I've been busy so I have neglected updating my log. I have been doing similar work:
big 3 almost daily
inversion table almost daily
high rack pulls
shoulder & arm rehab
I have done a little bench pressing as well. Its going ok, but I am weak. 315 raw is not hard, but its harder than it used to be. 365 in a weak slingshot was a little challenging. 455 in a loose shirt was easy, but 495 got glued to my chest.
After talking to my PT, I figured doing reverse hypers would be a good idea. I've been doing those a couple times a week and I think they are helping.
I bout an adjustable standing/seated desk. I stand about half the day now, which is probably helping.
Meanwhile, the arm is healing well.
I increased the weight on rack pulls to 605 a couple of sessions, once beltless and once with a belt.
Last Tuesday, I wanted to try rack pulls in full gear. I asked my teammate who's a doc and he said as long as the arm doesn't hurt, I can add weight. I went up to 805, which was a little challenging, but not my max. And no arm pain. Then I started thinking about a strongman event that's coming up in a couple weeks.
There's a strongman rules DL world championship here in MN April 30. The events are DL from the floor (I am skipping that) and 18" elevated DLs. Both lifts are with a Texas DL bar. Perfect for me. The rack pulls I have been doing are 19" elevated, but with a straight bar. The flex of the DL bar will be more than 1", so the straight bar DLs are probably a bit more difficult. I contacted the meet director Tuesday night and it was just in time. I entered. My doc and my PT gave me the green light, as long as there is no arm pain.
Friday 4/15 I pulled 825 from 19" with the straight bar. It felt harder than it did last year when I was stronger, but I still have more in me. A teammate figured I had 875 in me that day.
I am not going to be able to get my strength up to the point that I can pull >950 this soon, but with my age coefficient, I still have a shot to win the belt (they are awarding belts to best lifter), which would be cool.
There's one guy who might pull >1100, but he weighs ~450 and he's only ~28, so my body weight and age will probably beat him if I can pull over ~850. I think there's only one other guy that's capable of pulling >900 and he's bigger and younger than me. This could be a lot of fun.
Strongman rules allow straps, hitching, ramping and the attempts are goofy. The weight on the bar just keeps going up. For example, if I open with at 775, & my next attempt is 825, and if no one else does a weight in between, I would need to pull twice in a row. Dumb rule, but whatever. I will work it out.
Yesterday, 4/17, I did some shoulder and arm rehab stuff and some heavy plate loaded machine rows. I got up to 5 plates on each side for a set of 8 and a set of 10. I'm not used to that. I feel like I overdid it a little. It feels way worse than after doing either of the recent 800+ rack pulls. I think I need to be most careful of overtraining and keeping form perfect and things will work out well.