Had to stay late at work; didn't have a ton of time here. Really felt the bench press, so that's good. Back to doing those unilateral T-Bar rows with the BB. Finished with some push press, but was pretty sore, didn't really rest much between sets. Didn't really lock out the 235. I stretched my hamstrings/posterior chain after this and went home. Man is that thing sore.
So the last few days I've been doing a ton of the first exercise you see in the video below. It hurts, feels like a pulling all the way down from my lower back to my foot, and I get the electrical shock feeling all the way down.
I've also been doing a lot of stretching for my hamstrings (sitting on the floor, reaching out my hands in front of me and putting them on the floor as far out as I can, etc. I've also been foam rolling my IT band, and piriformis, especially on the left side. The results? The tingling in my left foot has dissipated; when it comes it's lighter, and not as pervasive over my entire foot. The stabbing pain has also lessened in my calf and become less frequent. Oddly enough they both rarely occur at the same time now. I actually noticed it the morning after I started doing all this; usually when I get up in the morning the pain is unbearable in my calf and my foot tingles so much it goes numb. Both of those were reduced by about 50% the first morning after starting this regimen. So I'm keeping it up.
Was feeling good enough to try for some more progress on deadlifting; stretched a ton between sets. I'm noticing as I build weight back up my hamstrings are getting absolutely battered. I NEVER felt them this much when deadlifting before; I think maybe I wasn't getting very low before and my ass & back had to carry a majority of the lift. Now though, I'm being more careful through the lift, getting my hips low..and holy shit are my hamstrings getting annihilated. Good thing I'm stretching them more. So I got 405 pretty easily today; not as easy as I would've pre-Piriformisgate 2k12. I'll get back there though. So anyway, tried 415, felt about the same as 405, so I went for 425. Almost missed it, stepped back and then just pulled the hell out of the bar and locked that sucker out.
Was pretty pumped after the 425 pull, jumped to hanging power cleans, hips were done after a few sets there. Did some bulgarian split squats. I'm keeping the weight low as when I go high on them my form goes to shit and my knee is usually way out to the side, which can't be good for it. Going to stay low on the weight until I'm 100% sure I can keep good form on them. Plus it's fun to beat the hell out of my legs with higher reps which I never do. Also using these to open up my hips some more too. After this my legs were done so I tried some core work. Anti-Rotational chops really make the piriformis portion of the injury hurt, I can feel it tugging pretty bad. I'll keep doing them anyway. Finished with some box jumps! Haven't done jumping since the injury, felt good to get back into it, was sweating after, even if it was only onto the high box (about 24.5"). Was easily clearing it, could've done small + high, but wanted to ease back in .
Getting back into squats. I'd like to hit 400 again this bulking cycle that's coming up. Going to up the volume here significantly. My back is pretty much back to normal, except when I squat I can feel the pressure in it. Hopefully that dissipates. Getting back into the swing with the power snatches as well; want 150 before bulk begins, then we'll see how high I can get. Felt the nerve going down the back of my leg on the paloffs; anything that requires me to heavily engage my core, glutes, and hamstrings at once does it. Going to see if I can figure out what this is, and exercises/treatment for it. It's not nearly as bad as it was a month ago, but it's still vaguely annoying.
What I learned: I have some odd biomechanical stuff going on. Always have. Traditionally you're supposed to do things like snatches/cleans/etc. before doing things like deadlifting, squatting, etc. The logic is that the o-lifts will get your nervous system going, and also doing heavy lifting before the o-lifts will hurt your numbers in them. Of course when I try cleans for a few weeks before deadlifting I experience no benefit to the cleans as compared to doing them second. Plus my deadlift nose-dives. Same here for this; I wanted to try standing pressing first instead of incline benching. Didn't help them any, and killed my incline bench. So back to inclining first next week! Pullups went well.
So I tried something different here. I wanted to see how fast I could clock 1000m total. I figured 100s would be the quickest way to do this, since my recovery time between 200s is about 5 minutes. Got this done in 26 minutes. Still kind of shocked by that. I was doing 1300 in around 40 before, so I'm happy with this effort, very happy actually. I didn't mean to take the last couple days off, but I got a sinus infection on Sunday, had a 102 degree fever on Monday, and was still recovering Tuesday. My lungs were still burning here, and I can't breathe really, but I'm really wicked cool and awesome so I did the sprinting anyway.
Hanging Power Snatches: 95*3 135*3 150*X-hips tired 135*3
Unilateral Hip Extensions: 95*5 115*5 hips, hams, glutes, all fried
Back to squatting! Going to do more sets this coming week, just wanted to get back in the groove here. Felt good, months of box squatting seems to have helped get the pattern down. Hips were tired on the snatches. Tried unilateral hip extensions, everything was tired. My left leg hurt when it was out straight; I think I may have some mild sciatica left over from the deadlifting injury last month. If that's the case I can find some exercises/rehab stuff to do and hopefully get rid of the intermittent tingling in my left foot and pain in the left calf that also comes and goes.
Back in the swing. I think I'm going to start doing standing presses first here on this day. Doesn't make sense that I'm doing two forms of bench first off each week (flat bench on the other upper day). Also, tried ring pushups here....well first tried ring flyes, and face planted. Face planted a few times trying the pushups, then got the form down. Rough.
Kept this shorter,and honestly felt like I was a lot faster on account of that. Plus I need to reconnoiter my routine, deadlifting the day before sprinting is no good...and then 2 days later I squat? That's 3 leg workouts in 4 days. Going to switch deadlifting back to Mondays. Plus if I'm rowing on Mondays right now it ends up effecting my deadlift the next day since my lats are toasted.
Thought about going for 415 but decided against it. Since restarting deadlifting I noticed it's my hamstrings and glutes that are feeling the brunt of the lift. This isn't a bad thing; just different, used to be more my back & some glute. Did some split squats here as I want to start adding them in, but in a more high rep capacity to try and balance out any imbalances. Did some wall throws with a large medicine ball, I enjoyed it.
Oddly the only part where I feel like my back/piriformis is holding me back is the bench press; arching my back is still a tricky proposition. Also I think I have a new favorite back exercise. Stick one end of a barbell in a corner, like you were going to do a t-bar row. But instead of straddling it, stand to the side, and grip the bar with one hand, near the band in the knurling. Row it. You get a fuller range of motion since you're not straddling the bar. Loved it, lats were so sore the next couple days.
About 90% back to normal; back & hips are still a bit sore when doing the box squats, otherwise I feel fine, will start regular squatting again next week, we'll see how that goes!
Standing Press: 95*10 115*8 135*4-? not sure what happened there
Low Box - Medium Box - Broad Jump superset: 10
Bird-Dogs: 10, 10
Didn't sprint yesterday, track was soaked from storms. Not good times. Will go Sunday. Pullups were difficult today for some reason, not sure why. Felt like I had no strength at the top of them. We'll see what happens next week. Trying some higher rep stuff on shoulders with the standing press. Not sure why I only got 135 for 4, probably because I haven't done them in over a month. Hopefully I bounce back quick. Did a superset after all this of a jump over the low box, into a jump over the medium box, into a broad jump. My back was not happy about the landings when I was more flat footed, felt like my lower back was getting 'compressed'. Figured I wanted to get back to jumping though. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. Going to foam roll the heck out of my back tonight. Finished with bird-dogs, definitely felt lower back & piriformis stinging on them. Also, noted they now have a super-low box that's only about 3", have to put that to use when I stack boxes. Also...holy crap. Took these pics back at the end of August, never took them off my phone to check. I have no idea what it was about that day, but it looks like I have an extra serratus showing, and I don't think I've ever looked that cut before. I really wish I didn't have hips as wide as I do...otherwise, happy with these. Probably my favorite progress pics I've ever had.
DB Goblet Walk: 105*1:20 NEW PR!! 105*0:46-pecs cramping
Wide-Stance Anti-Rotational Chop: 60*10
I'm back. Well not quite, but still. I was wondering if I'd ever deadlift again about 5 weeks ago, right on the cusp of 400. Probably could've had 405 here but I wanted to save something for the cleans too since I haven't done them recently either. The deadlifting went great, I broke off the floor much easier than last week, no hilting or jittery reps either, these were smooth. I'm not going to go full-bore again for at least 2 or 3 more weeks, but I'm going to attempt over 400 again this coming week.
My back really felt fine this time, as did my hips. The calf didn't get weird either. I'm not sure if I mentioned that here, but if I'm on my feet for too long I get this weird stabbing/electrical shock type pain in one spot on my calf. I'm not sure if it's a pinched nerve or what. I'm going to give it another month or so to go away. It's annoying as hell though if I have to walk for a long distance, because the only way to get rid of it if it starts is by laying on my back.
Anyway, I was sufficiently pumped after deadlifting and the power cleans that I wanted to get a record on something, and I got it on the goblet carries. It's crazy how hard they get at the end when the bottom of the dumbbell is bouncing into your diaphragm and making it hard to breathe. Finished with the anti-rotational chops. I feel like the rotational work or stabilizing work I'm doing right now is the hardest on my back/piriformis; I can really feel it tweaking when I do that stuff.
I took Thursday & Friday off, Thursday because I was doing some canoeing on the Charles, and Friday because I had to finish moving stuff out of my old place. Back into it now, I expect no more delays, etc. Need to get back to eating normal too; been short on calories probably 5 out of the last 7 days. That's done. This session went ok, still a bit sore in the lower back from the deadlifting injury so arching my back is still not a 100% proposition here. Feels better than last week though; I expect in a few weeks I'll be back to normal. Need to get more chalk for rows & power lifting. A bit shaky on the push pressing..not sure why.
I liked this much better; I kept the 300, but took out one of the 200s and replaced it with a couple 100s. Next time I may cut out the 300, do 4 200s, and then 4 100s, or something, maybe even something shorter. As I said before I don't just do these for conditioning & fat loss, but for speed as well, and the 300 is a bit overkill.
