Mike's Log - The Road to Recovery

Yeah, Mikey at your bone structure and general size, the goals of 200 press, 300 bench, 400 squat and 500 Deadlift are actually at the upper extreme if an elite strength athlete. Especially if you do it naturally. I am not saying that it's impossible, just that your goals are really, really high.

Fir example, say at your peak you can gain 10 more lb.s of lean mass. According to kilgore's strength standards your goals are in the 'elite' category for every lift. Actually your press goal is off the chart! 190 lb.s being 'elite' at the body weight of 165.

http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/StrengthStandards.htm

You are already very strong for your size. It's easy to compare ourselves to 6'6", 350 lb.s beasts that we see on the strongman competitions on TV. Or us going for physique to compare ourselves to Pro bodyvuilders. But let's face it, less than 0.01% of the population ever get to those levels, and even with the right genetics, drugs are required to compete at that level.

I don't mean to be preachy, if anything I am preaching to myself more than anything.

Just want to say that you have dOne great, and your current strength is a great accomplishment!
 
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Sci said:
Yeah, Mikey at your bone structure and general size, the goals of 200 press, 300 bench, 400 squat and 500 Deadlift are actually at the upper extreme if an elite strength athlete. Especially if you do it naturally. I am not saying that it's impossible, just that your goals are really, really high.

Fir example, say at your peak you can gain 10 more lb.s of lean mass. According to kilgore's strength standards your goals are in the 'elite' category for every lift. Actually your press goal is off the chart! 190 lb.s being 'elite' at the body weight of 165.

http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/StrengthStandards.htm

You are already very strong for your size. It's easy to compare ourselves to 6'6", 350 lb.s beasts that we see on the strongman competitions on TV. Or us going for physique to compare ourselves to Pro bodyvuilders. But let's face it, less than 0.01% of the population ever get to those levels, and even with the right genetics, drugs are required to compete at that level.

I don't mean to be preachy, if anything I am preaching to myself more than anything.

Just want to say that you have dOne great, and your current strength is a great accomplishment!
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Thank you for the kind words, sir. The title of the log is probably misleading, to be honest, while those are abstract goals in my mind, my real goal is basically to be the healthiest, strongest version of myself possible.
 
Incidently, what are your records in the lifts? I saw some of your YouTube lifts, and you definitely surpassed me on all of them. I saw you had a competition Deadlift on YouTube that was really impressive.
 
Sci said:
Incidently, what are your records in the lifts? I saw some of your YouTube lifts, and you definitely surpassed me on all of them. I saw you had a competition Deadlift on YouTube that was really impressive.
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Best competition lifts (at a bodyweight of ~175):

~341 squat
~275 bench
~451 deadlift

(the ~'s are due to kilo conversion to lbs, since competitions are in kg weights)

Best more recent gym lifts (at a bodyweight more like ~165):

335 squat (have done this several times, including a paused rep of it)
280 bench (same, have done this multiple times)
430 hook grip deadlift

Other lifts that I track (dips and chins):
Chins - Me + 160 lbs for a single, Me + 120 lbs x 5 reps

Paused Dips - Me + 185 for a single, Me + 135 x 6 reps (the latter was at a lighter bodyweight I think, probably ~155 lbs)
 
Routine Reboot


Upper Body Day 1

Gymnastic Ring (Inverted) Rows
Partial Bodyweight x 15
Bodyweight x 15,12

DB High Incline (45 degrees) Bench
35s x 15
45s x 15
~50s x 15 (olympic dumbbell handles)

Facepulls
50 x 25,20

Cable Pushdowns
40 x 15
50 x 15

Shoulder Rehab Exercises
Scaption Raise (thumbs-up lateral raise in the scapular plane) - supraspinatus
5s x 35

External Rotation (seated, in front) - infraspinatus, teres minor
5s x 28/side

Band Internal Rotations (arm at side) - subscapularis
Mini-band x 35/side

Notes:

Day 1 of my new routine, which is just a simple upper/lower split. Because performance is not really my primary concern, I am just using a pyramid up scheme of 2-3 work sets per exercise. My first week I will use 15s across the board for primary movements, 12s the second, 10s the third, 8s the fourth, and 5s the fifth before deloading. Kind of like a poor man's HST.

The shoulder rehab exercises will be performed on both upper body days, but I will probably do variations of the exercises. My logic is to target all the rotator cuff muscles through their various actions (e.g. shoulder abduction, external rotation, internal rotation), as per previous conversation with sci.
 
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WIN! Low weight, high reps, lots of scapular retraction and rotator work. Smart boy, you'll do well on this. I am doing some similar stuff in my log.
 
Sci said:
WIN! Low weight, high reps, lots of scapular retraction and rotator work. Smart boy, you'll do well on this. I am doing some similar stuff in my log.
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Yep, also keeping at least a 2:1 ratio of pull to push, with approximately 100% of the pull emphasis being in the horizontal plane (scapular retraction emphasis).
 
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Lower Body Day 1

PVC Squat
Warmup
135 x 15
155 x 15 (belt)
185 x 15 (belt)

Back Extensions
Me x 15
Me + 50 x 15

Leg Extensions
70 x 15
80 x 15

1-Leg Calf Raises
Me x 15/side
Me + 10 x 15/side

Notes:

Oooouch? Having not done reps of any sort in squats in quite a long time, pyramiding up like that was brutal. On video my 185 x 15 set really doesn't look very hard, but at the time it felt like I was going to puke or pass out after two previous sets of 15. I might consider doing these reverse pyramid style or...something, in future weeks, as the two prior sets of 15 definitely had a pretty strong effect on the top set. It's my routine, I can make my own rules!
 
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Upper Body Day 2

V-Cable Rows
100 x 15
115 x 15
125 x 15

Floor Press
115 x 15
135 x 15

T-Bar Rows
+50 x 15
+65 x 15
+75 x 15

Curls
45 x 15
65 x 15

Shoulder Rehab

Facepulls
50 x 26

Side-Lying Lateral Raises
5 x 20/side

Side-Lying DB External Rotation
5 x 20/side

Notes:

This session felt pretty good, overall. Floor presses were kind of a surprise. Due to the fact that the "pause" at the bottom still has the muscles of the lift under full tension (in that you're not literally relaxing into the floor), this got tremendously triceps-y by the end. I was originally thinking I could probably do 145 or 155 x 15, but my triceps were so thrashed by the 15th rep of the second set that I decided to keep it light.

Right now I am enjoying pretty extreme pumps from this session. You gotta love the pump, right?
 
Lower Body Day 2

Conventional Deadlifts
Warmup to 225 for a few singles (hook, alternate grip, etc)
225 x 20 (belt, straps)

Leg Rapers
95 x 15
115 x 13

Hip Thrusts
Bodyweight x 15
Me + 15 x 15
Me + 65 x 15

1-Leg Donkey Calf Raises
Me x 15/side
M + 25 x 15/side

Notes:

Holy cats on a rocket ship, that set of 20 in deadlifts was pretty absurd. Unfortunately, I actually felt some hip pain in the middle of the set. The first few reps were fine, I started to feel that nagging/deep ache feeling somewhere in the middle, then it disappeared again for the last ~8 or so reps. I'm not sure I even care at this point, since my brother in law couldn't find anything wrong with the joint itself or the surrounding musculature (hamstrings, glutes, rotators) via the ultrasound.

The leg rapers after a high rep set of deadlifts were just silly, I had no juice left. Still, I got lovely leg pumps. The hip thrusts are a really neat exercise, and I'd strongly recommending watching this video for tips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBrHdatPj9g

I started waaaaay conservative on weight, but I wanted to get the form down before piling it on. Even my jump of 50 lbs was honestly pretty easy, so I can probably increase the loading pretty rapidly here, and I'm not sure I've ever felt an exercise so directly in my glutes before.

But yah, week 1 was pretty grueling. I've been sleeping my balls off and feeling very, very sore and tired. Perhaps not the wisest move to start a routine like this during finals week, but hey...hey.
 
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Thanks, Mikey. Those hip thrusts look pretty cool (maybe I could have said that a better way?). Although I haven't seen them mentioned on O-lifting forums, I would think they would make a good accessory exercise for the O-lifts. Simple to do, so I'll give them a go. I already use a shoulders-on-floor hip thrust to get the bar in place for floor presses.
 
Upper Body Day 1

Inverted Rows (Gymnastic Rings)
Partial Me x 12
Me x 12
Me + 10 x 12

DB High Incline Bench
40s x 12
50s x 12
60s x 13

Shrugs
135 x 12
155 x 12

Cable Triceps Pushdowns
60 x 14

Seated DB Curls
40s x 12

Shoulder Rehab
Facepulls
60 x 20

Slow-Mo Thumbs-Up Lateral Raise
8s x 20

Poliquin DB External Rotations
8 x 10 + 6 per side

Notes:

Fun enough session. I think my mid/upper back strength is a little juiced insofar as I'm doing a ****load of work for it. The push actually feels pretty easy in comparison.

Shoulder rehab today was interesting. By doing the lateral raises in kind of a non-stop tension sort of way, I induced a profound burn in my shoulders that carried over hugely into the external rotations. I.e. my ability to externally rotate on my left arm after doing the lateral raises was absolutely toasted. Which I actually take as a good sign.
 
Lower Body Day 1

PVC Squat
135 x 12
165 x 12 (belt)
195 x 12 (belt)
195 x 12 (belt, tweaked form, better)

Back Extensions
Me x 12
Me + 40 x 12
Me + 80 x 10

Back Extension Situps
Me x 12
Me + 25 x 12

1-Leg Calf Raise
Me x 12/side
Me + 25 x 12/side

Notes:

Performed this session after a final tonight (pharmacology, last final for the semester), so was a little mentally drained. The first set of 195 x 12 in squats felt a little awkward, albeit manageable. Did it again a second time and it felt much better. For those reading my log, here's my layman's guide to the simplest possible cues that work well for me in squat variants:

high bar squat - chest up (to the point of thinking about keeping upright-ish), knees out, heels
low bar squat - chest up (though allowing yourself to lean over a bit), sit back, knees out, heels

I think the above is also a good illustration of why the high bar squat feels more natural to some people - since you're more sitting "down" than back, it's one less cue that you have to internalize. You can do high bar squats in a little more of a sit back style, but as you start to go up in weight it gets a little awkward in a hurry as you wind up fighting quite the lever arm.

Anyhoo, good session, and glad to be done with school for the semester. Food, rest, etc.
 
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Upper Body Day 2

Cable Rows
100 x 12
120 x 12
135 x 13

DB Bench (flat)
~120 (60s) x 12
~140 (70s) x 13

1-Arm Cable Rows
50 x 18/side

Cable Triceps Pushdowns
40 x 12
65 x 12

Seated DB Curls
50 (25s) x 12
70 (35s) x 11

Shoulder Rehab

Poliquin External Rotations
8 x 15/side

Seated Slow-Mo Lateral Raises
8s x 20

Facepulls
65 x 20

Notes:

I decided to forego the floor press in favor of more dumbbell benching, in this case flat. Why? Because barbell anything appears to be slightly uncomfortable, whereas dumbbell pressing feels better. There is a certain logic here, particularly in forcing each arm/shoulder to work independently. Besides the slight pain in the ass of setting up heavy dumbbells, you could probably construct a reasonable argument that dumbbell exercises, where possible to substitute (upper body stuff), are probably "better" in terms of their safety profile. At least for more "bodybuilding" type rep ranges (5-6+).
 
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A question regarding your shoulder injury.

Do torn muscle fibers reconnect? Or do they die off, and new ones grow in place of them via hyperplasia? I am just curious, as to how the muscle heals, given no surgical intervention?
 
Sci said:
A question regarding your shoulder injury.

Do torn muscle fibers reconnect? Or do they die off, and new ones grow in place of them via hyperplasia? I am just curious, as to how the muscle heals, given no surgical intervention?
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Well, it depends on the nature of the tear. My tear is, in theory, a full thickness tear, which means decreased surface area of attachment. That should also mean some of the fibers are no longer "hooked up" in terms of actually doing anything when they contract. As to their capacity to heal, I'm not honestly sure. Conventional wisdom is that full thickness tears do not heal. But when I actually looked into the research, there are cases of patients who forego surgery for full thickness tears and some time later (months or years) they can no longer "see" the tear on MRI/ultrasound. So I'm trying to be optimistic.
 
Lower Body Day 2

Hook Grip Deadlifts
Warmup to 255 x 1
255 x 14 (belt, straps)

Leg Rapers
95 x 12
115 x 12
135 x 12

Hip Thrusts
15 x 12
65 x 12
85 x 12

1-Leg Donkey Calf Raises
Me x 12/side
Me + 35 x 12/side

Notes:

Almost zero discomfort doing the deadlifts today, so that's certainly good. I stopped before finishing the 15th rep as I felt my lower back position start to falter. No sense in pushing this beyond the bounds of ideal form. Note that I'm using straps because A) I want to use a symmetric form of the deadlift and B) hook grip for high reps = total thumb rape. I figure doing a single with whatever working weight I'm using beltless should preserve my hook grip strength just fine, for the time being.
 
Take it light on the deadlifts, they can strain the supraspinitus if too heavy. It looks like your in a "safe" rep range though.
 
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Sci said:
Take it light on the deadlifts, they can strain the supraspinitus if too heavy. It looks like your in a "safe" rep range though.
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Well, I pulled 385 for a couple of singles not too long ago and there was zero discomfort in the shoulder. The only things which really bother my shoulder are overhead stuff, which makes sense, since the impingement would be in the subacromial space, i.e. arm overhead = head of humerus pushing into the inflamed tissue between itself and the acromion, which includes the supraspinatus. You could probably construct an argument that something like a deadlift should have the opposite effect, i.e. a tractioning of the humerus away from the acromion.
 
True, the deadlifts may simPly strengthen stuff, since there is no impingement going on.
 
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