Oh man, fatigued isn't even the word for it, the past 3-4 days or so I feel like my soul has been sucked out and I'm a zombie. Been having trouble sleeping, have had a reduced appetite, very mentally and physically lethargic, and devoid of any desire or drive for anything. Fortunately today things turned around a lot and I even had the energy for a short jog in the morning. I know, probably not something that should be done on a week off, but I just felt the need to get outside and do something active.

Yeah I don't think there's anything wrong with Max-OT either and I got great results. I slapped on close to 12lbs in 10 weeks and made solid progression on all the lifts. I'm still not done with the week off where I tend to gorge pretty hard so likely more than 12 lbs. But it's still a tough program and I don't think there's any way I can do max-ot and still squat 3 times a week, and I'd rather squat 3 times a week even if I cut out a lot of other stuff and train less. In general somebody with my body type and at my novice-intermediate stage should probably be training less and eating more anyway. I'll likely stick with ss for a good 2 months, longer if it doesn't stop working.

So reading through the ss wiki, it seems like cardio and ab work immediately after the ss workout is fairly common and permissable under the program. I'm definitely going to want to add some of this in being in the gym only 3 days a week now. Anyone have some advice on how to structure this optimally? I don't want to overdo it, I was thinking something simple like 2-3 sets of weighted situps/crunches and a short and moderate treadmill run.

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Cliffs: Knee hurts again. Not sure why this time, but it's about 1/5th the severity of 2013-15. I had 0 problems with it until I moved to my new gym. I kinda suspect it was a weird softer surface I was squatting on or maybe my shoes are worn down. It doesn't matter because I'll move to yet another new gym in a few weeks.

I've had recurrent PROXIMAL (where the pec ties in, NOT the elbow) bicep tendinitis from pullups and pressing motions, but also curls in a very pronated position. It's stopped me from doing bb flat bench entirely for years. I'm working on rehabbing it. I still incline press and flat db press. I wanna flat bench eventually but going to continue working on my shoulders/back for a few months first.


But mostly what I want to log here for now is TB-500. For those who don't know, this is a performance enhancing peptide that aids in tendon healing. Almost all the feedback on this stuff is very positive. I'm not the only guy on here who's maintained WIM over the years but taken out of the game by injuries, so we can get some firsthand experience on this stuff and see if it works well. I've done 2 shots at 2mg so far both intramuscular. Noticed some pain relief at proximal bicep, but it's hard to tell on the knee since if I'm inactive for a day or 2 my knee feels great. I'll run it for 6-8 weeks and give updates as we go.

Training is going to be a simple push/pull every other day split. I'll add legs once a week eventually. I am still able to rack DL.

So you gained 10kg and zero fat?


Carry on.

Dr. Lock upper back+shoulder rehabs
Chest supported rows: 2plates x10, 2.5 platesx10, 3 plates x10 (hard), 2 plates x10x2
Pullups: bwx10, 8, 8, 8
pulldowns: 2ppsx10x4, x16
rack pulls: 140kgx8x2
EZ curls: 25kgx28,9,5
hammer curls: 14kgx1 set failure

TB-500 did nothing noteworthy for me (and I ran it at a healthy dose for 6 weeks on three separate occasions).

My buddy loves it though.

Cool video, Evo. Definitely will try many/most of those exercises as 2x daily pre-hab for a few months and see how it goes, since I've got pain there and my left shoulder has always been a bit loose.

Chest+shoulders+tris

Incline bench: "90kg"x7 with ****** premature assistance, 90kgx11, 80kgx10, 70kgx11 spotter fail first set, mighta gotten more like 12-13 reps on the first set if I hadn't attempted the first set twice.

Flat db: 28kgx19,13,11
Pushups: 11, 6
Fly machine: 3 sets x20
Cable side raise: 3rd pinx 5 sets failure, 46 on first set
Machine shoulder press: 4 sets failure
Db skullcrushers: 12kgx20,9,5
Vpushdowns: 4 sets failure

Bicep tendon didn't feel great today, might deload next pull and push sessions.

Pectacular pump workout bro

Bicep tendon did NOT like the last workout. Had to adjust today, no vertical pulling.

Chest supported row: 2platesx10x7
HS low rows: 2 plates per sidex10x2
BB smith rows: 70kgx10x2
HS mid rows: 25kg each sidex10x2
Cable pullovers: 15x2

Left side only db curls: 12kgx4 sets failure

Made the realization that once my knee heals I simply can't be doing AMRAPs on squats. I'm almost 29 now and my knees are already probably struggling from walking around at a fairly heavy bodyweight. I can definitely amrap on dumbbell pressing motions, but I suspect I really can't be doing it on barbell incline press. Might stick to low reps, 70-80%, lowish RPE, lots of sets, slower and less ballistic reps, then save the higher rep stuff for easier motions. I think I can still amrap on DLs.

Alternatively, I kinda want to just drop barbell pressing entirely and just do dumbbells. That's what I was doing and I was making consistent progress with less bicep tendon stress. I've been trying to barbell incline for like 3 months and essentially made no progress. The only reason I stopped doing dumbbells is because I moved gyms since there was a 25 year old Chinese guy who worked there and spoke just the wrong amount of English who was unintentionally harassing me. I was like getting pumped breathing heavy just about to get under the squat bar when he'd come up to me with a ******ed **** eating grin to spew some inane nonsense I don't care about. I remember one time he showed me a video of him unracking some "hy00ge" (180kg) weight and then quarter squatting it as a joke and cackling like a madman/******. This was as I'm panting and trying to recover between very hard squats sets and have a "**** you leave me alone" face on. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Couldn't take it anymore and there was a gym that's a bit closer so I came here. However this one only has DBs up to 40kg.

I can buy 50kg dbs though. I can't buy 55kgs, can't find them on taobao. But then they have 60kg dumbbells which is baffling. 50kg to 60kg is a hy00ge jump, but I reckon if I'm doing 45 degree incline with 50kg for 15-20 reps I can probably handle that kind of jump. Or I could just do some kind of pre-exhaust before I start my pressing motion with pushups or flies or something.

Up da dose, get these

By stark contrast, there's a young 20 year old Chinese guy who speaks a similar amount of English. He's an aspiring competitive bodybuilder. Looks pretty good, like expectedV with 10lb more of lean muscle but same bf%. He's the nicest dude ever, super humble and polite. Can actually read non-verbal cues, usually has some interesting things to say. Seems to be a very good trainer.

Generation Z>>>Millennial.

Aren't you fluid enough in Chinese to say **** off to the weirdo stalker wanna-be? Or alternatively just brain him with a dumbbell?

Yeah, he would understand in either language I just didn't wanna be rude. Chinese are very sensitive about losing face too, plus I knew I was moving in August and the place I signed up will just let me transfer membership to the part of town where I'm moving so it worked out. And that gym was also uninhabitably hot+humid in the summer to where it was literally dangerous for me to workout in there + big dropoff in performance. Chinese LOVE being warm, don't sweat nearly as much as us, and nobody works hard enough to where this would be an issue. Buying some 50kg dbs isn't a huge deal.

Pretty sure it's "losing the face" FYI.

Makes sense then Would have been funny to see ISF rampage his way through China. No faces left!

Been busy lately, unable to train.
Yesterday
Back
Chest supported rows: up to 3platesx12 2 rep pr, 2 platesx10x4
HS low row machine: 25kgx10x4 each side unilateral
Rope straight arm cable pullovers: 10x4 these felt great
Chest supported DB rows: 18kgx10x4

Tried to do some curls, but it wasn't 100% pain free so I just quit.

TB-500 update: BW 95.5kg, dropped down to HRT a while ago while my knee+Bicep tendon heals. I'll probably ramp things up again when I get closer to incline press old #s, but I'm not expecting to return to squatting 60kg until late aug/early sept. Right now I'm just in pain relief stage, I might start doing some actual knee rehab (ie directly loading the tendon) in about 7-10 days. I can go down stairs pain free now, couldn't even a week ago.

Now the knee has made huge improvements but the bicep tendon has gone backwards!? Might have been an offsetting scenario where I did too much stuff I otherwise wouldn't have because I felt the relief immediately.

Tomorrow I'll do some db ohp, triceps, and a lotta rotator cuff work.

Why no BPC-157?

No BPC because I want to test things unilaterally. Read better reviews for TB-500 and my knee injury is in a spot that it's hard to truly locally inject to.


Yesterday
DB ohp: 30kgx8x4
Side raises all externally rotated and a **** ton of rotator cuff work
V pushdowns: 20x4
Rope overhead extensions: 20x4
Skullcrushers: 12kgx12x3

Single arm stability kb press right side 8kgx20x3

I've been going down the rabbit hole of mobility/rehab/prehab stuff I can do for my benching. Right now there's no pain, but god damnit I want to fix this.

Anyway, no tldr boring crap since I am apparently the only 2p2er with this particular issue, but I have severe scapular winging on the right side. I tried to do some scapular pushups just now and it's just comical. The left side retracts dramatically more. If I try to do it unilaterally I can do it just fine on the left side, but not at all on the right, I can only do it at the same time and even then it's very uneven.

Anyone who has any recommendations feel free to chime in!

The tb-500 def helping with pain relief, but I need to actually correct the underlying issue here. Which honestly I may simply never be able to do.

Also I'm quitting pullups for the forseeable future. I can really only pick some kind of horizontal press or pullups, but my tendon can't take both. Maybe I'll do inverted rows with plates in my lap.

You're not the only person with this issue, actually; I'm following along closely.

Same issue with scapular mobility in the affected side, by the way.

Is it causing you proximal bicep tendinitis/pec tendon/pec minor from horizontal pressing and/or pullups though?


I went nearly insane when I started youtube searching how to correct scapular winging. Tons of ridiculous FPS crap and multiple possible co-contaminant problems and different methods of addressing different sources of the problem.

Thankfully the Dr. Quinn JuggernatHQ video on the issue is condensed and easy to follow. The AthleanX one was the opposite, and he's usually good.

Evo,

Yes.

I feel it most during pullups/NG chins and when I'm kicking the dumbbells up to do seated DB press. I definitely notice it when benching, moreso with barbell, but I don't think it's affected my strength there a bunch.

Well, luckily you're still early in your lifting career and have a lot of time to take care of it before weights start to get heavy enough to do lots of semi-permanent damage. I think I've already kinda ****ed the **** out of the area to where even if I fix issues with the shoulder/scap it's never going to be quite as good as it could have been.

I'd definitely try incline DBs. I have by far the least issues with that, and the most with flat bb. NG chins were way better for the area than pullups or regular chins for me. Hopefully we can figure out ways to fix this.

"Early in my lifting career" is the nicest way to say "weak as ****" that I've heard in a while

I have mixed in dumbbell flat bench, incline dumbbell bench, barbell flat, barbell incline, seated dumbbell press, and barbell OHP. NG chins exclusively for a while. Increasing weight slowly enough that no real issues yet other than mild discomfort, so we'll see. I'll add in scap push-ups to the Lock stuff and see how it goes.

Nice Titties!!!

Also, like Monte already said, these line is awesome. So many burns.

Well, luckily you're still early in your lifting career and have a lot of time to take care of it before weights start to get heavy enough to do lots of semi-permanent damage.

I'm pretty sure I have some significant scapular winging on one side. I think it has caused some problems on my other shoulder because it has to take on more of the burden when pressing and doing pull-ups. From reading your last couple of posts, I have similar problems as you. I am seeing a PT now to address these issues. If it goes well, I will pass on any useful info.