Behind in posting my lifting, so here are the last two sessions.

Yesterday:
deadlift 2x5 @ 135, 1x5 @ 165, belt 1x4 @ 185 and 2x3 @ 225
front squat 1x8 @ 45, 1x5 @ 65, 2x4 @ 95
good morning 3x8 @ 115
cable kickback 3x8 @ 40

Today:
push press 2x6 @ 45, 3x5 @ 65, 1x1 @ 85
clean 2x6 @ 45, 35 @ 65, 1x1 @ 85
jerk 3x6 @ 45, 1x3 @ 65
snatch 3x5 @ 45 - not up for doing 65 yet
pendlay row with straps 3x6 @ 95

Christmas WOD, stolen from a Team Richey video, à la 12 days of christmas (so 1, 2-1, 3-2-1, etc)

- 1 thruster
- 2 push press
- 3 hang power cleans
- 4 deadlifts
- 5 burpees
- 6 pull-ups (use bands to regress)
- 7 bw squats(at this point it's like a rest! Lol)
- 8 toes 2 bar / hanging knee tucks
- 9 KB swings (i used 50lbs and I coulda gone heavier)
- 10 HR Pushups
- 11 overhead squats
- 12 power snatches

Rx = 50/35kg (110/75lbs)
I did 65 lbs. Warming up itself took like 40 minutes this morning. The past few days have really taken a toll, but tomorrow is a day off and I'm gonna earn all the food I'm gonna be eating somehow! lol.

The first 4 rounds took like a minute and a half. I questionned for a bit if I'd gone too light after all.

The whole thing took 36 minutes. The workload just creeps up on ya

I finished my session with face pulls & side planks, then straight arm pullovers & cable crunches (which I always have a hard time feeling, until I start to get in my hip flexors for some reason... I had planned a bit more work in my head, but I was lightheaded and, like, starving, so home I went. I'm gonna go for a walk after lunch to loosen up my hips a bit (and, let's admit it, I still play pokemon go, and I want my 7 day pokestop streak, lol), then it's off for some last minute shopping (I have all my gifts but one, but they need wrapped! xD) and then the 3 days in a row celebration starts. Weee!

2 more awesome days of workouts in the books. I really wish training was not the only thing I was able to do right now though, haha. I'm feeling quite lazy outside of the gym. Guess i should go get started on chores >_>

yesterday:

Bench Press 45x8, 65x5, 75x3, 87.5x3, 100x3, 112.5x3 122.5x3, 130x3
I was going to joker set (jump up by about 5%) until I hit a rough set, but I ended up goofing with the weight on my initial top set and I was really disappointed with myself for how "weak" I felt, until I recalculated and realized I'd put on 10lbs too many! Ha, oops? So I went with it and loaded up 130, knowing I,d never done more than a double at that weight. Got 3! =D
And I was doign the bulgarian split squats between sets, too. 25lbs x8, 30x6, 35x2x6 per leg
Then I backed down and relatively quickly hit 95x5 for 3 sets

Pendlay Rows 45x8, 65x5, 75x3, 80x3, 95x3, 107.5x3, 115x3, 85x5 (3 sets)
Sumo deadlift 65x8, 75x8, 95x6, 110x12, 115x12, 135x12, 135x8

I think those are the weights? Memory's not great today lol.

And I hit up the 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 knees to bows + burpee ladder in 5:25. Because goals =D

And today was more of a conditionning session.

Bear complex 65x5, 75x3, 80x2
every 3 minute @ 85lbs x3 (I did 4 on the 2nd set) for 4 rounds, then 3 min AMRAP at 65 and I got 13, which is 2 more than my best =D

and i finished this with 1.5 mile on the treadmill in like, 22 mins, alternating between running faster, walking, and walking at an incline. It felt pretty awesome, funnily enough. I usually hate cardio! lol

Here's to ending 2017 on a high note, folks!

krokador wrote: »

I'm frustrated. Physio appointment ended up actually helping with my neck to the point where it was only uncomfortable and not painful anymore this morning. That is, until I started doing depth broad jumps. He was right. My neck muscles are too weak and whenever I have to stabilize a lot, especially with explosive movements, then whatever's been hurt has to fire again and goes into spasm. So I'll have to do my strengthening exercise(s), and stretches, like an adult. And stay away from anything high impact for the time being

The thing is, with it hurting when I try to strengthen it, it makes it very uncomfortable to try and train it, and I'm sure my babying it for a month and a half has also contributed to the weakness.

So I have some questions for you.. (I also have some crazy neck problems)
Are you a desk jockey?
What's your posture like?
Are your shoulder's rounded?

3 things that have helped me are rotator cuff exercises to strengthen the muscles that are overstretched from slumping at my desk.

And laying on a foam roller so that my spine is on top of it. I let my shoulder blades drop to either side to try to get a good stretch.

also using the foam roller perpendicular to the spine up around T12 which is often out for most people. Popping that back into place almost always relieves neck stress.

For the rotator cuff get a good band that you can stretch slightly behind you when you hold your arms in a "T" position. What you do then is hold the band slack in front of you with thumbs pointed in. As you pull your hands apart, rotate them so that your thumbs are pointing behind you by the time you've gotten to the point of reaching slightly behind you.


If you sit at a desk all day, check that you aren't slumping: shoulders rounded and head titled up. That is my number one problem and it wreaks havoc on my neck.

lots of time with your head down on your phone will do it too.

I hope this helps or if nothing else gives you something to think about. I got this info from a guy who's a professional trainer and a physical therapist. he says, when you have pain in a joint look above and below for things that are out of balance, so for a neck it would be head (position is about all you can do there) and the shoulder girdle.

irridia wrote: »

krokador wrote: »

I'm frustrated. Physio appointment ended up actually helping with my neck to the point where it was only uncomfortable and not painful anymore this morning. That is, until I started doing depth broad jumps. He was right. My neck muscles are too weak and whenever I have to stabilize a lot, especially with explosive movements, then whatever's been hurt has to fire again and goes into spasm. So I'll have to do my strengthening exercise(s), and stretches, like an adult. And stay away from anything high impact for the time being

The thing is, with it hurting when I try to strengthen it, it makes it very uncomfortable to try and train it, and I'm sure my babying it for a month and a half has also contributed to the weakness.

So I have some questions for you.. (I also have some crazy neck problems)
Are you a desk jockey?
What's your posture like?
Are your shoulder's rounded?

[...]

Thanks for chiming in on that Yeah, I do work at a desk and have grown up with a severe forward shoulder lean, which has been slowly getting better as I started training. It's still a work in progress, but since the shoulder injury I haven't gone a workout without at least properly warming up my rotator cuffs and t-spine area (and probably not a day recently where I don't lay down on the roller for that, as my upper back gets incredibly sore at the end of the day. You should hear the cracking I get just out of bending forward and letting my upper body hang. I'm like a walking freak show in the regard).

Problem with my neck was very likely derivated from those issues, but not directly caused by them. Both my scalene and levator scapulae were in almost constant spasm for the better part of, what, like 2 months? I'm not convinced there wasn't an actual injury somewhere in my trap that they were trying to compensate for (came on after doing a lot of oly lifting, dropping the bar and catching it at thigh levels was really awful on it).

I tried a LOT of stuff on my own, and what gave me the most relief at first was the kelly starret scalene lax ball release trick I posted about either a few pages back here, or in the november thread, and using the stupid prone head tuck and hold to strengthen the front of my neck while at the same time stopping all sorts of impact that could cause it to go back into spasm. I've stopped doing it the past few days thanks to the holiday craziness tho, so thanks for the reminder. xD

I like Jeff, and Bob and Brad, the "2 most famous physical therapist on the internet", I don't know if you've heard of them? They tend to cater to a slightly older demographic, they are cheesy as hell, but I've learned a few good stretches from them! Also recently found a mobility expert who's a little less annoying/aggravating than Kstar (maybe you'll like him a bit better, @canadianlbs haha xD), SmashweRx, and I'm about to go try his latest rounded shoulder and groin pull tricks today. If it works, I'm stopping at the hardware store on the way home and getting myself a dang PVC pipe, lol.

That is, after I squat. Hoping for a top triple of 180 today. But I'm still feeling all ooey gooey from that stupid 2DB complex (I think I forgot to write about it on wednesday, oops? I made it through 4 rounds with 90s rest, 2x25lbs. The lunges were atrocious), so we'll have to see where my mileage takes me.

I think a part of my new year's resolution is going to have a "prehab" routine I perform at least every other day, written on a board or a piece of paper, so I don't stupidly say "I forgot about it" because I don't feel like digging into all the ressources I have on it and putting one together and doing it. Mostly it's the doing it part xD

Happy to report I survived squat day, even though I didn't quite hit the number I was hoping for. My entire left side is feeling a little wonky today, in a "not quite in the socket" type of way. My hip was so stiff at the start of the workout it didn't really matter, but my shoulder did bother me a bit on squats to where I wasn't able to properly lock it in. Didn't hurt, just uncomfortable in an unsettling, clicky fashion. So I didn't force anything with it.

Squats 45x5/5 (I like to do 5 slow to let my hips warm-ups, then 5 fast ones to remind them of explosiveness, then I usually tack on 10 good mornings and 15 calf raises to rounds it out before I get into the meat of it)
65x5, 85x5, 105x3, 120x3, 135x3, 155x3, 165x3, 175x3 - top set felt like death, but the video I have of it I seem to go back up relatively fast. I may have had 180 in me. Maybe. we'll never know. Then 3 sets of 5 @125 to finish is off. The hunger was strong with those O_o

In between sets I was doing hang power snatches. 65x5 twice, 70x3/4/4, 75x3 and 85x1, then a floor power snatch @ 85, and a back off set of 8 high hang muscle snatches @ 35. Just working that good groove I found today.

Moved on to my low incline DB presses and rows. 30x15, 35x10, 40x6, then I tried 45s, got 2 reps and my left shoulder kind of caved/misgrooved, and there was no saving that rep without hurting something, so I figured I was done. Did a set of 15 with 20lbs one side at a time, then an extra 8 on the left just to keep working that motor pattern.

I then did 15 minutes on an old old stair-stepper like machine that didn't even have HR handles... not a fan. My stride length is so different on both sides I was a wobbly mess when I wasn't holding on. Hey, I sweat. I'm kind of hoping that forcing myself to use the machines instead of avoiding them will eventually correct that odd pattern I got? Maybe I'm just making it worse.

I then found an ab crunch machine that wasn't used (so many people there!) and did 75lbx x12, 80lbs x10, 80lbs x6, 45x10, and finished with some of those PVC pipe mobilizations and OMG those were targetting EXACTLY where that upper back tightness usually settles. So yep, buying a PVC pipe is on my todo list now.

^^^ if it was hsu, i may have seen it. my acquaintance with him stems from back then and research into exactly that. he seems to have an fai fix to peddle, which doesn't invalidate him for me but it does mean i see him as a bit more of a niche practitioner than when i first came across him.

idk. i'm having a day of 'tired of being poked and prodded and all the guessing' right now. gonna go do controlled face plants with my brand new theraband tape for a while and pretend none of it's happening.

my abductions are up to four pounds, for whatever that's worth. and i guess i'm . . . what? not even four weeks in yet. so at least that's on track for the goal of being able to handle eight pounds.

i did two - count them TWO - air squats yesterday just to try out my new improved muscle mass on that side, and that's why i'm so churlish and surly today. all the same old stuff hurts.

minor check-in just so i don't dismiss even the crumbs of stuff that i'm doing, just on the basis that it's only crumbs.

i set up a resistance-band thing so i can do the full falls. twelve feet of heavy theraband stuff, looped round the cross-bar part of my futon frame and then over/under my shoulders like some kind of a toddler harness. it's not strong enough to hold all my weight, but it has made it at least so i can experience the motion of taking the fall all the way. i feel like a lot of this particular move is not a strength thing; there's also the sheer bodily bewilderment and reaction to doing something that nobody, in any stretch, could call 'functional'. this one is something you'd only ever be doing if you were doing this thing.

did them properly for the first time last night: 3x8 times. and maybe it's psychosomatic but somehow this morning i'm now ready to do them the same way without using the band. i still fall like a rock but at least i'm sort of kind of a bit in control, so there's that.

abductions still at four pounds. i'm fully able to do them by now; it's just that i still struggle like crazy to FIND my glute med. as opposed to glute min or tlf or who even knows what other muscles might be jumping in and doing it instead of the one that i'm trying to use.

i just checked date lines last night and got reminded by that that i only saw the doctor on december 12. so i guess i should cut myself and this process a little more slack, but i truly did think it had been a lot longer than that. i still have a little bit more than five weeks \o/