AB's 2007 log

[solarclimax]

week 16 Apr - 137.5 x 3 Good stuff, your squat has improved alot since last time i was reading 1 of your journals. But you should of made it 140 and not took no for an answer no matter how much your body wanted to take the night off. That way you can be happy and gay knowing that you just did 3 squats with 3 20kg plates on each side.

I pulled a muscle in my back once doing overhead press, get some of those heat strips and always sit up with good posture like mr bean.
Maybe use some kind of back support when doing OHP just till it heals.

Shabba

 

[anotherbutters]

Check out the link to the spreadsheet

week 8 - 19 Feb - 142.5 x 5

 

[anotherbutters]

AB's 5x5: Week 18, Wed

Bodyweight: 187lb

Summary spreadsheet. Below, I show the top sets only, all weights are in kg, and previous weeks are in orange.

1. Front Squat (5 triples for PRs)
Week 17: skipped due to back pain
Today: skipped again due to back pain

2. Overhead press (8's)
Week 17: 37.5 x 4 x 8 - about right, not too easy, not too hard (83lb)
Today: 38.5 x 4 x 8 - about right (85lb)

3. Row (8's)
Week 17: 52.5 x 4 x 8 - just right - just hard enough (116lb)
Today: 53.5 x 4 x 8 - quite hard towards the end (118lb)

4. Decline situps (10's)
Week 17: 14kg x 3 x 10 - hard (31lb)
Today: 15kg x 15, 15, 11 - same as last Friday (22lb)


Comments

My ankle's still quite swollen from spraining it last Monday (although it's no longer painful to walk on) and my left lower back's still quite sore as deadlifts this Monday have aggravated it.

This looks like it's going to be another period of 'down time'. I'll carry on with upper body work, just so I don't regress. It's quite annoying as some guy was grunting out quarter squats with 100kg as though he owned the place today.

 

[blut wump]

Get well soon, damnit. I miss watching the PRs climb ever higher. Maybe your body needs some catch-up time in order to consolidate the gains you've made.

Are you doing any stretching to help? I still need to stretch myself out over the back of a chair fairly often in order to remain functional.

Did the guy look as though he thought he'd managed to intimidate you with his superhuman squatting exploits?

 

[anotherbutters]

I know, sorry there won't be any PRs for a while.

Even with hindsight, I don't know when a good time to stop would have been. The squat PRs were always hard, but the PRs kept coming. My form got a bit iffy, and the PRs still kept coming. I guess I shouldn't have compromised my form and should have aborted rather than dipped into a GM those couple of times.

I still don't stretch. It just isn't in my 'routine', so I forget, even when I intend to. I should probably stretch my hips, psoas, etc. I've always been able to go pretty deep.

I shouldn't laugh at that guy squatting at the gym actually. At least he was trying. It was just the way he came in, used the bar, then 60kg, then 100kg grunting that annoyed me. I try to keep myself to myself.

I'm hoping that my quickest route to recovery is lots of ab work (heavy, 3x per week) and no squatting or deads.

 

[solarclimax]

Don't worry about outher people, just concentrate on what your doing. I was going to join a gym few days ago and their was some body builders in their. I went with a freind and when i was doing the bench press 1 of the body builders was shouting out to my freind, grab the weight because it will be heavier than he thinks. I just ignored the guy did 8 reps with this heavey weight and left because their was no space for doing rows or deadlifts.

My humble suggestion is ... Have a couple weeks off, Go swimming and sauna, does my muscles some good i think.

 

[anotherbutters]

I haven't worked out since the last entry above. My back's getting better and might be ok for squatting in a week or so. My ankle's also better, but still hurts at certain angles. I'll get back into it next week with some light squats.

 

[blut wump]

Good to see you're still alive, AB.

I think you can expect around six weeks from injury before the ankle feels recovered and it might send you the odd reminder for quite a few weeks after that.

 

[anotherbutters]

Given the current rate of progress, you're probably right. My back seems to be on the same schedule. It's getting better, but slowly.

I've been a bit lazy this week, but I also had an allergic reaction to something at the weekend and had a rash all over me, so I didn't really want to go to the gym. It only lasted 2-3 days, but now it's Friday so... I'll start next week.

 

[anotherbutters]

I didn't work out at all last week, then I moved a load of furniture at the weekend and made my back worse, to the point where walking was painful. It didn't hurt at the time, but progressively got worse afterwards. Oh well, back to square one again. It's a little better today.

I'll try to keep going to the gym, but the workouts are very lacking without squats and deads. I sat there on the bench looking longingly at the squat rack today, lol.

Today's workout:

bench: worked up to 70kg x 5
rows: 60kg x 3 x 5 - felt pretty heavy
abs: BW x 15, 4kg x 15, 8kg x 12 (had to quit)
leg press (sled with your feet pointing 45' in the air type): worked up to 5 plates each side for 5 reps

I thought I'd throw in leg press. Hey, I'm in rehab after all!

I assume my back issues are caused by a weak core, so I'll be hitting abs every workout.