this thread made me ditch the gloves, my hands are now all rough and such, the drunk chick I luckily hook up w/ once a year is not gonna like it whenever that day comes.

Get a callous file, should have a rough cheese grater side and a fine sandpapery side.

nah, i've been foam-rolling my hands, doing wonders, smooth as a baby's bottom

stop gaying up my log! But if you must know, I have an impeccable hand strength/hand smoothness ratio.

Anyway, gym tomorrow. Then on Thurs. Then 99% LV this weekend for summer league. ugh.

Also, food log for today. Embarrassing.

8:30 am: 4 eggs scrambled, a little cheese, 1/2 grapefruit
1 pm: philly cheesesteak
5 pm: 1/2 lb leftover cheese burger (no bun)
7:30 pm: carnitas burrito w/ bad stuff in it

a little later I'll probably have a glass of milk.

screw me. Hate falling off the wagon. Going shopping in a bit. Gonna buy a bunch of frozen chicken and veggies. And a cooler to bring to work, because the little lunch thing I have isn't big enough. I decided I'm going to cook every other day. I can cook dinner at home on non-gym days, and I'll make enough to feed me the next day. We'll see if that works.

I suck.

I didn't go shopping. I left work pretty late, went home, read for a while, and went to bed. So food today sucked, but not as bad as yesterday.

9:30 am: breakfast burrito w/ eggs, chorizo, and cheese
1pm: salad w/ cabbage, onion, carrots, and chicken w/ some hot and sour sauce
5 pm: odwalla bar
8 pm: Panda Express (orange chicken + beef & broccoli)

Not leaving work for another 20 minutes or so. No workout. I might not get one in this week. I could make the excuse of work, but I won't. I could go straight to the grocery store, shop, and take an hour to cook it all and clean up and have good food ready for the next couple of days and be in bed by midnight. But I've got like 30 pages of an awesome book left and I'm tired, so I'm just going to go home and read and sleep.

saving up your strength for ballin this weekend is a wise move imo

meh, there's a non-zero chance I'll have to cancel, and a bigger chance that if I do go, I'll only be there Fri and Sat night. weak, brah.

well I suck. A solid month without a workout. 4th of July followed by Summer League during really crazy times at work. I def shoulda worked in some work outs during that week, but the 2 weeks after that I pretty much worked 16 hrs a day every day. It was awful, and I ate like crap. Then I took a week to re-charge (i.e. be a pussy).

Anyway I went to the gym today. Back on the wagon (though I'll be on vacation in ~a week for a wedding back east, but I might get in some workouts there). I dropped the weight a lot, especially on my squat as the knee stiffness thing was really an issue when I was getting heavy.

Squat
45x5x2
65x5
95x3
135x2
165x5x3

at first with just the bar my balance was terrible, but I eventually got the hang of it. Work set felt pretty solid. Thought I did a good job keeping my knees out, abs tight, head down. Probably was shallow on a few reps and coulda sat back more and used more hip drive. My left hamstring felt like crap. I kinda tweaked it leaving work slipping on a wet floor.

BP
45x5x2
65x5
90x3
120x2
135x5x3

Pretty good. Form a little iffy.

DL
89x8
126x3
176x2
211x5

The first warmup would usually be x5x2, but another guy was doing snatches with the 22lb bumpers in some crossfit workout, and he was kind enough to let me warm up on 'em, so I just made it quick.

Sets felt fine. Probably coulda gone 220 without wanting to die. +10 here on out until I get back to 260.

kidcolin,

your form for squats looks pretty good. i have trouble keeping my heels on the ground, and obviously this is essential for keeping form/avoiding injury etc. Can anyone help me wrt stance etc so im not tempted to lift my heels up?

Thanks

I dunno, I get off my heels from time to time. Just concentrate. When you concentrate on that you'll screw something else up. That's what I do.

I definitely hurt my left hammy, or maybe one of the adductors. It hurts today. I keep tweaking it when walking, or getting out of the car, that sorta thing. Hopefully it's OK by tomorrow, if not maybe I'll just squat lite or not at all and just press and power clean.

i lol'd at this

why? it's true

I just found it silly.

"You don't want to be me, man. I'm slightly overweight. And my skin... it's bad."

I dunno. What does that even mean?

EDIT: You don't look like a leper, FFS.

oh I just have acne. moving on.

With the injury thing, I can't really tell if it's a pull or what. I don't know jack. Just go by feel?

Worst thing about missing all those workouts is that now I have to go through DOMS again. I'm sore as **** today, especially my right quad (probably due to compensating for my weak left hammy?), my lats, and my spinal erectors. I was going to go for a bike ride tonight, but with the hamstring and this I'll probably just go for a walk, foam roll, and stretch.

Should probably start posting food again, too.

Yesterday:
8:30 am: 4 scrambled eggs in a little bit of butter w/ onions and green peppers and cheddar
12:30 pm: grilled chicken marinated in lemon juice, olive oil, and garlic, spinach + cucumber salad w/ olive oil. 1 string cheese thingy.
4 pm: 1 can tuna w/ mustard, onions, and peppers. A few cashews.
6 pm (pre workout): same grilled chicken, some awful microwaved brussel sprouts, 1/2 baked sweet potato
9:30 pm (PWO): shake w/ 1.5 scoops whey, raspberries, whole milk, some PB, and 1/2 cup oatmeal. I was pretty hungry and had to wait for the oatmeal to cook so I had a string cheese while waiting, too. Those ****s are delicious.

Today:
8:30 am: 4 scrambled eggs in a little bit of butter w/ onions and green peppers and cheddar
12:30 pm: brought chicken in to work to make salad, but they had grilled pollock at work so I had that. Came with quinoa, onion, cucumber, tomato, and strawberry salad. The fish was v good but the salad probably shouldn't have had the strawberry. I would have rather had some separate for dessert. Still, not bad.
3:30 pm: a few cashews
4:30 pm: 1 can tuna w/ onions, peppers, and mustard. 1 string cheese.

For dinner I'll do something with the ground beef I have left and probably some salad. Later I'll have some milk and whey.

Thurs, 8/6, B

Squat
45x5x2
65x5
105x3
135x2
170x5x3

Went OK. Not too difficult. Didn't focus enough on knees out, probably partly due to my left hamstring/groin area (felt much better today, but still would randomly tweak it here and there throughout the day). We'll see how the knees feel tomorrow.

Press
45x5x2
55x5
70x3
85x2
100x5x3

Pretty easy actually, so I guess I didn't lose too much strength over the last month. One of the few benefits of that is that my nagging left shoulder healed up.

PC
practiced some hang power cleans
45x5
55x5
70x3
85x2
99x3x5

They didn't feel too hard, but they also didn't feel to good. Something is off here. I'm having trouble exploding.

I shoulda done some planks or something afterward, but I wanted to get home. I was kinda annoyed while working out because I was in the "hardcore" room where no one usually is, or if there are they're busting ass, and just these two people were hanging out socializing. Which I guess shouldn't bother me, but I'm a curmudgeon. They were there when I came and still there when I left. The girl was quite fat, obv.

Also, the same dude who was doing the crossfit type workout last time is apparently a bodybuilder. Came in towards the end of my workout and was doing all the poses and ****. I'll give him credit, he's got a great body. And some bacne, so he's possibly on drugs (though he's not mega jacked or anything). I guess that's cool if it's what you're into, but there were a couple dudes with him really into his poses and ****.. a little gay for my tastes.

Food today:

8:30 - same breakfast as every other day
1 - Salad w/ mixed greens, broccoli, red bell peppers, zucchini, quinoa, left over grilled chicken breast, olive oil, and a little blue cheese which I thought I didn't like but it was delicious and the highlight of the meal
3:45 - 1 can tuna w/ mustard, onions, and green pepper
4:30 - quick snack of 4 water crackers and string cheese. Water crackers are perfect for cravings of grains, imo.
6 (pre-WO)- I sorta failed this. First, I forgot my spinach+cucumber salad at home, so all I had was a burger (prob ~7-8oz) and a sweet potato w/ olive oil (need to figure out a good way to bring butter to work). AND I ****ed up the sweet potato and under cooked it and it didn't taste great so I only had about 3/4 of it. I didn't finish the burger either.
9:30 (PWO) - banana on the drive home, then protein shake with milk, 1.5 scoops whey, PB, and raspberries.

I'll probably chug a little milk before I go to sleep. I'm also giving IF a shot. I fasted from Sunday 8pm to Monday 8pm earlier this week. I'm gonna do a shorter one tomorrow, like 16 hrs.

Damn KC, what happened? I thought you were repping like 250+ on your squat about a month ago.

lolll no not that much, 230 or 235 was my tops. Then I missed a solid month due to traveling, really sick few weeks at work, and generally suckiness (see above). At the max of my squatting, I was getting very stiff around the top of the knees that I think were form issues (core failing leading to GMs, getting up on toes), so when I got back to it I decided to drop quite a bit and really focus on form so I'm taking it slow for now, and if it starts to click and feel right I'll take some bigger 10-15 lb jumps to get back up there soon enough. Past two workouts have gone pretty well. I need to do more core work like planks and reverse crunches, though. I'm getting lazy with that stuff.

Decided to take my two day rest now since either way I'm only getting in 2 more workouts before flying back to Mass. I slept like 11 hours. Whenever I sleep more than 9 my lower back is fairly stiff. I have a tempurpedic so I doubt it's the bed, but maybe.

Food yesterday:
fasted until 6. Wasn't a problem until ~5, then it kinda sucked.
6: sandwich from the deli consisting of grilled chicken breast, gouda, avocado, hummus, lettuce, I think mayo, on soft sour bread. Was delicious. I'm definitely "cheating"/re-feeding with sandwiches most often. I love sandwiches.
8:30 - lamb samosa w/ spinach and cucumber salad w/ olive oil.
11 - 10 oz glass of milk with 1.5 scoops whey, 1 string cheese.

Food today:
2 pm - turkey sandwich w/ mayo, mustard, lettuce, onion, and tomato on croissant (cheat)
during sox game (on DVR) snacked on a few strawberries and this refreshing zero/low calorie beverage consisting of lemon, lime, water, and club soda.

I have another lamb samosa or a lamb chop for dinner tonight, as well as eggs and such. I'm going for a bike ride later when the sun goes down. Lifting tomorrow and Tuesday.

When I'm back home in Mass, not sure what I'll be doing for WOs. I could check for some 7 day trials at a local gym, might do that. But I might just do BW stuff and crap in the yard. Maybe toss some big pieces of wood and rock, chop some wood, swing a sledge hammer, that sorta stuff.

do you use a foam roller? That might help with the stiffness and soreness. It really worked wonders on me.

Yeah I tore my rotator cuff on my left arm a few weeks ago while benching, so I know how much injuries suck. I'm trying to rehab it with high reps and low weight, but it's not going so well, and I can't do my job while injured.

mrh,

How did you diagnose an rc tear, and are you sure "high reps and low weight" of bench press is the way to rehab it

I do (kinda, get lazy), but this wasn't that kind of stiffness. This was a "you're messing up your knee" kind of stiffness. Like I felt great for 6-7 weeks, and then had trouble sitting for 2 weeks.

I'm not 100% sure that its an RC tear, but I'm following this from the starting strength wiki:

"Here is the tried-and-true injury rehab method for muscle-belly injuries we got from Starr and that has worked for years better than any other method I've ever used. It also works well on orthopeadic injuries in general, and should be tried before anything more elaborate is used. Wait 3-4 days until the pain starts to "blur",which indicates that the immediate process of healing has stopped the bleeding and has started to repair the tissue. Then use an exercise that directly works the injury, i.e. that makes it hurt, in this case the squat. Use the empty bar and do 3 sets of 25 with perfect form, allowing yourself NO favoring the injured side. If it's ready to rehab you will know by the pain: if the pain increases during the set, it's not ready, if it stays the same or feels a little better toward the end of the set, it is ready to work.

The NEXT DAY do it again, and add a small amount of weight, like 45 x 25 x 2 , 55 x 25. Next day, 45 x 25, 55 x 25, 65 x 25. Continue adding weight every day, increasing as much as you can tolerate each workout. It will hurt, and it's supposed to hurt, but you should be able to tell the difference between rehab pain and re-injury. If you can't, you will figure it out soon enough. This method works by flushing blood through the injury while forcing the tissue to reorganize in its normal pattern of contractile architecture.

After 10 days of 25s, go up in weight and down in reps to 15s, then to 10s, and finally to fives. During this time do NO OTHER HEAVY WORK, so that your resources can focus on the injury. You should be fixed in about 2 weeks, squatting more than you hurt yourself with.

This method has the advantage of preventing scar formation in the muscle belly, since the muscle is forced to heal in the context of work and normal contraction, using the movement pattern it normally uses. The important points are 1.) perfect form with 2.) light weights that can be handled for high reps, 3.) every day for two weeks, and 4.) no other heavy work that will interfere with the system-wide processes of healing the tear.

It is also very important through the whole process of healing the injury that ice be used, during the initial phase after the injury and after the workouts. Use it 20 on/20 off, many times a day at first and then tapering off to morning, after the workout, and before bed. Ice is your best friend in a muscle belly injury, holding down inflammation and fluid accumulation ("swelling") while at the same time increasing beneficial blood flow through the injury. But DO NOT USE ICE MORE THAN 20 MINUTES AT A TIME. More than that can cause more damage than it repairs.

This may actually be the most useful post on this entire little forum of mine, and if you use this method exactly you can save yourself many weeks of lost training and long-term problems with muscle-belly scarring. Try it and see."

8/9, Sunday, Workout A

Squat	Bench	Deadlift
45x5x2	45x5x2	89x5x2
75x5	70x5	140x3
105x3	95x4	197x2
140x2	125x2	232x5
175x5x3	140x5x3

tables wut wut.

My left hamstring/groin is still a little bothersome. Feels a lot better but still tweak it occasionally.

Squat felt pretty good. I mighta done 6 reps on my last set, I lost count, and I let the bar drift forward a little bit.

Benching sucks. I hate it. It went OK. Again I mighta done 6 reps on the final set, and the final one was hard.

Deadlift was fine. Completely dropped the last rep rather than do the negative as my lower back was feeling a little smoked, though. Should probably record these soon just to make sure my form is still solid. I'll probably throw 20 on again if I do a WO at home, otherwise I'll add 10 if my next DL workout is 8/24 when I get back from mass.

To finish the set, I did 2 planks, 57 mississippi and 50 mississippi. Then I did 12kg KB swings. Not sure what standard workloads are here, but I did 3 sets of 10 for each arm. These were pretty fun. My hamstrings and glutes were definitely tired afterwards and I was pretty short of breath. Nice finish. Maybe I'll invest in some KBs.