Trying to make an injured shoulder suck less... (5x5-based log)

MA training today... first hour is grappling, second hour is standup. grappling is usually a few techniques, then 5-6 3 minute fights, then a few techniques again and another round of fights. All fights are at 100% strength.

In my second or third fight I shot in on a guy from my knees and something happened to the knee my weight wasn't on. It was very strange and the pain was sort of all over the place around the knee cap. I fought on but had to buttscoot quite a bit as it felt pretty bad to sit on the knee.

Not my best performance, and I felt a bit low on energy, but I guess that isn't too strange after two days of lifting and some of the worst sleeping problems I've had in a long time (and I always have problems sleeping). I was too lazy with my arms today and my shoulders were in danger quite a few times, but I ended up giving up no submissions and scoring 4 myself - armbar from the back, armbar from back triangle sweep when I was sidemounted (not sure how to describe the situation, but I end up like this all the time), I somehow stacked a guy so tight he ended up tapping, and I also tapped a guy with a very well placed bodytriangle from the back... all in all I guess I shouldn't be too disappointed.

I checked out my knee after the grappling part of training was done, and it still hurt, and there was a bit of swelling on the right side (of the left knee), so I sat out on the standup and iced my knee instead. It feels pretty solid and there's no or almost no color, so I'm not too worried - especially because I've never had knee problems. I mostly fear that I might have to skip lifting tomorrow :( That would really really suck... I was supposed to lift 3x3x150kg. DL which I was looking forward to (milestones are great motivators).

I've put a light compression on my knee and will be giving it a rest and hopefully it'll feel good by tomorrow. I'm seeing my sister at noon tomorrow anyway, and I'll just have her check if it's safe to lift or not. It's quite practical to have a family full of doctors...
 
Man I'm fragile these days :(

My knee might be sprained and I'll probably need to take it easy for a week or so and then see my doctor when the swelling is gone.

I hate this shit.
 
Saw the doc today. I've probably injured a collateral ligament in my knee, and I once again was told that my tendons and ligaments might not be as strong as my muscles... Time to start a thread on the topic I guess.

The good news was that I'm allowed to use the knee as long as it doesn't hurt, and that heavy lifting shouldn't be a problem. Guess I'll start lifting again this wednesday!
 
Second week of 3x3 phase, second workout.


SOHP: (5x20kg, 5x40kg) 3x3x149lbs./67.5kg.

DL: (5x60kg, 5x100kg) 3x3x331lbs./150kg.

Neutral grip pull-ups: 3x8xBW



I tied up my sprained knee pretty well and put a knee sleeve on top.

Today was pretty horrible. I felt odd and disconnected, and the weights felt heavy and unbalanced. I was unable to be explosive in any of the lifting, so especially the pull-ups were harder than usual. I was hoping to go for 3x9, but even the 8 were hard.

In a brain fart I forgot the light squats and good mornings I usually do before DLs and this might have been at least part of the reason the DLs were so bloody hard today. I barely made my third set and I got dizzy and lost sight 3 times one of which was after the very first rep at 150kg..

It is time to work on my form again. Last time I deadlifted it felt okay, but today it was clearly suffering. I couldn't keep my back straight, and I'm worried about my lower back. I tend to relax and bend it so that it is just sort of 'hanging', if that makes sense. Maybe I should switch to good mornings for a while - I've always loved the way they made me feel, and I think my lower back needs that kind of work. I've also been sore and stiff there for more than a month and the soreness didn't go away in the 8-9 days since my last workout :icon_cry2



Well... At least I hit the 150kg. on the deadlift. That is a milestone I've been looking forward to for a while.


BTW, Starting Strength 2. edition is waiting for me at the post office. I'm hoping to be able to improve my form based on that.
 
Second week of 3x3 phase, third workout.


This (third I believe) run of the 5x5 hasn't been satisfying for me. Too many excuses for lack of progress and I do believe I've had a harder time than I did the first few cycles. This makes me think that I perhaps should mix it up a bit after this cycle is done...

All that said - here is today's results and excuses:

Didn't get out of bed before 6 p.m. today and had just eaten the day's first (and big) meal when I went down into the cellar to train, so I felt bloated and weak, but I did what I came for.

My sprained knee seems to be almost 100% again (didn't take all that long). It feels strong but a bit odd still, so I didn't want to squat heavy with it. I also wanted to do something that forced my lower back to work (as mentioned in my last post), so I did high rep/low weight squats and goodmornings today instead of heavy squats.

Bench Press: (15x40kg, 10x60kg, 1x80kg) 3x3x215lbs/97.5kg

Squat: 2x20x132lbs/60kg.

BOR: 6x/132lbs/60kg, 3x171lbs/77.5kg, 3x 209lbs/95kg.

Goodmornings: 2x15x99lbs/45kg.

Switched to overhand grip on the BORs, somehow I had just continued with the underhand grip from back when I was doing dynamic rows. It felt a bit weird, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. it did seem to take some load off the biceps.

In the past I've done goodmornings at 60+kg. for 10 reps, but my back had been worked pretty well when I got to the goodmornings and Rippetoe talks about never doing weights heavier than 35% of backsquat max... Also... MA training tomorrow - no need to over do it. (I probably just felt a bit sorry for myself :))


Starting strength 2nd edition is good reading. Wish I had more time to read it, but exams are getting close, and I am incredibly bad at getting my work done in that regard... it will still be great reading in the sun when exams are over.
 
Sprained ankle playing volleyball - yet another annoying setback.
 
Sprained ankles suck, they take forever to heal again. I've only had one bad one ever and it was a real bad one, think toes under heel sprained...
 
Yikes!


I used to sprain my ankles all the time when I was a child, but since then my reflexes have been sharp enough for me to register the problem before my weight hit the twisted foot, so it's been many years since this shit has happened to me.
It was the typical scenario - playing volleyball in the garden I landed on somebody's foot, and my foot bended in (towards my other foot). Seems to be a pretty bad sprain as I still can't put my weight on it, and it actually woke me up a few times during the night. Maybe it's time for painkillers...



I'm really getting a lot of injuries lately - far too many. Maybe I should start swimming or something like that.
 
Foot is still at around 180% of normal size and quite purple on all sides... I can walk on it, but stressing the ankle with heavy weights seems like a bad idea.
 
I have been neglecting my log since the foot injury. It is in fact still pretty screwed and the ankle is still swollen. On top of that my lower back isn't too healthy, so between that and the stiff and fragile ankle, I haven't been doing much heavy lifting.


I've been doing planks 4 or 5 days a week and am up to a 1 minute warm up followed by a 3 minute plank or two 2 minute planks (alternating).
I've also been doing neutral grip pull ups and am at 3x9 BW reps now. I tried a normal wide grip pull up a few days ago, and my shoulder didn't really hurt, so I might be going back to those soon.
I've been doing reverse hyperextensions and bridges too and I have been hitting the heavy bag every other day or so.

A week and a half ago I hit the bench for the first time in several weeks and did a pyramid to 3x220lbs/100kg.. That's the heaviest I've ever benched and it felt easy. That said I'm thinking about switching my benching and SOHP around so I only bench once a week. I like the lift, but I fear that my bad shoulder doesn't.


I wrapped my foot and ankle up good and rolled this tuesday for the first time since the sprain, and I felt good and didn't hurt it. Did the stand up training as well, but with no power on the bad foot.


I'm not sure what I'll do at this point. I feel I should rehab my lower back until it is pain free and then focus a lot on some isolated strengthening of those muscles before I go back to doing any kind of heavy squats, deadlifts or rows, but at the same time I'd like to get back to some more serious work. I was thinking about doing a cycle of GVT or something like that, as this (my third) 5x5/3x3-cycle has been full of problems, but I don't think it would be a good idea to jump into something like that in my current state.
 
Just a thought about the back. What do you do for a living? or are you in school?

It's amazing the damage that a bad seat can have on your lower back, back when i was driving 220+km a day for work my back hurt like hell, i could hardly pick up DB's to press them. Just adding a rolled up T-shirt behind my back helped worlds though in helping my sitting posture. It may not be the case for you, as it could be brought on by lifitng but it would be something to give some thought
 
I'm in school (lazy grad student).

This was no doubt brought on by my lifting, but most likely helped along by my very bad posture when sitting in chairs which I do most of the time. I'm a very on/off person when it comes to physical activity, so I'm either out there lifting, training, playing, or totally passive draped across a chair somehow with a very rounded back. I've always found it very uncomfortable to sit straight up, and my bad habits in this regard have no doubt led to a weaker lower back compared to my otherwise relatively strong physique.

If I go running my lower back will also be the very first thing to tire out - a long time before my legs or lungs go.

I have been trying to push myself into healthier sitting positions since the back started bothering me... something I no doubt should have done many years ago.
 
I've been staying at my parents place for a few days, so not much activity. I've mostly just been doing the planks, but am now going for a 3 minute normal plank, and then a 90 second one on each side. I'm also doing a load of bridges (not neck).

It might just be because the muscles get warmed up a lot doing this, but after the planks I can't really feel the soreness in my lower back at all. I'm hoping that's a good sign :)
 
I'm bumping this just to kick my own ass. I screwed up my shoulder again and my back is still not perfect, but it is much better and right now I'm mostly struggling with motivation issues... It is hard to get started again :(



Feel free to insult me or just kick my ass a bit...




btw, being unable to edit the title of this log sucks the big one...
 
Yet another bump after a long break.

Turned out (after wasting around 2 years trying to get a proper diagnosis) that I have two bulging discs in my lumbar spine at L4/L5 and especially L5/S1 where it is touching the left S1 nerve root.

I found a physiotherapist who has some experience with athletes and is a martial artist himself (wanted someone who wasn't going to treat it like a permanent situation). I'm now doing around 5
 
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