well here i fucking am again, id say its been about 5 months since Ive kept a log. So heres the long intro story that makes any of this relevant, well because i really wont be lifting anything impressive at all so im not here to give an example in that department at all. Basically I started lifting in freshman year of highschool (im 20 now and a sophmore in college) and quickly got into powerlifting. By sophmore year of highschool i had a 315 bench, 335x2 squat(started later than benching of course haha) and a 405 dead. I was pretty strong for my age, and it was still climbing. I got convinced to play football junior year and got fucked up. Like seriously just fucked. I slammed into a kid and just had insant back spasm, and two weeks later fell on it and stiffened up again. From then on ive had back spasms on and off concluding with last one being last winter(freshman year of college), which had me unable to walk for the first time so i got an MRI and was diagnosed with degenerative discs. Although this is enviable clearly, a 19 year should not have the back of a 50 year old, so i was dont with sqauts and deads, forever.
Ok back to football, i also had a head collision and fucked up my neck and shoulder. I had neck spasms upwards of 2 a month to once every 3 months, and have just recently solved this mostly, but hold on. The shoulder the following winter of football popped out of the socket at a track meet throwing shotput. Then it popped out that summer doing incline db presses. I was seeing a therapist for my back then, and she said it was a sublex which is a pretty general term so i got it pretty strong with holds and shit. THis got me back to benching 315 freshman year of college. But my neck was still spasming, this was important later.
So now the winter and summer of second semester freshman year after the back spams, but strong upper body gains, i was focused on bodybuilding, i did a few months on a split to prepare myself, training two muscle groups a day. FOr legs it was on to split squats, lunges and ghr etc…, i couldnt shoulder press(pain) and i did incline press at all. Then everything was good, i was gaining size, switched to 1 muscle group a day, and worked up to 30 sets per muscle group (lol at this now) doing at least 10 reps a set, up to 50. I gained a shit load of size, my 2XL shirts were getting tight as fuck in the tris and back, my legs were beefed, and i was semi fat as well. Arms were growing for once too. I was benching 225x15-19 at the time for reference. End of the semester i suddenly couldnt bench 135 one day and arnold press 20’s with my right arm (o yeah, i could do these at the end of the year) and i knew something was fucked.
Well it was a pinched nerve and the doctor i had was fuck head just told me to take three months off. Well the numbness didnt go away and the strength didnt fully return so ive been focusing on cardio up until the past month, lost about 40 pounds or so, down to 220-225, used to be as high 280, lost alot of fat and muscle, but im much more defined now and dont mind that haha. Anyways i finally had some help me fix my issue with the nerve this past month and my strength is coming back. I never thought id hit a barbell bench again in my life two months ago, and now im doing 150x20 controlled.
SO thats my story. This is a log about not giving up, making the best of what you have, staying injury free and intelligent, and looking good.
Right now i am going to start a routine as follows:
1: Chest/Back
2: Arms
3: Legs
4: Shoulders/light Arms
5: off
6:off or repeat depending on feel
Cardio will performed almost daily, its great, it makes me feel great, and it helps me recover and give me something to do on the off days. Abs will also be almost daily i mostly use pilate techniques, they are actually amazing for back support, i add in some more massy ab moves here and there.
The reason im doing arms the most is my legs are the biggest ithing on me cuz i took up cycling when i had the shoulder shti this summer so they havent lost much size, about two inches. My chest back and shoulders all can only handle low volume right now and frequency, until i keep healing so i figured id focus on arms :). Also will be trying to up the calves alot, but i dont keep a set thing for them.
I will post some pics tonight, and maybe one or two tomorrow of full body. My plan is lose about 5-15 pounds while i do this routine for the next two months, i know ic an lose 10lbs easy if i just eat clean, so thats the goal. I will be keeping a food log on here as well as training log so i cant cheat myself. Thanks for reading this, and if you have any questions comments, drop em!