Sat Feb 18, 2017
BP
6x205
5x205
5x205
5x205

Incline BP
7x155
7x155
7x155
7x155

Pullups
8
7
7

Curls
3x10x30

Parallel bar leg raises
10,12, 12

Push-ups
15, 15, 15

Sun Feb 19, 2017

Crossfit class. I'm very unconditioned given I haven't been able to work out properly on my knee. Did light power snatches at 95# today. First time since hurting my knee. Did not feel good.

Mon Feb 20, 2017

Push Jerk
10x135
8x155
4x175
4x185

20 min metcon .. DB snatches, box jumps, wall balls

Things finally felt pretty good on my knee. Moving in the right direction. Push jerk weight wasn't even that light for me.

Wed Feb 22, 2017

Bootcamp class with work. One million reps with light-ish DBs. Grip is smoked.

Long break in logging. It's been a strange a few months.

For the end of Feb and March, my knee felt better enough to attempt the Crossfit Open workouts. The Crossfit Open is 5 workouts, released 5 consecutive weekends, that anyone can do so individuals can see how they stack up against each other -- details here for the curious: https://games.crossfit.com/workouts/open/2017. I was generally happy enough with my effort, which resulted in somewhere in the 50-60th percentile of men who participated.

After that life got busy: I moved so ended my Crossfit gym membership; I went on vacation; my wife and I are getting ready for our first child in a month. I worked out 4-5 times a week throughout doing a hodgepodge of things.

I was back to doing most of what I was doing before I hurt my knee. There was occasional pain and discomfort (maybe up to 4/10), but only a few things I really couldn't do (e.g. 100% flexion of the knee, as in a standing quad stretch). Running on it felt funny, though not necessarily painful. Oly and squatting gave a pinching sensation in the knee -- again not too painful, but definitely not normal.

I went to see a PT to try to get back to 100%. They had me get an MRI. MRI showed two small meniscus tears and a partial ACL tear. Went to an orthopedic surgeon whose advice was to try the PT for a month and reassess to decide if I should get surgery or not.

So that's the current plan. I'm going to see another orthopedist as well for a second opinion. I'm also going to stop anything high impact on the knee in the meantime (so no crossfit, running, jumping, oly, squats below parallel...) to give it a proper chance to heal.

I'm working on a lifting/workout plan while I heal up. Suggestions are welcome. Maybe it's a good opportunity to get my bench, deadlift, and pullup strength up and do a bit of bodybuilding...

Here's what I did today:

Tue Mar 2, 2017
Box squats
10x185
3x10x225

RDL
10x135
3x10x185

Back-rack front lunges
3x10x135 (5 L / 5 R)

Leg extension machine
3x15x70

Hanging L raises
3x12

Congrats on your future baby!

I don't have any suggestions on programming, but you might want to check out freddbird's log for a program on improving pull-ups. It seems to be doing wonders for him.

Congrats on the upcoming dadding! Knee news sucks though... hopefully PT solves it.

Thanks guys! Obv excitement of kid outweighs sadness of knee sitch, so that's good.

Need to get back in the swing of logging. Should hopefully help keep me accountable and making progress towards something.

May 4
BP
8x185
6x205
5x215
3x225

Pullups
10, 8, 7

Dips
15, 15, 13

OHP
8x95
6x115
1x135
5x115

4 rounds (45sec work, 45sec rest)
KB swings @ 53
Pushups
Russian twist @ 16

May 6
BP
3x8x185

Pullups
3x8

OHP
2x5x120
7x120

Box Squats
3x10x225

May 7
Deadlift
3x5x325

Step-ups 24" KB in front rack
3x10x53 right
3x10x53 left

Chinups
3x10

May 8
BP
2x5x215
6x215
6x185 (no rest)

BO row
3x8x135

5x
500m row
3:50 rest

Splits:
1:41 to 1:47

May 9

5 rounds
500m row
20 DB snatch @ 50#
20 pushup
7 pullup

(Performed this workout after 3 IPAs -- proud of that! Took 32 min.)

May 10
45 min spin

May 12
10-9-8-7-6
Box step ups 24" @ 53#
Pullups
DB bench Press @ 75#

22 min

Mon May 15, 2017

Pause box front squat (1 count)
7x185
7x195
2x7x205

DB seated OHP
3x6x55

Tempo pullups (3-3-3-3)
5, 5, 5

Close grip BP
3x8x185

Bench leg raises
3x12

Tue May 16, 2017

Deadlift
5x275
5x275
8x275
8x275
8x275

OHP
5x120
5x120
5x120

Push Press
5x135
5x155

Congrats Hug on your incoming bubba

Thanks Rexx!

Thu May 18, 2017
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps of:
DB Deadlift @ 75
DB Bench @ 75
DB power clean @ 50

Modified version of a well-known crossfit workout. Took me 22 min. I was short on time and wanted something fun and sweaty. Did the job.

Fri May 19, 2017
PT warm-up
Banded squats
Banded monster walk
Banded clamshell
Bad dog

Box squats (1 count pause)
4x6x265

RDL
10x135
3x10x185

Pullups
7x20
7x20
6x20

Dips
3x11x20

First time trying decently heavy box squats. On my first set, I noticed a tendency to roll the weight forward onto my toes. It seemed related to possibly trying to generate forward momentum off pause on the box.

I read this article after the workout: https://www.t-nation.com/training/ba...-vs-box-squats . "Of course, there's a tendency in all box squatters, not just novices, to relax the lower back and rock back on the box. This is a major no-no and an injury risk. I've found that unless constantly monitored, nearly 100% of new box squatters will relax their core and back once they touch down and often roll their pelvis posteriorly." I'm not sure if I was doing that, but perhaps that's why I then pushed forward off the box.

Either way, for sets 2-4 I was conscious of trying to keep weight in heels and push straight up. It was harder this way and felt more appropriate.


Sat May 20, 2017
BP
5x185
5x225 (PR)
5x215
5x215

Bulgarian Split Squat
3x8x135

Short session. Unexpected rep PR on bench. My butt did come off the bench on at least rep 5 and possibly 4 but giving myself the PR. Pretty happy with this -- 5x225 has been a long-time goal. Glad I'm making some use of the kneehab in other areas.

Sun May 21, 2017

PT warmup

DL
3x275
3x315
3x345
3x345
3x345

Incline BP
4x7x165

Band pull aparts
4x10

Fine. Would like to be getting a bit more volume in, but with the ~15 minutes of PT exercises to start this still took me an hour.

I can definitely still be achieving more tightness during DLs. I'll get a vid up soon.

Mon May 22, 2017

PT warm-up

Leg extension (5 sec one-legged negative)
15x50 right
15x50 left

Leg press (tempo 1-1-1-1)
20x160 left
20x160 right

DB bench
10x80
10x80
9x80
8x80

Pullups
8, 8, 8, 8

Single arm KB bottom-up press
3x5x26

Band Pull-aparts
10, 10, 10

Leg extension and leg press machines are part of my PT. My muscles burn like crazy on the super slow negatives on the leg extension. I did both legs because it felt like I should maintain balance.

The tempo PT work is inspiring me to do more work focusing on control and stability and addressing structural imbalances, hence benching with DBs and messing around with the bottom-up KB press. I liked it.


Tues May 23, 2017
45 min spin

Thu May 25, 2017

PT

HBBS
3x5x265

OHP
2x5x125
7x125

Pullups
10, 9, 7

Dips
13, 13, 14

Squats - meh. First time trying in awhile without a box. Felt just ok. I need to get a set on video to make sure I'm not too imbalanced. I've definitely lost some mobility. And I'm having a harder time using the stretch reflex since I'm trying to cut depth a bit per doctor's recommendation to stay at parallel. All that said, none of the reps were TOO hard, I haven't been squatting all that much since my injury 5 months ago, and this is ~90% of my 5RM, so I can't be too upset.

Everything else was standard.

Fri May 26, 2017

DB BP
3x13x75

DB bentover row
3x15x75

10 min EMOM
Odd: 15 cal row
Even: 12 KB swings @ 53

DB bench and row felt easy. Unfort 75s are the heaviest DBs at my office gym, which is what I was for convenience's sake once/week or so. I'll add in heavier DB work when I go to the real gym.

The short conditioning piece was tough. I'm in bad shape. Not enough conditioning since I shut things down for my knee 1.5 months ago.

Sat May 26, 2017

BP
4x225
5x215
5x215

Bulgarian split squat
3x8x135

Chinups
3x6x45

Body starting to feel a little beat up. Some combo of increased volume and getting old I imagine. Will continue paying more attention to body maintenance.

Mon May 29, 2017

Crossfit workout - Murph

1 mile run
100 pullups
200 pushups
300 air squats
1 mile run

pullups/pushups/squats can be partitioned as desired.

I kipped the pullups. I did not wear a 20# weight vest which is suggested. Took me 40:19. I love this workout. Great conditioning work, and decent result for me considering I haven't been doing a ton. Rest yesterday helped I'm sure.

Knee felt great during the air squats; felt a little funky during the runs. This is the 1 month mark of my starting PT, which is when we discussed reassessing how it was going, so my PT approved this workout as a test. Doesn't feel much different to me than it did before PT.

Tue Mar 30, 2017

Incline BP
4x185
5x175
5x175
5x175
5x175

DL
5x315
5x345

Fine. Lats smoked from yesterday. Deadlift weight goes up easily but still need to get my back straighter.

For not the first time, I'm going to try to diet. I'm happy with my weight (I've been hovering around 175 for a long time) but I want to look better. I believe the main culprit is beer. So I will try to make the adult decision to drink more scotch instead.

First step is going to be to log so I actually know what I'm eating. For now, anyway, I'm going to do my best eyeballing pre-entered foods on MFP and ballparking serving sizes. Here's today:
Breakfast:
Latte, Greek yogurt, granola
537 cals: 50g carb / 20g fat /42g protein

Lunch:
Grilled chicken breast w/ sauteed broccoli
393 cals: 20g carb / 16g fat / 52g protein

Snacks:
Latte, PB sandwich
447 cal: 38g carb / 27g fat / 20g protein

Dinner:
8oz Burger patty w/ cheese, creamed spinach, mashed potatoes
1,016 cals: 47g carb / 64g fat / 69g protein

Totals: 2,393 cal: 155g carb / 127g fat / 183g protein

Seems ok overall and the act of logging prevented me from drinking an IPA with dinner. I could probably decrease the fat a bit and increase carbs.

Wed May 31, 2017
Kettlebell conditioning workout w/ a friend

Sat Jun 3, 2017
Park workout w/ friends

Sun Jun 4, 2017

Pause HBBS (2 count)
5x225
5x245
5x245
5x245

BP
7x205
6x205
6x205
6x205

20 min EMOM:
A. 20 KB DL @ 2x70#
B. 20 KB push Press @ 44# (10L / 10R)
C. 20 cal row
D. Rest

Here's the first set of 5x245 pause squats:

Mon Jun 5, 2017

Front Squat
10x135
10x185

20 min EMOM:
A: 20 KB swing @ 53#
B: 20 DB snatch @ 50#
C: 20 pushups
D: 20 box jumps @ 20"
E: rest

3 rounds:
Plank
Russian Twist
Curls

Decent sweat and pump. Was with a couple buddies. Was fun.

Tue Jun 6, 2017

DL
3x275
3x315
3x345
3x345
3x345
3x345

BP
5x215
5x215
6x215

Chins
5x50
5x50
4x50

Cable Tricep pushdowns (rope)
10x80
12x70
12x70


Fine. Bench feeling pretty strong; think I had a 7th rep on last set but spotter came in a bit early.

Playing around with throwing in some more hypertrophy-focused accessories, hence the tricep pushdowns. Meh.

Thu Jun 8, 2017

PT warmup

Crossfit workout: "Helton"
3 rounds
800m run
30 DB squat cleans @ 50#
30 burpees

Took me 41 min. Wanted to sweat. I like this workout. The DB squat clean is a super awkward movement, and this is pretty heavy for me. Most of the workout was spent resting during the clean sets. Was testing out how the knee would feel with the running and cleans. Didn't feel great, so seems like PT hasn't done a whole lot so far.

Sat Jun 10, 2017

BP
1x235
1x255 video: https://youtu.be/27L93xG70tE
1x270 (PR)
video: https://youtu.be/CJFDE_OIPTY

5x225
5x215


3 rounds:
25 pullups (kipping)
20 front rack lunges @ 75#
25 pushups
20 front rack lunges @ 75#

Wearing 20# vest

Took 23 min. This is half of a crossfit workout called Pat. I wasn't moving very fast, just wanted to get some work in and sweat which I accomplished.

I find that I gravitate towards Crossfit-style workouts. I just find them the most fun and get the biggest endorphin kick from them. I think when the baby comes (next week!!) Crossfit will be a pretty efficient way to get my fitness in for awhile assuming my knee holds up. I realize it's not the most fun thing to read about on these boards so we'll see if I log them or not . I'd love to keep making progress on my lifts too but I think for now the goal just has to be to get some exercise in where and when I can.

Sun Jun 11, 2017

HBBS
3x5x255

RDL
10x135
10x185
3x10x205


OHP
5x95
5x115
5x125
5x125
6x125

Was a bit of a test on squats to see how the knee held up. Felt ok, but video shows significant imbalance. Stinks. Doesn't seem like PT is fixing this thing.

2 videos below -- the first is the second set from tonight, the second is from 9 months ago (pre-injury). I obviously had some imbalances then as well, which should be addressed regardless, but they look worse to me in today's video:

Set 2 tonight -- 5x255


5x275 from Sep '16

Doesn't look terrible -- it may just be the angle, but it seems like your left foot is out wider from your midline than your right, which if true could be part of the imbalance?