Dom's Training Log

Right, so I thought I would join in, as it seems to be a trend of late, and write this log. It will be a tool for me to monitor my recovery, my training and I hope it will help others.


The recovery area of this log will cover two injuries, first of which happened when I rowed a 70kg bar into my chest and dislocated a rib. This injury doesn't bother me really any more, there is no pain but every now and then there is a pop as some tissue moves that shouldn't . The second injury is the worst of the two, while doing 10 rep SLDL with 140kg, some guy stumbles into the end of the bar while I'm at about 45degrees causing me to rotate.

It wasn't very fun but I believe I manage to come off fairly well considering, to my knowledge the damage was to the muscles on either side of the spine, they locked down to stop my spine exiting my body and they stayed that way. This combined with various dysfunction lead to some unhappy times over the last six months. I have had treatment from physio/osteo and there has been no pain or loss of motion for two months so I decided it's time to get back on with the training.


For about a month and a half I have been doing some general anti-dysfunction and mobility training but it has been very minor mainly to test the waters to make sure I won't die if I start training again.

So my problems at the moment consist of: slightly flat feet (mainly the right), tight anterior hips (leading to slight lordosis), right glute does not fire correctly, winging scap, slightly internally rotated shoulders, large bundle of stuck down tissue predominantly on the left side of my spine, tight pecs and tight traps/scalenes/neck . There are various stretches and exercises I do to help these but I will explain this later to cut down on post size.


The training program I will be starting I have produced to help my recovery. The original includes elements of programs I have done in the past which I liked but this one has been slightly butchered for my recovery. It is a little messy so feel free to ask if anything isn't clear,



The aim for this particular routine is to gently bring me back to the position I was at prior to the injuries. As you can see it has a very low percentage loading, my previous pb's to date are:

Bench: 100x2
Squat: 165x2, 140x10 < not sure which is better
Deadlift: 190x3, it may have been 4 reps but it was about 9 months ago so I don't remember

While going through this routine I will be having more treatment but only when I feel like my dysfunction is causing problems I cannot fix and as I said I do various stretches and exercises to manage the problems I can.

I'll also be posting up progress videos every so often and maybe a picture now and then so feel free to pull them apart and comment on my form .

Because I have seen my physio/osteo today I will start the routine tomorrow and continue with training as normal from Wednesday.

Apologies for the mountain of text but like I said any questions on anything just ask and I will endeavor to respond as soon as possible .

EDIT: 24th Feb 2012, updated table.

I particularly like how colourful the spreadsheet ended up...

Starting tomorrow?

Thanks, it's lovely isn't it.

Yeah I'm starting this evening, muy excited!

Looks good.
140x10 is better than 165x2.

First sessions done.

Goblets squats
8x20kg
3x8x30kg

Bench
8x40kg
3x8x60kg

Pull Throughs
10x120
3x8x140
What ever the weight is on the stack

Cable Row
10x100
3x10x120
again I don't know what weight that is

Single Leg Deadlift
3x8x10kg (5kg each hand)

Pullups
3x8 BW

Pallof Press
2x8 lateral and vertical
8x lateral only

The did 15mins rowing with some HIIT and 20mins stretching.


It was good, single leg deadlifts are some trouble because I'm so unstable but other than that it was awesome.

I though I'd put up some of the mobility stuff I do some of it I do in my warm up and the other bits will be done after I have finished my routine or on off days.

Right, so this is one of K-Star's ones but it is a real necessity if you have tight glutes and should be done after or the day before a session.


A slight variation of this is to change the position of the knee rather than rotating the body, so you could do one stretch with right shoulder to right knee, then moving the knee so it is inline with the centre of the chest and then to the left shoulder. You may find that this stretches the different area slightly better. It can also be done on nearly any flat surface wait height or bellow so it's great for out and about .

Those are tasty stretches, been doing them for a few weeks now on the bench at the gym. Wish we had boxes of some sort.

Yeah I know what you mean, they would come in handy very often. I'd love to be able to do box jumps and some other tastey plyo stuff

My god that was the most stressful gym session I have ever had. The gym was just completely full of benders, it's like all of the new years resolutioners have appeared now and are all coming in at the same time. Every time I started to use a piece of equipment someone would then come over and take it, refusing to let me work in or be swift in any way. So instead of it being a hour long session it took me over 3 hours to finish everything and I had no time for any rowing or stretching .

Excuse the rant, stressful day. The routine itself was actually really good, I was still a little tired from yesterday but other than that everything went well.


Squats
8xbar
8x50kg
3x8x65kg (decided to do higher volume because it felt very light)

Incline Dumbbell Press
8x20
3x8x30kg

Over Head Lunge
3x8x10kg (trying to reduce over extension in lower back so keeping weight nice and light)

Cable Row
8x100
3x8x120

Arnold Press
8x15kg
3x8x20kg

Face Pulls
3x8x80 (cable stack again)

Also didn't have time for plank but I'll just do that whenever I'm able to.



To keep with what I said yesterday I'll put up some mobility stuff each time. Today I had a bit of an epic mobility sesh well before I went to the gym but I mainly focused on loosening up my thoracic spine. So I spent most of my time (about 30mins ) doing another Mwod piece where you lie on a lacrosse ball and roll it down the edge of your scaplula raising your arm overhead as you go.


It's also good to try moving your arm through different ranges, like raising it up from your side swinging it in an arc along the floor. It is really unpleasant and one of the most painful mobility exercises I've done but it makes a huge difference once you're done.

I'm preferring more reps for facepulls, 12-15.

icecold said:

I'm preferring more reps for facepulls, 12-15.

Click to expand...

I think I might have tried more if things weren't so messy today but I was finding 10 to still work ok so it's not the end of the world.

Number 3 done.

Goblets Squats
8x20
3x8x32.5kg

• Nice and easy going to keep increasing the weight gently.

Bench
10xbar
8x40kg
3x8x60kg

• For some reason the first set was really hard, and then the next two were easier than anything. Weird.

Pull Throughs
10x120
3x10x140

• I upped the reps cause all was feeling sexy and easy.

Cable Row
10x100
3x10x120

Single Leg Deadlift
3x10x15kg (7.5kg each hand)

• Thought the higher volume would be better for recovering my posterior chain.

Pull ups
3x8xBW

• Can't load these yet as it puts strain on my lower back and I can't find the weight vest.

Pallof Press
2x8xhorizontal and vertical
8xhorizontal only

• I hate these

I'm really pleased with how this is going already because there is a fair increase in loading from my previous routines and things are only getting stronger and nothing is hurting . All is good.

Keeping with the same structure . . .

and . . .

The second one can be done without the half ball. Both of these are really fantastic because you can adapt them so easily by applying the tension over different areas of tissue. So, tight hamstrings? Cool just apply the tension over the hamstring. Also you don't need one of those bands, which is good because you can only get them from jumpstretch in USA and there is a fair amount of flaff involved. Just grab an inner tube from a bike tire (£3 if that) split it down the middle so it is twice the width and you are ready to go .

I can definitely recommend this, try it before squatting and deadlifting and see how it works, you can even do it on the light warm up sets.

Looking nice. I'm going to give single leg deadlifts a go this weekend. To think I needed any lower body assistance on this programme was pretty silly!

Ha ha. I do seem to remember telling you it was going to suck . Make sure you don't need your legs the next day, I know when I did them for the first time my hammies were fried .

Had a bit of a busy week last week because I was away for most of it but I can't be bothered to remember what I did , so I will just post up today's instead .

Goblets Squats
8x20
3x8x35kg

• Still easy so weight will keep going up.

Bench
10xbar
8x40kg
3x8x67.5kg

Pull Throughs
10x120
3x10x160

Cable Row
10x100
3x10x120

Single Leg Deadlift
3x10x20kg (20kg each hand)

• Really enjoying these, although I hate them .

Pull ups
3x8xBW

Pallof Press
2x8xhorizontal and vertical
8xhorizontal only

No drama except I had to do the session in 45mins and I'm very unfit. However I'll start rowing again after sessions and now things are a little warmer I can go out in the mornings and not freeze to death .

I tried some overhead squats the other day and I got 40kg for 8 very comfortably so I think I'm going to make a little goal of at least BWx10 by the time I'm 20, should be fun.

And it's only 4ish weeks until I get to deadlift again . I'm very excite, even though the weights will be very light, it's when things start getting interesting .


Couch Stretch

I post because I have spent so much time of the last week sat down so this was a regular for me . Do it and witness the agony. . .

. . . And then the subsequent win .

Single leg deads were much easier this time around, also got some tasty glute DOMS although that's probably from the pullthroughs.

Where's my hamstring DOMS??

I really want to figure out a way to do GHRs too...

icecold said:

Single leg deads were much easier this time around, also got some tasty glute DOMS although that's probably from the pullthroughs.

Where's my hamstring DOMS??

I really want to figure out a way to do GHRs too...

Click to expand...

Yeah I found that they keep getting easier, and I'm finding that I need to take pull throughs heavier.

In retrospect I think the only reason I was so crippled was because my hamstrings were so atrophied . I think that next routine I'll take single leg deadlifts out and put in GHR's because I will have deadlifts in, just a thought.

I've maxed out the cable tower for pull throughs, my only option is to do them with bands.

I think that's a good idea, but see how you go with the 1LDLs. It might be worth splitting the volume between the two, 1LDLs seem to be higher ham compared to GHRs.

Do you mean more high ham or greater ham activation?

I have noticed with the few GHR's I tried that I don't seem to get much glute from it but I will have to see what else happens with the single legs DL's cause I'm really enjoying them (but I do hate them ).

High ham, but really it gives me more general ham activation compared to GHRs roasting my low hams.

Yeah, I agree with you there. I have contrasting thoughts on it because on the one hand it feels like GHR's work glutes less but they provide more overall loading since you don't want to take 1LDL's too heavy as they are more of a stability exercise. Another thing is I want to do them because I can't .