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

[Cynical Simian]

Glad to hear you enjoyed incline benching. Having a new exercise without a previous benchmark should be nice in the midst of working your way back to PRs in the other lifts. Also, I'm a bit late with this and you're probably tired of hearing it, but it looks like you've designed a solid program to work on/through the back issue.

And, in case you're worried that you're no longer an inspiration to your readers, I've decided to give regular/reverse hypers on the Powertec bench another shot. I've tried them before with various bench angles and ways of bracing myself but didn't find anything that was very stable/comfortable. I'm sure it'll seem blindingly obvious when you explain it, but how do you set up your bench/body when you do them?

 

[Anthrax Invasion]

Shaking on curlups? How much estrogen are you pumping through your system there, Sally?

Seriously though, it's normal in the beginning. Conditioning should jump up quickly enough.

Do you feel the birddogs anymore, with the longer duration?

 

[Island Son]

birddogs - keep your shoulders and hips parallel to the floor; for example as you raise your right leg look down at your left leg and don't rebalance any weight to it; keep the center of gravity over the same spot as if both knees were on the ground. A small move that makes them a lot harder

 

[nelmsjer]

Hey, AB. Keep at it. Like CS said, you've got a good workout program going, and I wish you the best on it. Take care of yourself and keep sharing your core work!

 

[anotherbutters]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

CS - for the hypers, I incline the bench as though I'm going to do incline bench, then turn the bench around so it's facing the wrong way. Then I put the bar down on the spotter bars at the lowest setting (above the lowest part of the bench) and stick a couple of plates on to weigh it down. Then I climb on the bench with my heels under the bar and hips at the top of the bench. I also chock the bar so it doesn't roll around. And I come up slowly on the first rep because the room isn't that big and my head's 1" away from a radiator

For reverse hypers, I use the same incline (just enough to get my feet off the floor), lean over the bench from the top, so my legs hang over the edge and face is at the bottom of the bench. Hope that helps.

Island Son - cheers, that description helped a lot. So I'm completely flat from the tips of my fingers, down my back to the tips of my toes, right?

AI - yeah, yeah I still didn't feel anything from the bird dogs, but I'm going to carry on. None of the core work takes long, so I might as well leave it unchanged for now.

 

[anotherbutters]

Week 4, Thursday


1. Pullups
BW x 8 x 3 reps .................. lots of swinging around

2. Hypers
BW x 3 x 15

3. Reverse hypers
BW x 3 x 15

4. Core work
Curlups, planks, side-bridges, bird-dogs, cobras: 5 x 10 secs each


Comments

When's it going to end - I feel like I'm working out every damned day! No, wait a minute...

My back was quite irritable this afternoon, for no apparent reason. It didn't feel great after the workout either. It's just one of those days.

My right hamstring is the bane of my life and was sore throughout the workout, even during pullups because of the stretching. I could barely do a reverse hyper, but struggled through. It feels like it's permanently bruised and any mild stretch sends out a sharp pain, even though I can stretch it a lot more.

I might change this schedule next week because I don't have time to do anything in the evenings. I might go back to chins 1x per week on Weds and move the hypers to Mon/Wed/Fri, so longer workouts, but I get Tues and Thurs off. I'd still do the core work because it only takes 5 mins.

 

[blut wump]

Have you discussed the hamstring pain with the chiro or with a doctor? The hamstring could be the cause of your lower back woes.

 

[anotherbutters]

That's what I'm thinking. I told the chiro and he agreed it could be the root cause of the back/hip issue. He couldn't explain it though, and all he could recommend was to stretch it more, which I wasn't entirely happy with.

I was thinking earlier: since the pain comes as soon as I stretch the muscle, I naturally react to that as though the muscle is inflexible, even though if I held that position, the pain would diminish and I'd be able to stretch it a lot further. I've increased my flexibility, but I can't utilise it.

I didn't see the chiro this week, but I'll pin him down on the issue next Wed and if I'm not happy, go and see the doc.

 

[anotherbutters]

Week 4, Friday

Bodyweight: 83kg (183lb) Up a bit. I think I'll try to start gaining now, albeit slowly, since I'm not hitting my legs.


1. Hip Squats (kg) (1x5)
- waiting for hip belt -

2. Bench (kg) (8x3)
warmup: bar x 9, 40 x 5
42.5 x 3
47.5 x 3 ............. up 2.5
50 x 3 ............... up 1.5
55 x 3 ............... up 2.5
60 x 3 ............... up 4
62.5 x 3 ............ up 1.5
65 x 3 ............... up 1.5
70 x 3 ............... up 1.5 ............ (154lb)

3. Supported rows (kg) (8x3)
41 x 5 ............... up 1
43.5 x 3 ............ up 1
46 x 3 ............... up 1
48.5 x 3 ............ up 1
50 x 3
52.5 x 3
56 x 3 ............... up 1
58.5 x 1 ........... same weight as last week, but 1 less rep, damn! ...... (129lb)
58.5 x 2 ........... tried again, to no avail

4. Ivanko Gripper (lb)
warmup: 87 x 8, 113 x 3, 119 x 3
130 x 5 x 5 ....... up 11lb

5. Core work
Curlups, planks, side-bridges, bird-dogs, cobras: 5 x 12 secs each - getting hard


Comments

I'm pleased with bench. 3 hard reps, but good form and I'll get another increase next week.

Rows were disappointing. I feel like I'm not using my back enough. I end up pulling the bar too high, to my chest, because I'm doing these from a bench that's inclined to about 30 degrees. I just tried (after the workout) propping the bench up at the low end, so the incline becomes flat and the whole bench is higher off the ground, but I still couldn't pull to my abs. But then I found that a supinated grip allowed me to pull lower, so I'll try that combination from now on. I'm slowly finding out what works...!

With the gripper, the next jump is from 130lb to 140lb, so I might stick to 130 for a while and increase the reps. I did 5x3 on Monday, 5x4 on Wednesday and 5x5 today. Next week, I might try 5x5, 5x6 and 5x7, then if that goes well, try 5x7, 5x8 and 5x9 the following week. I should then be able to rep with 140lb and my CoC#1 should have arrived, which is rated the same.

The core work was hard today. The curlups had my abs on fire! Planks were pretty hard too. Good form on the bird dogs, but still not feeling them.

I have an issue with cobras though - relaxing from the position aggravates my back, so I'm thinking of dropping them. I think I do them as I'm supposed to - push shoulders back with hands on the floor, then relax my back and let me belly sag a bit, hold, then slowly lower to the floor again. Comments, anyone?

 

[Anthrax Invasion]

That's one way I do cobras. The other is to not let the back sag at the bottom. This has, at times, irked my back as well. Give it a shot, maybe lower the volume a bit too. They're not meant for holds, usually. Just do straight reps.

You do each "set" of core work one after another, right? Just wanna be sure you don't do a curlup for 12 seconds, then rest between "sets". It should be "12 sec. hold", "lay or pause in untense position", "back up in position for another hold", "down again".

Nice progression on the gripper, keep it steady for a bit. Grip strength will stall out from large jumps pretty easily. Once things get tougher, you may want to implement other kinds of grip work, but until then, keep with the straight sets and normal progression. Add weight once it's relatively easy (i.e., not when you just barely hit the last rep).

Any chance you can get pictures for us? You may be doing birddogs wrong.

If you're not, it could also be the cobras prior to them. Not really sure. Worst case, drop them and just do hypers or reverse hypers for the lower back. Plenty of options there, the main reason I use 'em was 'cause McGill recommends 'em and I do tend to feel them.