Whoof, been a while.

Not that I haven't been working out, but my consistency in journaling the workouts has been lacking. Thing is, I haven't felt that it's all that interesting to write entries like:

Day 60 - leg still hurts, still doing rehab and mobility exercises. This still sucks.

So okay, I've been back to doing real lifting for - well, 3 weeks now, for some values of real lifting. Like I was complaining to Jim Smith of Diesel Crew the other day, my my flexibility is shot and form on my lifts has turned to crap, and the weights I'm pushing are almost ridiculously low.

Still, I'm doing it and as I would tell anyone else - so what if your weights have gone done down? Apply some consistency, focus on form while doing the lifts, add weight to the bar each workout when you complete all the target reps with good form, and you'll be lifting respectable weights soon enough.

In other news, I'm taking pure math this semester at Uni - mostly because there wasn't any relevant programming courses going on and I could use the practice. Even if pure calculus is rarely used in most day-to-day programming outside of specialized science applications.

Ah, well- I've got a pretty light course load which leaves me more time to play around on PubMed and other databases; and the university is kind enough to supply me with fulltext access to just about every medical database online which is potentially dangerous for my inner information sponge/geek ;)

Some notes on today's workout:

Warmup: Mobility drills from Magnificent Mobility.
Workout:Starting Strength (2nd edition), workout B.

Squats: ramping 5@132lbs, 5@176 to work sets 3x5@198lbs
Military press: ramping 1x5@88lbs to work sets 3x5@100lbs
Power cleans from the hang position: ramping 1x5@110lbs to work sets 5x3@121lbs

Finish: eating my own Dog Food - the circuit workout I made up for Abbey.

5 Pushups
10 Mountain climbers
10 bodyweight squats

Discussion: I'm using the Starting Strength template again rather than something more advanced 'cause I want/need to get the lift numbers up to snuff as quickly as possible and a basic barbell program is the way to do it. Could have gone with the "stripped" 5x5 template instead, but this program is an old and comfortable friend that I know just about how it'll go when I'm doing it. Numbers are up 11lbs on all the lifts from last week with better form which means I'm at least on track to getting back to semi-respectable weights within this lifetime. Depth and form was better on the squats today, though I'm wondering if I should strip some weight from the bar and practice form more before I develop bad habits I wouldn't tolerate in anyone else.

Low-calorie food for thought anyway.

After doing the heavy lifting I went and did the conditioning finisher I designed for Abbey - I could probably have done a few more rounds if I'd done it first, but there's no way I'm going to do a metabolic circuit/conditioning workout before the heavy lifting.

I still did 15 rounds in the allotted 20 minutes. Beat that, if you can ;)

Okay, getting back on the road.

Rehab sucks. Just does. So does not training for realses; while you can do a lot with just diet and being sensible there's no denying that the body was made to be used and I just feel like crap when I'm not properly working out.

So okay; I haven't been doing anything really workout-wise since my surgery; some rehab and single-leg training doesn't count. Neither does that Pavel Tsatsouline concept I've been playing around with of sub-maximal high-frequency training. I've gone from 4-5 chinups being a bit hard to 10 being just on the edge of uncomfortable over the past two weeks which is nice, but it's time to get back to doing something a little more training-like.

At the same time, it's been a while so it's important to not overdo the beginning either; I'm not as much of a fan of being crippled by DOMS as I used to be.

Some notes on today's workout:

So today's workout I've kept pretty simple: in addition to the chinups at intervals throughout the day. (I've done 3 sets of 9 reps and one of 10 so far) Front squats supersetted with military press, 3x10/3x5; same weight (95lbs or thereabouts), which is barely a warmup for squats and a decent working weight for military press.

Back squat: 5@135lbs, 3x5@176lbs. - which is 'decent for a first workout after damn near two months off, but nowhere near my working weights before the leg surgery. I could easilyy have gone higher to be honest but meh, tomorrow's going to suck enough as it is with DOMS from first serious leg workout in forever ;)

I've been spending the down time productively though, with watching coaching videos from Dan John, Mark Rippetoe, Dave Tate and a whole bunch more people and I've tried a few new things for both setup and walkout today. And yep, I've learned that I've been doing a less than optimal setup/walkout- one of the reasons I felt like I could easily have done more today was on account of how tight the new setup felt; from the lift off the rack to returning the bar I was a lot more stable through the whole lift and increased stability translates into more weight moved.

Actually, I felt like I was gaining stability through the whole squat set which is unusual; the last set of five reps went through with a whole lot more power and drive than the first set. A function of gaining confidence in the new setup with weight on the bar instead of just doing setup and mobility drills with an unladen bar or a broomstick I think.

Finished off with a few sets of 20-rep dumbbell swings with a 50lbs dumbbell; I'd have used a kettlebell if I'd had one but the dumbbell probably works reasonably well to get a slight metabolic finisher to the workout. By rights I should have done power cleans from the floor, but I didn't feel up to that; it's a little late/early in the day to be doing an exercise that demands a high degree of coordination.

Overall, a pretty decent start I think; let's just see how I feel in the morning - that's when I'll know if all that rehab work has worked ;)

Useful fat loss workouts - More random thoughts.

For the macro picture, you want to do some strength training, some HIIT, some traditional cardio from time to time, and a bit of flexibility training. The fine details of exactly how each part of the complete program is structured varies according to sports-specific and individual needs.

Craig Ballantyne wrote this home bodyweight workout that I've been passing out as an example of what you can do for a workout without using weights, his stuff is pretty decent if you're in the target demographic. That is, you're not practicing for sports-specific performance in anything, you're looking for a reasonably minimal workout routine that'll get you a base level of fitness for life.

I've only chatted with him a couple times online, he strikes me as a decent guy and his workouts are legit. You don't actually need to buy his pre-made routines though, you already know what's in there: antagonist supersets of compound movements and some HIIT, plus count calories. And of the two counting calories count for more when it comes to weight loss, there's no way on God's green Earth to out-train your diet.

One reason for buying a pre-made routine from someone else is something Dan John spoke about a while back; there's less thinking involved. Which is where Turbulence Training comes in. But if you have sports-specific goals that go beyond generic fitness getting workout ideas from TT that you then have to go in and modify to work with what you actually training for strikes me as an unnecessary step where you'll just wind up paying extra for no reason. Since you probably won't be able to use Craig's stuff as is, I mean - if you could use it as is TT isn't bad, his workout designs are in the same space as Alwyn Cosgroves' from The New Rules of Lifting and The New Rules of Lifting for Women so they'd fit right in if you're looking for something in that space that isn't by Cosgrove.

But if you've got sports-specific goals you're going to have to do a lot of work to adapt anything you pick up to you own use anyway, so you might as well skip that step and go straight to getting some sports-specific material instead.

'course, there's other considerations as well - I'm consistently running into a lot of shoulder issues with people who've been sitting at a desk for a few years and used a mouse. Shoulders with limited mobility, improper stability, dysfunctional movement patterns, rotational deficits and other problems are seldom candidates for heavy loading. If you have mobility/stability issues, more than a current injury you need to train around, here's a shoulder rehab protocol from Jimmy Smith you should be using then if you can't get to a physical therapist to give you an individualized routine - start with no weights at all for a runthrough to see how your shoulder holds up.

That, plus the YTWL exercise is a good combo for shoulder rehab, you'd use surprisingly low weights on either to have a training effect. My preferred YTWL runthrough uses 8 reps of each letter before moving on to the next, and it's perfectly acceptable strength training for a beginner to just use your arms with no weights at all ;)

The reason I call TT good for base fitness but not necessarily good for sports-specific performance is that it lacks specificity. When it comes to sports-specific performance you're better off with an exercise program that's designed specifically around exercises with a high degree of athletic transfer from your workout to your sport than a generic fitness routine. If you don't have a specific sport you're practicing for, you have limited training time, and you're looking to get into good all-round condition with a combination of strength, aerobic and anaerobic fitness and flexibility TT or NROL/NROLW would work awesome.

If your goals have a bit more specificity to them it's often a better strategy to train each component separately; "Starting Strength" for any strength goals, a combination of steady state and interval training for endurance, and yoga for flexibility for example. The downside of a program like that is that while it'll get you better results than a combination workout will, it'll also take quite a bit more time.

You'd probably devote as much time to each individual component (20-60 minutes depending on activity, 1-3 times a week, 4-6 hours total) as you would to one of the combination workouts. If you've only got 2-3 hours a week to squeeze in a workout that's not a very useful approach just from a time management perspective, even if you'd see better results from a pure fitness standpoint.

Keep in mind that muscle/body size is entirely down to your diet - if you're training for strength with low-rep training and keeping calories in check you'd look more like little 97-lbs Suzanna who's about 50% stronger than me pound for pound than Jessica Biel. Or you'd look more like Gisele who's known for rockin' the Romanian deadlift at Peak Fitness. As long as calories are kept at maintenance or slightly lower there's no growth signal to your muscles, while the strength training preserves what you have and adds to bone density and neural tonicity of your muscles.

If you're doing a generic medium-high rep workout (10-15 reps) with a slight calorie surplus (350-500kcal/d) there is a growth signal to your muscles - and you might be able to 2-4 pounds of muscle in a month if you're male, about half that or 1-2lbs per month if you're female.

Back in the saddle - or on the floor as the case may be.

Well, had the stitches out, came home, and promptly fell asleep on the couch for 4 hours.

Yeah, this whole surgery thing is a drag; second time this year I have to take a workout break to heal from incisions. Well, I guess what Dan John says is true - "surgery is nature's way of telling you to slow down". Even if technically I did volunteer for both to correct a few points of pain rather than them being necessary for injuries.

Anyway, talked to the nurse who took out the stitches and I'm allowed to do upper body work, but I need to wait with the leg work until at least next week and preferably until my leg's fully healed.

Well, doing upper body is better than nothing, soo...

Some notes on today's workout:
Warmup: not much.
Tested clapping pushups, did a couple and then thought better of it.
Pushups 3x20
Renegade rows 3x10 ea. arm, @50lbs
Dumbbell floor press, 3x10 ea. arm @50lbs.

Easy does it, when starting back up. Well, last time I didn't take it so easy when jumping back into the squat and wound up walking like a geriatric for nearly a week, so I thought I'd try to be at least a little smarter and start with some light(er) weights. Leg still hurts even if the compression bandage held up; but yeah, I'd have been screaming in pain about now if I'd tried any funny business in my squat rack I think. Leg's throbbing badly enough as it is just sitting here after using it isometrically for the pushups and renegade rows.

Well. Still good to be back in training even if I'm going to have to limit myself as far as exercise selection goes until the holes in me heal completely.

GPP training in progress.

Before I start anything really intense in the way of training I still need to do the GPP part where I 'work in' the muscles so I'm sure that my flexibility is intact, my joints, tendons and ligaments are up to the stress, and muscles are ready for heavy loading.

Oh yeah, and so I don't accidentally cripple myself by training everything in new ways so I get DOMS all over, dammit. That hurts ;)

Btw: sorry about not getting back to you on the mobility issue: I'm borrowing some of the exercises from 8 Weeks to Monster Shoulders and Essential 8 Mobility Drills adapted to address the specific issues with A.s shoulders. I've given him some homework to do, but so far he's only been half-assing them which is why I'm nagging him to call the PT he's got a referral for ;)

Some notes on yesterday's workout:

It was an early Sunday morn and sunny for once, so I went for a bit of a walk. 15 minutes out the front door at the fastest clip I could manage, and turn around to head home at same speed. Not much of a workout in terms of physical strain but the movement helped dispose of the last bits of DOM lingering from the previous workout.

Some notes on today's workout:

Warmup: General calisthenics/agility/dynamic mobility drills somewhat inspired by what Nick Tumnello's been doing in his seminars.

Exercises performed:

1: Power clean to front squat to push press; 5x3@110lb, 1min rest between sets.

2: Strict form chinups/ Dumbbell floor press@50lbs; 5 reps/5reps ea. hand, 3 sets, 45/90 sec rest.

3: Renegade rows@50lbs/dynamic bodyweight lunge; 10 reps ea. arm/ 10 reps ea.leg. 0/90sec rest.

Mostly just finding my correct training weight - I need to go up by about 10-15lbs on the floor presses, add more reps to the chins, the renegade rows were about correct weight so next time I'll just add 2-4lbs, and the lunges are strictly for mobility/flexibility work. Legs get hit enough on squat days that I don't need to add more pain to the mix, but it's good to work in some mobility/stability/flexibility work as well wherever appropriate.

Right now I think this is a "good enough" workout; I'm going to try doing some more of this GPP with higher intensities in the coming week leading up to trying one of Cosgrove's programs later on.