Excuses No More. RandomHavoc's Training Log

01/05/2010

Training begins right after my last exam. With the little time left before the gym closes, the workout will be more of a test to gauge where I am now. Most of the test were based on Poliquin’s recommendations.

Close Grip Bench Press: 1x8, #80, 3-1-x (Shoulder dislocates between warmup sets)

Shoulder External Rotation: 1x8, #7.5, 5-1-x

Handstand (wall): 1x13s

Frogs Stand (knees behind elbows): 1x15s

Front Lever (tuck): 1x25s

Back Lever (tuck): 1x20s

Not much to make out of Poliquin’s tests. Especially since my tempo was wrong fro the bench, I lost count and may have gone over reps. Regardless, I know I have humerous internal rotation and since braindx highly recommends it, I will work on external rotation very frequently.

Pecs were very tight while doing shoulder dislocates.

Handstands were poor quality. This will be a priority.

This frog stand position is weird. Properly warmed up, I can hold the tuck planche for 45s. However, this position hurt the elbows and was simply hard to balance on the arm bone.

I can’t say much about the levers. I will need my friend to evaluate it. Also the bar I was doing it on was of poor quality. Arms were shaking a lot. Back levers felt therapeutic. I should try to do a lot of skin the cats in the near future.

Casino tonight. Shouldn’t get much sleep.

02/05/2010

Morning began with Z-Health session. Later:

Warmup

Wrist Stretches (Supine and Pronated)

Workout

Planche (tuck): 6x10s, 15mins, average rest between sets (ARBS) 2min20s

Handstand (wall): 5 mins of work 3x6s

Front Lever (tuck): 10x6s, 18 mins, ARBS 1min42s

Back Lever (tuck): 5x6s, 15mins, ARBS 2min48s

Mobility

1x10 Wrist Pushups

Was with my friend today and we talked a lot, so the workout was more of a low intensity phase-into the next week weeks.

Last planche set was difficult. Felt it in elbows and wrist. Wrist prehab is a priority. Odd thing happened, my left wrist buckled in the third rep of wrist pushups.

Handstand: My friend told my elbows were unlocked and slightly open. Will need to be diligent and strict in these.

Realised that my Back Lever is the end of my active ROM. That’s really bad. Back Levers will stop and will be replaced by Skin the Cats in the warmup until mobility is restored.

Later during the day, Z-Health walk (tall posture) with medial side of foot elevated for about 15 minutes in my Vibrams.

Insufficient calories for the day.

03/05/2010

9.5 hours of sleep. Must have caught up on the past 2 days.

Z-Health session.

Warmup/Mobility

Wrist Stretches

10x1 Skin the Cats

Static Strength

5 mins of HandStand: 6x6s

Planche (tuck): 1x8s, advance frog stand (arms straight, knees on side of elbows) 6x10s, 12 mins, ARBS 1min50s

Front Lever (tuck): 10x6s, 20 mins, ARBS 1min54s

Prehab/Mobility

Shoulder External Rotation (Poliquin method): 3x10-8-7.5

Drop Lunges and Multi-Plane knee and ankle mobilization

Pistol Work: Down to 6 blocks ~18inches

Stretch Hamstrings

Pike Holds

• Skin the Cats were done 1 rep a time since only the bar was available. Terribly uncomfortable on grip. Supine left forarm was uncomfortable/stretching.
  Not enough rest between sets of Handstands. Place more time for better form. Each set took about 6 seconds to set up into position.
  Shoulders were so tired during planche that I had to go back a progression. This is a good thing. I’ll let my shoulders get used to this extra work capacity. Was very tough on wrists, so I did some light wrist stretches between sets. Wrists were definitely the weakest link. Again this is a priority.
  Front Levers had slightly bent elbows. Once this was corrected (last few sets), it became dramatically harder! I will need to pay attention on this technicality.
  External rotations were hard but this was only noticed as the sets went on. Sub for lower weight and aim slowly for no rest between sets before increasing load.
  Patience needed on pistols. Need to activate that left gluteus medius!

Later walked about an hour downtown. Slept late again at 2AM.

04/05/2010

8 hours of sleep.

Warmup

Wrist stretches

5x6s Handstand (wall)

Lunge Drops and multi-plane knee and ankle mobilization.

Metcon (not really)

5 rounds, 3 mins rest between rounds, of:

5 Skin the Cats, 5 Ring Pushups, 30s L-Sits, 25 squats

1)8mins45s

2)3mins15s

3)6mins30s

4)11mins40s

5)14mins40s

Prehab/Mobility

1x10 wrist pushups

Stretched hamstrings

Pike hold for 30s

Walk with medial side of foot elevated

[*]Handstands were much more solid.

First set of metcon I had trouble setting up and removing the rings, hence the 8 mins which is unreasonable.

Skin the Cats were hard on the grip (done on bar). Gained a few inches of ROM, now slightly below back lever. Max in a row were 3. Should substitute Skin the Cats for German Hangs during next warmup.

Ring pushups were very easy. Half way through, I started turning the rings out at the top of the movement. Try for Bulgarian next time.

L-Sits started on rings. Then became tucked. Then went to tucked on a bench. I completely overestimated my ease with this exercise.

Squats were easy and were the only real metcon part of the workout.

Bad posture rest of the day. Need to stretch hip flexors soon.

Drank some beers.

05/05/2010

8 hours of sleep. Very busy with appointments most of the day. Fell asleep for 2 hours in the evening. No workout of any sort today.

Got this journal finally posted!

06/05/2010

8.5 hours of sleep

Mobility

Wrist Stretches

Strength

Handstand (wall): 5x6s, ARBS 1min54s

Planche (tuck): 1x10s + 10x5s, ARBS 1min34s

Front Lever (tuck): 10x6s, ARBS 1min45s

Mobility

5 german hangs with 5s hold

3x10 shoulder external rotation (SL method)

Should have warmed up my shoulders prior to HS. Felts stiffer. Last set was too far apart (arms).

10s Planche killed my shoulder. Oddly, felt easier the less tucked I was.

External Rotation was bad. My right shoulder hurts so much this morning. I'm surprised it was harder on my right than my left.

gained an inch or two on the german hang.

07/05/2010

8.5 hours of sleep

Warmup

Wrist Circles

3x1 Skin the Cats

Static Strength

handstand (wall) 5x6s

Planche (tuck) 9x5s

Front Lever (tuck) 20x6s

Skin the Cats hurt too much from the overuse of the rotator cuff yesterday. However, I was happy to be able to spin back from the german hang despite my still not having the full ROM.

Handstands also were affected by the rotator cuff.

I was talking to my friend while he was trying to figure out his life altering training goals during planche training. I was about half an hour in when I forgot how many sets I did.

FL hurt the left tricep a little.

Finished with a few wrist pushups (I don't like doing them on a thick mat, will need to try on other surfaces).

Tried to do shoulder dislocates, but again rotator cuff was killing me.

*EDIT: Drank about 6 beers this night.

*EDIT: I had also done max reps of headstand pushups. I did 3.

As someone who's just starting to see the light at the end of tunnel with rotator cuff injuries after years of it, a lot of my posts will probably help. I'm not sure exactly which rotator cuff tendon you've injured but from experience I've found isometrics for a few months followed by gradually building in high rep low resistance training to realy help. Headstands and l-flys against the inside of a doorframe are great iso's for the whole rotator cuff. Anything with elbows over shoulder hight made mine much much worse (like handstands) so flapping your arms up to shoulder height 30-40*3 is good (like you're tryig to fly-sounds daft I know but works). Heat treatment on a night like a hot water bottle for an hour on your shoulders helps the healing process a treat.

Good luck with your recovery.

Thank you. Although I really don't like the idea of recovering for a few months. It's ironic how I did the exercise in order to prevent future injuries.

RandomHavoc said:

Thank you. Although I really don't like the idea of recovering for a few months. It's ironic how I did the exercise in order to prevent future injuries.

I know better than anyone that its a bummer as I did mine 2 years ago last month. I had to figure this out my mostly browsing the web and trying different physio by trial and error really. You'll probably have to do the same with the intensity of these exercises I've described. If you're at the right intensity and you do plenty of heat treatment you'll notice a reduction in pain in a few weeks. If at any point it seems more sore after training you should lower either the intensity or the volume. When I first started I could only handle 10s *3 of a normal headstand. At the end of each SSC you can build up to the full minute gradually (10s more a month until you get to 60s without without aggravating injuries )then do a slightly harder variations. I just lower my legs slightly each cycle like the HLL and hold the lowest angle your joints will cope with. This gradually shifts a little more load off the neck and onto the shoulder each time you do. To strictly monitor the angle of your legs I tape a coin to a set length of string and tie the other end to my toe. When the coin hits the ground you've got your target angle.

Chin up bud, it's an arduous journey recovering from injury but you'll get there if you're patient and consistent.

I appreciate the words. Today, after 3 days rest, the rotator cuff didn't seem to hinder my workout. The pain was still there but well under control and almost forgotten during the workout. Also, I realised that this pain is the very same as an old injury I had that lasted about 2 years in length. It happened when I did a Crossfit Workout 30 cleans. They were the first cleans I ever did and it showed. This is good because I know exactly what I did to quickly speed up recovery. Ido's shoulder mobilisation and scapula retraction routine.

Also, I've been having some needle-like pain in my right wrist. I'll need to look up wrist glides to see if that will help. It may have been the excessive wrist stretches between the planche sets. I laid back on those today. We'll see how it goes.

Also, I drank far too much Vodka and Rum 2 nights ago.

10/05/2010

Warmup

Wrist Circles

5x1 German Hangs PR. Full Legit German Hangs.

Static Strength

Handstand (wall): 5x6s

Planche (tuck): 12x5s, ARBS: 2mins2.5s

Front Lever (tuck): 10x6s, ARBS: 1min52.5s

Prehab

Standing Shoulder External Rotations: 3x8 #5

Skill Strength

Pistol Work

German Hangs complete! Next training day can incorporate Back Levers now. That means I'm finally doing the basics of Steven Low's recommended routine.

Handstands are feeling stronger on earlier sets, but form still degrades quickly on later sets. I'll keep this 30s volume for quite a while more.

Planches are getting easier slowly. However it's surprising how a 6 second planche (tuck) is practically impossible for me. Such a huge discrepancy between 5 seconds and 6 seconds. Once I can get the average rest between sets (ARBS) to less then 1min30s, I'll attempt to try them at 6 second sets. Long way to go still.

Front Lever's are easyish. I'll simply focus on reducing the rest times since I practically force myself to take more than than necessary. However, the addition on next sessions back lever might change this.

I'm going to take the prehab very very slowly for now. The standing position made the exercise way too easy. But it was more of a test to gauge whether there was any pain (there wasn't).

Pistols are now at parallel lever now PR. I was able to do these before, but this is the first time it was done without the left knee buckling inwards. I still had to do multi-plane knee and ankle mobility before being able to get that stability.

All in all, good day!

11/05/2010

Basically Crossfit Total workout. I've been missing the barbell so much, I just wanted to get rid of the craving.

Back Squat

2x5xbar

1x4x95

1x3x115

1x2x135

1x1x155

1x1x185

1x1x200

1x1x225 F

1x1x215 PR by 5lbs.

Overhead Press

2x5xbar

1x4x55

1x3x65

1x1x85

1x1x95 PR by 5lbs

1x1x105 PR by 15lbs!

Deadlift

1-3 reps of:

135

185

225

250 PR by 10lbs.

275 PR by 35lbs.

200 PR by 60lbs!

All in all, amazing day. I don't know how I got that huge deadlift PR despite having posterior chain work in over a year. Speculations?

12/05/2010

Wanted to do another Crossfit-like workout that day since the WOD was almost all gymnastic movements and I've had a craving to do pullups and dips lately. So I ended up doing:

1 muscle up PR!

4x4 pullups

4x4 dips to support

2x5 Power Cleans #65

Run 220m

2x4 pullups

2x4 dips

Finishes with:

Shoulder Dislocates

Hamstring Stretches

Pike Hold (increased by about 4 inches!)

Sure, I didn't do the entire WOD, but mainly because my muscles were completely unable to generate force. There was not much in terms of metabolic conditioning... the muscles didn't have that work capacity. Forgot how much I feel my pecs when doing dips. Powercleans were really easy. I could have probably done all 10 reps in a row.

BUT I GOT MY FIRST MUSCLE UP! My friend was shocked because he told me it was a legit muscle up. No kip or anything. However, that's about as much as my elbows allowed. I tried to do these again and the elbows would simply not allow to be placed in that position. It's like Iron-man's special weapon/move, I can only use it once a day?

3 days, 6 PRs. Good week indeed. Going away for the weekend, so next workout should be on Monday, 4 days from now.