Mike's Log - The Road to Recovery

Re eccentrics for rehab: heavy'ish' high-rep negs for db curls definitely helped sort out a year-long biceps tendon issue for me. I was rather incredulous as I imagined that it was going to make things worse but it didn't. Hope your mileage is good too.
 
Lower Body - Day 2, Week 7

High Bar Squat (Vibrams)
Warmup
230 x 5,5,5 (belt)

Hook Grip Deadlifts (I'm sneaking chalk on my hands - don't tell)
Warmup
315 x 5 (belt)

Leg Press Rapers
Warmup
3 plates + 10 lbs per side x 8,10

Notes:

Solid enough session. Squat form felt tight. Deadlifts were maybe slightly heavier than anticipated, but there is definitely a difference between doing a lot of reps with moderate weight or a moderate amount of reps with heavy weight. I need to get my brain used to the "holy ****" factor again. Still, this wasn't that bad.

I ran out of time before doing any calf raises. Oh well.
 
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I think I experienced the same "holy $hit" factor in my last cycle. For me, there was a pretty huge difference between 295x10 and 315x5. I'm not sure how much of it is mental and how I approach the workout, i.e., "I know I only have to do 5 reps" so I mentally let down a little... as opposed to really getting myself amped for a 295x10 attempt.

Either way, good lifting!!
 
Does anyone have any tips on sternum pain with dips? I've never really had a problem with this, but noticed it randomly last summer doing dips, and it seems to be sticking around, despite not doing dips for months at a time. In this case, since re-adopting dips a couple of weeks ago, I have a low level sternum pain that I can "feel" at the beginning of chest type movements (e.g. pushups, dips itself, dumbbell bench). It's not an overwhelming pain, and I stop noticing it pretty quickly after warming up, but still, pretty annoying. Given my already screwed up left shoulder I'm a little gun-shy on training through pain of any sort.
 
Upper Body - Day 1, Week 8

Pause Dips
Warmup
Me + 95 x 5,5,5

Chins
Warmup
Me + 85 x 5,5,5

DB High Incline Bench
~62s (~125) x 8,10

1-Arm Cable Rows
50 x 8,15 per side

DB External Rotations
8 x 10/side
15 x 20/side (eccentric only)

Notes:

Man, I'm getting pretty frustrated. I experimented with paused dips, which if anything actually felt even more comfortable on my shoulder. However, the sternum pain is pretty obnoxious/painful. So at this point I've found a push exercise which seems to irritate my shoulder basically not at all, less than anything else I've tried, but is killing my sternum for reasons unknown. On the one hand, I already know my shoulder is exploded, so I'm inclined to stick to things which are friendly to it. On the other hand, the inflammation that's obviously present in my sternum appears to refuse to want to go away. Even months off of dips see it coming back almost immediately upon resuming it as a normal part of the routine. Maybe I should just go back to flat dumbbell benching? I dunno.

Either way, I may be back to doing my pushes paused, just being careful not to relax at the bottom. The sense of work and control I have doing this are really second to none.
 
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AlexAustralia said:
Flat DB bench for you, definitely.
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You're probably right. I don't really understand how/why dips started irritating my sternum, though. I've done dips on and off since I started lifting at ~18 (I'm 33), and they've never consistently done this until the past summer. Annoying.
 
I definitely feel the stress//pull of dips around that area, but not in a painful manner. The obvious question is whether the positioning of your hands or shoulders are any different now to whenever your last regular dips inclusion was ... ? If the arms are too far forward, elbows out, rather than behind, that's when I feel it on the sternum. Too far back and the anterior delt feels like it's about to be ripped off, maybe upper pec insertion to the socket as well (where the 'strain' feeling is etc).

I'm going to guess 'no', or at least not significantly.

Flat DB bench, or incline DB bench seems like a nice fit for your shoulders. Especially as you don't lift in your heavy ranges right now.
 
AlexAustralia said:
I definitely feel the stress//pull of dips around that area, but not in a painful manner. The obvious question is whether the positioning of your hands or shoulders are any different now to whenever your last regular dips inclusion was ... ? If the arms are too far forward, elbows out, rather than behind, that's when I feel it on the sternum. Too far back and the anterior delt feels like it's about to be ripped off, maybe upper pec insertion to the socket as well (where the 'strain' feeling is etc).

I'm going to guess 'no', or at least not significantly.

Flat DB bench, or incline DB bench seems like a nice fit for your shoulders. Especially as you don't lift in your heavy ranges right now.
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Nope, same dip stand, same form. Nothing about my form changed, my sternum just randomly got irritated over the summer at one point and, as I said, despite going for periods of months without doing dips, whenever I bring them back I seem to feel the same irritation. Just annoying as dips are my most "natural" push exercise, I think, and seem to bleed over into all other exercises wonderfully. However, I'm not going to train into pain, so flat dumbbell bench it probably is.

I actually wondered at one point if the irritation in my sternum was somehow abstractly connected to the fact that my left shoulder exploded. I don't see a direct connection (and dips don't irritate that shoulder), but the sternum pain did actually show up first. I think I'm mostly frustrated by a sense that my body has betrayed me recently, as I've always tried to be reasonably smart in my programming, form, etc. Torn rotator cuff tendons in left shoulder, persistent sternum pain, and I'm still not sure how either really happened.
 
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Do other pressing motions at differing angles irritate your sternum too, Mike? Pushups (varying had positions), decline bench, incline bench? The only time I personally ever felt pain in my sternum was with broken ribs.
 
It sounds like a tear of something, maybe pectoral attachment, pectoral minor (small muscle, not pectoral major) is heavily involved in dips, but not db bench. Maybe pec minor injury.
 
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mikeynov said:
Nope, just dips.

And to sci, it's definitely not a muscle tear, feels nothing like that. It's almost definitely this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costochondritis
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I was more thinking some sternal attachment tissue damage, like cartilage or a tendon or ligament. Since its related to dips, perhaps the dips are putting tension on damaged tissue in the sternum.

On a positive note, I cracked a rib a couple of months ago, but was able to train almost normally, after about 5 weeks, the pain was gone, fracture healed!
 
Interesting... costochondritis could be it, but I would think you would feel the pain/discomfort doing other motions if that were it (unless maybe it was a very mild case?). Whatever it is, I hope you get healed up soon!
 
nativetroutbum said:
Interesting... costochondritis could be it, but I would think you would feel the pain/discomfort doing other motions if that were it (unless maybe it was a very mild case?). Whatever it is, I hope you get healed up soon!
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The way it works is that I can feel the sternum discomfort a little in other pressing exercises if I've done dips recently. Like, the same session. But in general, the other (non-dip) exercises do not hurt that area in the first place, and if I stop doing dips the pain goes away completely within a few days. I'm basically just lamenting dips since they're otherwise friendly on my shoulder and my best, natural push. Basically, I miss doing stuff like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU8VodCzqZg
 
Seems that is common with gymnasts. It apparently happens a lot to people when they first start doing dips. Sounds like it is something you can improve over time though.
 
Lower Body - Day 1, Week 8

High Bar Squat (Vibrams)
Warmup
232.5 x 5,5,5

45 Degree Back Extensions
Me + 60 x 8,8

Leg Press Rapers
Warmup
3 plates + 25 lbs per side x 8,8

Seated Calf Raise
75 x 8,8

Notes:

Solid enough session. When I first showed up I had to wait for somebody doing upright rows in the power rack. That stuff always kills me...I mean, come on, you need the power rack for upright rows? Heh.
 
That's pretty bad but I think it's even worse when they use the power rack for bentover rows. I've even seen them using the squat rack for both of them. Why not just put the bar on the floor? I don't get it. And squat rack... squat. rack. Not row rack.
 
Totentanz said:
That's pretty bad but I think it's even worse when they use the power rack for bentover rows. I've even seen them using the squat rack for both of them. Why not just put the bar on the floor? I don't get it. And squat rack... squat. rack. Not row rack.
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Sometimes when waiting for somebody doing such things I'll ask if they're almost done with the "squat rack." It's my subtle way of pointing out what they're doing.
 
Here here. Folks in my gym like to do deadlifts in the rack. They don't use a single aspect of the rack itself other than feeling like they're in a cage. I truly don't understand.

How do you like the rapers in a press, Mike?
 
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