Thanks for the comment

That's great to hear! (except for the hack squat part)

lol

Do you think hack squats are bad also?

Basically doing 4 sets of 10 of squats as my bread and butter. And then doing 3 sets of 15 either leg press OR hack squat. That's what I need to pick on my current workout. Its probably more based on EPOCC (excess post exercise oxygen consumption) than anything else. But obviously don't want to aggravate my lower back so thinking hack squat might be slightly better than leg press.

I'm assuming you're doing machine hack squats. If so, those are kind of like the Smith machine because they lock you into a fixed plane of motion.

http://www.tonygentilcore.com/blog/t...est-coat-rack/

I imagine you know that the piriformis can also compress/irritate the sciatic nerve.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure my physiotherapist told me the same thing; 4 min threshold.

I'll keep 5 min as the minimum and work towards longer sessions.
At first even a minute or two upside-down at 60 degrees felt pretty akward, especially in the head but now I find 4-5 min to be fine.
The thing is probably just like almost everything in life, keep at it and you get used to it.

GL recovering from whatever it is that you're suffering from this time.

Yes, but according to what I'm reading, the gluteus minimus causes the symptoms I'm having (calf & foot pain) and the piriformus causes symptoms higher up. They're right by each other, so when I roll if both are bad, I'm getting both. I don't know their locations well enough to differentiate between them when I roll.

That is true - the more you do something, the better you get at it.

Thanks

Thanks. don't have to worry about it now. Leg Presses were replaced by Bulgarian one legged DB split squats. Whatever those things may be.

Those are hard to do properly. If you can do them correctly, you'll get a lot out of those imo.

7/18

nerve/leg issue: last night I was rolling my left ITB when I got a nerve pain in my calf that was equally as painful as my herniated disc pain was. It feels something like getting stabbed in the side of the calf with a huge knife. I walked most of it off (that's something I was never able to do with the herniated disc issue).

Going way back, like over a year, I've been taking proteolytic enzymes to help with inflamation/muscle soreness - they act somewhat like NSAIDs without the pain killing aspect - they are anti - inflammatory, but they don't wreck your stomach or cause other side effects. I usually take 9 before bed and 9 when I get up (18 per day total) - they only work when you take them on an empty stomach. Last night I took 12 before bed, 12 when I got up, and 12 before lunch (36 within 12 hours).

By late afternoon, I realized my leg hadn't really bothered me today. I don't know for sure, but the proteolytic enzymes could have helped. I figured I'd test it a bit and see if I could maybe squat tonight. I did some air box squats, then some goblet box squats, varying my stance width. All was well. Then I rolled my glutes with a lacrosse ball and laid down on the massage table and hit everything with the DMS. I dont know if I moved my leg wrong or if the rolling/DMS irritated something, but some of the pain came back. I cant squat yet (safely anyways).

I did heavy benching Monday, so no benching tonight. I just did what felt ok.

(limited) smr & mobility

standing pnf d2 flexion
25x12, 15, 15

standing cable lift
25x15x3

blast strap rows
10 x 3

palloff circuit
25x12x2

blast strap push ups
10, 12, 15

seated 1 arm cable pulldowns
105x12, 115x10, 125x8

Maybe (hopefully) squats this Saturday Lots of proteolytic enzymes until then.

This looks like a good exercise to me.

7/21

smr & a little mobility

lots of warm up light goblet box squats

back squats
55x5x3, 105x5, 195x3, 235x3, 285x2, 326x1, 377x1, 382x2x2

DL
145x5, 235x3, 285x2, 325x2, 365x1
365 + 4 chains x 1
365 + 6 chains x 1
365 + 8 chains x 1 x 4

trap bar rows
120x5, 170x5, 220x4 - I could feel my upper traps taking over and felt basically nothing in my mid back, which is the opposite of what I want right now when I row, so I stopped there. This is not a good exercise for me right now.

standing cable rows
200x15x2

GHR
band assisted - 8
bw x 6 x 2

reverse hypers
50x12, 90x12x2

I am really happy about all this right now. My left leg didnt bother me basically at all. The area behind the outside part of my right knee flared up a little during squat warmups, but caused no problems at all when the weight got heavier. Up until about two days ago I was getting concerned that something could be seriously wrong with my left leg, but whatever was causing problems appears to be going away. I'll be interested to see what Dr K thinks of this Monday.

My neck & brachioradialis issues are not bothering me at all right now. I think two things I'm doing slightly different while squatting are helping both of those issues - I'm trying not to put stress on my arms when I put the bar on my back, and I'm making a conscious effort to pack my neck. Also, I havent done any heavy rowing or pullups in a while - lighter stuff with higher reps seems to activate my back muscles while not making the brachioradialis issues flare up. I'll probably lay off heavy rowing & pullups til after the meet at least.

So the upper body issues are gone for now and the lower body issues are in check. HOOOOOOOOOOOLD!!

The 382 is more than I've squatted in about a year and a half. My form was not perfect (a little GMing on some reps), but my depth was more than good enough to pass in a meet.

I'm still disappointed this leg issue happened, because I think it stunted my squat progress before the meet in mid August. But, I still have a legit shot at breaking the state record of 413 if I can stay healthy.

The DLs went up fast and my low back looked solid on every work rep (I took vids). I'm estimating the weight with the 8 chains at ~410 off the floor and ~510 at the top. I held & squeezed each rep at the top for a couple seconds. 540 is the state record for my age & weight class - I think I have an outside chance at beating this. If all goes according to plan, I will test my 1RM at least once before the meet - possibly next week and maybe once more in a few weeks.

Indeed. I agree it looks like a good one. Nice find.

I tried it & didnt like it. It hit my upper traps & forearms more than my mid-back, which is the opposite of what I want right now. ymmv

7/23

Saw chiro - the nerve pain I had last week was probably an inflamed sciatic nerve caused by something in my back unrelated to the discs. The fact that the pain went away eliminated the concern that there is any disc issue. The high dosages of Wobenzyme probably fixed it by reducing the inflammation. I have the green light to continue lifting heavy

ME bench - straight weight (no bands or chains)
55x10x2, 105x8x2, 145x5, 195x3, 237x2, 267x1, 297x1
317x2 - paused, failed 3rd attempt
252x9
I took a video of the 317. Both reps would have passed in a meet imo. At this point, I think my paused 1 RM is between 325 & 330. I'll be satisfied with ~325 in the meet and will be happy if I can get 330 or more. I'm pretty sure my bench has improved since I did the 332 PR bounced off the chest.

ssb squats
80x5, 130x5, 170x3, 220x3, 260x2x6
ez - setting up for a 400 (maybe +?) single tomorrow

standing cable row
200x15x3

GHR
band assisted - 6
bw - 7, 7

7/25

squat
55x8, 5, 105x5, 145x5, 195x3, 235x2, 285x1, 327x1, 377x1, 402x1
End of Russian squat program (coincidentally on the same day the Wolves signed one Russian - Shved, and verbally agreed to terms with another - Kirilenko).

I could have done some more weight and maybe broken my PR of 420, but I wanted to save some energy to DL. 402 is 20 lbs more than I've squatted in about a year and a half. The goal at the beginning of the program was to get 399 at the end, so this is fine for now. I should be able to squat over 413 at the meet next month.

DL
135x5, 235x5, 285x3, 325x1, 375x1, 417x1, 467x1, 497x1, 523xf, f - dammit - wanted a PR tonight, but no cigar. 540 seems a long ways away right now. 475 - 500 seems like the right range to open the meet with at this point. I hope I can make some progress the next few weeks. I think I lost some progress due to that back/nerve/calf issue.

block pulls (9" blocks)
(standard) 541x1, 571x1,
(sumo) 591x1, 611x1, 631x1 PR + 21, 651xf, meh, ran out of gas.

No time or energy for accessory work after that. I am spent. 631 is a lot of weight for me, even if it isnt moving far.

If you can get the bar to break off the ground, looks like you'll have much less of a problem locking it out. That block pull # is pretty damn beastly, .

And on the squat. I'd say there's no huge rush to break your PR. It's gonna fall, only a matter of time.

523 broke the ground, but only by 2-3" I need to do something different with my DL programming now that the squat program is done.

7/27

bench
55x10, 10, 105x10, 8, 145x5, 195x3, 237x2, 267x2, 297x4 almost had but failed #5
237x11

superset
standing cable row
200x15, 15, 30 - last set seemed easy and I had lots of energy at that point, but maybe I spent it on that set.

& floor press
195 + 4 chains x 5 x 3
the weight flew up fast on all reps

superset
chins (palms fwd) - 4, 4, brachioradialis muscles started hurting, so I switched to close grip pulldowns - 200x15

& blast strap push ups
12, 15, 15

face pulls
105x12x2

Time for block pulls from 3" to 9"? lol

I'm going to do something like a condensed, modified Coan/Phillippi for two weeks to get some high volume, heavy weight work in. I haven't really pushed myself hard DLing in a long time, mostly because I had that neck issue, the arm issue (brachioradialis), then the leg issue. I still cant do much weight on chins or heavy rows, but I can pull heavy from the floor more.

Woudl it not be better to split apart your DL and squat days? I would also give some thought to the volume you are doing and your ability to recover. Wonder whether less would actually generate more results for you. Having said that, you've forgotten more than I know about training.

yeah, you're right - and give yourself some credit - you're stronger than me. I was doing a Russian squat program that required me to squat 3X/week, so I DL'ed after squatting for a while and that sort of put DLs on the back burner. That made me worse at DLing I think. It did help my squat, but I'm not going to do that again for a long time, if ever.

7/30

DL day - yay

I ate too much for my pre workout meal and felt bloated - booo

DL
up to 491x1x2
Wanted 511 but something unpleasant might have happened if I had pushed myself that hard tonight

superset - 2 minutes between sets
speed DL
368x3x3

ssb box squat
200x2x3


circuit - 5 exercises, 90 seconds between exercises, ~3 minutes between circuits
GHR - banded x 8, bw x 8x2

standing cable rows - 200x12x3

trap bar DL - 420x3x3 - I forgot how much I like these

reverse hypers - 90x10x3 - this was the worst thing of the night because of eating too much

close grip cable pulldowns
200x10x3

Pretty good workout, except for being bloated. I'm looking forward to doing this with a bit more weight next week. The following week, the Monday before the meet, will be light weight.

8/1

bench press
up to 305x4 (3 paused, 1 touch & go)
245x10

standing cable row
200x20x3

floor press
240x5x3

close grip cable pulldowns
200x15, 15, 20

superset
blast strap pushups
12, 15

and face pulls
95x12, 15

PNF D2 flexion - tall kneeling
30x12x2

305x4 is pretty damn good imo. Let us gogogo!

yeah, 4 paused reps was my goal, but 3 paused + 1 touch & go is good