Promotion + Core Work = Ready To Train Again

[Anthrax Invasion]

Well, after lots of lower back pain and frustration, my paitence paid off. It seems I'm able to get away with a lot without lower back problems now, and I figure it's about time I get back to training! It's been 6-7 months since I've done anything worthwhile in my little dungeon of a home gym, and I'm ready to tear everything apart.

Granted, I'm going to be squatting very light to start off, I'm excited to get back into the game. I've also decided to go with a new approach that has a bit more of an emphasis on hypertrophy with slightly less frequency than the common 5x5 here. After actually looking at it, and paying attention to people's complaints of their low backs here, I'm pretty sure the generic 5x5 is a bit rough for most people's low backs - squats thrice a week, deadlifts and OHP on Wednesday, and bentover rows Monday & Friday. That seems a bit ridiculous for the lower back. Even using chest-supported rows would make things a whole lot easier, and I honestly doubt there will be any huge drawbacks, if any.

That said, my routine has some isolation stuff in there, and is also designed to be wary to my lower back, at least initially. Take a look:

Monday
Back Squat - 3x4-6 / 3'
Leg Curl - 3x4-6 / 3'
Front Squat - 2x10-12 / 2'
Romanian Deadlift - 2x10-12 / 2'
Calf Raise - 3x4-6 / 2'
Seated Calf Raise - 2x10-12 / 2'
Ivanko Gripper - 2x6-8 / 1'

Tuesday
Flat Bench - 3x4-6 / 3'
DB Row - 3x4-6 / 3'
Incline Bench - 2x10-12 / 2'
Chinup - 2x10-12 / 2'
Skull Crusher - 2x12-15 / 1.5'
Incline Curl - 2x12-15 / 1.5'
RC Complex - 2x12-15 / 1'

Thursday
Front Squat - 3x4-6 / 3'
Romanian Deadlift - 3x4-6 / 3'
Back Squat - 2x10-12 / 2'
Leg Curl - 2x10-12 / 2'
Seated Calf Raise - 3x4-6 / 2'
Calf Raise - 2x10-12 / 2'
Ivanko Gripper - 2x6-8 / 1'

Friday
Incline Bench - 3x4-6 / 3'
Chinup - 3x4-6 / 3'
Flat Bench - 2x10-12 / 2'
DB Row - 2x10-12 / 2'
Incline Curl - 2x12-15 / 1.5'
Skull Crusher - 2x12-15 / 1.5'
RC Complex - 2x12-15 / 1'

Core Work is done daily (post-training)
Curlup - 5x8s
Side Bridge - 5x8s
Birddog - 5x8s

RC Complex is as follows
L-raise, A-raise, External Rotation

Every day, prior to training, I'll be following a butchered dynamic warmup as per Martin Rooney, with some specific stuff for my back thrown in.

Specific skills will be done to keep motor patterns working correctly for sprinting, jumping, and MMA.

The primary goals of the above are to get me back to where I was, then reach my hypertrophic goals, while pushing my strength to the level I want. That level happens to be enough to support my fighting & sprinting performance. Once there, I'll end up following something geared towards reactivity with explosive work thrown in (plyos, energy work - CCJ, anyone?)

The routine above was something I got from Lyle McDonald over at BodyRecomposition - it fit nicely in my head, so I'm gonna see how it turns out. I also have Madcow & CCJ to thank for all their help, and for dealing with my questions. Now I just have to put it all to good use and get to where I've wanted to be (and I should've been a lot further along by now - damn you, lumbar spine!).

Oh, to add on to the above, my diet, which is nothing spectacular:

Whey + Milk + Oatmeal Shake (whoat shake ) - two of these a day
Two sirloin beef burgers daily, a tuna sandwich, a pb&j, veggies thrown in every which way, pieces of fruit here and there, 1/2 gallon of 1% milk (would do 1 gallon whole as per Rippetoe, but better to use 1% and add in ANPB) a day minimum, fish oil (enough for my daily EPA/DHA needs), and anything else I feel keen enough to munch on. I have it organized in a spreadsheet, but it's easier to just jumble the foods together like this. In the end, it's a ton of calories, but my activity level + age will easily devour all 4,500 calories.

Before my injury, I was 190-195 or so, lean. Now I dropped back to 165-170 at 6' - that's what no training and poor eating gets you. I'm pretty sure I'll get back to where I was soon enough, though. I just turned 19 January 2nd too, so the clock is ticking!

Ho-hum...I think that's about it. Well, let me know what you all think.

 

[anotherbutters]

I look forward to seeing your progress. Is this the start of a journal?

How come you went for db rows over supported bb rows, or even powercleans, just out of interest? I assume you're going to run this single factor style with small increases per week for now?

Good luck!

 

[Anthrax Invasion]

I workout at home, so I have no chest-supported row that will suffice. Doing them on my bench is uncomfortable. There shouldn't be much of a difference between them. Supporting myself on one arm will take the lower back out of the equation still, and will help me ensure I have equal pulling strength on both sides of my body. According to Martin Rooney, among others, it's important for a fighter to be pretty balanced on both sides of the body. 'sides, my lower back will get enough work otherwise, so I figured I'll take it out of the equation and do my rows this way.

I'd do power cleans, but not yet. In the future I might toss them in or replace something else. I wanna give my back some more time to heal while I start up with this. Power cleans might put the hurt on me.

Single-factor style is likely the only way I'm going to run most of my training until I hit my strength goals. The plan is to just hit the higher reps for all my sets (i.e., 3x6) and then up the weight. The weight will increase when I feel I'm able. I may implement something much later when I need to get that last bit of hypertrophy or strength and need to put up more weights, but otherwise I don't plan to use anything dual-factor.

In short, yes. Upping the weight weekly.

 

[BiggT]

If it is something that keeps you healthy and consistent, and it is a plan of attack for upping compound lifts, then I am a fan of it. Good luck with it.

 

[Jim Ouini]

Hope you keep this as a log, I'll be following it. You've given some good advice here so it'll be good to see you in action. Good luck with it.

I see you have some higher rep RDL's in there, is it for some lower back conditioning stuff?

 

[Anthrax Invasion]

RDLs feel particularly good on my back. I've done a bar complex with a bunch of stuff over the past month and they were a part of it. I figured I'd try them with higher reps, as I'm limited in my choice of exercises. The main reason for the higher repped stuff is for metabolic work for those bodyparts. The lower reps will provide the majority of my sarcomere hypertrophy, the higher the sarcoplasmic. As I said, it's a routine Lyle has put people on and I've heard good things. I figured it would be worth a try, since I've never trained much outside M/W/F (aside from a failed WSB attempt three years ago).

Honestly, I'd keep it as a log, and I may end up doing so, but as of now I'll record my stuff in Wordpad - I can always put it up later. Reason being? I'm scared to see how much I can lift after being away for so long.

Biggt, you don't sound crazy for what I have planned. Share your thoughts, please.

Chances are, if I don't like the feel of this routine after a month, I'll be switching over to something based around 3x a week training again. It feels weird getting away from it in my mind, so it'll probably feel even more off when I actually train. Guess I'll need to wait and see.

 

[Illuminati]

looks very much like a WSB routine, with the days shifted around a little bit

 

[Anthrax Invasion]

looks very much like a WSB routine, with the days shifted around a little bit

And Illuminati likes WSB, so he likes my routine. Word.

 

[marc1]

And Illuminati likes WSB, so he likes my routine. Word.

It's funny because I am currently doing a similar type of split. I had been doing the SF 5x5 for about 11 weeks, however, I wanted to take a break from squating 3x a week. Are you ramping up the weights for sets are they straight sets?

 

[Illuminati]

And Illuminati likes WSB, so he likes my routine. Word.

wonder how you would have ever guessed that one....hmmmmm