Whoa. Might just be shadows/angle/etc, but even your quads look smaller on the bung leg.

Do you think not being able to bend your ankle will affect your ability to squat? It seems like there is a lot of ankle bend in that movement.

Wanted to add: What's up with "snitch"...? where did that come from? Backstory please? Ty

Left quad is 27.5", right quad is 30". Did a ton (sometimes over a thousand) leg extensions, and I think the left quad only lost about an inch and a half, but the really noticeable part is the vastus medialis, the "tear drop" muscle (someone correct me if that's not the vastus medialis) that lost a lot of size. My left calf has always been smaller after the initial surgery, and from the subsequent pain and the way my gait changed, but if there's a way for me to train my calves w/o needing an ankle joint- this time I feel like I can get things somewhat back to normal in terms of symetry, although it will likely take a year from now before that happens. Overall it feels like the surgery was a success, but since it takes a full year to heal from ankle fusion I'll probably lay off deads and squats until then, but, since ankle fusions are temporary (at 21 they said i couldn't have it done until at least 35, and at 28 it was obvious I was a candidate probably at 27) in terms of relief, I've probably got a good 5yrs of pain free days ahead of me, and I probably will start to develop arthritic issues (there are a lot more joints in the foot than one might estimate) by age 35, so I'm going to do as much as I can while I can, and just hope and pray I'm one of the few people who has an ankle fusion performed and has no trouble with it for the rest of their life. But I'm a stubborn bastard, I'll probably keep pushing ahead with intestinal fortitude until I collapse. Then get back up and keep going.


It was weired seeing the holes in my tibia from where they removed the old plate and screws. Even more creepy knowing they'll never grow back.

I was able to squat pre-op, and the ortho said I had developed a gait that was like my ankle was fused already, but I had some sessions squatting where it was painful b/c of the movement in the joint. Honestly, I dont know if I'll be able to squat again. I can't try and squat down right now, b/c I'm only at 20% weight bearing for the next few weeks. I think I might be able to find a form that takes some of the normal ankle ROM out of the movement, but I really have no idea what it'll be like. The ortho said the hardest thing for someone with a fused ankle to do in day to day activity is to walk up an incline; not stairs, but, say, up a hill. And that makes perfect sense to me now. I think if I do squat, it will be a wide stance with my toes out, but that's just me sort of going over it in my brain, wondering, trying to find a way to do it. I always liked the way it felt to be in shape and hit do a session on squats that kicked my ass, it was such a great feeling to be in that kind of aerobic shape while also being strong, so odd are I'll find a way. Maybe I'll have to put a board under my heels, I dont know. I think with enough determination and enough combinations and research I'll find a way to get back in the rack.

shameful past /sigh

Back in my super nerd days of playing warhammer, there was a character called "Snikch". When I moved into other super nerd pursuits such as online gaming, I used this as my nick. One day I somehow managed to type "Snitch", and the rest is history...

Oh, I added the "00" one day while we were playing CS and discussing how awesome Goldeneye was.

sic pic... good luck with the rehab/recovery stage

Sounds like a long ways to go still. I'm sure you'll work hard at it. Good luck.

Yeah, if your hips are flexible enough a very wide powerlifter sumo-style squat stance would probably take a lot of the ankle flexion out.

chest/tri's

planned on doing a 1RM and a negative and some other heavy work, but couldn't get one of my cousins to come in and spot me, and judging by the first video in this post, you'll see why i'm hesitant to ask even a guy doing bench press next to me to give me a spot. in the first vid, i swear the dude didn't even give me a lift off. he waited until I had the weight coming off the bar then pulled up, totally throwing me off and making me re-center the weight. i'm still having trouble on benchpress with form sometimes, mostly b/c I cant dig my left foot in, and in this first vid my form was all over the place, I really thought and felt like I had 8 reps in me, but whenever I have to stop mid-set and re-adjust, I usually lose 1 rep.

135x10x2, 225x15, 275x10, (i really should have done 225x10 and 275x8, the 275x10 takes a little something out of me) then this, 315x6.75 and a near weight slide...I'm going to start doing some dumbell skull crushers, my left tricep is just a slight bit weaker, but with me not being able to dig my left foot in, it makes it all the worse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyNYlcyad2c

Decided since I'd taken 96hrs off and wanted to see where I was at, I'd do 375x1. I knew I had it, since 315x6 usually = 385 for me, so I picked a weight I was about 99% sure I'd need no assistance with. I hit my "groove" for the first time in years. It was absolutely perfect. Everything was in line, bar speed down was perfect, everything was tight and locked in, the rep was easy, I probably could have squeezed out one more. I was really happy with it given how sloppy I was on 315, but then again, a good lift off is the start to a good set, and this guy gave me a good liftoff. But ****, I felt like I was 100% proportioned exactly where I was supposed to be on this rep, it's amazing how much difference I feel between what only looks like a slight difference to someone else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WalwJw2gAyM



....I set my ipod on the curl rack which rarely gets used, but they've had the fans on full blast above the rack lately, and I can barely get it to stay balanced. Of course, the one rep that I wanted to watch, the one that felt like I'd found my form from years ago, it gets lost when the ipod falls off the curl rack just as I'm about to fall back and hit it. Whatever, I was still pleased with the result. I didn't eat enough today before today's workout and didn't carb up yesterday, and this boot is killing me, stretching everything in my ankle and making it swell up and hurt like a bitch. So, I figure I was at about 97% today, including mentally, due to my leg throbbing and feeling sprained, making it hard to focus, but I'm pretty confident I'm at 395x1 on flat bench, so I'm going to spend the next 3 weeks working with weights in the 315-365 range, and only going above 365 for negatives, which will probably go as high as 455.

After 375x1 I did 350x3, 335x2, 315x2x2 pause reps, 225x10x2 pause reps, 225x8 pause reps, narrow grip 225x10, 225x8 ng pause reps, 225x5 ng pause reps, 225x4 ng pause reps, at which point my triceps were pretty much give-out, but I went and did one set of dips, then did 2 sets of Incline Barbell, and finished off with 6 sets of tricep cable rope pushdowns. Didn't have enough in the tank to do the other 3 sets of incline barbell and the 6 sets of shrugs/rear delt flys I wanted to. I'd already been in the gym for an hour and forty minutes at this point anyways, and my ankle needed to go hit the tub/jets.


I really need to find a way to start putting skull crushers back into my routine.

Picked up a bottle of Monster Milk protein powder and plan on attacking my diet pretty hard over the next three weeks, I've been losing bodyfat and gaining muscle but at this pace it would be July before I reached sub 10% BF. Hoping in 3 wks I'll be able to hit 405 and be down around 230. If I can stick to it, I've mapped out 21 days of 2200 calories/day that includes 250g's protein/day, which should give me about 6-8lbs of fat loss. For whatever reason, imo, I look 10lbs heavier in these vids than I do IRL, and I guess I'm basing that on the comparison between the vids and pics I've snapped as I've been dropping weight. i could post some pics but my gf tells me it is teh ghey and that they should only be sent to her, and the dude abides.

Sidenote- I got a butchered haircut today. I asked for a fade. I knew I should have gone to the chick who costs more but never ****s up. I swear this is the ********* haircut I've ever gotten. And I have no idea what the lump on the back of my head is. Might be from one of the umpteen times I fell off the knee-scooter without a steering device and ate **** about every other day.

biceps/forearms;

concetration curls

35x15x2, 35x12, 35x8, 35x5, 35x3x3 (all done with no rest inbetween sans for the time it took me to finish the set on the next arm since they are done individually)

seated hammer curls (very similar to a concentration curls, in fact, almost exact, except dont w/ palms sideways isntead of palms up, to put more stress on the extensor, also doing these one arm at a time, and from a seated position since I can't stand and lift)

45x12, 45x8, 45x5x3

Wrist curls (dumbells) (palm facing behind me); 35x40, 35x25, 35x20x3, 35x15x3 (no rest between sets).

Open palm wrist curls; 35x25, 35x20, 35x10, 35x8x2

Dumbell wrist rotations (essentiall holding dumbell in my fingers, and swinging it left and right) 35x30, 35x20, 35x15 super set to Wrist curls; 35x20, 35x15.

Not a great workout but enough of one.

So far today I've had 125g's protein and about 1000 calories. planning on another 125g's protein via muscle milk protein powder and likely 2 gatorades, so I should be under 2000 calories today. In the journal that I keep about physical progess I'm about 3 weeks ahead of where I wanted to be/thought I would be wrt getting back to 405 on bench, and I'm also at a point where my body naturally wants to grow, gain weight, and get back to a certain size, so I'm going to confuse it this time since everyother time I experienced unexpected gains in strength I always went with it and tried to put my body in as much of an anabolic state as I could.

chest/tri's/delts/back...the good ole' 30 set workout

Flat Bench: 135x10x2, 225x10x2, 315x6, 355x3, 385x1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80xRdNr2Mvo

315x6, 315x5, 225x10, 225x8 narrow grip, 225x5x2 narrow grip pause reps

Dips: 1 set to failure

Incline Barbell: 135x15, 15 second pause, 135x10 pause reps, 15 second pause, 135x8 pause reps

Tricep Cable Pushdowns w/ Rope: 1x25, 1x15, 1x12, 1x10, 1x15

Lat Pulldowns: 1x20, 1x15, 1x12, 1x10, 1x8, 1x15

Rear Delt Flys: 2x15, 1x12, 1x10


I was soaking wet after this one. Couldn't help myself on the heavy bench set.

I'd be willing to wager you'll squat and dl heavy again given your attitude

385 looked easy

yea the guy spotting me was sort of like 'wtf' when i got done with the rep. judging by barspeed i think i'm really close to 405.

and barge ass, if there's anyways for me to i will, b/c i used to sort of shrug off a guy who could bench 400 but maybe that was his 1RM in squats, too. i do not want to be 'that' guy. i'm fine w/ being a bench monkey, but imo, the entire body needs to be strong, and a weak point should be minor, not, 'can bench more than he can squat'. the **** part about it is not being able to even squat down with even displacement of body weight for another 2-3 months.

wokeup pissed off. didnt even know that was possible. about two hours later anger subsided into pleasant laughter as my friend scaled the wall and was walking into my bedroom. (i tried it, it's nuts).

between waking up and hanging out and going to lunch;

Concentration curls "cc"

cc 45x10, 55x5, 60x3, 45x6, 35x8, 35x4, 25x10x8x6

Concentration hammer curls "chc"

chc 55x6, 65x3, 45x8, 35x10x2, 35x8, 35x6, 25x10x2

wrist curls 35x50, 35x35, 35x25, 35x20 (pause for 2 mins) 35x30, 35x20, 35x15x2, 35x10x2, strip set to 25x10x2

ten minutes stretching biceps/forearms, crutched my way down the stairs, hit the bag like i was trying to kill that goddamn mother****er. went until i collapsed onto the garage floor laughing and screaming. stood back up and did it again.

only thing i could stomach at lunch was chips and salsa.

ankle is throbbing my body is limp and i want to go to the gym and hit something. doesn't even have to be the ****ing gym, dry wall, a stud behind the dry wall, i dont give a ****.

pugilism.

changing things up today;

Back rest barbell shoulder press (obv i cant do it any other way): 135x10x2, 185x10, 225x6, 275x2 (little spot on second rep)

Incline Barbell: 225x10x2, 275x5, 315x3, 275x3, 225x8 pause reps striped to 135x10 pause reps

Narrow grip flat bench: 225x5x3, 275x3x2 stripped to 225x3 pause reps

Pec Deck: 1x15, 1x10, 1x8 short pauses between sets

Tricep pushdowns on lat machine: 1x15, 1x10, 1x8, 1x6 strip to 1x8 strip to 1x10, 1x15

Lat pulldowns: 1x20, 1x15, 1x10, 3x8, 1x10, 1x12

Dumbell Shrugs: 80x20, 100x10x4 strip to 60x15

Under 2K calories last 3 days, haven't been on a scale in a long time. Body is feeling depleted though. Going to eat normal from now until Monday.

Going to go for 405 on Monday, and will weigh myself then. Once I hit 405, I'll probably start a new log for benching 2x my bw raw, because it will cover both aspects of getting lean and maintaining strength.

This ****ing ankle boot is kicking my ass. Going to the ortho in 15 to get a new boot. No joking the left one looks red and purpleish and feels like the mid section got run over by a car. Never been so on edge. If I dont post here for a week or two, I'm sitting one out in county.



-Tex

Yesterday i did bicep work and forearm work. Starting to get addicted to this routine, evidenced by 48'ish hrs recovery. depending on time of day i'm between 242 and 245.

flat bench

135x15, 225x15, 315x8, 405x1, negative 455x1, 365x3, 335x5 pause reps, 315x5 pause reps, 275x6 narrow grip, 225x6x4 narrow grip

incline

135x12, 225x5x3

tricep cable

whole stack (140?idk) x8 strip to x6 strip to x4, rinse and repeat 3x

chins

3x5

rear delt flys

4x15



Bones have grown back together, have to go to 100% weight bearing on tuesday to avoid further atrophy, nothing has gone as planned, i was supposed to still be in a cast but my bones grew back together, from what i gather, faster than any of the other 1500ankle fusions my ortho had done. Feels like having the worst sprained ankle you could ever have and being told to walk on it. The right ear bud on my Shure headphones snapped in half, really ****ing pissed about that.

so despite the current pain, you are optimistic about the recovery now?, best of luck regardless, im really jw

yesterday

concentration curls super set w/ hammer curls

40x15x15, 40x12x10, 40x10x10, 40x8x8, 40x6x8, 40x5x8, 40x3x6, 40x3x5, 30x8x8, 30x6x8 (since i'm working each arm individually there's only about 30 seconds inbetween sets which is why the reps drop fairly fast)

today

bench
135x10x2, 225x10, 225x5,(i count those 4 sets as warmup sets, the following as working sets) 315x8, 385x2, 410x2 (got stuck halfway up on 2'nd rep, spotter had to assist), 365x3, 335x5, 315x6, 275x12, 225x18, 225x8 narrow grip pause reps x6x6x6x5x5

incline
135x15, 185x12, 225x8, 135x20

tricep cable
strip set 1x10x7x5x8, 1x8x5x6x12, 1x10x10x10x8

pullups 1x5,1x4,2x3



having an issue w/ bench. there's something wrong in my form or some auxillary muscles aren't as strong as they normally would be in comparison to my chest/tricep strength. i added some high rep sets today to try and get it ironed out but i really have no idea where i'm weak at. my initial guess is that it's my lats, my chest is 56 inches and it was 58 inches last time i benched 427@227. i'm roughly twenty pounds heavier but haven't been able to do back work for over two months. i'm a little shaky with heavy weights once i get them off the rack. maybe it's relevant maybe it's not, but w/o a liftoff i do 315 two reps less than w/ a liftoff. my second guess is that it's my front delts...i was doing a lot more military pressing in the past, something that i've excluded from my program for the most part the last few months. it almost feels like i want to wrap my elbows, b/c whatever it is that is lagging is causing some instability and inconsistent form. if anyone can make some suggestions i'd like some feedback. noteworthy; it doesn't happen when i do narrow grip, making me more inclined to think it could be a lagging deltoid.

for now i'm going to start doing more shoulder pressing, possibly doing a lot of shoulder press, lateral delt raises, and rear delt flys (basically a total workout centered around pressing then some other work) then doing bench three days later.

i walked today without crutches. good news is i'll be able to squat, probably won't for another 6-8 weeks, but tried it today w/ just my body weight and not having an ankle joint didn't effect me like i thought it would, but i've always had a wide stance so probably why. bad news is i thought i knew how bad **** could hurt but this is a whole new level. uncontrollable moaning and twisting and writhing, flexing, squeezing, etc. my guess is they took about 1/4 inch of bone off my tallus which means everything has to stretch, and that's on top of the atrophy that took place. when i got the boot off tonight my foot was red with a purple hue. it makes sense to me that, since the bones have healed, i need to walk. i probably did 1/3 the amount of walking i would have done in a day, so it wasn't excessive, but so painful it was starting to make me crazy, angry, bad things.

going to start doing some rehab work on my leg tomorrow.

anybody want to give me an idea of what % bodyfat you would estimate for the following; 6ft 1/2 inch, 247 lbs, 19.25 bicep, 36" waist, 56" chest, 18" calf.

Your description of your foot instantly brought this to mind

You have a lot of WIM. Gl with continued recovery.

yes, i have a lot of weight in motion, woe is me, windows instant messenger, women in maternity, watermelon inside me, western idaho machismo.

i did ten sets of ten with 185 on military press and for three days my lats felt like i'd done 100 chins. i identified my weak spot on bench. why i was shaky. been cutting calories hard the last 5 days and was still sore tonight. did my normal routine on flat bench but stopped at 365. gonna focus on incline more now and will probably try and figure out how to incorporate military into my incline program. i'm thinking 6 sets of each, followed by tricep work, and leaving flat bench alone for 2-3 weeks.

started phys therapy today, did 4 sets of 30 on leg press with little weight, rode a bike for 30 mins, then did very light leg extensions followed by squats with just the bar.

there's not a single person who squats more than 225 at the golds i workout at. and not a single person who (to be clear, that i've seen on both) deadlifts more than 300. and there aren't any bench monkeys either. it's full of tank top bros with spiked hair doing dumbell work and the workout'er who thinks he's doing some cutting edge **** by sitting on a huge bouncy ball using rubber bands to do weird curls.

dude walked in last week and was about my height, probably 225, and very cut. had a chick with him. he proceeds to load up to 365 and i was sort of impressed until i saw him kicking his ass off the bench as high as it would go. his girl was doing 95x10 and kept her ass on the bench. lot stronger than i would have guessed she was. i asked him for a spot when i had 385 on the bar and i've never had anyone seem so ****ing annoyed for someone asking for a spot. not even a spot, just a liftoff. as i was saying "thanks man i appreciate it" he was already five feet away with his back toward me and didn't say anything. i wanted to walk up to him in front of the dumbell crowd and ask if he had any twenty three guage one inch extras in his bag.


i'm about to close out this log and start another i think. the two goals i'm working toward go hand in hand; bench 2x raw, which, i won't be able to do w/o getting very lean. so...meh, this might be my last post. unless i do bench 440@220, then i'll post the vid in the "july bitches thread".

I shot some vids for a couple of guys wanting incline vids, so here they go;

Incline barbell; 135x15,

225x10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVYTY2xQUnE

275x6x2

335x1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5oCzFIUHhc

315x3, 275x5 pause reps, 225x8 pause reps, 225x5x2, 135x35....

meant to do triceps, but got caught up talking about detroit's and cats and LTL and Trammell Crowe.

Got to talking with a new buddy at the gym so my workout sort of suffered; lately i've been going in and doing things like leg press with no weight on it at all and taking it as deep as i can with my left leg only to stretch my achilles and doing some other things as well; overall my leg is coming back pretty quick wrt the normal time for recovery, ortho said a year to a year and a half, but strange as it sounds i can literally feel strength coming back in my leg 2-3 days after a workout. It hurts like a son of a bitch either immediately after or the day after, but once that's gone it's like I can feel these small but noticeable gains. I'm going to start squatting tomorrow, just with 135 for reps.


I feel like over the last six months i've swapped muscle for fat nearly pound for pound; I started at 263 and am down to 248 and I'd say I've put fifteen solid pounds back on, but that's all a guess. The only sort of rule of thumb that I heard from a guy who knew more than me was 10lbs of muscle (for a bodybuilder- although this isn't a hard and fast rule) usually equates to an inch in arm measurement. Over the years i've found it to be at least more accurate than not, and having gained just under 1.5 inches on my arms in the last six months along with having to wear a belt with my 36's and almost fitting into my 34's, I think it's pretty accurate. Unfortunately I don't have a lot more "muscle memory" left. Seven years ago I was 275, biceps measured slightly over 20", and I had a 500lb bench, but that was during my AS days. I think I'll probably hit my first plateau of this venture back into the gym in about two months, figuring I'll plateau at 19.75", somewhere around 240lbs, and a 450lb bench. But that's all good b/c then I can cut down to 220 slowly and try (probably a 20-1 dog, but still try) to hang on to my 1RM. Either way I'm really glad I did this over the last six months. Lost my gut, got my 1RM on flat bench back up to 435, and if I hadn't done this w/ this ****ing surgery I'd have been a FPOS.

nice work!

+1, really enjoyable log