9/10

bench press
45*15*2, 135*8, 185*5, 225*5, 255*5
strip sets - 225*3, 185*8, 135*10
The strip sets are where you remove weight and do the set immediately after the previous set with basically no rest.

blast strap rows (feet on box with pad on top ~14" elevation)
10, 8 (short rest before this set), 12 (long rest before this set)

dips
10, 10, 9
I like these. I'm paying close attention to how the shoulders feel during these, and they are doing well.

reverse grip pullups
7
I was going to replace curls with these, but they twisted my wrists in a way that I think could cause damage if I continue to do them. I cant get my hands narrow enough to make them feel good, so I'm done with these.

DB curls
50*6*2

pnfd2 - 25 lbs * 10 * 2

tall kneeling cable lift - 25lbs * 10 * 3

blast strap ab fallouts (handles 1" above floor, feet on box for 1st set, then on floor for 2nd & 3rd sets) 10*3
I moved the box back on the other side of the rack so my feet were farther back. This made the movement more stable, but I'm not ready for these yet - too hard to get a good ROM. Stretching out farther with the feet on the floor is better for now.

lat eqi - 15 lbs * 40 sec (abs fried again, so that made this harder than the flyes)
flye eqi - 15*45

Very good workout imo.

http://www.youtube.com/v/qlTz7LFrInI&hl=en_US&fs=1

This is good stuff. Thanks again for that link.

This is interesting to me now because the original trainer I had a year ago (several people here told me he didnt know wtf he was doing), had me doing all the things in this vid up to the point of front & side planks. He really was a good trainer.

The TRX fallouts shown in that vid are basically the same as the blast strap fallouts I'm doing now, but I have the handles lower, which makes them harder. It makes me feel good to know I can do those

I read that article about abs by Rip and it was interesting, but I think if he decided to think about what some of these other exercises do, like the progressions advocated by Mike R and elitefts, he might like some of those things better that his suggestion of the weighted situps in the 90 degree thingywhatever.

Yeah that's quite possible, guy's not stupid after all. I think he mostly doesn't care too much and believes doing the compound lifts are enough for most people.

I'm having a colonoscopy done this Friday. My dad died from colon cancer 21 years ago, so they recommended I get one done at age 40. After I had that one done, they told me to come back in 5 years. The worst part about this is the day and a half prior to the actual procedure - the cleaning out part. I'm probably going to lose several pounds because I cant eat anything for a couple days.

I figured with this coming up, I'm not going to do any hard workouts. I golfed 18 holes a couple days ago and did a couple small muscles shoulder exercises tonight. I'm not going to do anything that will make me sore prior to Friday. I hope to feel well enough to work out Saturday, and I'm also hoping not to lose too much strength.

I had ART done today and my chiro got my hamstring really good. He said I was getting the Adrian Peterson treatment - my chiro did the same thing on AP a few weeks ago and he's been feeling great since.

9/17

colonoscopy

I get to start drinking again at the doctors office and ate when I got home

Felt like I had DOMS and a hangover from the valium the rest of the day

Foam rolled before bed.

Weighed 223.6 when I woke up Saturday morning.

9/19

There was no way I was going to do any meaningful workout yesterday (after what I went through the past few days), so I waited until today.

DL
135*10, 225*8, 275*5, 315*5, 365*3, 405*5
The 1st 4 reps at 405 felt fairly easy. The last rep was hard, and I was spent for the rest of the workout - no energy at all.

chins
6 6

DB rows
50*10, 75*8

blast strap pushups
10 10

face pulls
75*10*2


lat eqi - 15 lbs * 40 sec
flye eqi - 15*40

Good to see you're back at it.

As a Bears fan, also glad to see you're a step closer to the title under your avatar. Can't stand #4....although I don't think we'll get to see a long, slow demise. Will be very quick. It'll go bad, and then be done.

Yeah, it will take more than a couple bad games to get rid of chilly, unfortunately, because they signed him to a long extension last year. I'm hoping we come around and play well the rest of this year. I think #4 is done after this year no matter what happens.

9/22

I'm back at close to full strength. I'll be trying some new things now. I'll be doing more max effort sets (at least with the bench) for the time being. I plan to still do DL, BP and squat as my primary exercises (one of those per workout), and I'll be changing up some of the accessory stuff depending on what I come up with that day.

I did this type of stuff way back when I could bench 300+ (~13-14 years ago), and it was effective at getting me strong. I decided this is what I want to do again after reading some stuff by Dorian Yates and some other stuff by Eric Cressey in the past few days. These workouts are not going to be what either of those guys suggest or do, but something that I'm putting together myself after getting certain ideas from both, along with a lot of the stuff I learned from Mike Robertson. I'll be doing a lot of additional accessory stuff that I learned from Mike recently to what I'm doing - so a lot of the same exercises as I've posted before will continue to appear, but there will be more variety, rather than structure, per workout.

bench press
45*15*2, 135*8, 185*5, 225*5, 245*3, 265*3, 265*4 - this last set was max effort/failure/etc. I barely got the last rep locked out. As long as my shoulders keep feeling good, I'm going to do that for my last set when I bench. Having a good spotter would be cool, but at least I have the safety bars in the rack for when I do fail to lock out my last rep.

When I got to my heaviest set of BPs, I started supersetting pulling stuff. I went back and forth between pulling and pushing exercises this whole workout (prior to the core work).

standing cable rows with straight bar, overhand grip
70*10, 105*10, 140*10, 170*10, 200*12

dips
10, 10, 10

palm forward grip pull ups (I tweaked my forearm near the elbow a few days ago doing neutral grip chins. this takes some of the stress off that area)
6, 6

flat db press
50*10

blast strap rows
8, 8

end of supersets

pnfd2 - 25 lbs * 10 * 2

tall kneeling cable lift - 25lbs * 10 * 3

blast strap ab fallouts (handles 1" above floor, feet on on floor)
10, 10, 9 - I held too long on some of these reps at the extension, so I ran out of gas at the end. I definitely got as good an ab workout as ever.

lat eqi - 15 lbs * 35 sec (abs fried again)
flye eqi - 15*40

SM - I was thinking about that vid you PM'd me while I was doing my dynamic warmups. I think I get most of the same effects from what I'm doing now, but I might work it in at some point in the future. Please post a link to that vid in your log.

Yeah I'll try it next time I go to the gym (Saturday, skipping today) and report back.

9/24

90 minute deep tissue massage

The reason this is noteworthy - my normal therapist was sick and the new gal called to tell me & said "I do deep tissue work"... I was thinking, yeah , I've heard that before, but I couldnt say no so I had her do it.

Holy ****! I've never been worked over so hard in my life. She worked me over more than my olympic heavyweight wrestler chiro. I was nearly in tears when she was sticking the elbow into my right calf. Afterward, I felt exhausted, like I had worked out lifting heavy weights when I was done, but my muscles were relaxed instead of tight.

She also tipped me off to a few things:

http://www.theracane.com/

^I ordered one of these last night.

She also suggested I try laying down flat on the floor and putting the lacrosse ball under each glute for 5 - 10 minutes, one at a time. I did this tonight before working out. The right one is the one my chiro works over most of the times I see him, so it was fairly loose already, but the left one - wow. I had to move around a bit to get it in the right place, but this really loosened me up good. Holding that ball for a long time right on the trigger point does wonders.

She also suggested doing a move similar to a supine scorpion from MM. I do these in bed in the morning frequently already.

9/25

squat
45*12, 135*8, 185*5, 225*5, 275*3, 315*3, 335*3 (wearing out but not finished yet), 315*3
1st time I've back squatted in a long time, partially due to the bulge behind my right knee which seems to have been caused by soft tissue issues in my hamstring and my calf. The chiro and the massage therapist both have helped that a lot. It feels fine right now, but the calf still need some work - its still got a bit of tightness in it. I think I like doing sets of 3 for the back squat. I'll probably continue that for now until I decide to do a heavy single.

RDL
45*10, 135*8, 225*5, 275*5, 315*6, 365*5, 405*5 (PR)
The glutes & hamstrings were feeling good, so I figured I'd do fine with 8 plates on my last set. It was kinda hard, but I feel good right now.

DB step ups
60*6, 70*6
getting tired now

pull throughs
125*12, 140*12

flye eqi - 15 lbs * 48 sec
lat eqi - 15*60

Do you usually do sets of 6 for the step-ups? And strong RDLs sir.

TR on that cane please, it looks gimmicky but given your therapist's otherwise sound advice/good massage I'm reserving judgement

Thanks for the comment.

yeah, I've been doing 5 or 6 reps for the step ups. I think Mike had me doing between 5 & 8. I generally do better with lower reps because I wear out quickly. As a side note, I don't know if I mentioned it before, but when I've been doing step ups & say 60*6, that's a 60lb DB in each hand.

I should be getting the cane Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll let you know what I think of it. It's worth noting that when I googled it, I found another, similar product (Body & Back Buddy) that got very good reviews on Amazon. The one I decided to buy got slightly better reviews, and its the name brand that the massage therapist suggested. Check out the Amazon reviews here:

http://www.amazon.com/Thera-Cane-JMA...owViewpoints=1

My legs were only slightly sore today, and I worked them over pretty good with hand held electric massager while watching the Vikings game, so they felt ready to do some more stuff today. I wasn't quite ready for DL day, so I did a core/KB swing/MB slam workout with some light pushing & pulling.

9/26

Typical rolling & dynamic warmups

blast strap rows
8, 10

blast strap pushups
12, 12

side plank cable rows
20 lb * 10, 30*10

tall kneeling cable push/pulls
25*12, 35*12

standing palloff presses
35*10, 45*10

pnfd2 - 25 lbs * 10 * 2

tall kneeling cable lift - 25lbs * 10 * 2

blast strap ab fallouts (handles 1" above floor, feet on on floor)
10, 10

flye eqi - 15 lbs * 60 sec
lat eqi - 15*45

KB swings
44*2, 62*2, 70*1
(walking on treadmill for 30 seconds at 2 mph between sets)

MB slams
15*5
(walking on treadmill for 30 seconds at 2 mph between sets)

KB swings
62*2, 70*2, 80*1
(walking on treadmill for 30 seconds at 2 mph between sets)

MB slams
15*5
(walking on treadmill for 30 seconds at 2 mph between sets)

uh, that was ****ing hard. 3 hours since working out my glutes & hamstrings are screaming. Part of that is probably DOMS from the stuff I did yesterday. I had planned to DL tomorrow, but I might have to put that on hold now

Since that massage, I feel like I have significantly more mobility in my hips. I need to keep on top of the soft tissue work. Its paying dividends, but I still have a ways to go.

When you did this did you keep your leg straight or did you externally rotate? I tried it tonight while lying in bed watching Mad Men and when I kept my leg straight I got nothing but when I externally rotated my leg it was like I hit the trigger point jackpot.

yeah, she suggested keeping the leg straight, but I had the same result as you. Today I've had a hard time getting up out of my chair. I think it has more to do with doing 10 sets of KB swings the day after heavy squats and RDLs than the ball.

Note to self - just because you dont feel DOMS yet 20 hours after a workout doesn't mean its not coming. This is brutal.

Sick RDLs. I have a pair of chains with a handle on them that I used in the past for pullups. May have to start incorporating them in for blast strap type stuff.

Yeah, the chains might work basically the same as blast straps. I like em.

That Thera Cane is awesome imo. I got it today and I'm able to get that spot behind my shoulder blades thats almost impossible to get with a foam roller or PVC pipe. I can kinda get it with a lacrosse ball, but this Thera Cane is way way better for that. You can use it on a whole bunch of spots all over your body, and it comes with a small manual with suggestions and some good info on trigger points.

I also bought one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ef=oss_product

It is pretty good for getting the forearms. It also works better than anything else I've ever tried for getting deep inside my hamstrings. Well worth the $8 imo.

I also bought this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/157...ef=oss_product

I haven't read much of it yet, but I think I'll learn a lot from it.


I think I overdid the lacrosse ball in the glute thing the other day - it seems to have loosened up something in my low back on the left side. Its nothing serious, but I think I might have to be careful doing that glute/lacrosse ball thing. This might be why the massage therapist suggested keeping the legs straight while doing it. I think it doesnt have to be a "big bang" type move that feels like its doing a lot.


I would have been ready to work out tonight, but had to attend my daughter's swim meet. I'll be ready to go tomorrow.

Thanks for the TR. Looks like I can get it on ebay for $60 including shipping, so I'll being doing that.

Stuff is expensive where you live.

I am loving this cane - not liking it, loving it. I have had the worst knots/adhesions/trigger points whatever you want to call them behind and around my shoulder blades for so many years, I dont know when I didnt have them. My chiro does ART on these areas every time I see him, which is about once every two weeks. It always helps, but its never completely gone. I think I had literally hundreds of these adhesions/trigger points around that area. I've spent quite a bit of time with the cane on that area the past couple days and its feeling better than ever.

I'm starting to read that trigger point book from a couple posts ago too. Its really good. I think that will end up being one of the best purchases I've ever made.

9/29
I had two titanium tubes put in my ears today. For the past couple years, I had been getting plastic ones put in and they kept falling out. The titanium ones are supposed to be permanent. They are shaped more for staying in, and the tissue is supposed to take hold of the titanium. My body was basically rejecting the plastic tubes. Hopefully these stay in forever. If anyone is interested why I have tubes, I'll post it.

So I'm just a little dizzy since I got the tubes in, so I figured it wouldn't be smart to do deadlifts or bench (or do anything else) to failure today.

Pushing & pulling stuff was supersetted again today

bench
45*15*2, 135*10, 185*5, 225*5
245*3, 265*3*3

standing cable rows
75*10, 125*10, 170*10, 200*10*2

dips (I got a dip belt, so I added weight to the 2nd & 3rd sets)
10, 8 + 10 lbs, 8 + 20 lbs

chins (palms facing each other, thumbless grip, weighted on 2nd set only)
6, 5 (+10 lbs), 6

end of supersets

no money with small band
10, 10

pnfd2 - 25 lbs * 10 * 2

tall kneeling cable lift - 25lbs * 10 * 3

blast strap ab fallouts (handles 1" above floor, feet on on floor)
10, 10

lat eqi - 15 lbs * 60 sec
flye eqi - 15*60

I'm interested

I've always had a problem with my ears and nose, and its allergy related. My nasal passages are almost always swollen a little, which makes it hard to breath through my nose. I've had two different surgeries to try to correct this and neither did much.

Every time I fly in a plane, my ears hurt like hell from the air pressure. Part of the problem (possibly the whole problem) is my eustation tubes swell in a similar way to my nasal passages. This makes it hard for the congestion to drain from my ears.

Picture this - put your finger over the hole on top of a straw in a drink and lift the straw out. The liquid stays in the straw until you move your finger. That's what was happening in my ears - the stuff that's supposed to drain into my throat stays in my ears. It creates a vacuum, which leads to pressure and pain, and when that stuff stays in there, I tend to get sick with sore throats and ear infections much easier.

When the tubes are in, I tend to feel healthier and breathe slightly better. When I fly and the tubes are in, I feel no ear pain. The only drawback is I need to wear ear plugs when I swim, which is not very frequently anyway.

9/30

blast strap rows
10 10 10

blast strap pushups
10 10 10

side plank rows
35*10*3 per side

cable push/pulls
35*12*3

paloff presses (I'm liking this exercise a lot)
45*10*3

no money with purple band (this one is helping with my winging out shoulder blades)
10*3

x-band walk
10*2 per side
I like this one - 1st time I've done more than one or two reps. I'm going to think about how I want to work this into my other stuff. I'll probably figure out some way to do it more frequently and have it be effective.

lat EQI
15*50

pec EQI
15*45

KB swings (8 per set with 30 secs of treadmill between sets)
44, 62*2, 70*2

MB slams (15 slams per set with 30 secs of treadmill between sets)
5 sets

Hey, I ordered one of these and it is awesome. I just wanted to say thanks for the rec. It's useful for several spots, but it would be worth it even if it only got that spot behind the shoulder blades.