Hopefully its nothing major - did he say what he thought it was?

If it ends up being/turns into a herniated disc injury as sever as what I had, you will have no choice but to discontinue everything in your life and get it dealt with, and even then, expect it to be a long recovery process.

I couldn't walk or straighten my right leg at the hip for 5 weeks after herniating the L3 - L4 disc in my back. That put the brakes on everything in my life. Luckily I have the type of job where I could pay a guy to be my assistant for a month, then I had a reduced work load for a while. So rather than losing my job or going on a leave of absence, I just made (a lot) less money for a while. I estimate that injury cost me over $10 grand in addition to lots of pain and stalling my training for the better part of a year.

If what Yugo says is correct about lifting with a rounded back, I'd be surprised if that didnt contribute to this. (sorry, but I dont have time to look at your log right now)

If I were you, I'd immediately stop back squatting (or any rounded back squatting) and DLing and OHPing and anything else that could put stress on the low back until this is 100%, especially if you dont have time in your life to be immobilized for a long period of time. There's some chance this something that could get a whole lot worse if you mess with it.

Well that was more of an extreme suggestion than I was hoping for. I think I will just stay out of the gym till I'm 100%. I have to work on form anyway so I don't want to risk injuring myself further.

The urgent care doctor didn't really give any insight as to what it could be exactly. He just said to get rest and if it gets any worse to follow up with either him or another doctor. He said xrays are kinda pointless and show the same thing, so if it doesn't get better a ctscan or mri would be in order.

After taking a nap, my back is worlds better than it was 14 hours ago. Still a little painful sitting up without back support. But I feel like I will be 95% by this time tomorrow.

Thanks for all the advice.

Glad its getting better - that's a good sign.

The bolded - don't sit up forward from when you lie down. Ever. Get used to lying down and especially getting up sideways. Keep your low back straight when you get up sideways, and especially dont forget to do this 1st thing when you get up in the morning.

If you sit upright a lot, try to get up and let the hip flexors (front of your hips) stretch out frequently. For sure dont sit upright for more than an hour at a time and change your position every 10 minutes. Dont sit in one position for a long time.

10/10

DL
147x5x2, 239x5, 289x3, 330x2, 380x1, 421x1, 471x1 <---- everything felt great and the weight was going up fast up to this point
501x1 - the weight went up really slooooooow
522xf, f, f////
@^!%&@*#
I could not figure out why I couldnt move this weight more than a few inches off the ground - 3 times. After watching the recordings and doing some speed DLs later, I figured it out. I was doing two things wrong:
- my shoulders were pulled back tight (makes for a longer ROM - I let them come out when I pull heavy usually, and this is how I pulled all my recent PRs)
- I was not getting set up with my butt back far enough & my shins weren't vertical. This got the weigh out too far in front of me at the bottom of the lift. I figured this out on my second set of speed DLs, which felt way faster than the first set when the weight was out front too far. This was a really dumb mistake considering the fact that I've been preaching this as recently as this morning to a guy I've been training online. He just pulled a PR + 22 lbs 4 rep set today after listening to me tell him this stuff. I need to pay better attention to my own form/advice

speed DLs
380x3x3
Again, the 2nd & 3rd sets went very well after figuring out what I was doing wrong.

sumo 9" block pulls
592 x 3 x 2
That was hard.

trap bar DLs
466 x 3 x 2
Felt good. TBDLs


Worth noting:

My training partner pulled a PR +11 - 410, then did a double with it (his previous PR was 399x1) & it didnt even look hard - awesome!

A double at 410? JFC. I'm so far behind now, lol.

That's what cutting will do to your lifts

My DL has gone up more cutting than not cutting, .

I also don't really think you can say what I'm doing is what ppl mean when they say "cutting". More like, I'm making sure not to gain weight but I am losing weight pretty slowly.

You always tell me that when I say things that I wouldn't achieve reasonably while not cutting. Like, if I'd been pounding food the last couple of months my DL 1rm might be +20lbs but it's not gonna be +60lbs. And I'd have gained 5+lbs of fat during that period probably.

I'd lighten up if I wasn't so far below Brian, lol. Not just behind an appropriate amount given I assume he weighs more. Plus he's been lifting less time.

Anyway, comparisons are just an awful idea since they don't seem to actually motivate me in a good way. But yeah, I can tell my DL is starting to not go up as smoothly as it was so I'm starting to think that I may be struggling on gains the next couple of months until I decide to eat a caloric surplus again (and then I'll likely struggle to gain strength anyway ldo).

I do think I'm going to incorporate some heavy triples when benching and maybe even OHPing this cycle. I think my CNS or mind or something needs to experience the heavier weights given I often don't do anything all that heavy given the high rep stuff I'm doing.

Round Back Deadlifts

by Mike Robertson

excellent stuff imo

10/12

bench press
57x10x2, 107x10, 149x5, 199x3, 241x2, 271x1, 301x1, 321x1, 332x1, 342xF (spotter grabbed bar too quick imo)
342x1 - PR


superset reverse band bench press/standing cable rows
rbbp - 301x3x2
scr - 200x15x2

superset close grip pulldowns/body weight tricep extensions on blast straps
cgpd - 200x15x2
bwte - 8x2

superset face pulls/high pulley 1 arm cable curls
fp - 115x10x2
curls - 75x8x2

edit - Its pretty clear to me now that its hard for me to progress quickly on the bench press anymore only benching once a week. I made great progress doing a max effort day and a dynamic effort day every week. Assuming I don't neglect the DL & squat, its going to be hard to make that (benching twice a week) work again until bowling is over next spring.

edit2 - I just realized I had those band holder things on the bar, so add 2 lbs to 342

Nice fight! Congrats!

Congrats on the big PR!

Thanks!

Thanks!

332 x 1 paused:



This felt pretty good. I better get at least 330 at the meet next week.

10/14

basically warm ups - meet is less than a week away

squats up to 239 x 5

bench up to 197 x 5

DL up to 289 x 3

then some PNF D2 flexions

10/15

bowling
215 184 196 = 595
avg now 203.1
I left 8 10 pins & missed half of them tonight, plus I missed another single pin spare. It would have been an ok night if I had just got 3 or 4 out of the 5 easy spares I missed. The team did pretty well at least - 27/40 vs the highest avg team in the league.

I was supposed to pick up a new spare ball tonight, but the one I ordered was defective, so I won't get a new one until Thursday now. Not having a hard plastic ball makes shooting 10 pins a lot harder.

10/17

bench press up to 299 x 1 (93.5% of opener on Saturday)

DL up to 471 x 1 (93.9% of opener on Saturday)

should have put these numbers in the previous post - too late to edit:

I plan to open Saturday with 145 KG (319.67 lb) bench & 227.5 KG (501.55 lb) DL.

If all goes well, bench will go 145, 150, 155.

DL will go 227.5, 240, 247.5 in a perfect world.

I'm a little more optimistic about the bench right now.

+

Very nice!

Thanks!
Thanks!
Thanks!

10/18

bowling
121 201 165 = 487
avg now 182 at this ****ing place.

7 splits tonight - 4 in the first game. I couldnt get lined up with my strike shot, couldnt carry ****, and on top of that I missed several easy single pin spares. I almost picked up a big split (4-9), but slid the 4 in front of the 9 (This is hard to do - I would have actually picked up the 4-6 which is nearly impossible). It just wasnt my night.

I bowl like twice a year and I suck. Probably get 100-130 most games.

What is the single most important tip you can give to a noob.