SATIL log

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

I def gotta fall back on chest exercises. Did hyper upper yesterday and it was fine, but today something feels funky around my right pec where it connects to my arm. I am gonna cut my chest volume in half and switch some chest exercises with tricep exercises. Only bench once a week and cut cable flys completely till I feel better. Also probably just gonna cut volume period and maybe ditch the weight on dips. Main thing will be to keep the weight the same, mainly on bench. Though I don't know if I can do heavy bench right now.

Got shoulders + deadlifts today.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Yea I am off chest work for ~2 weeks. There is one bytch press machine that seems to be OK but I'm not gonna do anything else chest related. Even close grip bench aggravates it. Everything else is fine though so I see no reason to sit out for that long. I figure if it were a rotator cuff thing it would hurt for a wide range of exercises but I did BTN shoulder press, tricep cable push downs and a whole range of other shyt, no problems. It's just anything chest related that does it. Its just not worth the potential issues.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Had an upper day today

Changed things around a little bit while my chest heals up. 4x10 on everything. bytch machine bench press (not the Smith machine, one of those other ones where you adjust the weight), dead stop rows/seated cable rows (power/hyper), BTN shoulder press, upright rows, HS rows (my choice), tricep extensions. Its the same volume as what I was doing before, but I think it will be easier and faster while my chest heals up. It definitely feels better than before, but it's not 100%. Once I'm healed I need to look at my bar path on bench and figure out if/what I'm doing wrong.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Damn... with this "downtime"... I'm contemplating a mini cut

Just drop 10lb over the next 2 months and let my chest fully heal. Drop volume too, up the cardio yadda yadda. I think my injuries were stemming from too much volume.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

fukk it. I'm dropping a meal module & trimming breakfast. Gonna try and average ~2000 calories for the month and see what happens. I got stronger and I didn't get too fat but I could def lose ~10lb w/o hurting too much.

Doing shoulders on leg day was kind of knocking the wind out of my leg workouts. I brought shoulders back to upper today and liked it. Volume is important but not if it comes at the expense of progression. I have made some gains for sure but have been hampered by injuries I think are being caused by trying to do too much. So I am going back to an upper/lower split, focusing on progression over volume. Looking back, especially since I came back from that recent week off, I have been feeling kind of overwhelmed and groggy in the gym. Hopefully a little less volume will fix that.

Still though I was tossing 235x5 on flat bench, deading 425x3, squatting 295x5. I'm DB dead rowing 3x5x130/hand... only thing I have been a little stuck on is shoulder press. I think I will do heavy regular presses on power day and low weight/high rep BTN press on hyper day. Also thinking I might do a round of accessories on hyper day. Maybe super sets. We'll see.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

I just figured something else out.

My knee flexion range of motion has sucked all my life. I can't sit Indian style. It's definitely affected my squat and I have had a nagging pain in my right knee for months. I might have to drop the weight for a while and focus on getting low + stretching my knees. My legs hold gains like crazy so I'm not even worried. Gonna be a lot of paused squats and real light weight for regular squats (~225 max).

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Leg day. I def need more form discipline. I dropped down to ~235 on bench and took it all the way down. It was actually easier on my knees but way harder in general. I only got up to ~6 reps on the last set. My flexibility still sucks... my hamstrings are tight as fukk. But a big part of it too is just not lifting with my damn ego.

I switched from RDLs to stiff leg deads and dropped the weight on that too. My god. If those don't stretch my hams nothing will. I'm still gonna do some flexibility work on my off days.

 

[-G$-]

Leg day. I def need more form discipline. I dropped down to ~235 on bench and took it all the way down. It was actually easier on my knees but way harder in general. I only got up to ~6 reps on the last set. My flexibility still sucks... my hamstrings are tight as fukk. But a big part of it too is just not lifting with my damn ego.

I switched from RDLs to stiff leg deads and dropped the weight on that too. My god. If those don't stretch my hams nothing will. I'm still gonna do some flexibility work on my off days.

you ever try good mornings for your hams? that's another one that gets a good stretch there.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

you ever try good mornings for your hams? that's another one that gets a good stretch there.

At the weight I need to hit to feel something I thing GMs are a little dangerous. SLDLs get the same stretch w/o the danger to me. And I dropped down to 235 on squats not bench

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

O God SLDLs are def the move. Feeling that DOMS today.

Stepping back, looking at progress. I gained ~19lbs from May 11th through November 11th. That's a little under 3lb a week. I have definitely made gains, ESPECIALLY in my legs. Most of my pants barely fit anymore, which sucks. So my plan was solid.

However, shyt has come with a lot of injuries. My right knee has been acting up for weeks, and I think it's because my squat form has been shyt and my flexibility sucks. My right pec has what seems to be a minor strain, which I think was caused just by bad form on power bench days. I need to reconfigure my bench form so that I flare my elbows less, which will definitely drop some weight off to learn. In the mean time I am going to completely stop doing chest stuff for at least 2 weeks, as it's definitely been healing and feeling better since I cut back volume on it.

So really the only body parts I will keep making gains on are my back, shoulders and to a small degree my legs. I think I was averaging ~3000kcal/day... I'm gonna cut that back to about 2700-2800. Also gonna up the protein a little bit, try and have meat every day again (just not as much as I used to). I'm bummed cause I was making good gains exactly how I wanted to, but I have a lot of form issues that are causing injury. If I can get good form discipline I should be back on track.

Long term, I need to keep my wits about me and stop getting eager with the volume. Gonna go back to my upper/lower hyper/power split, but limit my upper days to 2 motions per body part group (2 push, 2 pull, 2 shoulder movements) and keep my leg day to just squats, deads, calf raises and *maybe* 1 accessory. Main goal has to be moving more weight week to week, not moving as much weight as possible in one workout. That's growth....

Today is a day off so I'm just working from home and getting some other shyt done. Heading up to NYC for Thanksgiving so I gotta get ready. Mite hit up my old gym....

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Did upper body Thursday and lower body Friday. Going ATG on squats is fukking rough. Really stretching my calves of all things. It's for the better though.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

O made a decision on bench. Not benching until Dec 9th. That will be a good 3 weeks w/no chest work. If my shyt is still fukked up then I'm going to see a sports doctor.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

I might be delaying my return to bench till the 16th. In NYC now... "OT gettin this money nikka poppin my colla"

I am at my parents place. Yall know I have been struggling with sleep. Well I figured out the problem. It's our god damn mattress. Until I met wifey I slept on firm mattresses. I could do the whole "6 hours a night" thing. But wifey got bedbugs one year and then got a soft foam mattress. My shyt has been fukked up ever since. Her mattress is like 5 years old now so I am gonna toss it and get a new regular spring mattress for Xmas. Dudes I woke up drooling this morning and feel better with 6 hours of sleep here than 9 hours of tossing and turning back home. This is gonna do wonders for my lifting.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Im playing it extra extra extra safe. I am not benching till 2014. Long ways away and I will lose some gains but fukk it, better than a full on tear. shyt takes time to heal and all my other shyt is good and moving.

Parents were gonna toss my old weights... fukk that!!! I want to make a little home gym for wifey so I grabbed em. It's a 1" bar and plates... 4 25s, 2 10s, 4 5s and I think the bar is 25. So 165 total. Decent weight. I'm looking at these squat stands:

http://www.sportsauthority.com/prod...8&srccode=cii_17588969&cpncode=26-254104970-2

Also gonna make a little wedge platform to elevate her heels because she has crazy long legs (I think a 33" inseam) and could use that cheat for her wild ROM

2014 should be good. As for me, I am just looking to stay injury free, bulk up to 220 and maybe get back on my cardio grizzly. Simple year simple goals. I hope I can hit that weight clean by summer time and then take the second half of the year to start shredding down.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

I did upper body today. First time back basically in about 2 weeks (I was up in NYC for work since Thanksgiving). I couldn't help it. I had to test my chest. It's actually healing. I could actually use it without it hurting much, but it still hurts a little bit. I think waiting until 2014 to really get into benching again is the wave. But I can do tricep dips and shyt no problem. I think I might rock with that through the rest of the year with tricep pushdowns for my push movements. All my shyt took a ~10lb hit from this time off but I feel good. I should be back up to speed by next week.