Just. Don't. Suck (Part 1)

I love super structured set ups, but the reality of missing days all the time (ie today I was out the door at 545 to travel and won’t get home till 10) makes going through days in order, and even splitting one planned day into two sessions over 2 days works well for my real life.

And if I’m feeling good, and have time, can do more than the planned number of sessions in a week. Frequency seems to be the key for me vs volume and even vs intensity.

Still not that hard to track weekly volume - and for most of us, even when we go heavy and/or high volume, it’s not as if it is crippling intensity. I mean, when a heavy squat day is 3 something, we are not strong enough for recovery to be a huge issue.

What’s going on w the biceps tendon? Injured or just cranky?

2.6.19

Woke at 231.0 lbs

I had training today so it was a “work day” and I get tomorrow off.

The push/pull program fits this approach quite well and I’ll be running it for the foreseeable future.

In mid - October I felt a pop while dunking a basketball. It occurred when I began to descend and grabbed the rim. I later found out that I subluxed my biceps tendon. An MRI confirmed it and showed that it’s not quite in the groove anymore. Surgery is optional but it seems like it may be a necessity. I can’t do much neutral grip pulling and can’t do any supinated grip stuff. If I try to curl then the tendon pops out of place on the first rep. I think it’s affecting the entire shoulder girdle because I feel off/weak during pull ups and pull downs now.


Pull Workout

LAT PULL DOWN
120 x 12 x 2 sets
140 x 10F/10B/10T
I had to take mini breaks between each portion of that last set because I’m a wuss and wanted to let the burning subside a bit.

LYING DL LEG CURL
80 x 10 x 3 sets

SA CABLE ROW (standing, low pulley)
60 x 10 x 2 sets
60 x 10F/10T/10B
These are awesome!

RDLs
145 x 10 x 2 sets

SHIRLEY ROW
140 x 12 x 3 sets

SA CABLE CURL (L arm only)
60 x 10F/10T/10B
60 x 10F/10T/10B
The top and bottom half reps of the second set were all assisted. I was spent.

As you can see I’m easing back into leg training. Once I feel like the muscles are ready, I’ll start pounding them with intensification techniques. I just don’t want to be crippled for a week by doing that stuff when the muscles are out of shape.

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You just be careful my friend, don’t be to intense with leg work.
But I know you won’t, hope the hip holds up.
Annoying with the biceps tendon, is there any improvement at all, or is it the same shit?

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I’ll be following Best Damn for my leg work with no strength or performance goals. I’ll just make sure to stimulate the muscles and move on. I’ll probably stick to leg press, leg extensions, lunges, split squats, and the new hack squat. Reps will probably be high or I’ll do an intensification technique so the weights will stay low.

The biceps tendon is better than when I first injured it but no better than it was a month ago. I think it’s as good as it’s going to get.


2.7 19

Woke at 229.0 lbs. I was hoping to see less than 230 this week and thought I had a good chance since I was only 231.6 after Sunday’s splurge.

I had three beers last night which would make you think I was slowing down my progress. I’ve noticed that beer on a low calorie day seems to help the scale go down. My last couple of big milestones (235 and now 230) came the morning after I did this. It must help dehydrate me out something for the morning weigh in.

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Yeppers, this is exactly what it is doing. Too bad it is still calories and won’t help with progress as the journey continues. But for a next day weigh in, abuse it!

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It tastes good, too! I’m all about being dehydrated for the morning weigh in. I’ll have to see how it affects how I look as I get leaner to see if I need to use this strategy for my “after” photo. I still have too much excess on my belly to really see a big difference right now.

I’m keeping you company in this club.

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I’m actuallya bit worried about it. I fear that my 2018 growth might leave some extra skin for awhile. I’m working on a 4+ pack right now. On a good morning you can start to see the six pack but there’s excess skin/fat on the lower two abs. On a bad morning I’m bloated and it’s just a soft looking four pack.

I guess I’ll be losing another 15 pounds so I still have a lot of fat to shed. Hopefully the end result is good. It’s hard to believe that I’m down 20 lbs since October.

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That’s crazy! You spread that 20lbs pretty well over your tall frame though. 20lbs for me is the different between very fat and beach lean.

If I end up dropping 10lbs (to hit around 210lbs consistently), I feel that I will be at a good level of leanness (~12-14% - yes, this is pretty lean for me). But strength is still my focus, so recovery trumps fat loss at this point in time.

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Make that 3 of us!

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Training

Well, I went to the gym with the intention of doing a push workout and playing a little basketball. I was early for ball but kind of late to squeeze in a full workout before noon ball started. I decided to try to lift.

BIKE WARM UP
5 min, L11, 1.39 miles

RFESS
BW x 10 ea x 3 sets
superset with
PUSH UPS (feet on bench)
20, 15, 15

And here’s where I called it. I’m trying to maintain muscle mass, cut fat, and enjoy basketball again. I decided to play basketball. I didn’t want my legs and shoulders to be shot so I went down to the court and worked on my shot until we had enough to play.

I think I played five games. All but one were pretty good. Unfortunately, I haven’t won a game this year. We lost by one basket on four of the games. I guess I’m bad luck right now.

My legs felt much better today. I was able to get into shape fast back in college by running basketball sprints after playing pickup ball. Tuesday’s running is already paying off.

Dunking is easy but not flashy right now. I can’t wait to see how I can get off the floor at 215 lbs.

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Dropping weight fast, dude. I always get motivated to gain weight until I hit the 240s and things start to hurt. Then I get back in the 220s and my knees, hips and back feel great. If we can keep our diet in check, 220 at our height and ~10% BF is jacked as fuck.

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I’m afraid I’ll be closer to 210 at 10% but we’ll see. I gave bulking/growing one last chance last year and I just don’t think it worked out. I’m sure there’s a valid reason for my size and inability to get any bigger. It really doesn’t matter though. I have a lot of reasons to maintain a lighter weight from here on out.

I might not be hyoooge but I’ll be ripped!

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Funny, I couldn’t imagine even being 200lbs. Still shooting to eventually be 185. Just call me tiny :joy::joy::joy:

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This is one of the best posts for a long time J.
Made me happy to read it, you did some weight training and then basketball.
Things are moving in the right direction.

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220, 210 at 6’3 seems rail thin bro…

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220 at 6’3 with at or below 10 percent body fat is jacked as shit. Julio Jones and Larry Fitzgerald are both 6’3 220. Muhammad Ali weighed in at 6’3 210 when he fought Sonny Liston the first time. When you have really low body fat it’s crazy how little you can weigh while still being jacked.

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And no one is questioning this mans thickness. Or more appropriately, thiccness.