Pterodactyl Comeback Trail

[pterodactyl]

History:

A Long time lurker in the various training forums, first time poster.Born with only 2 fingers in each hand (index and thumb) which means no heavy deadlifts without some help (straps) other lifts are fine though.

Formerly an underweight asian college kid (~105 lbs) before taking an interest in strength training back in 2014.

Did a Novice LP from 2014-2015 gained some mass (~145 lbs) took lifts from basically nothing to ff:

Squat: 245 lbs 5RM
Bench: 150 lbs 5RM
Deadlift w/straps: 260 lns 5RM
OHP: 105 5RM

I had a 2 year layoff after graduating, came back to lifting in 2017 carrying a little more mass ~160 lbs (puberty finally hit me at last lol.)
I regained previous strength levels, gained weight (176 lbs) and messed around with intermediate programming (HLM) taking my lifts to the ff:

Squat: 330 5RM
Bench: 215 2RM (touch and go)
Deadlift: Nada... Straps seem to fail on me at 300+ pounds

.........Before suffering from some severe knee tendonitis after hitting that 330 5RM PR

Currently trying to do a dedicated hypertrophy phase (at 60-75%) for the next few months to take a little break from high intensity and get swole in the process. Box squats seem painless to do atm, so I'll do that for the next few weeks till i can do normal squats pain free. Ordered some new Figure 8 straps to address the deadlift issue.

The Goal is to be always just a little stronger than my girl lol (Who by the way I introduced to lifting back in 2014 (why??) and is already winning the 63 kg Open Category at the local level) and maybe be able to do a comp with good numbers despite my condition.

Current stats:

Age: 23
Height: 5'3
(small Asian dude)
Weight: ~176 lb

[pterodactyl]

Training Last Wednesday (Start of Hypertrophy Phase)

Feet Up Benchpress 145 3x10
Bodyweight Dips 2x10
Box Squats (Parallel) 235 3x10
Deficit DLs 215 2x8

[pterodactyl]

Training Friday (Yesterday-May 4, 2018)

OHP 115 3x5 (Supposed to do 3x8, but this felt so hard, shouldnt have neglected OHP so much)
Inclined Bench 125 2x10
Walking Leg Lunges 60lb dumbbells 3x6 (kind of felt the knee pain again, decided to stop and substitute one legged leverage squats for 2x10)
Deadlift w/straps 255 2x8

[ChrisMcCarthy1979]

Welcome!

Out of interest how much can you Deadlift without the straps?

[pterodactyl]

Thanks!

Heaviest I pulled is 255 (w/large amounts of chalk and a bar with sharp knurling).
It varies depending on the bar but is consistently at the low 200s

also I cant pull anything above 135 without chalk.

I do it as warm ups before strapping up.

[Wilhelm]

Welcome, @pterodactyl!

Thank you for adding your log to the site. : )

[pterodactyl]

Thanks @Wilhelm ! thought posting a log helps with honesty w/ the rehab process.

[pterodactyl]

Week 1 day 3 (May 8, 2018)

Figure 8 straps finally arrived, feels good to be able to do high-rep deadlifts.

Box Squats 210 3x10
Close-grip benchpress 135 3x10
Dumbell benchpress 120 2x10
Deficit Deadlifts 220 2x8
Chin Ups (3 sets) 9 reps, 7 reps, 7 reps

Still getting used to higher rep ranges again. Felt like shit in gym but didn't feel as beat up afterwards compared to when i was doing 5s at (80-90%)