causes). You should know the first rule for pain treatment: the cause of pain is rarely in the spot where you feel the pain.

If your wife can help you with the massage it would be best. Do it then like this: Lie down on the floor with your arms parallel to the body and palms down. Let your wife step on your forearm gently with her foot. She should not step on the elbow itself, only on the muscle tissue. Press for 5 sec, release and then press at another spot. She should start very close to the elbow, and then step by step (a few centimeters at a time) move along the arm towards the wrist. She should press as hard as you can tolerate. It could be painfull, maybe very painfull, but be reasonable at first. My wife can put all her weight on my forearm and it feels OK for me: when there are no triggerpoints, it does not hurt at all. But be more conservative at first. Start with the light pressure and then increase it.

Massage the outer forearm a couple of times, then rotate the forearm, so that palms are up. This way you can massage the inner forearm. Then continue with the foot massage of the inner biceps (palms up), all the way from very close to the elbow to the front shoulder area including. Then put your palms down, and massage the outer biceps including the front shoulder.

Now lie on your stomack (face to the floor), and let her massage your triceps first with palms down then up. Then massage the forearms again with the palms up and down.

After this, massage small muscles in the elbow with your fingers. There are some small muscles there. They are not the cause of pain, but could contribute to it A LOT.

After this massage your muscles will be very sore. This is normal. Do this massage once a day untill there is no more pain in your arms. After a week you will be much better, and after 2-3 weeks you will be just fine.

You could also use a tennis ball aginst a wall for the outer forearms and triceps. But it is quite tricky. If you find that there is particular spot which is very painfull and you can reach it with the ball, it would be a good idea to massage it right before the workout and maybe between the sets.

I hope this will help you, Guru. You have done a great progress! I wish you good luck and further progress.

Vlad

[Vlad]

Cracking result Vlad!!! Looking forward to reading about subsequent PL's!

Thanks for the advice again too - always appreciated.

Thanks, Nburge!

[guru]

Thanks a lot, Vlad,

I tried the wife on my arm thing. It actually felt good (hurt good!) but it took me a lot of convincing as she was scared of breaking my arm. I could do it only once however. After that I have been using the tennis ball & have found the culprit points. They are in the forearm & lower tricep.

Yestarday night I asked my younger son to stand on my arm. That's quite easy, he has no inhibitions & actually it's fun for him. I've also noticed over the last year or so that he has a better knack when it comes to things like this. Only problem is he doesn't weigh much (13-14 kg). To tell you what, that was the best massage those trigger points got.

After the night's sleep, I'm feeling much better today. Let's see how the workout goes today after a week off. I'll sure keep you posted, either here or in my log. Thanks for the great help.

[amaeland]

Hej Vlad, hvordan går det?

I saw a post of yours and noticed we are quite close on most of the exercises, so I thought I'd pop in here and have a look. Nice deadlift you've got going, I am sure you will be pulling 130 soon. Interesting to read how you only practised deads for 20 months! It is no doubt a superb exercise. Actually, I did deads for a while myself before starting to squat (I was scared my knees would be hurt by the squat). It has always been my best lift, but now my squat is starting to get decent as well. My press and bench, though...that's another story

Good advice on the elbow pain, I am a fan of tennis balls myself but have not been stepped on yet, hehe. Great idea. Are you a therapist?

[Vlad]

Hej Amaeland, indtil videre går det fint

Thanks for coming by! When I started to deadlift that was for my lower back rehab only, but then it became addictive and I continued beyond the back rehab. I am not a therapist, but my wife is, and I also read a lot of massage stuff.

I have read your log. That's a great progress! Good luck with the program!

Vlad

[Vlad]

2 Mar 2009. Workout 21.

Squat: 66 kg (145 lb) - 5x5
warm-up: 21 kg - 2x5, 31 kg - 3, 41 kg - 3, 51 kg - 3, 61 kg -2

BP: 41 kg (90 lb) - 5x5
warm-up:
I/O exercises
BP 16 kg - 3x5, 21 kg - 2x5, 26 kg -5, 31 kg - 3, 36 kg -2

Chin-ups: 4/5 range 4x1, 4, 3, 3 (14 in total)

I lacked energy for the workout. Maybe because I did'nt drink coffe during the day, or maybe because I trained in the evening instead of the usual early in the morning. Anyway, the weights went up without much problem for both squat and BP. Chin-ups turned out to be harder than I expected: pull-ups with the same reps felt easier, but maybe that was due to the lack of energy.

[Vlad]

4 Mar 2009. Workout 22.

Power clean: 41 kg (90 lb) - 5x5
warm-up:
Front squat: 11 kg -5, 21 kg - 2x5, 31 kg -5
power clean: 16 kg -5, 21 kg -5, 25 kg -3, 30 kg -2, 35 kg -2

Squat: 68.5 kg (151 lb) - 5x5
warm-up: 41 kg -5, 51 kg -3, 61 kg -3, 66 kg -2

Push-ups: 3x7

Power clean was quite easy today. My form improved and I was using much less enenrgy to get the bar up. This feels weird: weight is greater, but it feels easier. I was not exhasted by power clean as before. Really glad about the power clean.

Today I started to sweat a lot and breathe heavily after each working set of squat. Now it finally started to put pressure on my cardio system. I can see that from now on it wil no longer be easy to squat.

Push-ups felt hard today. I guess I was tired after squat, but still could manage to increase the number of reps as planned.

Really glad about today's workout

[guru]

Great Vlad,

Yeah, I remember you talking about 35 kg being somewhat hard earlier. Glad to hear that there's ample room to expand.

Thax a LOT for the trigger point suggestions for my elbow. It's almost healed now.

[Vlad]

@Guru

Glad to hear about your elbow! One more advice: do not stop the massage even if it feels completely heeled, at least for another two weeks, and try to convince your wife to do the foot massage once a week.

[Vlad]

6 Mar 2009. Workout 23.

DL: 122.5 kg (270 lb) – 1x5 NEW PR
Warm up:
squat 20 kg – 2x5, 30 kg -5, 40 kg -3
DL: 60 kg -5, 80 kg -3, 100 kg -2, 110 kg -1, 117.5 kg -1

OHP: 32.5 kg (71.6 lb) – 5x5
Warm-up:
I/O exercises
OHP: 11 kg – 3x5, 16 kg -5, 20 kg -5, 25 kg -3, 30 kg -2

Pull-ups: 4/5 range 4x1, 4, 1, 3, 1

DL was very difficult. I had to take a couple of breaths after the 3rd and 4th rep. It felt like I would otherwise suffocate. The last rep was slower than the first four, but still the weight went up without stopping anywhere during the rep. The most difficult point was somewhere in the middle of it. Very glad I could do it! Looking very much forward to 125 kg next time.

OHP was difficult today (as usual, I keep saying this every time ), but the weight went up quickly without much problem. Today I appreciated the need of getting under the bar. Before it felt like a strange thing which you need to do for some unknown reason. But today it was very different. The bar was quite shaky and had a tendency to wobble in the top position, and getting under the bar fixed this in an instant. It was also easier to lock the weight out this way.

I was very disappointed with my pull-ups today . For some reason I had pain in the front deltoid of my right shoulder. I had not had it before. I used to have a problem with my left shoulder during the pull-ups, but not the right one.

I am now through exactly half of my first SL training cycle. The first two weeks were very hard, but then I became adapted and it felt pretty easy until recently. Now I am getting into a second difficult phase of my training cycle. The weights are difficult now on all of the lifts, and I feel that I am getting more and more fatigued. I am really glad that I have now the whole weekend for resting. It looks like my recovery is slightly behind the continuously increased difficulty of the workouts. I have now decided to throw away the assistance exercises. Maybe I’ll keep push-ups for a while, but the chin/pull-ups have to go as I am afraid to aggravate my pre-existing shoulder problems. I will also try to eat more. So let’s see if can this way get rid of my chronic tiredness. But I am really determined to follow the program on the basic exercises: squat, power clean, DL, OHP and bench.

Very tired after today’s workout, but very glad about DL and OHP looks promising.

[guru]

Impressive Vlad, that deadlift. I'm speechless really.