4/23

bench press
raw warm ups to 330x1

1 board
opener shirt
510x1

tight 58
575x1

off chest
610xf

I used tight elbow sleeves for everything except the last attempt. The left elbow was tolerable on everything except the rep without the elbow sleeve, and it felt a bit better after doing all this than it did prior to benching.

On the 610 descent, I was feeling tight, sharp pains shooting from my elbow into my triceps. It went slower than any press I have attempted in a long time, because I was trying to adjust the bar path around the pain, rather than pulling it down into a good position quickly. It not only used up all my energy, I touched way too low.

I talked to doc friend about this. He says I can take Tylenol prior to benching at the meet and that should be ok. I will do that.

chest supported plate loaded machine rows
2 plates per side x 10
3 plates per side x 10
4 plates per side x 10
5 plates per side x 10
6 plates per side x 10 - that was hard.

sled rows up to ~450 or 500 for a couple trips back and forth

face pulls


4/25

squats
160x5
250x5
340x3

I got my new Mendy/Juggernaut briefs. Holy ****, these are aggressive. I could not get to depth in them.
430x2 - lol half squats
520x1
610x1 - not heavy enough to get to depth

With a meet coming up soon, I did not want to **** around and attempt depth in the briefs alone with anything heavier, so I put on the suit, left the laces loose, and wore knee wraps.

700x1 - this was about 2 - 3" high. Sigh. The briefs pushed me forward & I did not sit back hard enough against them, so that didn't help.

750x1 - I got this down much better than the 700. I got down to almost depth. Teammate said I was 1" high. I handled this a lot better, but I am not used to handling this much weight, so I did not want to add any more just to try and get to depth now. I will use my old briefs for the upcoming meet, and I will try to break in the new ones and get used to them before nationals.

rack pulls - ~9" elevated with a straight bar
I didn't have a DL suit with me, so I did these in my new briefs and a squat suit.
546x3
656x3
746x1
836xf. I will not be using my squat suit to pull these again.


4/26

shoulder rehab stuff and pulling & core stuff

I wanted to do pushing stuff, but my elbow was not happy just doing pushups, so I stopped.

This elbow thing is weird. After talking to a few docs, it seems what has happened is that the elbow tendon and the bursa are both bruised. I dont think its a huge problem, but its annoying.

4/29

WDC silver dollar DL championship

This is pulling with a deadlift bar 9" higher than normal, so a lot of very big numbers got pulled. It was a lot of fun.

The contraption they used made the bar bend a lot, so I had to elevate my feet after my opener just to get it off the ground.

I pulled 800/870/940 and almost got 1000. The old world record was 860 for 50+ years old/115 kg body weight, so I beat that with my 2nd and 3rd attempts.

I won a cool trophy, which is a viking style dagger, for winning the masters division.

Former 7 time Worlds Strongest Man competitor Dave Ostlund was head judge. Nice guy, and he had an amazing career in strongman events.

https://rumble.com/v2ljcgu-800-lb-silver-dollar-dl.html

https://rumble.com/v2ljcug-940-lb-silver-dollar-dl.html

https://rumble.com/v2ljd28-1000-lb-s...r-dl-miss.html

https://rumble.com/v2ljd5c-1000-lb-s...ront-view.html

Congrats on the WR! The lifts look good.

4/30

bench press
55x15
145x10
195x5
235x3
285x2
330x1

size 58 black SDP (opener shirt)
2 boards
455x1

515x1 off chest

Both these went well. I took some Tylenol before to calm down the elbow pain and it did not bother me during or after lifting.

I did some light pulling after this.

Thanks!

Awesome!

Super awesome! Yeah buddaaaaaaaaay!

Thanks!

Thanks!

yeah budday!

Late to the party, but great work. I totally remember Dave Ostlund…pretty sure he is a born and raised Minnesotan, which explains his presence there.

I have been meaning to update my log for a while, but I wanted to get all my 5/6 meet videos in the post, and I had not had time to do that until today.

5/6

APF TCBB meet

661/512/650. ****.

My legs had been feeling like crap when I squat for a while, and my briefs are so loose, I am getting very little out of them, so I dropped my opener to 661 and kept the laces on my suit loose.

661 – This did not feel good, but I got 3 whites.
https://rumble.com/v2peonp-661-lb-squat.html

700 – missed at the bottom. This was weird. It didn’t feel good going down, but once I got the up command, I thought it was going to come up. I had nothing. More on this later.
https://rumble.com/v2peopn-700-lb-squat-miss.html

I figured I might as well try on my new, un-broken-in briefs and go for something a bit more substantial.

727 – missed it. I felt like I was going to get this until it got too far forward to correct. ****.
https://rumble.com/v2peoqf-727-lb-squat-miss.html

Bench press – I took Tylenol and Oxytocin prior to benching to fight the elbow pain. It worked fine.
512 – ugly but good
https://rumble.com/v2peor7-512-lb-bench-press.html

573 - missed – I probably did not get good leg drive, and I for sure could have used better bar path.
https://rumble.com/v2peorl-573-lb-bench-press-miss.html

573 - missed – Same ****. I probably did not get good leg drive, and I for sure could have used better bar path.
https://rumble.com/v2peosr-573-lb-be...ss-miss-2.html


DL
Warmups felt like ****.
606 – 3 white lights, no issues, aside from it felt like ****.
https://rumble.com/v2peotj-606-lb-deadlift.html

650 – slow, but good. Felt like ****.
https://rumble.com/v2peoup-650-lb-deadlift.html

672 – glued to the floor. Felt like ****.
https://rumble.com/v2peovh-672-lb-deadlift-miss.html


This was disappointing. I finished in 6th and could have easily taken 2nd or 3rd if I had a decent day. I would have taken 3rd if I had got the 727 squat and 573 bench, both of which could have happened if I had been better that day. I did qualify for nationals at least, which was my main goal.

I figured out since meet day that the baker’s cyst I have had on my right knee was causing all kinds of issues. I did not really have knee pain, but one of my teammates said to me during the meet, “I don’t know what’s going on with your right knee, but its not good.” She was correct.

The cyst blew up a few weeks ago, causing fluid to go all over the knee area, not just in the cyst pocket. I am sure the cyst blew up when a crazy teammate wrapped my knees too tight. The cyst blowing up is not the bad part though. The reasons for the fluid building up is the cause for concern.

The reasons for the fluid buildup are yet to be fully determined. I am getting an MRI order sent in tomorrow. My doc friend looked at it under ultrasound and said that there’s a lot going on that could be causing the fluid build up, and he needs me to get an MRI to fully know how to proceed. He said the procedure he needs to do on it will be significant. He saw patellar tendinosis, a bunch of small tears in some ligaments and tendons, the synovial joint capsule is inflamed (this is another symptom of other bad stuff going on in there, but this in and of itself causes all kinds of problems), the meniscus on the lateral side is 25% as thick as it should be (my research says this degeneration was likely mostly caused by all the fluid from the cyst), and there is a lot of evidence of arthritis.

Its weird to me that all this stuff didn’t really cause pain. It did cause many of my muscles, like my right hamstrings, not to fire when the knee was bent. This explains a lot. Its why I got stuck in the damn hole with only 700, and its likely why my quads have been hurting so much lately, because they had been taking over for the hamstrings getting me going out of the hole on squats. ****.

Meanwhile, my left elbow still sucks too. I can’t press the bar without pain, but I can press 570 without pain when I wear elbow sleeves. Doc teammate sent in MRI request for my knee and elbow today. Hopefully I can get that scheduled soon.

Thanks!

yeah, he lives in Edina, MN. Two of my friends have lifted in his garage. One was a guy who competed in this meet. The other is the guy who directed the meet - this guy was training partner with Dave for a couple years, but I think they don't train together anymore because they live pretty far away from each other.

Got the doc's report of my MRIs. They are not pretty.

My interpretation:

Both are bad. Triceps tendon is 30-40% torn at insertion point (the worst place for a tear).

The knee has a lot of little issues including significant tears and degeneration in the cartilage (the worst part) and minor tears in tendons & some arthritis & other stuff. Overall, I think the knee is slightly less bad than the elbow.

I spoke with two other docs about this. I have decisions to make, but I have a good idea of what needs to be done and what I will do. Regenerative injections should fix most of my problems in both joints. I may or may not eventually have the cyst in the knee removed. That will be assessed further at some point after the regenerative procedures. I can't lift at nationals without risk of tearing my tricep tendon off the bone, so I am mostly on the shelf for a while, probably ~6 months or so from attempting anything very heavy.



LOL weakness. I pressed 520 off my chest yesterday. I pulled 811 with the trap bar last Friday. Weakness my ass. Speak for yourself, doc, lol.

lol to those comments but not lolling to the injury. hope you get the best possible recovery outcomes and that you can find enough stuff that you can do safely to maintain strength and sanity

Thanks much!

I talked to my regenerative doc friend a couple times today and I feel a lot more optimistic than I did earlier.

I feel like he can fix most or all of this. The elbow should be healed in "way less" than six months. It looks like he will probably do PRP only on that.

The knee, he will take adipose tissue out of me for stem cells. The meniscus will be the focus. He said this will heal it. He said if it was his knee, he would not do any meniscus surgery (my other doc friend suggested seeing a surgeon to get "cleaned up", which means cutting away cartilage - I am not doing that after talking to the regenerative doc).

Regarding the cyst, we're going to see how that responds after this other work. I may or may not have the cyst surgically removed by a surgeon later. Doc says if it were his knee, this is how he'd proceed.

My understanding is that the procedure he is doing on the knee is somewhat new, and he thinks it might be a more effective way to treat cartilage injuries than using marrow for stem cells. He's been right about everything else he's done for me, and the last three procedures he's done on me were only done on a handful of other people, so despite this being unconventional, I am optimistic.

It looks like I am getting both procedures done Monday.

Writing weakness there is really weird. I guess he assumes compared to normal function...but...I dno, even then it's a stretch.

Gl with the procedures!

Thanks!

I have a lot of updating to do here.

6/5

I got stem cells, collagen and PRP injected in my right knee, and PRP in my right triceps tendon. Doc took adipose tissue out of me above my glutes for the stem cells and collagen.

As he was looking at the knee under ultrasound during the treatment, he said he could see a lot of things that the MRI did not show, because MRIs are still pictures and seeing the movement under ultrasound with fluids moving things around is live video. The meniscus was much worse than the MRI showed. It was worn down 75% on both the lateral AND the medial sides, and there was not one, but two very large tears in it. As he was injecting PRP into the quad and patella tendons, he said the tears in both of those were also much worse than the MRI showed. The tendons looked like Christmas trees lighting up from all the tears as the PRP was going in. Also part of what he did was seal up the cyst. He said its possible that does not hold up, but it was worth trying.

The elbow tears were also much worse than the MRI showed.

I had been expecting the knee to recover the way my left knee did in 2017 when I was squatting to full depth four days post procedure. Nope. This time was a much more significant treatment. Doc said he "used a lot of horsepower" this time, so recovery isn't nearly as fast. I was on crutches for several days. That was challenging because I cannot push with my left triceps at all.

The elbow recovery is slow so far.

The knee is noticeably improving daily. It swelled a lot at first and that has been improving a lot. Because of sealing the cyst up, fluid has been going all over the damn place, mostly down in my calf, ankle and foot, but also some up into the hamstrings and all over around the knee.

After about 8 days, I was able to pull 9" elevated DLs with 185 and 3" elevated TBDLs with some minimal weight. I have been gradually adding weight and activity.

I pulled 455 off high pins (just below the knee) up to 455 either Fri 6/16 or last Sunday, I forgot. I attempted to pull 1 plate off the floor and while I could get to the bar ok, it felt like if I pulled with any force, the knee would not like it, so the weight never left the floor.

Last Tuesday, I worked up to 675 in the rack and pulled 155x3 from the floor. Both of those things felt like they were just enough, so I stopped.

Doc comments after I showed him videos of 625 & 675:



PT comments:
I will see PT on Monday for treatment.

I am so fortunate to have found this doc and this PT, and even more so to have become friends with both.


6/23

DLs
135x3x2
225x3
315x3
365x1 - this did not feel bad on the knee, but I felt weak off the floor, so I decided to put a suit & briefs on.

This was the first time I used this particular suit. It is very similar to two of the suits I have, but it has more room in the belly. I just got my briefs back from Ginny. She took them in quite a bit and they are tight like they were when I weighed 270. I am ~238 now.

405x1 - smoked it. Knee felt fine. https://rumble.com/v2w5i72-405-lb-dl.html

495x1 - good. Knee fine. https://rumble.com/v2w5ici-495-lb-dl.html

565x1 - Good. Knee fine, but this felt heavier than 565 did prior to the knee procedure, so I figured it would be wise to stop. https://rumble.com/v2w5ig0-lb-dl.html

I signed up for nationals full meet which is next week, and I obviously cannot bench or squat anything now. I was hopeful, but not optimistic that I could DL a reasonable number. After last night, I know I ought to be able to pull at least 600+ without much risk to the knee. I am super happy about this.

7/5

APF nationals, DL only

562 - 3 whites, smoked it

611 - 3 whites, smoked it

I tightened the suit straps.
655 - missed. It got out in front of me a bit, probably because I did not sit back hard enough into the suit. If the knee was 100%, I could have probably tried to grind this up, but there was no way I was going to risk my knee for this lift, so I dropped it. People in the crowd asked "is everything ok?" I said, yeah, I'm just not lifting this today.

Mrs cha did great after a rough start. She gave everyone a scare by missing her opener and 2nd attempt squats before smoking 374. Then the fun started.

The old bench American & WR for her age / weight in WPC was 275. She smoked her 264 opener.

Her meet PR was 286, and her opener went so easy, so I had her do 294 and she nailed it. PR, American record, and WR!!

She's been wanting to bench 300+ in a meet for a long time. She's done it several times in the gym, but never in a meet. 303 - 3 white lights!!! She's the first Minnesotan woman over 55 to bench 300+ in a meet, and that 303 is tied for #5 all time, all federations, all weight classes, 55+ multiply!

The lady who held the previous American and WR is the legend, Debbie Damminga, who is one of the greatest female geared lifters of all time, and a real class act. She was there watching and cheering on Mrs cha. While one of Debbie's bench WRs got knocked out, she was busy setting another WR in DL only at age 61 - she pulled 458 @ 148. I think Debbie said she now has 29 WRs. If you go on openpowerlifting and sort all multiply lifters by McCulloch score (age adjusted Glossbrenner), Debbie has by far the best score of any lifter ever - 844.89. To put that in perspective, Laura Phelps is 2nd with 795.22. Dave Hoff is 4th at 783.48. Even though Debbie's worst lift is bench, taking out one of her WRs is amazing.

Since she got her 3rd attempt and anything she wanted to try on a 4th would be a new WR, she was allowed to take a 4th. She tried and missed 308 after getting very little rest.

She now needed a 325 lb DL for a 1000+ lb total. 286 opener was easy. 308 2nd attempt was not as easy, but still solid. She was pretty much spent after all those heavy squat and bench attempts at such a high altitude, and 325 (not a PR) was a grind, but she got it locked out and got 3 white lights for a 1003 lb total! I am proud of her.

My knee continues to improve pretty much daily.

I've been doing some 3" elevated trap bar DLs. There is a WDC trap bar DL meet on 8/5 here in town. I pulled 850 (WR) last year at this meet. I figured if I have a shot at beating that with little or no risk to my knee, I would do it.

7/11

3" elevated TDBL
up to 810 or 800 (I labeled the video 800, but I added up the weight later and I think I did 810. Everything felt fine afterwards.


7/14

3" elevated TBDL
up to 830. This felt difficult, but not bad. The video made it look easier than it felt.

I figure I have a reasonably good shot at pulling 860+, so I signed up for the meet. I might have some stiff competition in this meet, as there are two other 50+ year old guys who might pull more than me.

My wife pulled 410 and likes this lift too, and she can break a couple records, so she also signed up.

My doc has been doing these lately and he loves them. I've been trying to get him to sign up for this meet for a few weeks. He says stuff like "...when I know I can pull 600+, I'll do it for sure..." I think his PR prior to 7/12 was 440. That day I got him to attempt 490 and he got it - it was a real grind, and he got a bit out of position, but he fought through it and got it. Now he knows he can probably pull 500+ with good form. And he can break an age/weight class record at 50+, 231 bw. He signed up! This should be a good time.

Damn. Way to go Mrs. Cha! That is a huge bench .

Note: All TBDLs noted below are 3" elevated.

7/18

TDBL up to 820 I think

7/21

TBDL

after I put my gear on, I did 750, 810 & 860 (PR I think)

As of right now, I am planning for those to be my first 3 attempts - 750/810/860. I'll decide what to do on #4 at the meet. 900 would be fantastic.

7/23
I did a little light bench pressing with the bar, 105 and 145. I stopped after one set of 145x10 and everything felt fine. I do need to be careful not to move the weight too fast.

I did pushups & some pulling afterwards.

7/25

TBDLs
after I put suit on:
750
810

Those felt like what an opener & 2nd attempt should feel like.

Funny story: My friend Travis McKinney (2nd place finisher at 2022 WPO with a 2,540 total @ 220 bw) was in town for work reasons and he hung out with us at the gym for a while. He had benched a 2 board PR 875 the previous day. A 15 year old, 160 lb kid has been lifting with us for a few weeks. The kid loves arm wrestling. He was aware that Travis has the WPO coming up in November. He challenged Travis to arm wrestle him. Then he says, "I know you'll probably beat me, but I dont want to hurt you." LOL, everyone who heard that was laughing pretty hard. Travis smashed him a few times.

Then an adult on my team who's very tall (long arms are advantageous for arm wrestling) and pretty strong (he pulled a PR 605 DL that night) challenged Travis. Travis smoked him. I was wondering if I had a shot at beating him, so I challenged Travis. I actually won! I told Travis that the other guys must have worn him out, lol.


7/26
I benched 135x10, then did 5 reps with 185 off two boards, and later did some cable pressing, pulling stuff and ab stuff.

My doc friend pulled a 3" elevated TBDL PR - 500! He is doing the meet and he's really excited about it.

Way behind on updates because of life stuff making me busy.

I did the WDC trap bar DL meet.
My best pull was 860 (WR). I missed 900.

My doc friend got 500. He was super happy.

My strong friend who thinks he's weaker than me pulled 900!

My wife pulled 425 I think, WR!

Mrs Cha & I went to Vegas for a week and I was very sick at the beginning, but recovered pretty quickly thanks to doing my doc friend's advice for getting over viruses. We got into Vegas Friday night 8/11 and I stayed in the room all day Saturday and slept about 16 hours. The rest and the doc's suggestions got me better fast. I was well enough to drive to the Grand Canyon Sunday.

We decided to drive out to the LA area to lift with my friend Priest Burdette and his buddy Scot Mendleson at Mendy's Gym. It went awesome. These two guys are two of the greatest bench pressers in history, period. Their knowledge is incredible, and they were excellent to us.

Priest has been training with a pro arm wrestler recently, so he wanted to show me some technique stuff. He brought out one of Mendy's arm wrestling table before Mendy got there and I messed around doing that for a while. Priest is one of the strongest people I know, and now he knows how to arm wrestle very well, so I did not have a chance to beat him without some kind of edge. After he showed me some things, he gave me about a 1/3 head start and I actually pinned him! My arm was fried after that, so we stopped.

Mrs Cha came to bench. She is already a great bencher, having many American and some world records for her age / weight class, but almost no one benches perfectly, and Priest spots leaks better than anyone. Priest immediately noticed she was not using as much leg drive as she could. He spent about 10-15 minutes working with her on leg drive off to the side while others were benching. That helped a lot.

Her previous 1 board PR was 355 in a 3 ply SDP. Mendy came in and noticed the same thing Priest did. He was working with her the rest of the time we were there. He let her use one of his Mendy band shirts, a single ply, that he had previously let a teammate use. It fit perfectly. She pressed 385 off 2 boards easy! I don't think she knew the weight because it was kilo plates.

She was not done. I wanted her to do more and so did Mendy. He picked her next attempt without telling her the weight. I told the guy holding the board to use a 1 board. Priest handed off, giving quiet instructions to her as Mendy was more actively coaching her through it. Their team spotted the sides. I just stood back and held the camera. In 99% of situations when I am watching someone bench press, I feel like I see and know more than anyone else watching. I was a distant 3rd in this place, lol. The handoff was perfect, and she pressed it nearly perfectly. 429 lbs!!

She was pretty gassed after this. It was awesome. In the video, after she pressed it, the guy holding the board and another guy in the background had great reactions, like they were in disbelief, because I am fairly sure neither of them can press that kind of weight.

https://rumble.com/v3isl0i-lisa-429-...f-1-board.html

Mendy got all excited, telling her how great she is and can be. He said his sister was having a big meet in Long Island in a few weeks, and he wanted her to lift in it. He said the meet was full, but he would not only get her into it, he'd pay her entry and coach her. We could not make it to that meet, but the gesture was very cool. We bought the shirt from him though. We got a little off regular price plus no shipping, and we know the shirt fits her perfectly, so while we didn't intend to spend that kind of money, this was a unique situation, so we bought it.

Afterwards, Mendy saw the arm wrestling table sitting out. He wanted to fool around with it too. In addition to being one of the greatest bench pressers ever, Mendy is also a professional arm wrestler. He wanted to teach me some things. My arm hurt, but when Mendy wants to show me stuff about arm wrestling, who am I to say no? My arm was pretty messed up after, but it was worth it. I had zero chance of moving him at all. The dude has hands the size of a gorilla, and is probably as strong as one.

Priest arm wrestled Mendy afterwards. Mendy was talking about technique while Priest was giving it eveyrthing he had. Mendy was just holding it. Then when Mendy decided to put Priest down, he just kept talking and put Priest (one of the strongest people I know) down like he was not even trying. Priest just laughed. Good times.


My left triceps tendon is healing, but its a few months from being 100%.

My right knee - similar.

I have figured out that I can press off 3 boards ok, but off the chest, or even 2 boards isnt good. I worked up to 600 in my band shirt a few weeks ago off 3 boards and that was fine. A week later, I took 600 down to 2 boards, and it felt like **** for a couple days after. I took a week of from benching.

I got a new, used F-8 shirt, 2 ply with a collar, and it fits tighter/better than my other one. Yesterday, 9/17, I did 505 off 3 boards for a triple in just the 2 plies and I could have done 5+ reps easy, but the handoff guy took it. I put the insert in so it was 3 plies, & it went up to 615 and doubled it easy. I then did 645x2 and that went well too. Elbow is feeling pretty ok today.

I have been squatting to a ~20" box in briefs. 425 seems to be the sweet spot. 475 feels like too much for the knee. When I do several doubles with 425, the knee feels better afterwards.

I've been DLing and increasing weight as I feel is appropriate. Last Tuesday, I went up to 630x1 off the floor, then worked up to a reverse band 685. GHRs feel good lately, and they seem to be helping the knee too.

Well, I thought the knee was headed in the right direction, then something really bad happened.

https://rumble.com/v3qod27-226205215.html

I tore my right medial coronary ligament (aka medial menisocotibial ligament) and strained the semimembranosis (hamstring). That ligament is what holds down the meniscus to the tibia. I cant walk without crutches.

Between my doc and my friend who's an elite powerlifter, we figured out that what likely caused it was not having my right hamstring tight enough at the start of that pull. Part of that muscle's function is to pull the meniscus out of the way of the tibia and femur as you straighten you leg, sort of so it doesn't get smashed between the bones. And that muscle also kind of meshes together with that ligament. You can see in the video that my knees came forward a bit at the start of the pull. Doc says that what happened was a lot of stress went to that ligament because my hammies went tight enough when I started pulling. ****, I have done that lift a million times without issue.

Its kind of weird to injure that specific ligament and not have something like the MCL also injured, but a lot of my injuries are weird, lol.

Doc says he needs to see an MRI before he knows what exactly we should do about this, but something does need to be done. Its not likely to heal well without some kind of treatment. My MRI is tomorrow. I hope this doesnt take too long to heal enough to be able to walk. This sucks.

Sorry to hear that - here’s to a relatively quick rehab!