danzik17's Log - 4-6 Week Strength/Bulk

[danzik17]

If you dead 265 you should be able to do a 300 lb. rack pull. Just another exercise to hit 300 on - sometimes it's good to feed the ego.

Your numbers are good, pretty similar to mine. I like the program you did too.

Actually I hit 300 on the dot with rack pulls last Wednesday

*Edit* Oops! It was quarters I hit it on. Rack pulls were at 295lbs - 300lbs was my goal for THIS Wednesday but as I said I'm cutting the bulk a week short.

I just didn't mention the partial rep exercises like rack pulls and quarter squats since they weren't my primary focus.

 

[danzik17]

Cut is going to have to go on hold for 1-2 weeks. There is something fucked up in my right hand and I'm afraid of making it worse. I may pick up some straps so I can continue to do pulling movements, but any pushing movement really is out of the question right now and I don't want to risk losing the muscle I gained on this bulk because I can't lift.

The plan is to eat at maintenance and continue with doable exercises like Leg Press, Squats, Rows/Deads (if I get straps). Anything where I have to put pressure on my hand is on hold for now.

 

[Gazhole]

Thats a smart plan dude, let it heal up before you stress it too much.

When i fucked my right hand up straps did help a fair bit, though it was a pain using them for every set. I didn't go quite as heavy with that hand either, but it certainly went some ways to maintaining.

 

[danzik17]

Interesting tidbit - I got a copy of my bloodwork from my thyroid tests. I'm not hypothyroid, but I'm not spectacular either. The lower end of T3 is listed as 97....I'm 105.

No progress on the wrist front. In fact just typing this makes it twinge a bit. It doesn't help that my job basically entails typing on a keyboard all day.

Did no lifting today to let it rest. I hope it's not CTS

 

[P-funk]

Can you find a soft tissue therapist to work on you?

patrick

 

[danzik17]

There's a facility relatively close to me that seemed to be decent (Went there a few times for my hamstring).

I may give them a call tomorrow to set something up - I was kind of hoping that I had just tweaked something and it would go away in a day or so, but it doesn't seem that way.

 

[Gazhole]

Seconding the "give em a ring" option. Fingers crossed its not CTS, man. When i worked administration my wrists always killed, so i hear you on the keyboard crap

 

[danzik17]

Got an appt for 6PM tonight. Let's see how this goes.

 

[danzik17]

Diagnosis? Shoulder nerve impingement and poor shoulder mobility. We were able to reliably replicate the pain/tightness sensation in my right hand/wrist/forearm.

The extra muscle/fat that I put on during the bulk is putting pressure on the nerves in my shoulder and the push presses I was doing combined with poor shoulder mobility didn't help the case.

We also discovered some impingement in my left shoulder when I was unable to get a stretch in my left lat.

I've got some homework to do in the form of various stretches every couple of hours and also changing my setup at work to where my keyboard/mouse allow my shoulder to remain at a more natural position. I also have 3 more visits with the PT tomorrow, Monday, and Wednesday.

I should be able to do leg presses/squats tomorrow with no issues and I'm allowed to do upper body work so long as I progress the weight slowly and be mindful of any pressure or pain - I'm not to do any weights that cause either (i.e. I'm going to probably do several sets of highish reps so I can use a medium weight)

 

[danzik17]

8/21/2009

Just did squats. 3x235, 3x245, 3x250, 3x250

I could have done more actually, but the bar seemed to be putting pressure on a part of my neck that we were working on stretching in PT so I didn't want to push it and have something bad happen.

 

[Gazhole]

Good diagnosis there, seems like they know exactly how to fix it. Like you said, just keep it light and stretch those areas and you'll be fine in no time

 

[danzik17]

8/29/2009

Squats: 250x4, 255x3, 260x3, 260x3 (PR)

Cable Rows: 160x10, 185x5, 195x3, 200x3

Did a PR on squats because I had one hell of a sleep last night and was feeling pretty energetic. I could have banged out even higher I'm betting, but I was happy enough.

My impingement is getting better each day, though weird stuff hurts. I can do freaking 200lb rows, but flicking the windshield wipers on in my car caused me insane amounts of pain

We did some shoulder flexibility tests at PT which I failed pretty horribly - with my back/head against the wall, I could only come to within 3 inches of touching it with a dowel (butterfly stretch). We're going to work on that to prevent this injury from just re-occuring a few months down the road (among other things).

 

[Gazhole]

Strong squats man! good PR!

Lol at the rows/windshield wiper thing. I love stuff like that, its like powerlifters deadlifting 1000lbs then pulling their back lifting a sofa that weighs next to nothing, haha.

Glad to hear you're on the road to recovery though!

 

[danzik17]

Will be starting a steady cut @ 2300 calories tomorrow to see if my maintenance has gone up at all.

*Edit - Just ran the approximate foods that I was eating during my bulk (was not tracking generally). Looks like I was eating around 3-3.3K calories per day, so 2300 calories should definitely be good.

As much as I would love to run a PSMF and drop some serious fat quickly, I don't think it would be a good idea with me still being in PT......gotta have some energy for that.

 

[danzik17]

8/31/2009

Deadlifts: 245lbsx3, 250lbsx3, 250lbsx3

DB Bench: 60x5, 65x3, 65x3

Dips: BW 5x3

Happy with the deads - they didn't really hurt my hand at all. Not so pleased with the dips; they didn't really hurt my hand, but I doubt I could have pulled off more than 10 BW ones. Disappointing since previously I could bang out sets of 20-30BW dips without getting tired, but meh.

On the PT side, the plot thickens. We're now focusing on my lats in addition to my shoulder because the tension in them is drawing my shoulders forward which in turn is contributing to the problem. It's like freaking dominos.

 

[danzik17]

Unbelievable how linked together everything is.

We determined that not only are my lats extremely tight, but my thoracic spine mobility (I guess?) is very poor.

Funny as it is, my PT guy has be doing some extremely similar stuff to what P-Funk was having me do when he was trying to help back in December. For the record, I was performing those stretches so horribly wrong at the time as I recently found out

 

[danzik17]

9/5/2009

Deadlifts: 250x3, 255x3, 260x3

DB Press: 60x4, 65x3, 70x3

Hypers: 25lbs x5, 45lbs x4, 70lbs x4

Dips: BW 3x10

Dips are coming back up. Previously I think I only did 5 per set, I'm up to 10 again. I wasn't even tired, but I figured that was enough progress for one session (don't push it).

Maintaining strength on deads still which is good, but I'm not very deep into this cut yet. REALLY wish I could be running a PSMF or UD2.0 but that wouldn't leave enough energy for PT sessions.

 

[danzik17]

Also just tried jumping rope downstairs. Holy shit is that a good cardio workout in addition to balance and coordination.

I can only do a few jumps at a time before screwing up, but I hope to improve my balance/coordination by doing this to the point that I can do maybe 10-15 minutes?

 

[danzik17]

Update:

Well, squats are still hovering around 260lbs, but I'm not actively trying to up them right now. I don't know about my other lifts since I'm not really performing any right now due to my shoulder/arm/hand.

PT Update:

Making some good progress in PT. I identified a nasty trigger point on my rear left delt that was really hindering my movement. After he did some soft tissue work on that specific spot for ~5-10 minutes, he said my movement was noticeably improved (raising my arms vertically).

Doing a LOT of core stabilization and strengthening work. We did some weird spiderman type exercise on the ground where you kind of "climb" the floor from wall to wall a few times which was just brutal. There was also some leg stretches while stabilizing on a bosu with my arms which was almost as brutal.

The overall consensus is that I should expect to not only be fully functional in approximately 6 weeks, I should be improved with better flexibility and mobility. For now, it's just consistent stretching, soft tissue work, then reinforcing good movement patterns to get to where I need to be.

I will say it's a bit of fun to be involved in designing my own recovery programs. I've taken what he has given me and added on my own spin on things which is what resulted in identifying the weak spots in my rear left delt and what I believe to be an imbalance between my abs and lower back (my lower back is overpowering my front, how uncommon!).

Diet

I've been playing around with intermittent fasting because it's the only diet that really fits my schedule right now between work and PT. Well, a steady diet would too, but screw that. Not interesting enough.

It's really NOT as bad as I thought it would be. I was extremely thirsty all day, but the only time I ever started REALLY craving food was about an hour before the end of the fast, and that was really only because of me thinking "only an hour until I can eat!!!". Theoretically I dropped 2/3 of a pound of fat in a day which is nice. I'll run this for a few more weeks to see how it progresses. 2 fasts per week, Tues/Thurs - net fat loss should be a touch over 1lb per week.

 

[Gazhole]

Sounds like good news all round if you're sorting your issues out. Thats great that there was a noticeable improvement in the same session!

Lifts are still looking strong in here, too

Gonna try those spiderman things.

 

[Curt James]

Update: (snip)

The overall consensus is that I should expect to not only be fully functional in approximately 6 weeks, I should be improved with better flexibility and mobility. For now, it's just consistent stretching, soft tissue work, then reinforcing good movement patterns to get to where I need to be. (snip)

Status?

I hope you're doing well, danzik.

 

[danzik17]

Status?

I hope you're doing well, danzik.

Short summary is that although my wrist is not 100%, it's fairly close. The biggest factor in the recovery was my own decision to start using the mouse at work left handed rather than right.

That's not to say I don't have flexibility issue still (I do) but the primary thing keeping me from lifting heavy was my wrist.

I'm not bulking right now, I'm actually cutting. I'm giving myself a lot of time to get sub 10% before spring/summer. I came close last year at between 11-12%. This year I hope to hit sub 10 and be about 10-15lbs heavier. Just from the mirror, I look as cut at 178lbs as I did at around 167 last year. Not too shabby considering I know there was muscle loss from a 6 month layoff of heavy pressing and pulling movements.