Good session, feel strong on the front squatting...
AM
PM
Continuing to rebound, with flat benching being the only laggard at this point....juuuust missed 280 today....Tried upping weight on those hammer-grip front raises, didn't feel comfortable though.
AM
PM
No treadmill today, got other stuff to do in the afternoon
Good session, didn't get higher on DL'ing then. Incline benching is moving right along, hopefully get 260 or something next week. The OH carries went decent, the pressure on the shoulder makes them a bit uncomfortable still...
AM
PM
Benching is the one area I'm still a bit behind on, although 270 was pretty easy here. Oddly, I think I injured my shoulder incline benching, but now it's fine when doing that. It's flat benching where it hurts still....We shall see. Also, adding in some front raises here to try and build up the anterior delts and maybe help stabilize the shoulder a bit more. I'm using a hammer-grip on them, which seems to make it easier on the rotator...
AM
PM
I find that going with a wider-grip when front squatting relieves the pressure on my shoulder, along with carrying the bar pressed really hard against my throat. Strength-wise I appear to be back where I was, which is reassuring; I was afraid it would take a 6 weeks or something, but I appear to be rebounding rapidly here.
AM
Windchill was around 0 here...I wanted to go just to see if I could do it...bundled up, doubled gloved...and it wasn't so bad actually with all the layers. Couldn't go fast, but the extreme low temperatures kept me from overheating, which happens if I layer up and it's like 35 out.
I was flying on the treadmill...could've done 3 or 4 miles probably if I wanted to
AM
Seems like strength is coming back fast...going to add some reps to the sets next week and see how that goes. I barely missed 255 on incline benching...I'll feel better once I get that again because I'll be within shouting distance of where I was before this shoulder thing. Overall shoulder felt fairly decent throughout this one. I'm still doing tons of mobility stuff between sets. I can tell it's irritated, but it's not uber-distracting...
Track is pretty well covered with snow...did some sprinting via the treadmill. It can't go as fast as I need it to for 100M type stuff, so just did sustained 10MPH intervals..was actually kind of fun.
Getting back into milling...shoulder isn't too sore today, day after upper body workout...
Working back in....this wasn't too bad...on the top of each bench rep I let my shoulder blades come forward at the top of the rep and then retract as I bring the bar down. Doing this, my shoulder was barely even sore. I'm hesitating a bit after unracking, which I guess is natural given the recent pain. Missed on 270 largely because of that..I tried guillotine pressing again, that is a definite no-go for now, super-irritating to the shoulder.
AM
PM
Absolutely crushed the front squats here...I think this is another one where my lower back being sore had been holding me back...The front squats aren't super comfortable for the shoulder, but if I put the bar further back and really dig into my throat on it, they felt much better.
AM
Still have a ton of energy today...good sign. Shoulder isn't too sore after working out either. It's not 100%, but it's not like ragingly painful either
AM
PM
Wow...ok...it doesn't feel like I really lost any strength at all. Or maybe losses to peak strength were outweighed by tightness, muscle pulls, strains, etc. healing over the past week. On deadlifting my lower right back felt completely fine, and that let me absolutely tear the weight off the floor. I'm not going to say I could've cleaned 315, but it was pulled so rapidly I could've done a half-ass upright row. I didn't push anything here in terms of weights, on any of the exercises, this was more about feeling things out. Strength certainly feels like it actually ticked up a bit. I always wondered how people that took time off came back stronger after a week away...I get it now, they're so exhausted that they feel rejuvenated when returning. The only place I appear to have lost any strength is on the incline benching, and I assume flat-benching will be down as well. That's disappointing since I was having fun setting home-gym records and thought I had a chance at a 315 bench press by the end of this bulk. My goal now is to get back to where I was pre-injury by the time this bulk is over. Not sure if that's feasible though, given my shoulder doesn't feel like it's going to be supporting the volume (triples on lower-weight sets) that I was doing before, and I would not be surprised if it takes a month or two to feel back to normal. Still, everything else seems to be going well, so we shall see.
That week off felt great actually...I did not realize how tired I was. I did a ton of mobility stuff on my shoulder as well, and it feels better. Not 100% yet, but enough to where I can use it without making things worse, and slowly heal. Curious to see how much strength I lost with the off-time...guess we shall see.
I think I'm going to take a week off. I just feel worn out. Not just the shoulder, but in general I feel flat. Even when I'm putting up good weight, things still feel forced. Ironically, this does not include benching where the weight has been flying, but now the shoulder is hurt. I thought I took a few days off at the start of this bulk, but apparently not. Other than the week off to visit California in June I haven't taken two days off in a row the rest of the year. Plus, when I look back I haven't really taken a full week of rest where I'm home, and still eating well, in probably....10 years? My left elbow has felt stiff, the right shoulder is...hopefully not torn, but still painful. My lower right back is stiff/tight. I'm tired in general. So I think I'm going to take a week off, no workouts. Starting with Saturday. I'm still going to eat a bulking diet, and see how I feel at the end of that. Probably do some stretching for the shoulder too, hopefully get that back to normal as well.
The workout here was ok, but I'm being tentative on benching since it really hurts my shoulder if I'm not careful. That is NO way to power through a rep, and it's costing me reps.
AM
PM
The workout here was fine...I did squats since the front squats irritate the heck out of the shoulder. Also did lumberjack squats, as a test with 135. I forgot how much I enjoy them. On the wide-grip romanian deadlifts I did two sets of 10 since I'm thinking of taking a few days off, so since I'll be resting anyway I wanted to empty the tank.
AM
PM
