Mike's Log - The Road to Recovery

[mikeynov]

Upper Body Day 1

High (~45 degrees) Incline DB Bench
120(60s) x 8
140(70s) x 8
160(80s) x 4 - oops

Dual Cable Row
120 (60/side) x 10 (lat pulldown)
120 (60/side) x 10 (actual dual cable row)
150 (77.5/side) x 6

Dip Machine (seat in lowest setting for full stretch)
160 x 8
195 x 8
220 x 8

Machine Rows
105 x 8
120 x 8
135 x 10

Abducted External Rotations (weakest/most painful position)
5 x 10/side
8 x 10/side
10 x 10/side

Notes:

Today was kind of screwed up on several levels. First, I discovered that my little ipod is seemingly broken for no apparent reason. It just won't turn on/charge. Not being able to listen to my usual music while lifting was not totally awesome. Once arriving to the gym, I couldn't find a free locker to use, and noticed that #13 was one of the few options. This somehow felt appropriate. The gym was packed, and the cable row I normally use was literally broken. What to do? I normally would have started with the dual cable row, but a very large fellow was on it for probably 15+ minutes. I decided to bench, first.

Lately I have been using the adjustable, incline benches near the dumbbell rack. The thing is, though, that the degree of incline I was using was probably closer to 30 degrees. The actual incline bench station itself is probably more like 45 degrees. As such, it is significantly harder. I knew I was in trouble on my 2nd set when 70s for a set of 8 felt hard, but decided to try 80's, anyways. Doing the math with 70s as ~10 RM, 80's represented just over 85% of 1 RM, so probably like a ~4-5 RM. I.e. what I actually hit. That said, I actually like the higher incline in some ways. I may start bringing my adjustable dumbbell handles to the gym, and doing flat/incline in the actual bench stations, as (weirdly) they are less used than the dumbbell section. That way I could use the plates on the stations to load up the dumbbells and be able to fine tune the weight far, far better than what I'm currently doing.

Following this the rest of my workout felt weird. I was finally able to use the dual cable row after doing some lat pulldowns, but by this point my lats felt pretty dead having done things in a different order. The dip machine and machine rows felt pretty solid, though, both of those weights represent PR levels.

I was pleased to see I could do the external rotations in the most vulnerable position for my shoulder with more weight (the last time I tried this at home I could barely use 2.5s without significant pulling/mild pain). That said, by the time I got to 10's, I was considering that the exercise may still be a bad idea - I feel a very strong pull on what I think is the supraspinatus tendon itself. On one hand, with light enough loads, this may be a pretty straight path to get it to properly remodel. On the other hand, the margin for error might be low, and this could also be a ticket to snap city. As such, I will probably use more cautious versions of the exercise for the foreseeable future.

I will simply chalk today up as "one of those days."

 

[Lol]

Always enjoy your write ups here, Mikey. Glad to hear that you are making some progress with your shoulder but I do agree it's worth being very careful now.

To save me trawling back through your log, I thought I'd ask if you have used a commercial reverse-hyper machine of the swinging pendulum kind?

I'm thinking of building one for my home gym that attaches to my rack when required. I don't have space to keep a stand-alone contraption.

For the past couple of years I have intended to do something about my spinal erectors, particularly in my lower-back, but I haven't got round to it. They get a ton of iso work from squats, cleans and deads but very little in the way of conc/ecc work. I have noticed that my lower back gets tired fast when I have to do certain types of repetitive tasks around the home that involve bending. I'm hoping that regular lower back flexion work will give me some much needed endurance in that area.

I'd appreciate any thoughts you may have.

Re iPod: Have you tried holding down the round button on the front and the power-on button at the top both at the same time and holding them down for a few seconds? That usually does the trick.

 

[mikeynov]

Always enjoy your write ups here, Mikey. Glad to hear that you are making some progress with your shoulder but I do agree it's worth being very careful now.

To save me trawling back through your log, I thought I'd ask if you have used a commercial reverse-hyper machine of the swinging pendulum kind?

I'm thinking of building one for my home gym that attaches to my rack when required. I don't have space to keep a stand-alone contraption.

For the past couple of years I have intended to do something about my spinal erectors, particularly in my lower-back, but I haven't got round to it. They get a ton of iso work from squats, cleans and deads but very little in the way of conc/ecc work. I have noticed that my lower back gets tired fast when I have to do certain types of repetitive tasks around the home that involve bending. I'm hoping that regular lower back flexion work will give me some much needed endurance in that area.

I'd appreciate any thoughts you may have.

Re iPod: Have you tried holding down the round button on the front and the power-on button at the top both at the same time and holding them down for a few seconds? That usually does the trick.

Howdy sir,

I've never actually used a reverse hyper. I actually really wish I had access to one. If you could build a good one, it should fit the bill for what you're trying to do. Obviously the Westside4life guys swear by it. Another, potentially easier option would be to build or buy a back extension type station. I have a flat one (versus the 45 degree kind), myself. Works pretty well.

And I dunno, the iPod isn't responding to anything. I may have to invest in a new one, sadly.

 

[mikeynov]

I've been reading various threads around HST, and am considering making this week (which is the 8th week of this cycle) the last of this routine. Totentaz' getting back to basics thread, talking about the simplicity of a basic HST routine, appealed to me. I was actually tracking body composition last spring, and was performing various routines at the time (e.g. SS and 5/3/1 type stuff). I tracked a month on an upper/lower type HST setup, and my lean mass jumped up by literally almost 10 lbs in that time. To date, it's had by far the biggest, measurable result of anything I've monitored. As I'm approaching ~5-8 RM's for most of my lifts, it occurs to me that I've accomplished most of what I've wanted to out of this routine, which is namely to find a group of lifts I can perform pain-free.

As such, I will probably finish out this week, and then take the next 9-10 days off for SD. I would plan to restart a new cycle 2 weeks from today. I'll probably use a 4 days per week, upper/lower type setup, with (most) lifts being hit twice per week instead of once, cycling up in two, three-week blocks. 12's and 8's for upper body, and 15's and 10's for lower body. 5's, then, would be an option at the tail end. I dig it.

 

[mikeynov]

iPod started randomly working again...yay!

 

[mikeynov]

I decided today will be the last day of this cycle. As such, I did a sort of simple, full body routine to get estimated ~6-8 RM's for any lifts I wasn't sure about.

Test Day

High Bar Squat (vibrams)
Warmup
225 x 10 (belt)

Dumbbell Bench (flat)
180 (90s) x 6

Hook Grip Deadlift (Vibrams)
Warmup
315 x 7

Super Careful Chins
Warmup
Me + 90 x 5

DB External Rotations - front, shoulder height position (most comfortable)
10 x 20/side

Notes:

Squats were quite a pleasant surprise. I was able to hold my form pretty well throughout, and while it was my usual death march of a set, this represents the highest my squat strength has been in 2 years. Deadlifts were interesting because, besides my initial sets of 135, I have done all of my deadlifting the past 8 weeks with straps. I.e. this does not appear to have negatively impacted my actual grip strength whatsoever. My grip actually felt pretty strong. I may just stick to straps indefinitely.

Dumbbell bench I threw in just to see where my flat strength was. My strength is probably a little juiced from yesterday such that I could have squeezed out another rep or two fresh, but whatever.

Same deal for chins. I wanted to see what my top end strength was with my now super careful form (slow eccentrics, no relaxing of shoulder at any point in the ROM). I felt a little bit of a pinch on one of the reps, but for the most part felt literally zero discomfort. This is encouraging to be able to do this again, but I will definitely not be pushing this lift any time in the near future.

Video shortly, but all in all I'm quite pleased at my strength/performance this cycle. The shoulder seems better able to tolerate stuff and some of my lifts are back into old PR territory.

Video of today's lifts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFJ8UewKEqU&feature=youtu.be

 

[Lol]

Deadlifts were interesting because, besides my initial sets of 135, I have done all of my deadlifting the past 8 weeks with straps. I.e. this does not appear to have negatively impacted my actual grip strength whatsoever. My grip actually felt pretty strong. I may just stick to straps indefinitely.

Nice on the squats.

The only thing with your grip strength is that you didn't really test it seeing you were hooking. My hook grip is insanely better than my actual grip strength. Eg. last night my regular grip gave up at 130kg for a set of 5. I tried with 150kg but it wasn't happening. On the other hand(!), with a hook grip, holding onto 180kg wasn't a problem at all. My actual grip strength has fallen off since I've been hooking. The thing is, I don't really use regular grip anymore except for rows and weighted chins; for every other type of pull (snatch, C&J, deads) I tend to use a hook-grip. I recently tested my grip on a No.2 CoC gripper and found I had a hard job closing it with my right hand and I couldn't close it at all with my left. I think I got up to about 5 reps with the No.2 when I was bothered about my grip. That was before I started hooking. Once my left hand is healed up, I will get back to some regular grip work. I just happen to think it's a good thing to keep up.

All the best with your shoulder and your next cycle.

 

[Totentanz]

I've been reading various threads around HST, and am considering making this week (which is the 8th week of this cycle) the last of this routine. Totentaz' getting back to basics thread, talking about the simplicity of a basic HST routine, appealed to me. I was actually tracking body composition last spring, and was performing various routines at the time (e.g. SS and 5/3/1 type stuff). I tracked a month on an upper/lower type HST setup, and my lean mass jumped up by literally almost 10 lbs in that time. To date, it's had by far the biggest, measurable result of anything I've monitored. As I'm approaching ~5-8 RM's for most of my lifts, it occurs to me that I've accomplished most of what I've wanted to out of this routine, which is namely to find a group of lifts I can perform pain-free.

As such, I will probably finish out this week, and then take the next 9-10 days off for SD. I would plan to restart a new cycle 2 weeks from today. I'll probably use a 4 days per week, upper/lower type setup, with (most) lifts being hit twice per week instead of once, cycling up in two, three-week blocks. 12's and 8's for upper body, and 15's and 10's for lower body. 5's, then, would be an option at the tail end. I dig it.

Do you recall or have logged that HST cycle? With all the talk about volume lately, I'm sure everyone is going to be dying to know what sort of volume per muscle group you were using during that 10 lb gain.

I think it's baffling how so many of us feel the need to keep changing things and experimenting, when it seems like in most cases our best gains were with a fairly standard HST setup. I've had this problem over the years, anyway. I tend to start screwing around after a few weeks if I don't keep myself focused and of course that's when gains start to stall. Harkens back to the old HST motto "Start growing again."

 

[Sci]

I've been reading various threads around HST, and am considering making this week (which is the 8th week of this cycle) the last of this routine. Totentaz' getting back to basics thread, talking about the simplicity of a basic HST routine, appealed to me. I was actually tracking body composition last spring, and was performing various routines at the time (e.g. SS and 5/3/1 type stuff). I tracked a month on an upper/lower type HST setup, and my lean mass jumped up by literally almost 10 lbs in that time. To date, it's had by far the biggest, measurable result of anything I've monitored. As I'm approaching ~5-8 RM's for most of my lifts, it occurs to me that I've accomplished most of what I've wanted to out of this routine, which is namely to find a group of lifts I can perform pain-free.

As such, I will probably finish out this week, and then take the next 9-10 days off for SD. I would plan to restart a new cycle 2 weeks from today. I'll probably use a 4 days per week, upper/lower type setup, with (most) lifts being hit twice per week instead of once, cycling up in two, three-week blocks. 12's and 8's for upper body, and 15's and 10's for lower body. 5's, then, would be an option at the tail end. I dig it.

I think you have some definite room to grow naturally on an HST bulk cycle. If you go really crazy, maybe 20 pounds of weight gain, mostly lean mass.

I am glad you found an exercise selection that doesn't worsen your shoulder injury, but hopefully will even repair it! I know I keep repeating it, and it seems you are doing fine, but keep the rotator cuff and scapular training as high a frequency as you can stand. Definitely keep the loads lowish though, so as not to tear anything further, I would go no lower than 8-10 RM range for any shoulder exercise.

Good luck, this is the prime of your life!

 

[mikeynov]

Do you recall or have logged that HST cycle? With all the talk about volume lately, I'm sure everyone is going to be dying to know what sort of volume per muscle group you were using during that 10 lb gain.

I think it's baffling how so many of us feel the need to keep changing things and experimenting, when it seems like in most cases our best gains were with a fairly standard HST setup. I've had this problem over the years, anyway. I tend to start screwing around after a few weeks if I don't keep myself focused and of course that's when gains start to stall. Harkens back to the old HST motto "Start growing again."

I remember the details of the routine. I was actually training 6 days per week, initially, with an upper/lower (sort of like what Brian has talked about) split. My exercises:

Upper:
Pause Bench (barbell)
Weighted Chins
Seated Shoulder Press (barbell)
Inverted (bodyweight) Rows on gymnastic rings
Triceps Pushdowns
EZ Bar Curls

Lower:
High Bar Squat
Bulgarian Split Squats (i.e. rear leg elevated split squats) done sort of slowly/constant tension style
Weighted Back Extensions (I couldn't deadlift at the time)
Calf Raises

For lower body I did 15's, 10's, and 5's, and 12's, 8's, and 5's for upper body. ~2 weeks per block, pretty standard setup.

The first few weeks, as I said, was 6 times per week with upper/lower being hit 3 times per week. This started to really drain me, though, such that I cut it down to 5 times per week for the remainder of the cycle. Diet was actually a little excessive, protein-wise, I was easily consuming 300+ grams of protein a day, having 3 big meals and big protein shake with each meal on an IF type setup. All of that said, it worked quite rapidly.

I agree with your sentiment. On the one hand, it's tempting to say "anything done consistently yields results" blah blah blah. But that hasn't actually been my experience. Certain forms of training seem to produce pretty obvious results, and the HST type setup was one of them. Others, despite slowly crawling forward strength-wise, just don't seem to have as noticeable an impact on lean mass. I don't know if it's the SD, or the frequency, or what. I think the only downside to HST is that it doesn't quite scratch that psychological itch for pushing yourself every training session, which is undoubtedly counterproductive anyways. I stopped doing HST over the summer due to some personal problems (a very unfun breakup with my then long-term girlfriend), and never really picked it up again for some reason. Hence the mild epiphany reading your thread, I think you said something like "I finally got my head out of my ass." I know from experience that a pretty straightforward HST setup works well, so why the hell not do something I KNOW works versus tinkering with other random stuff?

Don't get me wrong, the routine I just did the past 8 weeks was probably necessary, I needed the flexibility to adopt/abandon lifts based on how they felt. But at this point, I think I have a pretty solid list of lifts I'll be focusing on.

 

[mikeynov]

I think you have some definite room to grow naturally on an HST bulk cycle. If you go really crazy, maybe 20 pounds of weight gain, mostly lean mass.

I am glad you found an exercise selection that doesn't worsen your shoulder injury, but hopefully will even repair it! I know I keep repeating it, and it seems you are doing fine, but keep the rotator cuff and scapular training as high a frequency as you can stand. Definitely keep the loads lowish though, so as not to tear anything further, I would go no lower than 8-10 RM range for any shoulder exercise.

Good luck, this is the prime of your life!

Yep, that is the plan. I may actually do all of my "back" work in the form of rowing, foregoing vertical pulling for at least the first cycle. External rotation work will also be done both upper body days.

 

[mikeynov]

I'm still alive, just nothing to update since I've been SD-ing, obviously. Hope you all are doing well

 

[mikeynov]

~2 week SD completed...time for an HST cycle. Today was partially experimental, to see where my shoulder stands in terms of what it can tolerate.

Upper Body - Day 1, Week 1

Dumbbell Bench Press
30's (60) x 12
62.5s x 12,8 (one set of 12, one set of 8)

Chins (very strict, emphasis on slow negative)
Me x 12,8

Seated DB Press
30 x 12,8 - this is probably going to get cut out, see below

Pushups (externally rotated, elbows by side style)
Me x 25,15,10 (with short rests in between)

Cable Rows
120 x 12,8

EZ Bar Curls
60 x 12,8

DB External Rotation
5 x 25/side

Notes:

Cool day. I found a way to pretty easily rig the dumbbells to slap the 2.5 lb magnets on. As it stands, they sort of stick, but will fall off due to the thick rubber coating. However, I just tie rubber banding around the end to hold them in place. Looks a little weird, but works like a charm.

Chins were the first experimental exercise - the idea being that I wasn't going to tolerate bull**** from my shoulder. This wasn't the least bit uncomfortable, and in fact actually felt pretty therapeutic, stretching my shoulders out. This will stay in for the time being.

Shoulder presses were less good. While it wasn't outright painful, I still got a sensation of tightness/pinching on a few of the reps here and there. Realistically I could possibly stick with this, but I'm having a zero tolerance rule with my shoulder, so out these go.

This means my two main "pushes" will be dumbbell benching and pushups. This probably tracks with what people find easiest on screwed up shoulders. Direct shoulder work, then, will be solely in the form of working on external rotation strength, which still feels nice, burny, and productive.

It feels good to be lifting again!

 

[Jester]

Have you tried handles for your push-ups? I'm not intimate enough w/shoulders and rotator cuffs to explain why, but they definitely make any sort of push-up movement (weighted or just BW) a lot more fluid for the joint in my experience.

 

[mikeynov]

Lower Body - Day 1, Week 1

High Bar Squats (Vibrams)
Bar x warmup
95 x warmup
135 x warmup
155 x 15,10 (no belt)

45 Degree Back Extensions
Me x 15,10

Seated Calf Raises
45 x 15,10

Leg Press
2 plates per side x warmup
3 plates per side x 15,10

Leg Press Calf Raise
2 plates per side x 15,10

Hip Abduction
50 x warmup
60 x 15,10

Notes:

It amazes me that, since joining Charter back in December, I have not had to wait for the squat rack a single time when intending to squat. This lucky streak cannot last forever...

I decided to squat today A) without straps and B) without a belt. I went strapless as I wanted to see how my shoulder held up (felt a little tight but probably fine - I'll continue to monitor it) and beltless because 155 is pretty god damn light. I'll be belting up by the time I get towards my intended working weight at the end of this 3 week block (205 x 15).

Otherwise, everything felt quite good.

 

[mikeynov]

Have you tried handles for your push-ups? I'm not intimate enough w/shoulders and rotator cuffs to explain why, but they definitely make any sort of push-up movement (weighted or just BW) a lot more fluid for the joint in my experience.

I have, but handles actually allow more shoulder extension at the bottom (increased ROM), which you have to be careful about. My guess as to why handles feel better for some people is probably that they're placing the handles in neutral alignment, and tend to self-select a slightly internally rotated position when doing pushups with their hands on the floor. You can modify this by pointing your hands a bit out (pointer fingers at ~10-11 o'clock on the left, ~2-1 o'clock on the right).

 

[nativetroutbum]

Using the pushup handles may cause the accessory muscles in the shoulder to "fire" more because it is a slightly more unstable position than a fully open/extended hand flat on the floor. I suppose it depends on how you grip the handles, but it may serve as some light pre-hab for a rotator cuff. I'll have to experiment with this; I'll also query my wife (Doctorate in PT.)

 

[mikeynov]

Upper Body - Day 2, Week 1

Cable Rows
80 x 5
100 x 5
127.5 x 12,8

Dumbbell Bench Press
45s (90) x 5
55s (110) x 5
65s (130) x 12,8

Chins
Me x 5
Me + 10 x 12,8

Pushups
Me x 30,15,5 (short-ish rests)

EZ Bar Curls
~70 x 12,8

Dumbbell External Rotation
5 x 30/side

Notes:

I decided to prioritize the lifts the same way I was doing them last cycle, i.e. rows first. There is a certain logic in this in that it's my weakest lift of the 4 primary upper body movements (vertical and horizontal pushes/pulls). It also seems to warm up my midback for bench to follow.

I need to check the EZ curl bar's weight at my gym, I am guessing it's at least 20 lbs and possibly as much as 30 lbs or something, as the weight always feels bizarrely heavy on it relative to the fixed barbells. Hell, I may just do curls on a straight bar.

Other than that, my shoulder felt fine, no real discomfort in anything.

 

[Sci]

I find dumbell curls are hard to beat. You can do inclines, or preachers, or cheat curls, just about any curls with dumbells, and your arms are forced to work in isolation from each-other, so that can help balance out one bicep being bigger than the other, for example.

 

[Totentanz]

I've actually decided to never use an EZ curl bar for curls ever again. I've found that the straight bar is easier on my wrists. This may be different for you though. My gym's EZ curl bars are all roughly 25 lbs if that helps.