I had some help with the liftoff on the last set of benches which got me an extra rep or two on that set I think. Reset curls. Lower back was a bit sore during the working sets of squats. At the time I didn't think much of it but it was increasingly uncomfortable later in the day and now the next morning I am super stiff and it is very sore. Not even sure if whatever I did happened during squats or if it may have been during the rows.
Back is snap city. I pulled the hell out of something. Been down and out for two full days now. Doing pretty much anything hurts and I do my best 80 year old man impression any time I move. Been icing my back and catching up on netflix. Whatever I managed to damage did not seem to go all in one pop as I made it all the way through my last workout with no issues and it only snuck up me later. I have been pretty good about taking things slow and easy and not pushing things to any sort of extreme. If anything I think I have been pussy footing forward. I see lots of advice all over this forum to listen to your body but whatever my body was saying was seemingly pretty quiet on this one.
Guess I’ll have to take extra care on deads, rows and squats once I am able to get back to it. Likely some sort of form issue did me in. Maybe I’ll just stick to curls going forward.
Lower back, middle-right. Seems to hurt more to put much pressure on my right leg, pain kind of shoots from lower back into the top of the right glute. I assume that i just strained a muscle and it will be better in a few days. Things feel slightly better today than on the weekend. Still icing it but still very sore. Sitting upright sucks but was taking the day off today anyway so just getting lots of rest. Had a dentist appointment this morning and reclining in a dentist chair is about the most comfortable position I have found yet.
Still on an exercise hiatus waiting for my back to get better. It is improving every day but still a decent amount of pain. Might try doing some pushups and chins tomorrow or Saturday at least.
I have transitioned from cautious rest mode to full blown lazy wimpy mode on this hiatus. My back has improved a ton but is still surprisingly sore. I am starting to worry that it is more than just a pulled muscle. Going to a massage therapist this Friday and will play it by ear from there. Did a decent chunk of pain free swimming the past couple days but otherwise I have still done no exercise. I broke my vow to stick to shows that were already wrapped up and marathoned my way through 5 seasons of the Walking Dead while enjoying lazy mode. Work IT department is sending me home with season 6 on a USB key so my back might need a couple more days rest.
Did 10 mins of light stretching, bodyweight lunges and split squats, side planks, planks and some mobility stuff plus 50 pushups and 25 chinups. That was as much as I dared do as my back was letting its presence be known even with such light stuff. Jumped in the pool for 10 or 15 minutes afterwards.
I pretty much stopped doing any exercise from whenever I stopped posting in early or mid-September through to early November when I started to briefly work out again. Those workouts were quickly met with a fair amount of lower back pain again the second I reintroduced squats so rather than actually see a Doctor or do anything else remotely useful about it I just stopped altogether.
On top of all the sitting at a desk at the office all day I was then just spending all of the free time I could find in the evenings sitting on the couch either watching tv or playing video games which somehow did not make my back feel miraculously better.
Towards the end of the first week of January I started doing a bit of light stretching and mobility work with a focus on my core, sticking mainly to things like pelvic tilts, bird dogs, semi glute bridges, camel-cats, dead bugs as well as squat and tactical frog stretches. For the remainder of January I managed 19 sessions of the above with a little bit of mobility stuff thrown in and would only take up about 15 to 20 minutes at a time.
In addition I managed 20 sessions of doing a small number of pushups, chin-ups and hanging leg raises as well as some kettlebell swings with a light bell in January.
My diet stayed pretty decent and consistent throughout the intervening time period but the decrease in energy expenditure resulted in a couple extra pounds on the scale and it appears to be all in the form of decreased lbm rolled into increased old man belly.
I just started over again with GSLP using the mass gain/strength and hypertrophy focus addons which essentially means Bench/Curls, OHP/Weighted Chins, Squats and DL’s plus frequency pushups and chins. I will be taking it super slow and easy in general and in particular on both Squats and DL’s.
I also just started tracking macros again at the very beginning of February and will run somewhere near maintenance for a bit initially. Not sure how frequent or detailed updates will be but I’ll try to post every February 3rd at a minimum.
