Maintenance / Rehab Block. Week 4. Day 1.

BW - 225

High-Bar Squats -
300X1, 1
315X1, 1

Bench (Feet-Up) - 215X3, 3

Pull-Ups - BWX5, 4 (9 total reps)

Pull-Downs (Supinated) - X10, 10, 10 (straight-weight; +5 "lbs.")

Hammer Curls - 35sX10, 8

Leg had been feeling so much better, I decided to play with some Squatting.  Low bar regular wasn't feeling great, so I moved my stance in a bit, and it felt better, but really awkward.  Moving to High-Bar seemed to make it feel more natural.  I started working up in sets of 3, taking small jumps.  If it hurt a little, or felt awkward, I would repeat the set.  Got into the mid-to-upper 200s and I was starting to have some discomfort through the quarter of ROM right around parallel, but it felt all good at the very bottom.  I switched to doubles, and then singles to get up to 300.  Did a couple of sets there and they felt a little sharp, but not too bad.  Got a little greedy and went up to 315.  First set was okay, but the second set had a very sharp twinge in the adductor, and now it basically feels like I've lost 10 or so days of recovery process. But hey, my previous best HBS was 250X5 (in 2014), and at least these were fast.

All I really wanted was to keep motor pathways fresh with some higher-intensity / very low-volume squatting in the hopes that would facilitate a more rapid "come back" once I can low bar Squat pain free.  Oh, well.  Luckily I'm going camping for 4 days this weekend and won't even be in the gym.  When I come back, I'll just have to take it super slow.  Last set of 300 and last set of 315 shown. 

Definitely wasn't putting my feet back on the ground for bench after this.  I'd already proactively decided to cycle down to triples at this point on the feet-up bench.  Again, just trying to keep relative intensity high while frequency has been reduced by schedule.  These moved well.

Pull-Ups also felt pretty good.  +1 rep from last time.

Supinated Pull-Down weight is now at a challenging intensity.  Probably the best strategy for next week is to stay at the same weight, and try to go for 12 on each set.

Arms felt worn out by the time I got to Hammer Curls.  Same results as last time.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 3. Volume Day

BW - 226

Squat - 265X5X5

Bench - 185X5X5

Deadlift - 190X10X2

Everything went well.  Squats are still finding the relatively pain free middle-path between the lingering low-back/left hip strain, and last week's fading ab strain.

Bench is getting further dialed in to the following new cues:
1) Get way up on my traps
2) Don't let breathing cause a loss of tightness between reps
3) Keep the elbows fairly tucked for as long as possible to lock-out
That last is much better on my shoulders.

Deadlift is finding the lowest starting hip position where they don't shoot up and knees don't get in the way.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 2. Volume Day

BW - 221

Squats - 260X5X5

Bench - 180X5X5

Deadlift - 185X10X2

Coach had me working on contracting my abs harder to try and help out with the hip/low-back issue.  It worked, BUT on the 3rd rep of my 3rd set of squats, something went POP under a rib on the left side.  Nothing terrible, but made it so I couldn't keep contracting my abs that way.  All I could do was laugh.

Bench went really well.  Tightening up the technique even more.  Today the focus was on staying super tight, up on my traps, and not relaxing at all when I took a breath between reps.  It made the breathing harder, but the lifting stronger.

My hip/low-back thing was bugging me on Speed DL as well.  We tried lowering the starting position for my hips just a bit, and that helped.  We'll have to see how that handles on intensity day.

Texas Method Team Training. Week 2. Intensity Day

BW - 223

Squat - 295X5

Bench - 200X5

Deadlift - 295X5

The lingering strain in my left hip and low back is making squatting harder than it should be.  Strength is there, but everything is tentative working around the hip.

Bench was pretty heavy, but I'm making some modifications to technique that may help.

Deadlift was frustratingly heavy, but we're making some mods here as well.

Hybrid Training. Week 9. Light Lower, and LSR

Saturday:
BW - 225

Squats - 265X2, 2, 2, 2, 2

Pause Squats - 255X2, 2, 2, 2

 Deadlift, 3 sec. pause at knee on eccentric -
245X2, 2, 2, 2, 2

GHR Hypers - BW+45X20, 18, 10*
super-set with
GHR Sit-Ups - BWX20, 18, 15

Sunday:
Long Slow "Run" - 45 minutes walking with a 15 lb. pack.

Okay session.  A lot of tightness in the back of my left hip, so I had to be more careful on the speed squats.  It was especially tender on the Unrack, Lockout, and releasing after the Rack.

Pause Squats were all good, though.

Same with paused DLs.

I've been doing the hypers with a 45 held to my chest.  After my 2nd set, a guy worked in with me that held it above (not behind) his head.  I tried that on my last set.  I knew it would be a lot harder, and I'm actually pretty happy that I got 10!  I'll keep that approach for a while.

For the LSR day, I've been having a hell of a time motivating myself to go to the gym for incline treadmill walking, so instead I pulled some of the weight packets out of my old weighted vest, threw them in a cinched-down backpack, and took a long, brisk walk down to the beach.  So much better than being on a treadmill in a basement gym.

Reps and Volume. Week 5. Squat

BW - 202

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X1
255X9, 5, 3

High-Bars - 185X5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Deadlift -
135X3
185X3
225X3
275X3
315X3

Single-Leg Extensions - X15, 15, 12

First session with the modification to Squat/Deadlift on the same day; alternating which one is heavy each week.

Squats went well.  255X9 and for 16 total reps met both my goals for this weight, so I'll move up to 265 next Squat day.  For my light Squats next time, I will probably work up to 265X3-4.  Maybe just triples all the way up.

High-Bars were bothering the outside of my left hip a bit.  That area had felt tender since my last squat session.  I think I might have been pushing me knees out too hard at the bottom of this lift.  On the later sets here, I started controlling my descent a bit more and making sure my knees just stayed over my toes, and the discomfort subsided.

I'll be doing triples with 315 for volume next week, so I just worked up to one triple here.  That seemed like plenty as I was getting pretty gassed from squatting.

Chiropractor Visit

Went to see a chiropractor yesterday to see about help with recovery and prevention with this back strain.  It was my first visit to this doctor, but I was impressed as hell.  They required a 2-hour block for a first visit as a get to know you period, and we used up all that time very well.  Primarily with discussion of my background: how I lift, how long I've been lifting, how I prepare for lifting, how life was before lifting, my day job, my diet, etc.

I told her I had gotten this strain twice in the past year, once back-squatting and once front-squatting.  She brought in some kind of padded bar and had me demonstrate my technique on both lifts, then called her partner in to watch me do them again.  They looked at each other and basically said in unison "abs."  And they discussed the knee possibly not tracking correctly, and hyper extending at lock-out which they would like me to avoid.  I've NEVER heard or seen discussion of knee hyper extension with squats before, and I see no reason not to take that advice.  Very interesting.  She prescribed some transverse abdominus work, and a neat little VMO exercise.  She also asked me to get in some short-ROM swiss-ball crunches and abductor work in full hip extension. 

When I discussed all the varieties of ab work I've been doing over the last year, she felt that a lot of that was very hip-flexor dominant, and not enough actual abdominal isolation.  That was also very interesting to hear.  She discussed the role of the abdomen in bracing the trunk, and even taking some load off the spine, and that being weak in that area was likely causing me these problems with the squat even though my form looked good on both variations.  We also discussed the anterior hip strain I got around the new year, and she agreed that it was likely the TFL, and that it was also symptomatic of asymetrical hip mobility

Another impressive thing she did, and I've never had a chiropractor do this, is that after deciding that the problem is with my right hip not moving very independently, she only adjusted my hips.  Not once have I been to a chiropractor, and not gotten a full adjustment from skull to tail-bone.  She didn't say anything about this one way or the other, it's just what she did.  Looking back on the session, that just made a lot of damn sense to me.  Find the problem, work on the problem, why fuck around with my neck, or thoracic spine if the problem is down around the sacrum?

The awesome news I got is that she's fairly certain I don't have a herniated disk.  This was my number one concern going in for the consultation.  She went to great lengths to say that she doesn't expect my disks are "perfect" (no surprise to me, based on what I've read about the spinal health of the general population), but that she saw no evidence of herniation.

I've got a follow-up with her partner in 2 weeks for massage therapy and reevaluation.  Only one visit, and I've still got to implement the recommendations and see what the results are, but at this point I would say that if you live in or around the Northern Chicago area, Andersonville Chiropractic might be worthwhile if you are looking for these kinds of services.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 2. Week 2. Squats

Warmed-up with a lot of stretching and flexing of the left hip.  Trying to get the strained area ready to go.

Squats -
BarX10
95X5
135X3
155X3
170X3
195X3
220X3

BB Front Split-Squats - 75X8X3

BB Front Squats - 115X8X2

Well, I got through the bare minimum on back squats without any major discomfort in the left hip.  Pretty sure it's the TFL and not the Sartorius.  I played with foot placement a little bit, but it was inconclusive.  However, paying special attention to keeping my knees out seemed to help.  That makes sense as the strain is most apparent when raising the knee straight up, and much less so when raising it at an angle.  I decided not to tempt fate and just got the required reps.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 2. Week 2. Deadlift

Defranco's Agile-8 + upper back stretching

RDL - BarX10

Deadlift -
135X5
185X5
200X3
230X3
255X6
185X10X5

Was worried about the strain in my left hip (I think it's the tensor fascia latae), so I foam rolled like a mother, and took great care with all my mobility/flexibility work beforehand.  Turns out it may not have been necessary, as I felt nothing in that area during my sets.  255X6 is a Rep PR and projects as a minor increase in my 1RM.  I wasn't planning on going that far, as X4 would have been a Rep PR on it's own, but everything felt great so I went for 6.  I possibly could have gotten even more if I wanted to grind, but I'm still focused on Squats and not Deads. 

Some of the success in this session may be due to a slight form tweak I made after reading a recent Rippetoe piece.  I recently screwed up my squat listening to the guy, but I thought I'd give him another shot.  The main change was aliging the bar over mid-foot as I had been doing, but then unlocking the knees and bringing the shins down until they touch the bar.  I think the bar path was much stronger for me this way, and I will continue to use this adjustment.

I also upped the wait in the Boring But Big sets.  I think 185 is approaching my top weight for 5X10.  I almost quit before the last set, but since I wasn't doing anything but Deads today, I convinced myself to man-up and push through.