Grizzly Adam's Montana Method Log

[GrizzlyAdam]

Late evening session in the garage. Rainy outside, humid, and mosquitoes going wild. Got so many bites the itching kept me awake last night. I am really looking forward to cool weather and no bugs. Fall is the best.

Power Day

Bench: 190x3, 225.5x2, 245x1x2, 270x1, 292.5x1 on the hard side of @8 - short rests except for the last one.

Deadlift: 235x4x4 - felt great

OHP: 125x28 reps in 8 minutes

[GrizzlyAdam]

Saturday 10/13/2018

Leg press: 415x9x4

Bench: 4 rounds of 255x2 (TNG), rest 45 seconds, 255x1 (paused) - 3 mins rest between rounds

DB Pullovers: 55 x 10, 10, 9, 8

Sunday 10/14/2018

Airdyne: 20 mins, moderate pace
Grippers: a lot

[GrizzlyAdam]

Strength and Conditioning

Leg Press: 415x10x4

Bench: 190x5, 225x41 (3,6,4,7,4,7,4,6)

DB Rows: (with 55# DB) Right arm for 17, 9, 7. Left arm for 19, 10, 8. 30 seconds rest between sets.

Airdyne: 20 minutes at moderate pace, with three 10-second sprints (at 5, 10, and 15 minutes)

[GrizzlyAdam]

Keep on loggin'.

Thursday 10/18/2018

Bench: 190x3, 225x2, 255x1x2, 270x1x2, 285x1x2 @8ish

Deadlift: 245x4x4

OHP: 162.5x1 @8.5, 135x16 (7 min density block)




Saturday 10/20/2018

Leg Press: 420x8x4

Bench: 3 rounds of 255x3+1 (paused singles), 255x3

DB Pullovers: 55x12, 12, 10, 9 (1 min rest)

[GrizzlyAdam]

Tuesday 10/23/2018

Leg press: 420x9x4

Bench: 237.5x4x4, 237.5x3x4

BB Rows (supine grip, 2:2:1 tempo): 135 x 11, 5, 5, 4, 4, 3


Wednesday 10/24/2018

Airdyne: LISS, 24 minutes


Friday 10/26/2018
Thursday's session, Friday at 6am

Bench: 195x3, 225x2, 245x1x2, 260x1, 285x1@8, 255x2x2

Press: 135x23 (10 min density block)

Deadlift: 250x4, 265x4x3

[GrizzlyAdam]

Not much logging recently. Life has been kinda stressful, and the end-of-year work schedule is getting crazy. Still training, though.

Also started CPAP treatment a week ago. Interesting story: I was first diagnosed with sleep apnea as a grad student, about 15 years ago. It was severe - 50 events per hour, chainsaw snoring, massive night sweats... no bueno. I ended up seeing an ENT and having corrective surgery - they removed my tonsils, adenoids, uvula, and part of my soft palate. The recovery was brutal, but it completely fixed the problem. Until about a year and a half ago, when the snoring and the awful feeling in the morning started creeping back into my life. I finally saw a sleep specialist in October, who told me they don't even do that surgery anymore. It works for a decade or so, then the tissue grows back. Which is what's going on with me.

I did a sleep study that showed 18 events per hour, which is not nearly as bad as 15 years ago. But not good either, and getting worse. So, CPAP it is. And I have to say, for the most part I really like it. I sleep very well with the machine, and feel much less groggy/hungover in the morning. The only real problem is sleep position. All my life, I've fallen asleep on my side then rolled over to my back. With the machine, I have to start on my back, and that is proving very difficult. Hopefully I'll get used to it. If not, I'll look into getting a mask that allows side sleeping.

Anyway, back to lifting stuff:

Monday 11/12/2018
Leg press: 430x8x4
Bench: 235x4x6 - pretty bad elbow pain. Got a little better when I narrowed my grip and lowered the touch point.
Airdyne: 20 mins LISS

Tuesday 11/13/2018
Bench: 185x3,6,4,8,5,10,5,8,4,6,3 (62 total reps, 60-90 secs between sets) - elbow pain was bad at the beginning of warmups. Never went away, but got a lot better as I went.
Deadlift: 280x4x4 (2 mins rest, easy)
DB Curls: 30's x 14,12,10 (60 secs rest)

No video from those sessions as the grey, cloudy weather is keeping the solar lights in my garage from charging properly. Instead, here's 275x2@8ish from last week, which was technically a PR.

[BenM]

Hope you get used to the CPAP again quick. I never knew night sweats were a symptom of sleep apnoea! I have been getting that a lot lately and put it down to eating too much before bed....

[GrizzlyAdam]

Hope you get used to the CPAP again quick. I never knew night sweats were a symptom of sleep apnoea! I have been getting that a lot lately and put it down to eating too much before bed....

Thanks, Ben! They are indeed, but lots of other things can cause night sweats, too. I wouldn't worry unless you have other symptoms.

[BenM]

Hope you get used to the CPAP again quick. I never knew night sweats were a symptom of sleep apnoea! I have been getting that a lot lately and put it down to eating too much before bed....

Thanks, Ben! They are indeed, but lots of other things can cause night sweats, too. I wouldn't worry unless you have other symptoms.

Yeah. My wife complains about my snoring as well. Things improved a lot when I stopped being a fatarse, but are bad again now, so I am wondering whether perhaps I need to get it checked. I don't have many risk factors (not obese, don't drink/smoke, etc...) but it does run in the family. Reading your post made me think about it some more.

How's the clot?

[GrizzlyAdam]

Yeah. My wife complains about my snoring as well. Things improved a lot when I stopped being a fatarse, but are bad again now, so I am wondering whether perhaps I need to get it checked. I don't have many risk factors (not obese, don't drink/smoke, etc...) but it does run in the family. Reading your post made me think about it some more.

In that case, get it checked. Better safe.

How's the clot?

Doing a lot better, thanks! Some of the clot dissolved, and some of it has become scar tissue The vein is still mostly blocked, but my body has built a bunch of smaller veins around it to pick up the slack. Which is pretty cool. I don't have any problems doing normal stuff, and I can deadlift an OHP again. I still get some swelling in my left leg, and probably always will. I also still have some pain walking up stairs (or doing squats), but that should eventually go away.

[BenM]

Yeah. My wife complains about my snoring as well. Things improved a lot when I stopped being a fatarse, but are bad again now, so I am wondering whether perhaps I need to get it checked. I don't have many risk factors (not obese, don't drink/smoke, etc...) but it does run in the family. Reading your post made me think about it some more.

In that case, get it checked. Better safe.

How's the clot?

Doing a lot better, thanks! Some of the clot dissolved, and some of it has become scar tissue The vein is still mostly blocked, but my body has built a bunch of smaller veins around it to pick up the slack. Which is pretty cool. I don't have any problems doing normal stuff, and I can deadlift an OHP again. I still get some swelling in my left leg, and probably always will. I also still have some pain walking up stairs (or doing squats), but that should eventually go away.

Yeah, I’m gonna make an appointment with the doc when time permits. Don’t know why I didn’t before now.

It’s amazing what the human body can do, huh! Building that extra infrastructure to carry the blood around the blocked part. Good to hear it keeps improving.

[GrizzlyAdam]

First entry of 2019 - Happy New Year!

General update

Work is still crazy and my wife is still trying to find a new job, so stress levels are pretty high. But the holidays were great, and I'm finding time to train in my (freezing cold) garage. I've been using CPAP consistently for two months now, and I love it. It's still harder to fall asleep with the mask than without, but my sleep is so much better overall.

Had another ultrasound on my leg last week (4th time since the clot), and as expected, the vein is still completely blocked off. The ultrasound techs aren't allowed to give results (everything has to go through a doc first), but mine said "whoa" a couple of times during the procedure. The current plan is to keep me on some dosage of blood thinners for a full five years, since the risk of recurrence drops dramatically after that.

I still get swelling pretty frequently in the leg, which the hematologist says will never really go away. But the pain is much less than before.

Training Update

Hanley's got me using the really high volume approach on OHP. My work capacity on the 7's is lacking, but the results have been great so far. Still running a modified LP on deadlifts and leg press, but I'm getting to the point where I'm putting some real weight on my leg, and tolerating it well. I pulled an easy 370x4 last Friday. Thinking I should make a goal of pulling over 500 again by 5/23, which will be the 1 yr anniversary of the clot. We shall see.


Wednesday 01/16/2019

Press: 165x1, 175x1, 185x1 (ties PR), 190x1 (PR), 142.5x5x7

Leg Press: 510x6x4

DB Bench: 60's x10x3

DB upright row: 30's x 15, 15, 13

[Wilhelm]

Good to hear your leg is improving, @GrizzlyAdam

Good luck on your DL goal, and all the life stuff.

[slowmotion]

And there you are! Good to see you back.