Veni, vidi, levavi, BenM Blathers

[BenM]

Thanks @Renascent and @augeleven - honestly I'm not too sad about it, relieved if anything. Everyone who trains heavy hurts somewhere a lot of the time, I still had some self doubt that it was just a minor niggle even after trying to train through and around it for months. At least now I know it's definitely torn we can come up with a plan.

@MarkKO thanks for all that. I won't quote the whole thing for readability but I really appreciate the suggestions. Some of those lifts sound well worth a shot. And I agree on the triceps extensions. I noticed doing them weighted with the cable was iffy, that's why I just did them with a band today.

I'm not sure what the physio will say, the other day he essentially just said focus on shoulder retraction and lower weight / higher reps but I think that'll change now. Might also consider whether a cortisone injection would help, the radiologist seemed to think it may help and my Google fu sorta suggests I may be a good candidate.

[MarkKO]

Thanks @Renascent and @augeleven - honestly I'm not too sad about it, relieved if anything. Everyone who trains heavy hurts somewhere a lot of the time, I still had some self doubt that it was just a minor niggle even after trying to train through and around it for months. At least now I know it's definitely torn we can come up with a plan.

@MarkKO thanks for all that. I won't quote the whole thing for readability but I really appreciate the suggestions. Some of those lifts sound well worth a shot. And I agree on the triceps extensions. I noticed doing them weighted with the cable was iffy, that's why I just did them with a band today.

I'm not sure what the physio will say, the other day he essentially just said focus on shoulder retraction and lower weight / higher reps but I think that'll change now. Might also consider whether a cortisone injection would help, the radiologist seemed to think it may help and my Google fu sorta suggests I may be a good candidate.

Glad to help.

The biggest takeaway I got from my experience was breaking my bench down and making it shoulder friendly. Anything I could do to improve my setup in respect of chesting up and giving my shoulders room to move better, I did. It paid off.

[BenM]

Tue 10/01/23: Restart or Something D36 - Interlude

AM BW: 89.2kg

Background Noise: Evanescence - Synthesis

Walking Lunge:
25xBW
30xBW
1 minute rest

Hamstring Curl:
12x35kg
12x35kg
12x35kg @ 6.5
1 minute rests

Pause Goblet Squat:
12x40lb
12x40lb
12x40lb
1 minute rests

Chest Supported Rear Delt Raise:
3x20lb / shoulder hurts
2x10lb / shoulder still hurts
10x5lb / shoulder started to hurt after 6 or 7 reps

Seated Cable Row:
12x60kg
12x60kg
1 minute rest

Chest Supported Rear Delt Raise (Pronated Grip):
20x5lb / hand
20x5lb / hand
1 minute rest

Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:

• Slept like shit again, because it was hot last night and then every dog in the neighbourhood seemed to be going apeshit at 3am which I found out this morning was because someone set a (presumably stolen) car on fire over at the cricket ground. Guess I'm living down in the ghetto (in the ghettoooooo). I'm not getting up at 4:30am for the foreseeable anyway, just gonna do light stuff and may as well try and fix my hip as well as my shoulder. So it was up at 5am and straight out to the gym with no coffee, just a Wakey Wakey tablet in some water to save time.

Training Notes:

• Body weight walking lunges, very easy, but I still lack stability on that side and my hip was getting a bit sore by the end so I called it. Pretty easy hamstring curls after that although the last set got a bit harder.
• Figured I couldn't leave it at that for quads so did some light goblet squats with a short pause, they felt OK I suppose.
• Tried some reverse flys but my shoulder just ain't up for these, and I played with doing some sword draws (actually I thought I could call them Flashdances) but even a 5lb plate makes my shoulder hurt with those too, so I got the shits and just did some light cable rows. Then I decided to try those rear delt raises but turn my hands round so my palms were facing the ceiling like I was doing a breaststroke or something and they didn't seem to hurt that way, so that was a win, although it felt like it hit more lat than rear delt, but whatever.
• Just a lazy 39 minutes, but just any kind of movement/exercise is a win. I'm even thinking of going for a bit of a run on the treadmill tomorrow, if my hip will take it - if I can't lift much then at least I can maybe try and get my conditioning up a bit.

[MarkKO]

Tue 10/01/23: Restart or Something D36 - Interlude

AM BW: 89.2kg

Background Noise: Evanescence - Synthesis

Walking Lunge:
25xBW
30xBW
1 minute rest

Hamstring Curl:
12x35kg
12x35kg
12x35kg @ 6.5
1 minute rests

Pause Goblet Squat:
12x40lb
12x40lb
12x40lb
1 minute rests

Chest Supported Rear Delt Raise:
3x20lb / shoulder hurts
2x10lb / shoulder still hurts
10x5lb / shoulder started to hurt after 6 or 7 reps

Seated Cable Row:
12x60kg
12x60kg
1 minute rest

Chest Supported Rear Delt Raise (Pronated Grip):
20x5lb / hand
20x5lb / hand
1 minute rest

Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:

• Slept like shit again, because it was hot last night and then every dog in the neighbourhood seemed to be going apeshit at 3am which I found out this morning was because someone set a (presumably stolen) car on fire over at the cricket ground. Guess I'm living down in the ghetto (in the ghettoooooo). I'm not getting up at 4:30am for the foreseeable anyway, just gonna do light stuff and may as well try and fix my hip as well as my shoulder. So it was up at 5am and straight out to the gym with no coffee, just a Wakey Wakey tablet in some water to save time.

Training Notes:

• Body weight walking lunges, very easy, but I still lack stability on that side and my hip was getting a bit sore by the end so I called it. Pretty easy hamstring curls after that although the last set got a bit harder.
• Figured I couldn't leave it at that for quads so did some light goblet squats with a short pause, they felt OK I suppose.
• Tried some reverse flys but my shoulder just ain't up for these, and I played with doing some sword draws (actually I thought I could call them Flashdances) but even a 5lb plate makes my shoulder hurt with those too, so I got the shits and just did some light cable rows. Then I decided to try those rear delt raises but turn my hands round so my palms were facing the ceiling like I was doing a breaststroke or something and they didn't seem to hurt that way, so that was a win, although it felt like it hit more lat than rear delt, but whatever.
• Just a lazy 39 minutes, but just any kind of movement/exercise is a win. I'm even thinking of going for a bit of a run on the treadmill tomorrow, if my hip will take it - if I can't lift much then at least I can maybe try and get my conditioning up a bit.

The sword draws aren't comfortable, but they shouldn't hurt. Maybe try something even lighter? Like, a litre bottle filled with water?

[BenM]

The sword draws aren't comfortable, but they shouldn't hurt. Maybe try something even lighter? Like, a litre bottle filled with water?

Sorry, I somehow missed that you'd replied to this.

I did some playing around and it might just be that I'm not ready for them yet. Even unweighted, once my arm actually gets above shoulder height it starts to hurt. Likely just bursitis in the joint, from what the radiologist said, but now I've just stopped being an idiot and trying to bench with it I think that is going to settle down reasonably quickly. Like even this morning after the gym I took my shirt off and realised that lifting my arms straight up to take my shirt off was almost painless, and just doing that mundane action has been a bit of a battle at times recently.

I probably should chase the physio and see if he's looked at the pictures... I have access to them but they don't mean much to me!

[BenM]

Thu 12/01/23: Restart or Something D37 - Interlude

AM BW: 89.4kg

Background Noise: Stronger By Science podcast

Dumbbell Walking Lunge:
20x15lb / hand
20x15lb / hand
1 minute rest

Plyo Box Step Up:
15x25lb / hand
15x25lb / hand
90 seconds rest

Face Pull:
20x12.5kg
20x12.5kg
20x12.5kg
--- Supersetted with ---
Triceps Pushdown - Purple Band:
40 reps
40 reps
50 reps
1 minute rests between supersets

Donkey Kick - Purple Band:
20 reps per leg
20 reps per leg
20 reps per leg
--- Supersetted with ---
Pinwheel Curl:
15x25lb / hand
15x25lb / hand
25x25lb / hand @ 6 what
1 minute rests between supersets

Low Decline Sit Up:
12 reps
12 reps
12 reps @ 8.5
12 reps @ 10
90 second rests

Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:

• Thought I slept a bit better last night but still wasn't quite enough. Whatever, I was a bit tired at 5am but wasn't terribly unmotivated to train, I'm still sticking to the light stuff anyway. Shoulder has defintely been bothering me a bit less during the day but it's still keeping me up at night. Hip has improved a bit too, I've suspected for a LONG time that I need to spend less time reclining in a chair in the evenings and I've finally done something about it. It's felt better the last couple of mornings, apparently stretching it out in the evenings in a couple of different positions might be helping, who'd a thunk it?

Training Notes:

• Started with lunges again today but added very light dumbbells. They were mildly uncomfortable but not too bad, maybe even less so than the body weight ones on Tuesday so I noted down that I should stick at this weight until they're painless, or at least close to it. Then did some box step ups with the same weight as last week, these take a bit to get going but didn't seem to make me as sore as last time either.
• A tiny bit more weight on the face pulls and these definitely felt less twingy than last time. But again, I gotta not try to force it and keep the weight low. I did push the last set of triceps pushdowns a little harder this week but these were still easy, I kept my elbows pinned and didn't strain anything at all.
• Donkey kicks are a new one, because I thought they might help with my hip. Felt weird to begin with but not bad at all once I got going, although I felt them more in my glutes than anywhere else. Might do them again, they make a nice light alternative to back extensions. Chucked in some light curls with them thinking cross body curls might be more shoulder safe, didn't feel too bad. Was very, very surprised to get twenty five reps out of the third set, I knew the fifteens were easy but didn't think I was that far from failure at all.
• Happy with the decline sit ups after that, logs seem to show that's the first time I've ever got twelve reps for four sets across, I've done it for three with the third being very close to failure so this definitely looks like progress.
• Not a bad little effort, 52 minutes of exercise (not training), but it is time in the gym and I'm glad I still get to do it.

[MarkKO]

The sword draws aren't comfortable, but they shouldn't hurt. Maybe try something even lighter? Like, a litre bottle filled with water?

Sorry, I somehow missed that you'd replied to this.

I did some playing around and it might just be that I'm not ready for them yet. Even unweighted, once my arm actually gets above shoulder height it starts to hurt. Likely just bursitis in the joint, from what the radiologist said, but now I've just stopped being an idiot and trying to bench with it I think that is going to settle down reasonably quickly. Like even this morning after the gym I took my shirt off and realised that lifting my arms straight up to take my shirt off was almost painless, and just doing that mundane action has been a bit of a battle at times recently.

I probably should chase the physio and see if he's looked at the pictures... I have access to them but they don't mean much to me!

Ok, yeah, I never got to that point. I could always get my arm overhead pain free.

Absolutely I would let the bursitis calm down first.

I'm glad to hear that the shoulder is starting to be on the mend.

[BenM]

Well, I hope so anyway. Still gotta be careful how I move (literally thought I tweaked it turning the steering wheel driving home the other day) but ehhhhhhh it has to heal eventually if I don't make it worse, surely,

[MarkKO]

Well, I hope so anyway. Still gotta be careful how I move (literally thought I tweaked it turning the steering wheel driving home the other day) but ehhhhhhh it has to heal eventually if I don't make it worse, surely,

You've stopped benching. That was probably the main thing stopping it getting better. It'll take a little for things to calm down and then the recovery will really start to pick up the pace.

[slowmotion]

I tried the sword draws out of curiosity, and doing them with my left arm was kind of uncomfortable when I got close to the top of the movement. So I should probably do them regularly. I have no problem benching or pressing overhead, tho.
Ok, so did them a bit more and now it's ok.

[MarkKO]

I tried the sword draws out of curiosity, and doing them with my left arm was kind of uncomfortable when I got close to the top of the movement. So I should probably do them regularly. I have no problem benching or pressing overhead, tho.
Ok, so did them a bit more and now it's ok.

They're a very specific exercise as far as I recall, to target the supraspinatus. Very effective, from memory. I can imagine how they'd be helpful as a preventative measure too.

[BenM]

Well, I hope so anyway. Still gotta be careful how I move (literally thought I tweaked it turning the steering wheel driving home the other day) but ehhhhhhh it has to heal eventually if I don't make it worse, surely,

You've stopped benching. That was probably the main thing stopping it getting better. It'll take a little for things to calm down and then the recovery will really start to pick up the pace.

I sure hope you're right. I miss benching.

[BenM]

Fri 13/01/23: Restart or Something D38 - Interlude

AM BW: 89.1kg

Background Noise: The Race / Stronger By Science podcasts

Banded Fly:
15 reps w/black band
15 reps w/black band
15 reps w/black band
1 minute rests

Dumbbell Pullover:
20 reps w/5lb plate per hand
20 reps w/5lb plate per hand
1 minute rests

Dumbbell Seal Row w/Pause at Top:
15x30lb / hand
15x30lb / hand
15x30lb / hand
90 second rests

Reverse Nordic Curl:
20 reps w/black band
20 reps w/black band
20 reps w/black band
90 second rests

Banded Lateral Walk:
10 reps per leg
no rest, then
15 reps per leg
90 seconds rest, then
20 reps per leg

Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:

• Didn't get enough sleep last night again and woke up pretty tired, and grateful it's Friday. Wasn't gonna gym today, but I worked from home in the afternoon and a window opened up in my schedule late in the afternoon so I got out and moved around a bit.

Training Notes:

• I haven't been doing much for chest at all so did some nice easy flys just to get things moving.
• After the flies I just took a plate in each hand and did some very light pullovers, again just to get the blood circulating.
• Did some light rows, with the weight that happened to be loaded, they were pretty easy but my shoulder was starting to feel it a bit towards the end.
• I haven't done these reverse nordic curls for a fair while, and I seriously felt these in my quads, and even had a bit of a pump. The band wasn't a lot of help.
• Did some banded laterals but got down in a bit of a squat stance with these which made them a bit harder, at the end of that second set my outer glutes/hip were absolutely fried. Still managed a third set which wasn't quite so hard, but figured that was plenty for one day.
• Just a nice quick 39 minutes work. See you next time.

[BenM]

Sat 14/01/23: Restart or Something D39 - Interlude

AM BW: 89.1kg

Background Noise: Suicidal Tendencies - Lights... Camera... Action

Bulgarian Split Squat:
20x30lb
20x30lb
20x30lb
90 second rests

Pause Single Leg Leg Extension:
12x35kg @ 7
12x35kg @ 8
90 seconds rest

Standing Donkey Kick:
20 reps per leg w/purple band
20 reps per leg w/purple band
20 reps per leg w/purple band
1 minute rests

Hanging Knee Raise:
10 reps w/body weight
10 reps w/body weight
10 reps w/body weight
10 reps w/body weight
1 minute rests

Back Extension:
15 reps w/body weight
15 reps w/body weight
20 reps w/body weight
1 minute rests

I actually took video:


Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:

• Sleep was interrupted again last night, I think that's at least three nights this week the kiddo has woken up screaming with nightmares, plus it's dang hot. So I woke up feeling pretty crappy even though I stayed in bed a bit later, did the chores after breakfast and got out for a light sesh before lunch.

Training Notes:

• I'm kinda sick of lunges already, and decided to do some split squats instead with the same (light) weight. Changed it up a little though and just used one dumbbell on the outside of the load bearing leg and used my other hand to balance. My sore left leg was a little tight doing these but they were pretty easy for my right.
• Some light leg extensions after that, I've been holding off on these to give my sore knee a rest but these didn't feel TOO bad, although I don't think I'd want to go any heavier yet. My quads were fairly well cooked and two sets was enough.
• I have been doing donkey kicks on my knees until now but decided to try them standing. They were a bit inconsistent to start with but once I got going they felt quite good, and they had me sweating a bit.
• Back to hanging knee raises because they could be good for both my sore hip and shoulder health, but I wanted to keep these really easy so I didn't flail about too much and hurt my shoulder. Did some easy sets of ten and was careful on the dismount, no issue.
• Was back extensions to finish, intended to keep these light ad well but couldn't resist pushing the last set out to twenty reps. Had a bit of a back pump.
• All done in 42 minutes, that wasn't too bad a day. Was thinking in the shower afterwards about what my goals are right now, and they're basically a) fix these niggles/get uninjured while b) maintaining whatever gains I can and c) not getting too fat ie maintaining weight or losing a bit and d) not hating my life and being a grumpy arsehole to live with. So this light training with shorter sessions seems to be doing the job for now, at least.

[MarkKO]

Well, I hope so anyway. Still gotta be careful how I move (literally thought I tweaked it turning the steering wheel driving home the other day) but ehhhhhhh it has to heal eventually if I don't make it worse, surely,

You've stopped benching. That was probably the main thing stopping it getting better. It'll take a little for things to calm down and then the recovery will really start to pick up the pace.

I sure hope you're right. I miss benching.

I'm certain I am.

It's just one of those things, tears take a while to heal especially when you've been hammering on them for some time. Apart from moving the shoulder in the right way to get it healing, you just need to stop doing what injured it in the first place.

By this stage the process will go through a few steps. Step one is letting everything calm down. Step two is adding in the movements that will help healing, like the sword draws. Step three is learning the new movements that will stop the injury happening again. Once you've gotten through all those steps, is when you can start carefully benching again but probably with much, much less volume than before.

I ended up needing to cap my benching at once a week, for at most 30 working reps. Absolutely no close variations, nothing. The most I could manage was incline bench with a massive focus on thoracic extension. Even a couple of years down the track I'm super cautious about close variations.

[BenM]

Yep; I feel like I'm still in the 'settling things down' phase but I definitely feel like I'm moving in the right direction.

Hopefully I don't end up having to drop volume that much, but I guess we'll see. It'll be a while before I have to start thinking about that too much.

[BenM]

Sun 15/01/23: Restart or Something D40 - Interlude

AM BW: 89.1kg - again

Background Noise: Nirvana - Nirvana

Banded Chest Fly:
20 reps w/black band
20 reps w/black band
20 reps w/black band
1 minute rests

Face Pull:
20x12.5kg
20x12.5kg
20x12.5kg
--- Supersetted with ---
Triceps Pushdown w/Rope:
15x12.5kg
15x12.5kg
15x12.5kg
1 minute rests between supersets

Pinwheel Curl:
12x30lb / hand
12x30lb / hand
15x30lb / hand @ 7.5
1 minute rests

Walking Lunge:
40xBW
60xBW
90 seconds rest

Hamstring Curl:
12x35kg
12x35kg
15x35kg @ 7.5
1 minute rests

Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:

• Slept badly again. Can't blame the kiddo this time, we had burgers for dinner last night and my stomach just couldn't handle the fat bomb I threw down there, so I was tossing and turning and trying not to vomit at the same time. Yay! At least it's the weekend so I could sleep in for a bit, and got out into the gym late morning so I can catch the Canes match this afternoon.

Training Notes:

• Light banded flys again, but this time I pushed them out to twenty reps without difficulty. Had a tiny hint of a chest pump, maybe I can use a slightly heavier band next time.
• Decided to do the triceps on the cable machine this time, since I can do them with the band for days. Worked out well at this light weight, and didn't push the shoulder too hard.
• Pinwheel curls again but a little more weight. Still fairly easy and pushed the last set a bit harder.
• Just some body weight lunges to get some blood flowing, forty per leg was pretty easy, and I thought about maybe doing two more sets but in the middle of the second set thought hey, let's just push to fifty, which ended up being sixty, and I gave up from boredom. In fairness I was a little tired too, but there were plenty of reps in the tank.
• Hamstring curls to finish were a bit unplanned but banged out two easy sets and a harder one before calling it a day.
• Just a lazy 46 minutes, plenty of sweat but not much actual strength training. But that's just fine.

[MarkKO]

Yep; I feel like I'm still in the 'settling things down' phase but I definitely feel like I'm moving in the right direction.

Hopefully I don't end up having to drop volume that much, but I guess we'll see. It'll be a while before I have to start thinking about that too much.

You probably will, at least for the first six to 18 months of benching. Part of that will be because that's around how long it'll take to reset your technique; the other part will be because it'll take a while to build the resilience of your shoulders.

You'll likely be absolutely fine to keep volume high for assistance work that doesn't resemble bench in any way, like direct tricep, delt and pec work but anything that has you flat on a surface will very likely be best kept to a minimum.

[BenM]

Tue 17/01/23: The Upward Spiral - W0 D1

AM BW: 88.9kg

Background Noise: Mötley Crüe - Greatest Hits

Walking Lunge:
20xBW
20x15lb / hand
20x15lb / hand
1 minute rests

Paused Goblet Squat:
12x30lb
12x40lb
15x40lb
1 minute rests

Single Leg Kettlebell RDL:
12x75lb
12x75lb
12x75lb
1 minute rests

Low Decline Sit Up:
15 bodyweight reps
12 bodyweight reps
12 bodyweight reps @ 8
12 bodyweight reps @ 9.5
--- Supersetted with ---
EZ Bar Curl:
10x27.5kg
10x27.5kg
10x27.5kg @ 7.5
10x27.5kg @ 9.5
90 second rests between supersets

Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:

• Actually didn't sleep all that badly and woke up well before the 5am alarm went off. I've written a program now instead of winging it like I have been for the last few weeks; treating this week as a bit of an intro and trying not to push too hard so I was feeling alright about lifting this AM.

Training Notes:

• Started with some body weight lunges to warm up and then did a couple of sets with very light dumbbells. They were a bit scrappy but I want to say they were maybe a tiny bit less uncomfortable for my hip/tendon than last week, but who knows.
• Actually misremembered the RX for the goblet squats, the first set was really easy and then I realised I was ten pounds light. So I did a couple more sets but pushed the third a little harder - was still easy, even with decent pauses, and was less painful than the lunges, so I could probably add just a scooch of weight here next week.
• Onto some light RDLs just to try and keep my glutes and hamstrings moving, but I went a litle lighter seeing as it's an intro week and I don't want to overload my hip and shoulder. Good thing too, my back was toast after these. I do think I'll probably reintroduce some light barbell RDLs in a week or two if things feel up to it.
• Supersetted some sit ups and curls to finish, did even better with the situps than last time and somehow managed four sets of ten with the curls although instead of being 'easy' like I'd written, the last was actually pretty tough. But never mind, they didn't yank at my shoulder at all, probably better than dumbbell curls in that respect, so no big deal.
• Just 43 minutes, then a walk with the dog like usual, then some shower thoughts about how much of a change it is to walk away from a training session feeling less sore than I was when I started. Long may it continue.

[BenM]

Thu 19/01/23: The Upward Spiral - W0 D2

AM BW: 88.6kg

Background Noise: Metallica - S&M2

Banded Fly:
15 reps w/purple band
15 reps w/purple band
15 reps w/purple band
1 minute rests

Seated Cable Row:
12x65kg
12x65kg
12x65kg
90 second rests

Dumbbell Triceps Kickback:
15x20lb / hand
15x20lb / hand
15x20lb / hand
---Supersetted with ---
Dumbbell Lateral Raise:
15x2.5lb / hand
15x2.5lb / hand
15x2.5lb / hand
1 minute rests between supersets

Plyo Box Step Up:
15x20lb / hand
15x20lb / hand
15x20lb / hand
90 second rests

Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:

• Slept well, but didn't get to bed early enough so the 5am alarm was a rude shock. Shoulder does feel like it's getting less and less painful during day to day stuff so that's a good sign.

Training Notes:

• Went with a slightly heavier band for the flys this week, and dropped to sets of fifteen just to keep them pretty easy. I may well attempt some (non-deficit) push ups before the flys in this session next week.
• Added 5kg to the cable rows but aimed to keep them reasonably easy still. Seemed to succeed. Last set got slightly challenging but there were a few in the tank yet.
• Decided to try some dumbbell triceps kickbacks, having not done these before I started light. Probably could have gone a little heavier than this but sets of fifteen were enough to get a fairly decent burn. Supersetted with extremely light lateral raises, the very first rep hurt a touch but after that they were mostly painless so that's a fairly good sign.
• Big fat EH to plyo box step ups. Didn't really like these much, I deliberately dropped some load but the first set was quite uncomfortable. The second was much better, and the third it just started to get a little sore and tired. But it is, generally, feeling quite good and walking up stairs is far less annoying so I am kinda hoping to bring back some very light squats within a few weeks.
• This only took 37 minutes, and was a very easy session, so I may tweak it a little next week - but it worked out well. Have a good one!