Repair and prepare - my journal on the road back to 5x5

[anotherbutters]

Week 3, Friday

Bodyweight: 82kg (180lb)

1. Squat (kg) - standard SF Friday
bar x 2 x 9 ......... warmup
40 x 9 ............... warmup
60 x 5
65 x 5 ............... up 5
70 x 5 ............... up 5
75 x 5 ............... up 5
85 x 5 ............... up 5, supposed to be a triple, but what the hell ..... (187lb)
75 x 3 ............... FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!!

My back's gone again. ARGGGHHH!!!!!

Like I said the other day, I've been feeling a very mild pain in my back (lower right) straight out of bed, but it's always gone within a minute or so. Today, on the way down on the 3rd back-off rep, I felt something go. Not in a big way, but it was the same sharp pain in the same place that caused the injury that's healing. It's only a mild pain now, but it goes sharp when I lean over forwards and diagonally to the opposite side, pretty much as it was when this first happened.

I'm fucking livid! It's exactly 10 weeks since this last happened and I'm still 6 weeks away from matching my PRs, so if it takes me another 10 weeks to get back to where I am now, that's 16 weeks before I get back to PRs. It's been killing me being this patient whilst I've been healing. 16 weeks is a lifetime.

Even worse is that I've got a fair amount of fat on me that I've been ignoring, but I don't even want to spend the next 16 weeks cutting because I can't work out effectively to preserve muscle mass.

To my back:

 

[nelmsjer]

DANG it, AB!!!

That SUCKS. To the doctor/chiro again???

 

[blut wump]

Do you stretch out your hamstrings after every workout. I try to stretch mine and get the stretch to go through my lower back.

You're just going to have to concentrate on making your back stronger along with your abs. Find a way to do hypers and reverse hypers. Do your daily stretches and work RDLs or even deadlifts whenever your back feels good enough to let you do it. Start to pile on the abs work on your off days too. The chiro can pop things back into place but only you can keep them in place. Start to do more walking it's one of the best exercises for keeping the area moving. My chiro even recommended dance, which I ignored.

Commiserations, I hope you can catch this before it becomes a 24/7 hassle.

 

[RipStone]

That blows man. Sorry to hear that. Do whatever you can to fix your back bro....blut_wump had some great ideas.

 

[anotherbutters]

I'll give the chiro a call, even though I only saw him 2 nights ago. I don't think there will be much he can do, it's just one of those things. I'm just annoyed at the setback.

BW, thanks for all the info. I'm not sure what you're saying as regards deadlift/RDL work. I was already doing deadlifts and they were getting hard. Are you suggesting more volume and frequency (but lower intensity)? I have neglected the ab work, that's for sure. To be honest, I thought I'd be better going easy on the back to let it heal, and then hit it hard and get it stronger later.

It's funny you should mention hypers/reverse hypers. I tried to see if I could do them by hanging off the bench this morning (before squats) and I could, although the range of motion wasn't that great and I had to wrap my toes underneath to do the hypers. This is the first time I've tried these and they were pretty easy and I only did 4 or 5 reps, so I'm pretty sure it didn't contribute to today's injury, even though it is the one thing I've changed.

I stretch both hamstrings, but not every time and sometimes more than others. I've mentioned my right hamstring in the past, but don't think I've gone into much detail. My right hamstring went really tight, probably 10 months ago, and I still don't know why as I had no other injury at the time. It was so bad I was in agony just climbing into a car or standing up after being sat down for a while. It comes and goes and it's not that bad at the moment. Here's the thing I don't understand - if I lie on my back and raise my right leg, the right hamstring starts to hurt when my foot's only a foot off the ground. But the pain goes away and I can raise it a bit more, then it gets painful again. I can keep doing that until I have my hands behind my calf and I'm pulling my straight leg way beyond vertical, close to my chest. That implies good hamstring flexibility to me, but I don't understand why it gets painful along the way. The chiro couldn't tell me, he just said to stretch it more. More stretching does help, but there's always some amount of pain there. I can even feel it if I just arch my back whilst being sat in a chair. I expect the hamstring issue is what pulled my hip out of alignment in the first place, but one can only speculate.

Now that I'm working in London, I have two 10 min and two 20 min walks per day as part of my commute. I know it's not a lot, but it's more than I've done in the past. Walking isn't much fun this time of year!

 

[blut wump]

I've suffered a lot with the things you mention except for the hamstring pain. I mentioned RDL and deadlifts as something for your posterior chain along with the hypers and reverse hypers. You'd mentioned before that you were in IT which I associate with desk-jockey. The posterior chain is the desk-jockey's bane. All that sitting does it no good at all and I know that mine got itself into a terrible state.

Is the pain you mention cramping or just a variant on the unpleasant ache that comes from stretching hamstrings? I've gone through various hamstring stretches and my current favourite is to rest one foot/ankle on something around waist-height and lean forwards keeping both legs straight. I feel the stretch not only in my hamstring but also right through my lower back whenever that's feeling tight too.

Another thing I used to do often is to lean over the back of a chair and push against it with my arms to try to stretch out my lower spine. Some might suggest that's not a good idea but it has given me relief in the past. Chairs are very useful for pushing against in various ways to stretch out and twist the spine. I'm kind of used to feeling things move in my back with my DIY chiro, though. How's your mattress? You've mentioned aches first thing in the morning so maybe your mattress isn't upto snuff.

 

[anotherbutters]

Yes, I'm in IT and sit at a desk all day unfortunately. I tried to get out by venturing into property development, but things aren't quite working out.

I used to have lots of lower back aches, but they've long gone, after I started lifting weights about a year ago. My mattress is fairly firm, yet very comfortable. It's a reasonably expensive one (mattress and divan was £1000, I think) that I got about 4 years ago, which I rotate and flip over regularly, so there's lots of life left in it yet.

You've got me thinking about other contributing factors... Hmm, my sofa is definitely bad for my back. It's an expensive one and looks good, but the cusions are full of feathers that go flat in a day or so and it's very deep and difficult to sit back in. I'm loathe to chuck it out and you don't get anything for them 2nd hand. It would probably be a lot better if I had the cushions restuffed / filled with foam.

The pain in my right hamstring is acute when I stretch it. I get the ordinary stretching feeling in my left hamstring when I'm really stretching it, but the right is completely different. It used to hurt when I stood up and started to walk, but after about a dozen steps it went ok, so it's always been a temporary pain. Much as I experience when I lie on my back and stretch it, I guess - any idea if this might be indicative of anything? I've also tried stretching it by putting my foot on the sofa/chair/bed and bending my torso down as you mentioned. And also by sitting on the floor and leaning forwards (both legs at the same time). I can get the biggest ROM and most intense stretch when lying on my back, leg in the air.

 

[Anthrax Invasion]

Any flexion (forward bending) is going to aggrevate an already injured back. It's bad even for a healthy back, unless you're keeping an arch in your lumbar spine. When you go to touch your toes or anything like that, keep perfect posture. Don't let your back come out of that arch at all.

Try to sit upright as much as possible. Avoid sittng on sofas or things that have you sinking in, giving you no firm support. Don't do any sort've flexion movement within two hours of waking.

Try some McKenzie pushups or other extension movements to keep the lower back feeling good. In fact, trunk endurance has been more closely linked to the lower back than strength. That said, try some of those planks and side bridges I've recommended to people so many times. Hold them for about 5-8 seconds each, for 5-10 reps.

 

[Jim Ouini]

Sorry to hear that AB. Good thing you didn't push those deads

Re: reverse hypers, you can maybe get a stability ball and put it on your bench to get your legs perpendicular to the floor and increase the range of motion. Of course you need to hang onto something. There's also the ball only version on the floor, but the ROM is very small.

As far a stretching, if you're sitting a lot, I also heard 'the posterior chain is the desk-jockey's bane.' (good one BW) But I've heard because of the sitting and computer position that the tight muscles are the hip flexors and pecs, and the weak ones are the glutes and lats.

For the same reason everyone always says your bench and row should be about the same for shoulder health, glutes and hip flexors should be balanced for back health.

Anyway, I'm just being a yoda here, I have no personal experience with it (except for some quarter squatting and benching )

 

[anotherbutters]

Week 2, Friday, part II

The show goes on.

2. Bench (kg) - 8 x 3
windmills
bar x 2 x 9 ............. warmup
40 x 5 ................... warmup
42.5 x 3
45 x 3
48.5 x 3
52.5 x 3
56 x 3
61 x 3
63.5 x 3
68.5 x 3 ........... up 1 ............ (151lb)

3. 30' incline bench supported rows (kg) - 8 x 3
40 x 5
42.5 x 3
45 x 3
47.5 x 3
50 x 3
52.5 x 3
55 x 3
58.5 x 2 ........... up 1 ........... (129lb) .......... missed 1 rep

4. Ivanko Gripper (lb)
85 x 8 ............ warmup
101 x 3 ........... warmup
113 x 3 ........... warmup
119 x 5 x 5 ...... up 6

5. Reverse hypers off 30' incline bench
BW x 5

6. Hypers off 30' incline bench
BW x 5

Followed by all manner of hamstring / back stretching.


Comments

When I hurt my back last time, I pretty much stopped working out because I couldn't do half the exercises. As a result, as well as losing lower body strength, I threw away some upper body strength too, which is my weakness. That isn't going to happen this time.

Bench was ok. I did lots of windmills before and during the sets and my left shoulder was ok this time. Today's workout wasn't much of an increase on last week, but I think the earlier sets were already high enough. The top set was ok. I'm ready for 70kg next week - my first mini-milestone.

I did rows supported, to avoid using the lower back. I couldn't fathom any way of raising myself up enough to do them horizontally, so I did them off the bench inclined at the lowest setting such that my arms were fully extended when I grabbed the bar. I was quite high up the bench, so I still managed to pull the bar to my stomach. I actually quite enjoyed doing them this way. They were pulled explosively off the floor and completely deloaded in between reps. I pulled them until they hit the underside of the bench, which gave me a positive indication of a completed rep - something I've always missed with these. As a result, I only ended up missing the final rep, didn't I! I think if I tried again, I would have got it.

Grip work is progressing nicely. This was the same as Monday's and I'll increase them again next week. I haven't had any hand stiffness like I had after I first used the gripper.

I played around and got my bench into a position such that I could do hypers and reverse hypers in a stable way. The only 'problem' is that the bench is inclined by about 30'.


The plan

I'm planning on continuing to bench, row (albeit supported) and chin. If military press doesn't put too much of a strain on my back, I'll continue those too. I'm thinking of stopping squats and deadlifts completely, rather than just reducing the intensity like I did last time. In the back of my mind, I felt as though I wasn't helping matters by continuing last time, but I was too stubborn to stop. If there were some contraption that would let me squat with weight attached to my hips, I'd like to try it, so I could continue to work legs at least. To be honest, I don't think I'd find one and it'd probably be too expensive to warrant buying it anyway. A dip belt might work, but I'd have to squat above a hole! Hmm...

So, I now want to do everything I can to heal as quickly as I can. I will stretch every day, twice a day, concentrating on my hamstrings and back. I'll include hypers and reverse hypers into my routine as appropriate. I'll also make sure I get some ab work in regularly. Posture will be something I'll be thinking about every day from now on.

So, a few questions. With hypers and reverse hypers, I assume doing them from a 30' incline is ok. When I did them, I hyperextended the back. Should I do this or just raise myself so I'm straight? Should I progressively add weight to them and really push them to strengthen my back, or is the purpose just to flex the back with bodyweight as a rehab exercise? Ab work - I presume I just do this, so long as there's no pain (much like everything else).

I'm thinking of the following:

Mon: bench, row, hyper, reverse hyper, abs
Wed: military press, chins, hyper, reverse hyper, abs
Fri: bench, row, hyper, reverse hyper, abs

Sorry for the long post. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone for your support so far. I'd give out k, but I just did you all the other day and have to spread it around

Oh yes, I started taking CEE tonight. I'll do about 1g, twice a day. I couldn't weigh 1g accurately and don't have a scoop, so I weighed out 20g and cut it up evenly with my credit card for a laugh. I wonder if it's as effective if you snort it (not that I've ever done anything like that).