Mike's Log - The Road to Recovery

Yeah I would definitely be hesitant to try low bar squatting again if that lead to problems in the past. I guess if you eased into it and didn't go crazy with the loads, you could see if your form improvements lead to a safer low bar squat and then if there are any problems, you'd likely discover them before they become a problem.
 
Until further notice this log is on indefinite hiatus. I have some real life stuff that needs to be taken care of and I'm going to take a mental break from a lot of online stuff.
 
Alright, crisis averted, didn't mean to be a drama queen. I thought I was in danger of failing the last of my exit exams in my graduate exercise phys program and starting feeling extremely overwhelmed, but I somehow managed to pass it. As such, I'm pretty much all done, yay Masters Degree.

Last two sessions:

Upper Body - Day 1, Week 4

Bench (first reps paused)
Warmup
175 x 5,5,5

Chins
Warmup
Me + 70 x 5,5,5

Shoulder Prehab
45 Degree Lateral Raises - 11 x 13/side
Side-Lying External Rotations - 10 x 12/side

Inverted Rows
Me + 20 x 8,8

Seated Curls
25s x 20

Triceps Extensions
50 x 20

Notes:
Yah, I think I prefer upper/lower. It's a lot more manageable NOT squatting every time I lift, I think.


Lower Body - Day 1, Week 4

High Bar Squat (oly shoes, no belt)
Warmup
205 x 5,5,5

45 Degree Back Extensions
Warmup
Me + 45 x 10,10

Hip Abduction
120 x 10,10
95 x 10 (leg curls - I decided against doing this, will save it for the 2nd lower body days)

Calf Raise Stack
202.5 x 10,10

Notes:
Yah, an upper/lower split is a lot mentally easier to deal with. I also simplified my squat form even further - sit down between my legs + keep my chest up. This felt nice and less like I was constantly over-analyzing ****. The temptation to start belted squatting is kind of high, and to be honest I'm not sure if it matters in the long run or not other than I'd handle slightly heavier loads with a belt. Your thoughts welcome.
 
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mikeynov said:
Alright, crisis averted, didn't mean to be a drama queen. I thought I was in danger of failing the last of my exit exams in my graduate exercise phys program and starting feeling extremely overwhelmed, but I somehow managed to pass it. As such, I'm pretty much all done, yay Masters Degree.
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Thats very good news, Mike. Congrats. Onwards and upwards!
 
Upper Body - Day 2, Week 4 (final day of 5's)

Bench (slightest incline, first reps paused)
Warmup
180 x 5,5,5

Chins
Warmup
Me + 75 x 5,5,5

Shoulder Prehab
45 Degree Later Raises - 11 x 13/side
Side-Lying Transverse Abduction (rear delts) - 5 x 21/side
Side-Lying External Rotations - 10 x 9/side (absolutely toasted from the transverse abduction)

1-Arm Cable Rows
60 x 8,8 per side

Seated DB Curls
30's (60) x 15

Triceps Cable Pushdowns
55 x 15

Notes:

This is, in principle, the last day of my scheduled "5's" for upper body, though certainly not 5 RM's in anything (maybe more like 7-8 RM's?). Bench is kind of a weird mix right now. It definitely feels better than it used to with the modifications I've made, i.e. looking at the ceiling, inclining the bench slightly, and widening my grip. Still, sometimes after I rack it I get a sense of almost pressure/something in my sternum that's characteristic of the costochondritis. I figure if the pain is less now than it was at the start of the program (which it is), things are improving. Interestingly, I have basically zero shoulder discomfort whatsover at this point, unracking the bar or anything else. My bench feels weak still (and indeed is still ~30+ lbs weaker than it used to be for reps), but I suppose I have all the time in the world to de-suck-ify it.

I added the transverse abduction exercise today, which I think somebody else brought up. Basically laying on my side, and then raising a dumbbell from directly in front of my chest to straight up in the air. Hits the rear delts (and seemingly infraspinatus) quite hard. In fact, my side-lying external rotations were absolutely trashed afterwards, so there is apparently huge overlap in how much infraspinatus is being hit, which I guess tracks from the fact that infraspinatus also aids in transverse abduction aside from external rotation.

One more lower body day tomorrow and then I will probably finish this cycle over the next couple/few weeks working up to ~5 RM's.
 
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Definitely doing transverse abduction in the way you describe hits the infraspinitus pretty directly in my experience.

Glad you've manage to rehab your shoulder so effectively, keep it up. You'll be back to heavy benching in a few months.
 
mikeynov said:
I also simplified my squat form even further - sit down between my legs + keep my chest up. This felt nice and less like I was constantly over-analyzing ****.
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That sounds nice and simple, I think I will use that cue when I try squatting again. It's been awhile, have to relearn it.
 
We used to call them "1 1/2's" and did them for a variety of exercises. Too many, too often though will exhaust your CNS. Great for a last week of a cycle.
 
Actually my last post was in response to a previous post about leg rapers. Not sure how my computer landed me there when I clicked on Mikey's log. Sorry about that.
 
mikeynov said:
Alright, crisis averted, didn't mean to be a drama queen. I thought I was in danger of failing the last of my exit exams in my graduate exercise phys program and starting feeling extremely overwhelmed, but I somehow managed to pass it. As such, I'm pretty much all done, yay Masters Degree.
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Congrats Mike! Well done!
 
Lower Body - Day 2, Week 4 (final day of 5's)

High Bar Squat (oly shoes, no belt)
Warmup
210 x 5,5,5

Hook Grip Deadlifts (oly shoes, no belt)
Warmup
275 x 5,5

Leg Curls
95 x 10,10

Calf Raise Stack
215 x 10,10

Notes:

Things are definitely getting harder, but still manageable. The deadlifts aren't actually the "last" day, as I program them assuming a cycle length of at least ~6 weeks (i.e. closer to my actual limit was designed to be around 300 for sets of 5 beltless).

I will probably continue the cycle with 2-3 working sets of 5 in everything (upper and lower), i.e. a linear progression to tap out my peak strength. In times past, when trying to regain strength and persisting long enough, sometimes I will get sudden jumps in strength up to old strength levels, and am hoping that will happen over the next couple/few weeks as I gradually ramp everything up. Almost a "strength whoosh" type effect.
 
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Over the last 4 weeks I completed a block of 10's and 5's HST style. However, the remainder of this cycle is going to be a programmed bro split, starting off with the weights at the end of my 5's (~7-8 RM for the primary lifts). The idea here is to draw out the 5's progression for a bit, shifting it to once weekly, and to give increased recuperation time to my chest along with increased pumps. As a sidenote, this style of training is extremely enjoyable.

The bro split:

Shoulders/Upper Back
Legs
off
Chest/Triceps
Back/Biceps

Shoulders/Upper Back

Chins
Warmup
Me + 75 x 5,5,7

Seated Barbell Press
Warmup
95 x 5,5,11

Inverted Rows
Me x 10,10,13

45 Degree Lateral Raises
8 x 10,10,17 per side

Side-Lying Rear Delt Raises
8 x 10,10,11 per side

Notes:

Holy pumps. The basic logic of the split is actually pretty simple, primary lifts are 5,5,5+ format (i.e. two sets of 5 and one set of at least 5 or more reps, not killing myself on the rep out set but maybe going to an RPE of ~9), with assistance using higher reps but similar logic (e.g. 10,10,10+). It's still a compound-oriented routine, the difference is that A) you push a little closer to failure on the primary lifts ala 5/3/1, so you wind up with weekly progression and B) you have more room for pumps/accessory work.

One of the things I've wanted to try for a while is to get an overhead press variant into my routine. As you recall, landmine presses were an option, as I discovered over the summer. However, I think barbell lifts transfer better to everything else, all else constant. The seated barbell press never actually hurt my shoulders, it felt a little funny and I didn't pursue it months ago, but this was also true for the bench press, so I'm going to give it an honest chance. My setup is actually more like a super duper duper incline bench, versus a "true" overhead press. It felt fine today, honestly. If at some point it doesn't feel fine, I'll default to landmine presses, or even just an additional isolation exercise.

Still, my weakness in overhead pressing leads me to believe that part of the reason my bench is in the gutter is because I've lost both shoulder and triceps strength. Further, if I find the bro routine over the next several weeks for some reason sucks, I can always default back to a more standard HST setup. But for now, from the perspective of my costochondritis and the shoulder issues I've had, I think this slower progression might be the path of wisdom.
 
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Once/week is pretty low frequency. If I may, I'd suggest a DC type of program, A/B three times week, so week one is A/B/A, and week 2 is B/A/B. I personally think that Doggcrapp training is one of the best HST type programs out there. Higher frequency than a bro split, lower volume and higher intensity. But that's the reason that DC generally gets better results than a typical bro split. I am a big believer in higher intensity, higher frequency, lower volume compared to the muscle mag programs.

Your volume looks good though, good choice of programming there.
 
Sci said:
Once/week is pretty low frequency. If I may, I'd suggest a DC type of program, A/B three times week, so week one is A/B/A, and week 2 is B/A/B. I personally think that Doggcrapp training is one of the best HST type programs out there. Higher frequency than a bro split, lower volume and higher intensity. But that's the reason that DC generally gets better results than a typical bro split. I am a big believer in higher intensity, higher frequency, lower volume compared to the muscle mag programs.

Your volume looks good though, good choice of programming there.
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DC has higher frequency per muscle group but actually lower frequency per lift, you only perform a given lift once every two weeks.

That said, I want to give this an honest chance. I know the conventional wisdom has become that bodybuilding type training is "too infrequent" for a lot of people, but I think the problem is more a lack of actual programming, rather than the infrequency. Meaning, how many people who think bro splits "don't work" actually had A) competent technique in the compound lifts B) based said split on the compound lifts and C) had a method of tracking progression week to week? Most people who report "bro splits" don't work do quarter squats, eat like a bird, and pay no attention to formal increases in weights/reps, imo.

edit: bear in mind part of my motivation here, which is still to maintain weekly progression in the primary lifts for 5's while giving a bit of increased recuperation to my chest. Weekly progression/programming fits the bill pretty well, it's really not unlike something like 5/3/1 (which has a pretty good track record) in that sense. If this winds up sucking I'll certainly go back to more frequency, assuming I'm otherwise healthy.
 
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That's one of the parts of DC I don't agree with, the whole 'rotate exercises' part. I'd still recommend an ABA type of HST split for you. OTOH, there are a few guys at my gym that are growing well on a bro split type of program, so maybe it can work for some people.
 
Sci said:
That's one of the parts of DC I don't agree with, the whole 'rotate exercises' part. I'd still recommend an ABA type of HST split for you. OTOH, there are a few guys at my gym that are growing well on a bro split type of program, so maybe it can work for some people.
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I've stated this argument before, but I'll repeat it again.

The first part - we tend to think of growth as a slow and steady process of accumulation. My experience was often actually different, I would suddenly jump up like ~5 lbs at a time and be noticeably more muscular. Like my body adopted a new set point of muscle within a comparatively short period of time, e.g. a few weeks or a month. When trying to force feed growth, I often don't seem to wind up with a net gain of muscle by the time I re-lean out.

The second part - all else constant, higher frequency training will certainly beat lower frequency training in terms of rate of growth. Here's the problem - if hypertrophy requires a minimum threshold stimulus (and there is evidence this is true), and you fall a little below this by training frequently with a lower acute stimulus/workload, you are never actually doing enough in any single session to induce growth, and it does not matter how often you train. You are "almost but not quite" triggering growth over and over again.

So how about bro training? Every time you "hit" something, it's a combination of a mini-SD (a week off) to partially decondition a muscle to the stimulus, and a very large acute stimulus that could clearly drive growth. Okay, on paper, you'll grow less overall than a higher frequency in which you do enough to grow. But you are almost definitely still growing over time provided A) proper programming and B) adequate nutrition. This is harder to say for higher frequency training - if you get the dosage wrong, you are constantly below that adaptive curve and never quite doing enough on the training side to drive growth. Instead, what you wind up doing is attempting to drive growth by force feeding yourself, which in and of itself increases LBM, but tends to disappear by the time you re-diet down. Obviously eating hypercalorically is necessary, but tbh it doesn't take much of a surplus to accomplish this, and there is little to no evidence that long-term growth is enhanced by cranking the calories way up (meaning well above the ~500 kcals per day surplus).

HST attempts to get around this with the SD's, and that is a good plan. But a bro split provides a pretty practical way to assure growth, even if that growth is suboptimal. Sometimes practical can make up for suboptimal. It's also worth noting that, contrary to the now-conventional wisdom that "only people on steroids" can thrive on bro splits, a lot of the best results I've actually seen in person amongst friends were with actual bro splits. I would point out again the logic above - if people are saying they know somebody who wasn't able to grow on a bro split, answer me A) whether they still based their routines on compound lifts performed with competent form and programmed progression and B) ate adequately. I would hazard a guess the answers will be no to both questions.
 
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Good points bro, it may just work well for you. Personally, I've been thriving on 2x/week frequency, and I suspect as I get stronger and more advanced, I may lower the frequency further. It's my opinion that the more advanced the trainee, the less frequency is necessary.
 
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