Just. Don't. Suck (Part 1)

Thanks, @punnyguy. I appreciate you sharing your own experiences. I feel out of balance when I squat. I’m not sure where the problem is but I have plenty to work on for now.

Hopefully I’ll get things to loosen up if I continue rolling and stretching and avoiding loaded barbells. I think I’m done lifting for December. I might do some shoulder stuff on occasion but that’ll be it. I don’t feel the need (or desire) to do much after running a few rounds of Cindy.

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This is good. You’ll be back. Sooner than later.

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I’ll be back someday. The obstacles are time and money - time invested in addressing the weak links and money invested in my chiropractor.

It’s hard to go to the gym or go downstairs without a structured plan. This is the first time in my life that I haven’t had a tentative plan. You know, Monday is upper push, Tuesday is legs, etc. Right now it’s nothing.

New goals/priorities:

  1. Get healthy
  2. Improve conditioning
  3. Maintain muscle mass while cutting fat

I think I’m going to push the range of motion on my squats even though there’s some pain. It’s bodyweight for crying out loud; I need to be able to move my own body pain free. If I can’t then I won’t be able to call myself healthy.

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Late to the party, but agree with this. That’s why I tried to do something most days even when beat up. And now that back at work, do something every morning, whether or not I’ll get a full workout in.

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I’m struggling already. I don’t have much of a plan other than to loosen up my adductors and improve my conditioning. Well, working on my adductors is painful and conditioning tends to be miserable. This is a tough phase for me.

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Does Rowing bother your hips?

No, but I hate it. :laughing:

I’m sure I’ll force myself to jump on a rower at some point. Running is also out for awhile so I’ll be doing Metcons and machines. I plan to do this today:

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My rower is in storage since we moved back to NYC - but I love that as a tall(er) guy metcon. And it seems to give me a better muscular workout than the assault bike (though that hits my lungs harder). If I had to figure out a way to do cardio and strength combo, I’d just do rowing and push-ups and that’s it.

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Rowing would be a good counter movement to push ups.

I did the 1:1 interval workout of 125, 250, 500, 1000m row. The rest after the 125 was the time it took you to do 125. Rest after 250 was the time it took to row 250 and so on. It sucked.

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12.12.18

Woke at 239.8 lbs.

Training

LIMBER 11

ASSAULT BIKE
2 min w/u
6 Rounds of 20 sec all out, 2 min cruise/recovery
5.3 miles & 233 calories

BACK EXTENSION
BW x 30
25 x 15 x 2 sets
superset with
STANDING CALVES
BW x 13 x 2 sets
2 sec hold at top and bottom

LYING LEG RAISE
90 x 15 double leg
90 x 10 DL up, SL down x 2 sets
superset with
SNATCH GRIP UPRIGHT ROW
95 x 8 x 3 sets

LAT CABLE RAISE
20 x 15, 12, 10
superset with
HIP ADDUCTION MACHINE
130 x 12 x 2 sets

REV CABLE PRESS DOWN (350 SET)
100 x 30, 13, 12

REV CABLE CURL
60x 21 and then my tendon popped

The Assault Bike workout is a great warm up. It’s also a finisher because it was the last thing I could do with my quads.

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Yeah it sucks big time, but it’s a damn good thing to do.

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I love to hate the interval rower conditioning.

12.13.18

Woke at 238.6 lbs.

I had my shoulder MRI this morning. They’ll call in the next couple of business days with the results.

I don’t really have any plans to do anything after work but I might get crazy and do a few rounds of something tonight.

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That is a plan. The plan you have to restore some mobility and rehab the joints. Use every day to learn more and add to that goal. Anything on top of that should not create pain or hurt the primary goal.

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12.14.18

Woke at 238.0 lbs.

No training last night. I did some foam rolling and stretched my adductors a bit but that was it. I’m not sure what I’ll do tonight. My nephew and niece are coming to our house while their parents have a night out. My wife mentioned going to look at Christmas lights. I’m not sure if that means I have to go, but it occurred to me that our cars won’t hold six people. I might be off the hook which means I can do whatever I want tonight.

I have this idea of 8’s in my head. Eight rounds, eight reps, and maybe even eight exercises…

I could do:

left leg split squat
face pull
right leg split squat
push ups w/ pike (ab wheel on feet, push up into pike position)
hamstring curl on ab wheel
left side plank w/ abduction
pull up
right side plank w/ abduction

I figured eight full exercises including single leg/single side movements could end up taking a while so we’ll see how this pans out. This might not be short but it should get some conditioning work while also hitting just about everything I need right now.

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Crazy 8’s

Oh, boy. That was a good one.

8 Rounds of 8 Reps of Each

  • Split Squat Right Leg
  • Face Pull w/ Band
  • Split Squat Left Leg
  • Push Up w/ Pike, Feet on Ab Wheel (regular push up on rounds 5-8)
  • Glute Bridge w/ Feet on Wheel (regular bridge on rounds 5-8)
  • Left Side Plank w/ Abduction
  • Inverted Row
  • Right Side Plank w/ Hip Abduction

I ran this non stop at a good pace. I wasn’t going all CrossFit on it because I didn’t want to puke. I only allowed myself a drink on every other round. Strapping the ab wheel to my feet made for a clumsy transition. Time: 29:32

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Keep up with smart and efficient programming like this while not ‘going all CrossFit’ and this injury might turn out to be a conditioning journey to a leaner physique!

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It’s too bad it’s not very fun. High pulls, deadlifts, and power cleans are way better. Hopefully someday I can go pull 600 lbs and then knock out a kick ass conditioning WOD like Macho Man or Hulk Hogan.

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Awesome name for a workout :slight_smile:

And not going cross fit on it was wise.
Made me happy for you to read in TnT’s log that you didn’t experience much pain here.
You’re on the right track J.

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12.15.18

Woke at 238.0 lbs again. I’ve eaten well the last couple of days. It’s tough but I’m controlling my portions better. For example, my dinner was several spicy pickle spears (made by my grandma and addictive) and a shredded chicken sandwich. I could have and wanted to eat two sandwiches but I knew that I didn’t need it. I planned to have protein shake before bed but skipped that. I’m not sure where my protein intake is but I’m sure it’s less than the 1g per lb of bodyweight. I’m not building muscle so I’m pretty sure that I don’t necessarily need 240g of protein to maintain muscle.

I wanted to clarify the pain I experienced during my workout. I only felt a small amount and it was during the push ups + pike with the ab wheel strapped to my feet. I wasn’t getting into a good position for the push up after the pike. My hands were too far forward so it was putting me at odd angles that I didn’t like. That’s one reason I removed the wheel after four rounds. Everything else was good (but not enjoyable). The worst part was the side plank w/ abduction. I loathed that exercise every time it came around. I was out of breath for 90% of the workout. The 10% that I wasn’t out of breath was at the start as I found my rhythm. I wanted to lie on the floor and catch my breath before doing the side planks but I just keep moving, raised my hips and had no problems doing the movement.

These types of workouts are great for training while fatigued. It wasn’t muscle fatigue, but being out of breath and having a high heart rate isn’t comfortable. I’m not sure if anything I did was difficult enough to improve anything (except the side planks), but I didn’t struggle to do reps and I used most of my body’s muscles. I think that checks all the boxes on my priority list right now.

My only regret for the week is leg curls on Wednesday. It still hurts to straighten my legs. I think I got a little ahead of myself there with the overloaded eccentrics. I’ll have to do some regular reps for awhile to get my legs used to the movement.

And @mortdk, Crazy 8’s was a long one. 30 minutes of constant activity was a damn good workout and I found myself wanting to call it plenty of times before I reached round eight. I think I would actually prefer to do two or three workouts with three to four exercises instead of one marathon with eight exercises. Look for shorter circuits (but more than one in a session) in the future.

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