Squatting felt fine but the pain afterwards, FFS...
I saw a doctor about the hip/leg/nerve -pain on Monday. He did a bunch of mobility tests and apparently internal (or external, I honestly don't remember which, have to ask the doc again) hip rotation is slightly limited.
He also poked different spots around my lumbar spine and there may be some weirdament going on with the joints(?) around L4-L5-area. (Not sure about this either, have to ask specifics next time).
Additionally, I had my lumbar spine x-rayd today and some blood tests done, the doc should phone me tomorrow about the results.
Planks
3 x 70s
I should probably start doing these weighted soon. Or advance to rollouts or something.
Meh, nothing out of ordinary in the x-rays / blood tests.
The workplace doc advised me to see a physiatrist next but goddamn, it'd take ~2 months to get an appointment with one through the free health care of my workplace...
**** that, not gonna wait for 2 months to get an appointment for free - time to reach into my pockets I guess.
E: All righty, got an appointment with a physiatrist on next Monday.
Thanks for stopping by and a great quote you've got there.
No, I haven't completely given up or anything, just haven't had much to log lately.
I had my lumbar spine MRI'd and it turned out that I have a somewhat sizeable central prolapse at L4-5.
So, I'm banned from squatting and deadlifting, for now.
I'm really hoping that I can dodge a surgery, but I dunno. The physiatrist I've been seeing is very optimistic, though. I'm seeing a physiotherapist 2 times/week but tbh I'm not too sure how productive that really is. Well, we'll see.
As far as exercising goes, I have been doing some random upper body workouts, just haven't bothered to log them.
Seeing that I cant't really progress w my original goal, "Get strong" w/o squatting and deadlifting, I think I might just as well use my time to get leaner for all the two weeks sun shines and you can go shirtless in this godforsaken country.
So, starting next week, diet and exercise -plan is as follows:
- 25% calorie deficit (prolly try eating IF-style)
- Get back hitting the gym regularily, 3x/week, basically forced to be a bro / do just upperbody stuff.
Dunno how realistic this is but despite of eating at a deficit, at least for starters I try to achieve some micro-gains, like adding 0.25kg-1kg between workouts or something.
But if I can just maintain (or only lose a tiny bit) my workset-weights (mainly w press and bench), that's just fine, too.
Dunno yet how long I'll eat at a deficit but for a few weeks at least. Depends on how I look in the mirror I guess.
Once I get my BF-% somewat low (and my low back better) I'll continue w my original goal, although probably eating at a less aggressive surplus, to minimize lard-gains.
1.8 kg (4 lb) lost in 2 weeks, 100% lard, 0% muscle...
I guesstimated my calories out to average around 2350 kcals so to achieve 25% avg deficit I've been eating around 1900 kcals on training days and 1600 kcals on rest days.
I've been trying to follow Leangains ie. kept protein high every day and favored fat on restdays and carbs on trainning days.
I'll prolly keep cutting 3-5 more weeks and then start bulking again (fingers crossed that I'll be able to squat/DL again then!)
As far as rehabbing my low back goes, I've continued (and plan to do so for a few more weeks) going through physiotherapy but unfortunately that doesn't seem to do much. Don't really know what to do next.
I went from 140 lb to 155-156 lb in first 3-4 months of doing SS/GSLP.
The added bodyweight was probably 50/50 muscle/fat, which, for someone severly fat-fobic like me, isn't too good of a ratio.
Anyway, I prolly woulda just disregarded it for now and kept going at it but in March my back started to act up worse than ever and soon after I had it MRI'd and found out that I have a herniated disc at L4-5.
As a result my physiatrist banned me from squatting/deadlifting.
Not being able to squat/DL kinda kills the idea of bulking so a few weeks ago I figured that why not use my time to get rid of the (albeit small quantity but still) flab while rehabbing my back.
Longterm-goal is still to get out of skinnyville, just a bump in the road.
^Maintenance is obv an option but I dunno. I think I rather lose whatever X kgs of excessive fat I currently have now than that X + some more kgs later. Cutting sucks so bad that I rather keep cutting phases as short as possible.
Trying new things out, prolly gonna replace dips w this **** for now.
Plank
+14 kg (+31 lb)
3x30s
Also, tried working out in fasted state, didn't notice any difference really.
Anyways, now it's time to order some pizza and go watch Finland crush Russia in hockey.