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Post Info TOPIC: BobW's Log
BobW


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Posts: 327
Date:
2/28: Session 23
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Well.  First, the good news:  my back feels tremendously good.  The t-spine region that Doc Zak worked on yesterday is incredibly mobile, relaxed, and this has taken all the pressure off the l-spine, and I feel so awesomely healthy with the back that I'm like a new man.  A lot of the stress I've been feeling is gone.  Seriously - there's a huge, noticeable shift in my stress level, I'm much more relaxed.
 
Training.
 
Warmed up with some sled dragging, moving up to a sprint on teh hill.  Then took my time and warmed up forearms thoroughly, doing some db wrist curls and reverse wrist curls.
 
220 Stone to 50":  1x3, 1x7/8; 1x1xfail*
 
*The work set went very well.  All reps completely clear, I'm owning this stone.  Very close to one-motioning it on several of the reps, so I decided to try a one motion.   Got the stone up to my chest, and it suddenly felt like the forearm ripped apart.  Just immense, sharp, deep pain.  I cannot do any military pressing with a standard bar / grip - the pain is too intense with any pronation.  If I do a press with a neutral grip (use dumbbells or the log), it's better, but still not right.
 
Farmer's DL: 2x7x135;1x5x185;1x2x225;1x1x275,295,305/8,295/8
Surprisingly, teh forearm gave me no pain here, so, I remain built to pull.  Hips & back felt incredibly strong.
 
Seated Military Press: fail
basically couldn't even lower the bar to the rack position without incredibly bad pain in the left forearm.  Tried a few different times, and it wasn't happening.
 
DB Rows: 1x5x100;1x1x100 (fat handle)
These put a little pressure on the forearm, so kept backed off.
 
Seated military log press: 1x15x120/7
Trivially easy, which is nice - and a huge improvement.  I wanted to see what would happen if I used a neutral grip for pressing.  It works, with just a little forearm pain. So it's pronation and contraction which kills.
 
Total training time: 120min
 
Mixed bag, overshadowed by the pain in the left forearm for sure.
 
My pulling is improving.  305 felt really easy, and my body felt no pain / twinges doing this, and the rep was fast - no grindage at all.
 
Stone work is clearly improving.  Today was a rep-PR day, and I was moving pretty fast.
 
Now if we can just get this left forearm settled down and healthy, I'll be a machine.


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Mike Tuchscherer


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Date:
RE: BobW's Log
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Okay, just to clarify the email I sent earlier...
Do what you can to try to press without taxing the forarm, but anything that has injured the forarm in the last couple of weeks, drop it completely for a week or two (dependant on how you feel). For example, stone work... no go next week.

Any questions, let me know.

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BobW


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Posts: 327
Date:
Session 24 OUTSIDE!!!!!!!!
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The first outside training of 2009!  It was 15 degrees without factoring in the wind chill, but the driveway was useable.  It felt really great to be outside, it was sunny, a little breezy, but it was outside.
 
Yoke Walk: 4x60x330,2x60x410,4x60x500/9
  • Done out-and-back, with a drop / relift at 60', so sets were back to back with no rest
  • 500 was solid enough that I had "fast feet" for part of each run - this is a huge, huge PR
  • Lifts were easy, no sciatic pain, no problems - the cambered bar work is paying off!

Log Jerk: 1x8xlog

  • First, attempted a clean - that hurt the left forearm way too much
  • So, put the log in the power rack, low enough on the stops that I had to do a little squat to get underneath it...the bad news is that pressing hurt the left arm quite a bit, particularly at full eccentric stop (but not during the eccentric) and then during the concentric, and at full extension

Farmer's Step Ups: 1x15x45,95/9

  • These felt pretty good as far as lower body; the most solid I've been, no hesitation, very mobile, good power-up
  • After the light set, my left forearm felt better than it has all day.  So, I stretched out with a jumpstretch band a bit, felt pretty good. 
  • After the working set, with the forearm muscles pumped a bit, it didn't feel so good...so I cut this short instead of doing more sets

Log Rows: 2x8xlog

  • Left forearm felt dicey, so, cut this short

 

Total Training Time: 80 minutes

Got out afterwards for a nice 30 minute moderate paced hike with the puppies, right at dusk.  We had a great time.

A couple hours post-training, my left arm is in agony from base of the thumb up to the pec.  Glad I cut upper body short; wonder if I should have cut it shorter.  Honestly, if I didn't have an appointment with Doc Zak tomorrow (fix me, doc!), I would have backed off even more.

Yoke work:  I have three "walking styles" under load:  power waddle, normal walk, and fast feet.  The last time I put 500 on the yoke, I was power waddling.  Today, I surprised myself by being able to do a normal walk and even a little bit of fast feet with that load.  I'm looking forward to training this on a regular basis.



-- Edited by BobW at 02:03, 2009-03-04

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Mike Tuchscherer


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Date:
RE: BobW's Log
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freakin' awesome job on the yoke, man! I hope we can get this forearm healed up soon -- I can't wait to see what you can do!

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BobW


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Date:
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Mike Tuchscherer wrote:

freakin' awesome job on the yoke, man! I hope we can get this forearm healed up soon -- I can't wait to see what you can do!



 Thanks Coach!



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TRON


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Date:
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That made me tired just reading that workout

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BobW


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Posts: 327
Date:
Mar 4: ART/Chiro/SASTM, GPP, PreHab
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Good session with Doc Zak.  Spent quality time with the forearm; the good news is that everything is on the mend, and that we have decent pliability & mobility in all muscles.  The bad news is that it's not ready for the strain of training, so for the next week or so, I'll have to modify my routine.
 
Moved onto the core: hip rotators, flexors, quads, hammies, groin, adductors.  Everything was in decent shape overall, and only took a couple reps to loosen up and regain full ROM.
 
Soft tissue work on the neck followed up by huge neck adjustments.
 
Then SASTM for the back.  Oh my.  We found a couple spots, the outside erectors, that are really bad - and with SASTM, that means a lot of pain.  So much that I had to call an end to it before we made it through the 20 seconds of manipulation per area.
 
Last but not least, a lot of spinal traction.  We got excellent mobility overall, including some mobility in the t-spine, where the anterior ligaments have ossified.
 
That just amazes me.
 
GPP
 
Not quite summertime, but the driveway is open & clear.  That means...hill sprints!  With the sled!  Yay me!!
 
Warmed up just taking big, slow strides with 130lbs, then started the sprints: short at first, and then long enough to hit targeted HR.
 
Target HR: 149
Resting HR: 132
 
Recovery Time 1: 36 sec
Recovery Time 2: 30 sec - hmmm - what's that about?
Recovery Time 3: 50 sec  - oooh, crash-n-burn
 
PreHab
 
Since I can't do much with the forearm, and we worked it pretty hard in ART, I eliminated a lot of prehab today:
 
Band Leg Curls: 2x50 each leg
Landmines: 2x10 (even this was a little pressure on the forearm)
 
Stretching
Hams, adductors, calves, quads, flexors.
Jump stretch traction: right arm for a forearm/bicep stretch; left arm, wrist joint traction only.
 
Total training time: 40 minutes


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Mike Tuchscherer


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Date:
RE: BobW's Log
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That sort of thing is common with conditioning work.

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BobW


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Posts: 327
Date:
3/5: Loafing
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Per the plan, I'm not doing anything that involves the left forearm, short of being a keyboard jockey by day.

So, no training today.  As hard as it was, I think this was the right call; 4 hours into my work day, the left arm was bugging me enough that I took some anti-inflammatories and Tylenol.  Based on that, I decided to not even stretch that forearm - did some basic mobility stuff, hiked the dogs, that's it.

I was surprised to discover that my hammies and hips are a little fatigued, didn't notice it until hiking.  I guess the hill sprints hit me harder than I thought.




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BobW


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Posts: 327
Date:
Still Loafing...
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Figured I should give this log some love, heck, I'm not doing much else wrt training.

No lifting has been done since the last update.

Saturday

I did some conditioning work, and it was kind of strange.

Target Max: 149
Target Min: 132

I was sled-dragging / hill sprinting as needed.  A few days ago, it took a pretty hard sprint to get my HR up to 149; this time, just walking with the sled put it at 149.

Recovery 1: 30 seconds
Recovery 2: 55 seconds

and I felt like crap.

Followed this up with some back extensions.  Found that I couldn't really hold weights without using the forearm too much, so I switched to bands, which kind of work OK.

Then spent some time stretching.

Sunday the left arm hurt quite a bit, and the pain radiated up through the left trap.  I stretched out using a band, and that initially worsened the pain.  Finally by late afternoon it calmed down.

I'm calling this the "healing process."

Ended up with some off-work time today, and managed to take a 5 hour nap.  This is a good sign; typically, I've found that when I have one of these weirder injuries, and I finally sleep a lot, the inury gets better quickly.



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BobW


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Posts: 327
Date:
3/10: Something is better than nothing
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Raining hard outside, driveway is a mudpit, not taking the chance on training on that surface so...

Cambered Bar 1/2 Squats (+200c): 2x3xbar;150,200,250,260/8.5;250/fail

Not bad, and I believe a rep PR.  Certainly the best form I've had at this weight; no hestitation with 260, nice, deep, good turnaround.

Dropped down for another set, and couldn't even unrack the bar without significant low back disomfort.  Not sure if my low back was just cooked, or if I was getting something wrong in my setup - which I did change a bit today, going with a slightly higher bar position.  I have a feeling I just missed something in setup on the last set, the change was that abrupt.

Stretched out.

Total training time:  45 minutes.

Now for the difficult news.  I may have to abandon training altogether, and quite soon.  I'm going to try to avoid this, but... .

FOr the past 3 years, I've struggled with connective tissue problems:  no matter how much I stretch, I tighten up badly without ART sessions.  After finally getting into a pattern, we discovered that if we ignore hips / hams for 3-4 weeks, things get bad.

I do believe this is a symptom of the disease I have, DISH - the "d" stands for diffuse, and it is a disease of connective tissue turning to bone - and typically it's diagnosed in the elderly with it hitting the spine first, then the hips.

Anyhow, for whatever reason, I've been reliant upon ART and chiropractic to keep me moving. 

I just received word this weekend that I'm losing 30% of my gross income.  I'm doing everything I can to make that up, but realistically this economy is in the tank and headed for the sewer.  So barring a miracle, I don't see I'm going to be able to afford my ART sessions much longer.



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Mike Tuchscherer


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Date:
RE: BobW's Log
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That really sucks, man. I'm really sorry to hear that.

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BobW


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Posts: 327
Date:
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Mike Tuchscherer wrote:

That really sucks, man. I'm really sorry to hear that.



 Thanks.  Keep sending positive thoughts, the battle is not over.

I didn't get much sleep Tuesday night; well, honestly, I got no sleep.  Typical pattern for me:  get into a stressful situation, and my immediate response is to be very tired and sleep a lot - which I did over the weekend and Monday.

Then, bounce back into "hyper" mode, and try to deal with the situation.

The good news:  my wife is on board with doing whatever we have to do to make sure that I can continue my ART sessions and training.  When we were talking about this on Monday evening, my phone rang - and it was a strongman competitor in New York "calling me out" and challenging me to compete at the Oil City Regionals in July.

As though the universe is trying to tell me something.

I'm going over my monthly expenses, and I honestly don't know how I can make up this deficit.  I'm at the point where I'm running numbers for heating costs based on heating with wood this coming winter v. oil and electic.

But - this is getting way off track for a training log.  I think this probably belongs in the "Life kicks you in the head" thread.

 



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BobW


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Posts: 327
Date:
Wed 3/11: GPP, Prehab
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Forearm is between here & there.  I'm really babying it, even during the day.  I periodically gently stretch it out, do some mobility work, and try not to pick anything up with it.  I think it's getting better, but still sore.
 
Conditioning
Goal, 94-110HR
 
Ended up just doing a slow-paced walk with the puppies on predominantly level ground, a couple times my HR went to 120, but for the most part I kept it to 110 and under.  It was a nice, calming walk, the pace was slow enough that I was able to take a look around me and notice things.  
 
30 minutes
 
Stretching
 
Broke this up into two segments:  immediately after walking, I stretched hams, etc.  After some prehab, I stretched pecs, subscaps, etc.  I've been stretching forearms throughout the day.
 
Prehab, etc
 
Side lying external rotation, 3x10
Band leg curls, 2x50 (each leg)
Ab Wheel, 2x10
Landmines, 2x10
Spinal Traction, 5 minutes on the Swiss ball
Hip Sways
 
Weird.  I was definitely a bit tight / stiff in the hip & lumbar region going into this, but afterwards, wow - it was much worse.  Don't know if I just got stuff moving, or what - but I could feel everything working on landmines, and then when I did spinal traction, I had a super big back spasm.  Laying on my back for the hip sways, I noticed that my inner spinal erectors in the t-spine region are extremely bad, and had some problems there.
 
Ended up taking a couple anti-inflams and Tylenol and going to bed.
 
Day after:  feeling much better, but pretty tight.  Spent some time stretching out early morning trying to loosen up.


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Mike Tuchscherer


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Date:
RE: BobW's Log
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I know we're still babying the forearm, but can you give me more info on this contest in July (events, etc)? Is it something you're definately going to do, or are you still thinking about it?

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