Definitely go and get a doc’s opinion Lava.
I had a locked up SI joint, and had a hard time getting up and I couldn’t bend down to tie my shoes and things like that.
But yours sounds a bit worse man. Hope it’s something to fix with the right rehab exercise choices.
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One of my health professionals recommended that I take Aleve for my nerve pain. It actually helped. Try that for a few days.
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18 November 2018 - Upper Body W5D1 Bodyweight: 220.2lbs
Warmup
Pause Bench 3x5 250lbs (LSRPE 7.5)
Barbell Rows 3x5 235lbs (LSRPE 9)
Pause Close Grip Bench 3x5 225lbs (LSRPE 6)
OHP 3x5 145lbs + Chin Ups 3x6 bodyweight superset
McGill ab circuit
Notes
I felt good today. I was a little concerned about how strong I would feel after maxing on Friday, but I didn’t miss a beat. I made the call of going with a conservative +5lb instead of +10lb for bench, so I had 250lbs instead of 255lbs. Still not sure what I’m going to do next Sunday for bench weight, but I’ll let my 5x5 on Wednesday dictate that.
Close grip never seems to be a challenge for me. I paused them today for fun and they still felt great. 225 on Wednesday for that, and 235 next week for sure.
Gonna take tomorrow off. My back is feeling a lot better. Chronic pain has regressed about 90% but standing up is still a little difficult and I still feel some nerve pain in my left glute. Thankfully, that’s resolved with 80 minutes of electric stim.
The plan is to work with 135lb squats and 65-95lb good mornings to ease my hips back into squats. RDLs will probably be 135lbs also. Everything is going to be significantly lighter than it’s scheduled to be. Last time I got hurt I took a week off, but the pain was more severe and it lasted longer. Tuesday will be a test day to see where my body is at with its range of motion. No knee sleeves or belt, just my Olympic lifting shoes.
Kinda crazy how well this program seems to be working for my bench. I stalled out quickly on 5/3/1 but this is making heavy weights feel good. Not light, but good. They move when I want them to which is always the goal lol
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Do you do monster walks? To strengthen the hip specifically
I did some today, actually. Over the last few months I didn’t notice them helping my hip flexor pain at all, which was weird.
Saw something on this recently that the hip strength can cause issues if hip strength is week. Thought about you and @Frank_C. I don’t know the exercise name but basically monster walks and then this other one where you have a band and swing one leg “out” away from the body to the side with bands. With straight leg.
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Those are both hip abduction movements. I’ve been doing those this year (not so much recently).
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20 November 2018 - Lower (not one of my SGSS days) bodyweight: 219.6lbs
Warmup
Single Leg Squats 2x20 bodyweight
Curtsy Lunges 2x10 bodyweight
Single Leg Crossover Deadlifts 1x10 30lbs, 1x10 40lbs
Tons of glute bridges bodyweight
Stretches, stretches, and some more stretches
Notes
I tried squatting and my back was not a problem, but my hip flexor was on fire. I mainly just did band work and glute work
Yeah, that’s why I’ve been doing band knee clams. Just a really good way to isolate some hip abduction. I think I have 3 of the most effective rehab exercises in my routine right now (bird dogs, side planks, knee clams). All I need to do now is work on mobility and figuring out other corrective techniques.
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21 November 2018 - Upper Body W5D2
Warmup
Pause Bench 5x5 250lbs (LSRPE 8.5)
Close Grip Bench 5x5 225lbs (LSRPE 8)
Barbell Rows 3x5 185lbs, 2x5 225lbs (LSRPE 7)
Chin Ups 5x6 bodyweight
OHP 3x5 145lbs (LSRPE 9.9999999)
Side Planks
23 November 2018 - Lower (Not SGSS) Bodyweight: 219.0lbs
Warmup
Back Squat 135x3 (ouch) 185x1 (nope)
6 Second Split Squat 5x5 40lb DBs
GHR - 1min hold, 1x15 bodyweight + 25lbs
Hip Mobility (curtsy lunges, curtsy squats, stretches)
Planks
Notes
Bench was tougher than it has been lately but I got it done. I’m gonna do Week 6 Day 1 tomorrow so I can spend my whole Sunday watching football and writing my paper for world religions.
My SI joint pain is still hanging on. My left SI joint and my left hip flexor both screamed when I tried squatting, which is annoying because my legs were totally ready to go. I don’t know how I want to proceed. Obviously I need to continue resting and rehabbing and trying to pop my SI joint back into place, but the longer I wait, the more time I’m going to miss on squats. Right now, my best option seems to be that I should throw together a total rehab workout and do it in place of leg days for the rest of the program. I’m about halfway done, so the next 6-7 weeks would be purely me trying to strengthen certain elements that will let me squat pain-free next cycle. I can just call off barbell squats and deadlifts for the rest of the year. I don’t plan on deadlifting again for a long time. I’m just not good at it. So the plan going forward is pretty much just doing mobility, core, glutes, and single leg work for leg days. I might even be able to do my chin ups on “leg” days now since I’ll be fresh.
Let me know what you guys think I should do. You all always have good input
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Honestly, I’m not experienced enough to offer medical advice. If it were me…
1.) Get a medical professional opinion on the injury/ pain.
2.) Develop a rehab plan
3.) Find some range of motion for the exercises I wanted to do and begin extending that pain free range of motion very slowly. (Vertical Stan took a year to regain ROM. Most likely with the aid of HGH and gear)
4.) Don’t give up on DL because you “suck” at it
5.) Sit down and evaluate your life goals and lifting goals. Where do they meet, interfere, compliment, or take away from your quality of life.
6.) Make graduation and career a top priority!
7.) Realize you are young. I didn’t start lifting until 43, and if you had to take 1-2 years off from heavy type work you would still be ahead of me…
8.) Consider the creator and your worth to the world because he built you for a purpose.
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Drop the squats unless you have a belt squat. Can you do RFESS pain free? I used those as one of my exercises the second time through SGSS and I crushed my goal of a two plate RFESS. I also used walking lunges during weeks 1-6 and Smith Machine reverse lunges for weeks 7-12 the first time I ran SGSS. You don’t have to do squats and deads.
How do RDLs feel? They hit the hamstrings well and work the lower back (similar to deadlifts).
YOU DON’T HAVE TO SQUAT, DEADLIFT, ETC TO BUILD UP YOUR SIZE AND STRENGTH.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO SQUAT, DEADLIFT, ETC TO BUILD UP YOUR SIZE AND STRENGTH.
I’m still trying to let go of “the traditional lifts” but they don’t all work with my body. The only reason I keep trying to do them is because they’ve become the arbitrary measuring stick of your manhood (or accomplishments). We all need to let that crap go and do what works for our body and our goals.
My goals have always been related to the big three. But why? I didn’t pick those exercises. Why don’t I have a DB Bench goal? I’ve been influenced by other people. It’s time to be an individual and let my goals drive my training.
You ought to do the same. The sooner you can let go of the arbitrary crap the better off you’ll be.
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@losthog @Frank_C
You both make some good points.
I’m not sure why the big 3 drive my goals. Obviously what you said is correct, it is the measuring stick of manhood in our realm. Beyond that, there’s not much else to it. I don’t compete and at this rate I probably will never compete. My goals right now are just to feel good and look okay in a T-shirt.
Since my main goal is to feel good, I think I need to get back to the fundamentals of a healthy body: strong core, good balance, good flexibility. Obviously I always want to be strong, I think I will be for a while. I think I’ll still be getting stronger during rehab. I’ve never done barbell RFESS before but do you think that’s a good idea for keeping my leg strength up? I can make that my main movement and then do some other single leg work to hit my mobility targets. Squatting 2 plates with one leg is probably harder than squatting 4 plates with 2 legs, if that makes any sense.
I’ve had the goals of squatting 455 and deadlifting 495 for almost an entire year now. I know that I’ll be able to do that within the next year or two, but there are three stipulations. First, I need to get healthy and be able to squat pain-free. Second, I need to hit my squat goal first. Deadlifting is what has hurt my back the last few times, so when I’m healthy and feeling good, I know I can push the squats hard and not worry about it. Third, I need to focus on my mobility BIG time. I believe that mobility (or lack thereof) is as big of a culprit in my injury as a weak core is. After I type another page or two of my research paper, I’m going to figure out what I’m doing for lower body for the next 6-7 weeks. I’m going to place equal emphasis on single leg strength and mobility.
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Yoga. It may not be “manly” in USA but there is no better mobility and relative strength builder. Find a way to fit it into your programming. I’ve about decided after I hit my 315 bench I’m gonna slow down with the heavy training. I’m 45 this year. I plan to drop down to a 12-15 bf and to a weight I feel light on my feet and able to move.
Legs: Goblet squats, belt squats, split squats, SSB lunges, prowler push, box jumps, single leg RDLs, kettle ball swings and cleans. I wouldn’t even touch a barbell until my mobility returned. Train like an athlete not a power lifter.
Keep your clams and hip strength exercises.
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I did just fine with RFESS as my main leg exercise. If it doesn’t hurt then it’s a good option.
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My opinion on your deadlift is that you’re starting with your hips too low and that’s putting you a mile behind the bar. I used to do the exact same thing and I only started progressing again after I started with a higher hip position. Now my hip doesn’t shoot up at all and I can get much tighter when I initiate the pull.
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Some of the yoga poses are freaking hard.
And I’m not talking about just the one-legged or the inverted poses either. Anything involving good hip movement is very difficult for me because my hip is terribly unbalanced. The act of balancing and moving through the movements are tough.
Holding yoga poses that are essentially a variant of a lunge or a plank for extended periods of time is also difficult when you’re sore and tired from weightlifting.
Having done a brand of yoga called CorePower Yoga for the last three months, I will say that yoga seems to be something you need to heavily invest and focus on to be worth it. If I’ve had the time to do yoga for 3+ days in a week, then I definitely feel sort of improvement in movement quality. If I’ve only done a day or two, then not much. Things either regress or stagnate in some way.
Awful lot of yoga out there too.
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You’re on the right path Lava.
Being healthy is very important.
Do whatever leg exercises that don’t interfere with your SI joint.
Yoga is awesome as is said, I did Iyengar yoga, they are very strict with the poses, using gear and focus is on doing it correct. I must do it again soon.
If you can run, then do some sprinting, start out slow/light and build it up. Nothing like a sprinters anatomy.
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Unsolicited, and unqualified!
Do a quick Google on “Anterior Femoral Glide.” Apparently it’s when the femur “moves”(?) to the “front” of the hip socket, making the front of the hip tight and the glutes hard to use. Really limiting internal rotation on the bad side. Almost like ATP on one side. If you were crooked like that, it would be easy to overuse your hip flexors and underuse your glutes during clams and side planks, it seems like your SI could take hell.
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It’s crazy that you realized this, because I was looking around for different SI joint releases and I saw a JTS video where the guy discussed and demonstrated a corrective exercise for acetabular impingement. I did it and I squatted with no hip flexor pain. It’s definitely going to be part of my workout for the rest of my life, good call!!
That’s so true. I decided yesterday that I need to start doing yoga… I think I’m telepathically connected with all of you guys. Another great call!
A good call. Box jumps, Olympic lifting, and yoga might be my new lower body day along with core.
Last Friday (8 days ago) I tried starting with my hips higher and I hurt my SI joint again. I think sumo might be my deadlifting style because it lets me keep my back straighter. I do agree though, my initial pulling position was not great. I think starting with higher hips places a lot of stress on the hips (but what lower body movement doesn’t, right?) which is why my SI joint decided to pop and grind with only 365.
I played basketball for an hour today and my back feels really good right now. Running might be a good active rest thing for me. Like hog said, I gotta train like an athlete.
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