Hey man
Very sorry to hear about your ongoing tendonitis problems.
Had it myself some years back and it is a pain in the *** to deal with.
Sorry to say, that for me it has never disappeared - whenever I overdo pulling/grip related work, it flares up a bit. Thankfully nothing a few days of not training can’t fix, but a great annoyance none the less.
You seem quite hard hit though - and very strange that your appendicitis caused it to return. That does not make much sense.
Thanks! Sorry to hear you have the same, chronically. Yet yours diminishes after a few days off… which it should… and mine had been increasingly painful despite near-total rest!
Anyway now that I got another CS shot I feel really good, hoping that if I treat it right before the CS wears off, itll be nice to me in return.
8/14
It hurts to walk from Wednesday’s session.
1 mile treadmill run
Standing press 50# 5x10
Side raises 5# 3x20
Pt medley, left arm, same as before but more reps.
Cable pulldowns, 70# 6x10
3 with wide grip on straight bar, 3 with close parallel grip.
3x20 rope pushdowns, 40-50#
3x20ish rope hammer curls, 40-50#
Fingers crossed - hope that you will get this sorted.
8/17 monday
1 mile treadmill run
Bench press: 105# 4x10
Side raises: 10# 3x15
Left Forearm PT medley:
Wrist curls, reverse wrist curls, finger curls, resisted pronation, resisted supination.
BB rows 95# 4x10
Checked out the curl machine afterwards. Looks like I can do twice as many with my right arm compared to left. And I’ve found that despite the shot, tendon pain still returns when I use it hard. Hmmm.
I can beat this though!
8/19
Unfortunately this is a missed gym day. I don’t skip it lightly, but badly injured my foot yesterday and it hurts just standing or walking. I’m not going to make things worse by trying to be tough.
Squats and front squats will have to wait for friday.
I think I’ve done my penance for a missed gym day.
Wednesday I drilled into the toenail, releasing the pressure and enabling me to walk reasonably painlessly by the end of the day.
Then today I took off work and used a shovel for the better part of 6 hours. Accomplished various landscaping projects around the house which all included digging!
And theres a lot more digging in the near future.
And none of this is good for the tendonitis but it won’t kill me.
Thank god for the CS shot, as none of this would be possible otherwise.
8/21
1 mile treadmill run
Squat 95# 4x10
Front squat 95# 6,6,6,10
Left forearm PT medley
3 rounds of
20 decline situps
20 back extensions with 25#
This represents an incremental increase over last week’s leg day. That one destroyed me for days, I dont think this one will. Meaning it’s time to get more serious.
However my left forearm still bothers me some and I’m worried about pushing it too hard. No power cleans, deadlifts, or pullups in my near future for sure.
And I’m not giving it much of a break with all the yard work!
8/24 Monday
1 mile treadmill run
Standing press 55# 5x10
Standing one-arm db press, 25#, 4x5
Side raises 10# 3x15
Pt medley, left arm
Cable pulldowns, 80# 6x12
3 with wide grip on straight bar, 3 with close parallel grip.
3x20 rope pushdowns, 50#, superset w/
3x20 rope hammer curls, 50#
More cable pushdowns and curls using stirrup grip.
8/26 Wednesday
1 mile treadmill run
Bench press: 115# 4x10
Cable flyes: 17.5# 4x10 I think
Some lateral raise bs
Pt medley, both arms today just to see how well left compares to right. Performance was similar.
Seated cable row, 120#, 4x10. Lot of body English in that one. Go down next time.
Single arm curls, working on that imbalance.
8/28 Friday
No run for me today:
Warmup: squat 95# 2x10
Front Squat 95# 10x10
Wanted to puke after set 6. Total time was 26:08, I may use that instead of weight as a progression variable.
3 rounds, no rest, of:
20 decline situps
20 back extensions 25#
Fried! Climbing stairs afterwards sucked.
8/31 Monday
Legs still in awful pain from the front squats. It’s great, I can barely climb into the car.
Was happy with that 10x10 approach so decided to use it on upper body today; not sure it was a great idea though.
Bench press 95# 10x10.
This was much too easy. I was timing sets E2MOM. Towards the end I slowed the tempo and added pauses.
Seated cable row 100# 10x10.
Used E1.5MOM timing, which was about right.
Some curls and elbow PT.
9/2 Wednesday
Seated press, 65#, 5x10. E2MOM
Dips, BW, 5x10. E2MOM
side/rear raises, forearm PT, curls, triceps pushdowns.
9/4/2020
I’m going to start Guaranteed Muscle Mass again.
In March I did the first workout of the program, then my gym was shut down. A few months later I had appendicitis and surgery; while recovering from that, my tendonitis returned to the point I could barely perform regular life activities.
So now I’m giving it another try!
GMM, Cycle 1, Lower Body 1:
Squat: Work up to a single at 165#
AMRAP 135#, got 13 reps
50% set - try to get half as many as the AMRAP set after 60 seconds, same weight: got 7 reps.
SLDL: single at 165#
AMRAP 135#; ended this at 20 reps.
Not supposed to do a 50% set here but this was way too light so I hit it again after 60 seconds, got 20 reps. Hams felt like absolute jelly after this.
Split Squats: Both feet on floor for this, used 40# EZbar. 5x12.
I then attempted my normal core routine, which is 3 rounds of alternating 20 GHR/20 decline situps. The situps were fine, but my hams were so shot I could barely do the GHR. I used bodyweight only and 10 reps instead of 20.
Then some forearm PT: wrist curls, reverse wrist curls, finger curls, pronation, and supination; mainly the left arm but did the wrist curls on the right arm too to keep it balanced.
It’s a few hours later and I can tell my hams are going to be destroyed the next few days.
9/6, Sunday.
I’m so glad I did that on a Friday, so I have an extra 24 hours to recover. I have been so completely DOMS all weekend. The big surprise is my upper back. I guess I haven’t done any decent pulling movements since May, which is probably why SLDL hit me there.
Tried foam rolling but it’s too painful. This is great.
9/7, Monday
GMM cycle 1, upper body 1:
Bench press: single at 135; AMRAP at 115: 20; 60 seconds later, 115x12. Need to go higher next time.
Incline press, 350 method. Started with 95# got 12 reps, went down to 85 and got 18 and then 12 reps. 42 reps total. Will stick with 85 next time.
BB rows: these turned out to be limited by a bad hamstring cramp, due to continued DOMS from Friday. 2x8 at 115#, 2x12 at 95#. Will go up next time.
Cable pulldowns: 350 method. Close neutral grip. 80#. 24, 24, 24. 72 reps total. Go up next time lol.
Curls: 50# ez bar. 350 method. 24, 16, 17. 57 reps total. Go up next time.
Physical therapy: wrist curls, reverse wrist curls, a little pronation and supination.
So far I love this program. I’m way too sore from the first workout but I know that’s just because I wasn’t pushing very hard before due to rehab.
What I love most is that, even when you set the weight ridiculously low, you can still push hard and do AMRAP.
9/9, Wednesday
GMM cycle 1, Lower 2:
Front squat 1x135; 115 AMRAP: 14; 50% set: 7.
leg press 3/50 method. Started with 315, got 10 reps, was obviously too heavy so dropped to 225, for 18 and 16 reps. Next time use 275.
walking lunges 40#, 5 sets: 10,12,12,10,10.
This hurt my knees. Maybe should switch to in-place lunges with a pad on the floor.
Good stuff man, just did a quick breeze through your log. I ran GMM for a few months and loved it as well and am planning on doing it at some point in the not too distant future. I’ll be following along and see how you fare.
The DOMS should subside pretty soon… I found I had them real bad at the start just due to the amount of volume. My body was not used to it one bit.
Bummer about your recent injuries… Be safe!!
Thanks @boilerman!
I looked at the portion of your log where you ran GMM for a couple months, looked like it went well for you. That very first workout, talk about jello legs… no kidding.
A couple of questions though. It didn’t look like you differentiated between “split squats” and “lunges”. Do you have any thoughts on this? This first week I used:
Split squats - hold bar in front rack position; feet don’t move; do all reps on one side, then reposition feet and do all reps on the other side.
Lunges - bar in back squat position, walking across gym floor, almost touching knee to floor every step.
I don’t know if that’s what the differences are supposed to be, or if it matters. I did experience knee pain during the lunges, though its gone today, and I think it has to do with kind of slamming my foot forward and going down into the lunge.
Also by the time you get to this part of the workout, your legs are pretty useless anyway; so what was your thought process on progressing this movement?
Hey man, yeah that was one of my main takeaways from the program- if you really want, you can absolutely destroy yourself (in a good way). You have to be honest with yourself and how hard you’re working though.
I only did weighted walking lunges as assistance during leg days because that’s all I know how to do. I didn’t feel like learning new movements or working on mobility (although next time I do the program I may do that). On backsquat day, I think, I’d hold plates in my hands, hanging down at my sides. I’d take strides that were slightly longer than what I’d do when walking, and lower myself down under control every single time. Barely touch my knee against the floor and immediately push off. If your knee slams down or you’re moving too quickly that’s begging for an injury. Always slow and controlled, and speed will come with time.
Zercher/front squat day, the lunges were normally done bodyweight, and just kept going until I couldn’t anymore. Then do another few sets.
I didn’t have any real planned progression for them tbh. If I hit big squat numbers I knew my legs would be toast, so I didn’t expect too much from them. Zercher day was “easy” so I’d do as much as I possibly could to burn out my quads with the lunges. I’d pretty much go to failure on every exercise every day and I recovered decently despite eating at maintenance. If I remember correctly it’s 3days/week so I feel like that’s why I could get away with it… and, especially at the beginning, the weight wasn’t too heavy.
I’d say pick a number of reps that you think would be achievable for 2-3 sets, and by set 4/5 is pretty challenging or you fail. Work up to that, and once you can do that consistently, add weight and start all over.
So for the last leg day you did-
Walking lunge BW+40lb, 5x12 for two weeks, then add 10-20 lb and work up from 5 sets of 7-8 to 5 sets of 12 etc.
Edit: and this is just what I would do. There are other people here on the forum that may have different and much more informed advice than I. I’d tag a couple people to have come in once and a while and ask them some of your questions and for advice.