pics?

I'm on my iPhone but I'll give you guys pics tomorrow if I remember to suck up my pride and just post em, hahaha.

Part of the stamina increasing routine?

Practicing sprints

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I just finished a 1.5mi run in 11:19.

Words can't express how delighted and motivated that made me.

Off to ice bath legs, just stretched. Then lunch and continue my workout/lifts.

First day of new class schedule.

Lower stretch

Run:
-1/4 mi walk
-1/4 mi jog
-1.5 mi (11:19, PR [high intensity])
-1/4 mi walk
-1/4 mi jog

Lower stretch

Upper stretch

Pullups:
-1x3, 6x2
-1x5, 2 times (between squats, and between heel raises)

Lower lift:
-Squats 3x15 second knee pushouts holds (warmup), 2x12x45, 8x99, 2x6x111, 3x6x121
-Deadlifts 5x55, 5x65, 5x75, 5x99, 5x111, 5x121, 2x5x133
-Heel raises (with bar) 4x8x120

Calisthenics:
-5x20 pushups
-5x25 sit-ups

Core:
-2x25 blinders
-2x45" plank
-2x40" side plank (ea side)
-2x25 bird dogs
-3x8 supermans
-2x25 wipers

Weight: 216.2

Nutrition: 4650 calories, had a very nice breakfast, a tuna salad and some fruit and stuff for a lunch/snacks, 50g of protein in whey, and a nice chicken and noodle dinner. Some fruit and Greek yogurt (half a tub) eaten during the day.

Injuries: During the run shins were tight and slighty painful, but nowhere near as bad as they'd been in the past, and I was running sick fast today so I can decently conclude that with good stretches and ice baths I'll be ok so long as I stick to the mileage plan in the PST. Cold symptoms mainly gone, drank ~8gallons of water today so one would hope I flushed most of it out. Neck injury largely gone, which was cool because it inferred I was doing my lifts properly today. Waking around after workout in class I had no pain in shins. Still icing tonight. Some minor pain in left elbow/shoulder during pullups.

Sleep: 6.5

Notes: I had an awesome day, loving lifting in the gym in the morning/afternoon. I'm there 11:30-5 instead of late afternoon like before. A ton of athletes, it's not crowded at all, and I just have more pep after having a nice breakfast and stretch with no rush. The run was gonna be pace but my Nike gps was malfunctioning so I decided to do CHI instead and just do a 1.5mi for time, I was ecstatic to run that fast after all my splint and lack of fitness. I noiced that it wasn't my shins but my fitness holding me from pacing faster and that's an awesome sign. My next goal is a sub 11 by the end of July. Having a sub 11 with a sub 7 swim makes my scores competitive for a contract. But my goal is to get the best possible within the year I've allotted so I'm pumped but still motivated. Pushups were super hard today, maybe cos of lift order or extra day off and not doing push since Thursday, but I did the first 2x20 straight through, the last 3 I did like 12 straight then had to rest pushup position and go 3s and 2s till done. You can't ever drop during pushups in a PST which is why you try to do them straight if possible. My sit-ups are paced too slow, a part I think is I did it on track surface and normally use gravity hard on the way down on grass but didn't bc impact hurts. Goal is 25 sit-ups in :30 no rocking, full up, perfect form etc. That's a good pace to hold. Running again was amazing. Pumped to be back on the horse. Nervous for my long distance run and sprint runs, hopefully no more bad bad bad splints.

Tomorrow gonna foam roll and add bench and/or press to my upper lift. Talked to a seal mentor who said he recommends it for ocourse/log pt/itty boat pt.

My squat weight and deadlift weights are awful but I work my ass off at them and thanks to DF and rereading SS with regard to deadlifts/squats I think I can build quickly here. My goal is 10lbs/week. Hopefully squatting/deadlifting 200 by the end of august. Only bothering if I can do it with perfect form as it's very important that I have awesome form with my height and super long back/legs.

Deadlifts felt very good all the way through, was scraping shins so knew something was being done right; after both Dl and squat my glutes/hamstrings were like jelly, with some lower back and a ton of a core soreness. On squats on my last 2 reps of each set I noticed a disturbing buckle (if I recall inward) of my left knee. I forced myself to correct and drive with core the next two. Anyway to prevent this with form practice or is this just a product of too much weight?

It could be either, but most likely it's just a form issue. One of the first thing most lifters need to correct is really making sure to force the knees out as you come up. You can do some warm-ups without the bar where you tuck your elbows inside your knees and practice keeping them out on the way back up. Just be sure to make a conscious effort toward it on your early sets.

Awesome thanks. Yea this is what I meant by 3x15 knee pushouts. I did them today before squats but I need mote flexibility there so upping the reps will be a good idea (of the stretch).

^ yeah, this is right.

Also, the reason your knee is caving is because your hips/glutes are weak imo. Glute activation exercises like clamshells, supine bridges, side lying hip abductions & x-band walks will help.

Also, stuff like RDLs, pull throughs, KB swings, GHRs, reverse hypers (if you have access to one), etc. will all bring your glute strength up and strengthen your whole posterior chain. Note: none of these exercises should make your low back hurt if you are using good form.

sorry to hijack, but I have a quick GHR question: My lower back feels tight but doesnt hurt after doing GHRs. Do I likely have a form problem?

*I am definitely not an expert on GHRs - as a matter of fact, I've never done them on a GHR machine. I have read stuff about them. So if someone with more knowledge of this wants to correct me, please do.

I do know quite a few things about these types of movements and how they should affect your low back.

The tightness is probably your glutes pulling on your low back. I think that's probably normal. If it gets bothersome, roll your glutes with a lacrosse ball.

Again - assuming proper form, there should be no low back pain while doing any of those exercises. If there is pain in the low back, dont do them until you figure out how to do them properly.

7/7

Upper stretch

Upper lift:
-Pullups, 4x2, 7x1
-Weighted pushups, 12xBW, 10x25lb, 8x45lb, 5x6x65lb
-Superset (3x), Bench (12x100) Cable Row (12x80) Shoulder press (12x70, fail last rep 2nd set)

Sit-ups:
-5x25 (I held about 40-44 seconds for the whole set, needs to come down to high 30s if I want to eclipse 80/2:00)

Swim:
-7x500s (150free/150back/150CSS/50DAB)
-250 wd
3750 yards total

Weight: 218.0

Nutrition: 4140 cals, nice breakfast again, but had trouble finding time for a nice lunch. Have to workout 11:30-3:30 on days I have work at 5 (it's a 25 minute walk and I've gotta change/shower). So just snacked on pita hummus, carrots, fruit. After work my work gave me a gourmet brickoven meatball pizza, best pizza I've ever eaten. If you're in Boston/Medford check it out. http://www.pizzeriaposto.com/menus_106_326859017.pdf is their menu. Seriously amazing ****.

Sleep: 7 hrs

Injuries: Shin splints bothered me a bit walking around today, mainly in the morning. After work standing around all day I actually didn't feel them coming home. Necks all healed. Elbow and shoulder (just elbow today mainly), were again in pain which is why I cut pullups short. Taking day off for pullups tomorrow. I rolled my shins with my new lax ball today, felt very painful also not sure I'm doing it right. Cold symptoms coming back, mainly throat discomfort and dryness with some random mucus. Icing elbow and shins tonight with little massage. Had a tiny bit of tightness in right knee towards latter end of swim, think it came from loading my back with plates for pushups. I need to buy some more ice packs!

Notes: First day working today at fine dining brick oven pizzeria. Super nice people and all youngish, 20s. Awesome atmosphere as in employees all cool. I host for a month then become server for good money. Host helping me out today was super hot Brazilian chick first thing she asks me is how old she is and I was like I don't know 20-21. She was like nope, 17! And I was like ****ing ****. Anyway job requires me to stand and walk around entire time, I work 5-10 and it's a 2 mi walk there (I walk both ways). Needless to say when I got home I was exhausted, legs were pretty sore after gym and then that. I think cold had alot to do w/ that though, hoping all symptoms clear up with some more water. The upper lift felt hard today I felt much more tired than yesterday. Swim was ok, just long smooth grinding out yards. Wanna get up to 5kish for the distance workout by Aug. I need to budget my time smarter so I can maximize my efficiency at the gym. Also need to wakeup earlier to get breakfast done so I can try and knockout calisthenics before gym opens (gym opens at 11:30). Monday/Wednesday will be nice breaks with class at 6. Will be able to have more breaks with longer workouts. Gonna schedule my swim/run Long Slow Distance days there from now on. All in all I'm exhausted but feel like I really worked hard and had a good time working hard at my job.

7/8

Lower stretch, lax ball shin rolls

Run (INT):
-1/4 mile walk
-1/4 mile jog
-4x1/4 mile pace holds, goal 1:50 -went way too fast. (1:30, 1:42, 1:44, 1:40)
-1/4 walk/jog warmdown after each sprint
-1/4 mile walk
-1/4 mile jog
-3mi total (1mi run, 1mi jog, 1mi walk)

Lower stretch, lax ball shin rolls, shin massage

Upper stretch

Pullups:
-1x3, 4x2
-15 second knee pushouts between each set of pullups to warm up for squats.

Lower lift:
-Squats (2x10x45, 8x99, 6x111, 5x3x133)
-Deadlifts (2x10x55, 8x99, 6x111, 5x3x153)
-Standing heel raises (4x8x121)

Pushup/sit-ups:
-5x20 push
-5x25 sit

Core:
-2x25 blinders
-2x45" plank
-2x40" side plank ea side
-2x25 wipers

Swim:
-Rinseoff, relaxed 300-350 yards

Weight: 217.8

Nutrition: 4.25k calories, good breakfast, snacks and some food during workout, late subway Italian for dinner and a piece of pizza from work (really healthy pizza here).

Sleep: 6-6.5

Injuries: Shin splints were very very bad during morning run, even after lax ball roll. After my stretch, but mainly after my lax ball roll after my run, it felt much better. I know I dont have compartmental syndrome bc I wouldn't be able to hold paces at or around 6m/mile if I did from what I read. No real cold symptoms today. Elbow wasn't bad bc I only did 11 pullups and stopped just to get as much as I could in without pain to build some strength. Walked home from work in dress shoes and felt some pain in left ankle, similar to tightness after a sprain (but no pain) only hurts if I move it up or down, pain is at top of foot where it joins the leg. I had back tightness and soreness during DLs/squats so not increasing weight next week, and gonna do a high rep low weight set first to practice form.

Notes: Pushups were much easier today, presumably bc no upper lift except pullups and bc I'm getting them back to normal. Shins sucked obv but lax ball felt great. Gonna lax roll and so alot of SMR on Sunday and Sat if say off of work (dno yet.) work is exhausting, I workout now 11:30-4, run home, then walk to work in dress clothes, walk home. Realizing now that I'm only gonna get done at night if it's after class not work (cos I'll get to rest in class and wear relaxed clothing). Gonna make a super market run tomorrow and get salmon, tuna, more milk, nuts, avocados, etc. Pleased with my diet adjustments this month though, don't drink at all, no caffeine, don't drink anything but water, tons of fruit an nuts etc. Going to get a tub of powdered Gatorade tho bc I'm losing too much sodium/potassium during workouts w/ sweat, even with banana and snack food intake during workouts. I was bleh on form on my DLs and Squats though my glutes and hams were absolutely fried. My core killed my on the abs/sit-ups and it usually doesn't so I know I've been working it more with squats/dls. Tomorrow no pussy games, 30 pullups or broke whatever it takes. Have to do a swim and a run tomorrow bc its a short week, not a prob for fitness or swimming but splints will be tough. It's a 3mi pace run.