My shoulders are finally starting to feel better. There was hardly any pain in the right one today, and the left one started feeling much better after it was very warmed up. I’m not going to really start pushing the press yet, but hopefully soon.
All of this was done after shoveling snow for two hours, like a lot of people today. I’m counting that as my cardio. Headed to massage therapy for some maintenance.
I guess this pullup thing inadvertently turned into an HLM-type setup. I’ll try it this way for a bit and see if it works.
I still hate training abs, so I’m trying to force myself. I certainly don’t need a six-pack, but I shouldn’t be avoiding things just because I don’t enjoy them.
So I started my workout with squats. Warmups felt great. I then did a set of four at 285. Really good. Rested. Did a set at 295. Still cruising; no issue. Made my top set 305. I haven’t videoed a set for awhile, so I asked my wife to come take a video of my top set, just so I could check out the form and make sure I’m still getting depth.
Well, as soon as I stood the bar out of the hooks, I felt a stabbing pain in my right erector. I try not to overreact to these things, and I figured I’ve already got the weight on my back, so I may as well give it a go. So I did a rep. When I got back to the top my back hurt so bad I had to rack the weight. I moved around a bunch and tried various positions and movements, but it was pretty clear that the workout was done.
So this is very frustrating. I know we all deal with these things eventually, but it’s been years since I hurt myself lifting, and I was just getting in a groove and getting my lifts moving back to where they used to be. And I’ve squatted way more than 305 before. I have no idea what happened. There were no warning signs.
I will get in the weight room tonight and see if there’s anything I can do to lightly start getting this thing moving and healing a little. Luckily, this feels like a muscle issue, rather than a “back” issue. But who knows. Frustrating.
On a good note, the one recorded rep looked really good.
Anyway, I’m just logging this here because I’m trying to stay consistent with logging.
My back hurt pretty badly when I woke up and throughout the day. When I finally got into the weight room, I just wanted to see if there was a point at which I could do some some work. I started with some empty-bar squats. The erector definitely hurt, but the pain was tolerable. As long as I’m cautious and don’t twist or move quickly, it seems to be better.
My next movement from Monday’s workout that I didn’t complete was incline bench. Getting on to the bench and into position hurt quite a bit, but the actual pressing didn’t, really. It was uncomfortable, but not painful. I started off really light and slowly added weight, taking a long time to warm up. It still felt ok, so I went ahead and did some working sets:
Incline Bench:
145x10
150x10
155x10
145x10
145x10
Next movement was RDLs. I did some empty-bar warmups. Again, they were uncomfortable, but not really painful until I reached the bottom. Then I definitely felt a shot of pain. So I didn’t go quite as deep, and it seemed ok. I did a bunch of empty-bar reps, trying to get a little deeper. Then I tried 135. Kind of the same deal. So I thought maybe I’d work up to a working weight. I went straight to 225, which was a mistake. It hurt as soon as I picked up the weight. So I went back to 135 and just did 3 sets of 8 there.
Afterward I took a long hot soak in epsom salts. I don’t know if it helped at all. I think getting right back to the weights was the right thing to do in this instance. When I woke up this morning, I felt noticeably better. It’s still very painful if I move quickly or twist my torso. I’m going to see my massage therapist on Thursday, and she if she can help at all.
I still have a significant amount of pain in my back, but once again went in to see what I could do that was tolerable.
Bench Press
195x4
205x4
215x4
200x4
200x4
Paused Squat
185x7
195x7
205x7
185x7
185x7
Lever Rows
Nope
So I just started slowly, and did plenty of extra warmups. Getting into position for the bench press was painful, but the actual pressing wasn’t.
The squats were somewhat painful, but tolerable. I wore a belt, which I don’t normally do at these weights, and just moved slow. I think paused squats were the right call here, because they kind of force me to move slower and with much less weight.
I set up and tried the lever rows, but that position caused a considerable amount of pain. I’m trying to walk the line between caution and aggression right now, so I called the session after the squats and bench.
This was a mix of encouraging and discouraging. I did a bunch of extra warmups for the squat and wore a belt throughout. I felt significant discomfort, but the pain was tolerable, and I was able to work up fairly heavy. On the first rep of the last set of backoff sets, though, I felt the sharp pain in my QL/erector/back again. Shrug. I probably overdid it.
The hinge movements continue to feel worse than the squats. I’m going to try slowly building back up with the RDLs.
Looks like I’ll be shoveling snow for a few hours before work in the morning…
I intended to do more, but I was trying to be a little more cautious with the QL than the previous day, so i stopped as soon as the pain started to increase. I think I’m getting this thing figured out; I just need to pay very close attention to its limits for the time being.
Increased reps to try and keep intensity low but still get some decent work in. Even so, I erred on the side of lighter weight again this week, trying to get some momentum on the healing.
I upped the reps on my squat to try and decrease the intensity and still get some work done. I don’t know if it’s working; this pain in my back/side won’t go away.
Since I’ve been screwing around trying to manipulate loads for a couple of weeks now, I decided to just turn this into a full-on deload week, cutting out all backoff sets and extra work. I have no idea if I’m doing the right thing. I gotta believe I just need to work through this, though obviously I need to do it slightly differently than I have been so far.
Sucks that you hurt your back but you seem to be able to work around it which is good. Remember this isn’t a sprint, if you need to back off or do some lighter weights and work on good technique and bracing it wont hurt in the long run.
That’s it. This is my first time avoiding squats all together since I hurt myself. Just trying to give it a chance to start healing without re-aggravating it. I’ll do some light squat movement on Friday, then we’ll play next week by ear.
So I have continued to train over the past 2 weeks, I just haven’t been logging it here because it hasn’t been very interesting. I’ve been reducing loads on anything that had been causing my “back” pain from when I hurt it, and I’ve been cutting out all extra accessory work. It’s been feeling pretty good lately. I can still feel it hurt a little bit if I twist my torso, but it seems like it’s healing. My loads are still lighter than they would normally be because I still don’t trust it. But today I started climbing the weights back up and adding in some backoff sets. I’ll continue to add a set a week in until I’m back where I need to be.
Back felt fine. Cautiously optimistic but glad to be trying to move up in weight again.
Started riding the bike, but realized how late it was and cut it short at about 10 minutes. Allowed myself to watch one basketball game then went to bed.