The date’s merely a coincidence…
So why am I creating this log? To keep myself accountable. The simple fact that my logs are now public should in theory keep me a little more honest and lead to less unjustified decision-making which has, in the past, led to injuries and stagnation.
I am 22 and have been “training” on and off for 5 years. I was sidetracked early on by a self-destructive lifestyle involving lots of drugs and bad decisions, which culminated in a massive crash leading to physical, psychological and cognitive problems.
Postural issues (ATP and Kyphosis) significantly worsened during this period. On top of this, a long-standing orthopedic issue (valgus foot with nasty bunions) and years of incorrect programming have made me an unbelievably injury-prone sonuvabitch.
Current niggles: Mild pain around the meniscus area of the knee, shoulder pain upon awaking in the morning and worst of all chronic pain under my right shoulder blade - a mild but persistent pain that can range from annoying to inhibiting breathing to more than 60% of lung capacity - a pain that makes me want to punch myself in the face repeatedly to distract myself from it. I have just about recovered from 4 months of lower back pain following a relatively heavy deadlifting session.
Plan of action: Activate and strengthen the glutes, stretch out APT causing muscles and Strengthen PPT causing muscles, lift with higher frequency using submaximal loads.
Current programme: 40-day-programme/ Easy Strength by Dan John in conjunction with PLP (Chad Watebury’s supplementary programme).
Dan John’s programme involves doing the same lifts every day for 40 workouts (2 rest days a week are optional) using a lighter weights. 2x5 per exercise. For the 40 day programme, i am using the following:
Snatch-grip deadlift
Landmine Press
Dead-stop dumbbell row with squeeze at the top
Farmer’s walks (Dumbbell swings for high reps if knees are feeling banged up)
Ab exercise (alternate)
For the PLP, I am doing the exercises suggested (push ups, pull ups, lunges) but have also added glute bridges to activate my retardedly dormant ass. For those who don’t know, this supplementary programme involves starting at 10 reps each per day for the aforementioned exercises and adding 1 rep for each exercises per day. You keep doing this for 60 days. I got the idea of combining these 2 programmes from Mychal, who used this very same combination with a lot of success coming back from an injury.
On top of these 2 programmes, which together total about 45-50 minutes of work, I will add a few cressey-endorsed movements and stretches to remedy postural issues and underlying factors causing the various pains and strains around my body.
Having now gotten to this stage of my log post, I have realised that there wont be much to log for a while (LOL, fuck me!) as I will be doing nearly identical workouts for another 31 days. I guess there will be some benefit in logging the ease of my lifts and bar speed for the various core lifts, which is the best, and perhaps only, way to gage progress using the easy strength method.
What next? Thibaudeau’s Russian strength-skill programme seems like something good to transition into afterwards as it embodies the principles I’ve decided to adhere to in my quest to gain injury-free strength and (to a lesser degree perhaps, mass): high frequency, low reps, submaximal loading, greasing the groove type work.
So far, I am on day 9 of Easy Strength. Since day 4, I have been training with food poisoning and dehydration. Despite this, my technique on all lifts have noticably improved, although the last few reps of each lift are a little less explosive, probably due to an inability to hold down enough nutrition and H2O!
Today, I will be doing day 10 of ES as well as 22 pull ups, pushups, bodyweight lunges and glute bridges. I normally do the PLP exercises as a fasted circuit in the morning (w/ BCAAs) in the middle of my morning walk, but since the food poisoning I’ve done them later in the day when a have a bit more food and water in my system to prevent death dangerously elevated levels of cortisol (and self-hatred).
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: Goal, although I slacked a little during the festive period, is to finish off my cut. I am nearly done (estimated BF: 12%, Goal: 10%). After that, I will slowly reverse the calories to a point where I’m steadily gaining weight without gaining too much bodyfat too quickly.