Uglok's Regime of Pain.

I started feeling my throat last Wednesday, went to the gym and felt like crap. I went home and on the way grabbed a gallon of orange juice to sip on and supp up my vitamin C. Skipped Thursday and Friday and vegged out all weekend feeling horrible. Monday I felt a bit better and got back to it, with a little bit of added phlegm.

Bad news i'm afraid.

Went into gym for leg workout today: set up squatting rack with 40kg, pushed out 10 reps - felt like a piece of cake keeping slow deep form. Went up in 10kg increments doing sets of 10, 1min rest between sets. In the 60kg set I felt a slight twinge from my problem (left) knee - changed foot position slightly and it felt completely normal again. At 70kg, I did 5x front squats too as I haven't done them in a while. Was doing knee warm up exercises in the 1min breaks.

Then on the 5th rep of 80kg, I felt a sharp twinge from my knee, which was reciprocated on the 6th rep too - so I immediately racked up and called it a day for squatting. Unfortunately this shows that whatever was wrong - whilst much better - has not yet healed. As pain of this nature is a sign that an injury has already occurred and that the limit has already been surpassed, sadly I must admit defeat and have decided no more squatting until at least 1 week on Monday (10 days) have passed, no more Kung Fu until Tuesday at the earliest (4 days). I will keep with the back/chest routines in this time so I don't drop gym pace too much.

That bit out the way, also did 4 sets of leg curls each 10 reps of ~70kg; 5 sets of 10xsingle legged calf raises (55kg) supersetted with single leg foot-dorsiflex (tibialis anterior exercise) per leg; 3 sets of deadlifting 10 reps 60, 80kg each then 3 sets 5x100kg.

Done ~15 weighted leg raise + pushes (4kg/9lbs between the feet), then 10 without the weight immediately after. Will do a little more ab work today.

Will also go for a run tomorrow, but mainly treat the day as a rest. Real shame, but i'll be out of training longer still if I worsen the injury.

Thanks stake.

I haven't really considered clapping chins/pull-ups because I simply don't have that kind of lat strength yet. I can do explosive rows with up to 45-50kg or so, but as far as pulling a solid 85kg of bodyweight up fast enough to clap.... nuh uh.

Muscle ups are in themselves a great explosive workout, haven't tried them in a long time. The only problem is that they are very taxing to various bodyparts, so where would you incorporate them into your routine? Perhaps they would fit on a day of full-body workout dedicated or similar (along with clean + press etc.). Also as you correctly pointed out in your thread, they can put a lot of strain on the shoulders, so being explosive in nature you have to be careful. I'd quite like to see someone perform one very slowly - that'd be great for strength development.

Anyway, just got back from my run - only exercise I will get today - according to google maps 2.45miles in 20min48sec. I have been feeling lethargic and lazy today, so decided whilst not actively increasing pace, just pushing myself - had plenty left in the tank, but made myself keep up as I thought my mood might affect performance. As it turns out, I faster than I thought I would be at just under 8m30 per mile. Feel very slight abdominal/chest/rear shoulder/quad aches which are gooood, and more noticeable glute aches from yesterday's squats. Will miss that feeling. Tomorrow I shall go for another run and do some pullups; may also do some abdominal work.

I can do handstand pushups with a wall (haven't tried them in a while, nor done them frequently in a long time, so down to ~3-4 now), an amazing bodyweight exercise though! I've seen people do the clapping version - crazy indeed! I can hold a handstand for maybe 4 seconds; just a matter of practice my friend!

What are handstand wall sweeps though??

I hope to do planche pushups one day... such strength of core and shoulders!

Anyway, today went for run, same route as yesterday; 2.45miles in time 20min15sec. Tad fast again. I'll try and not go sub-20min for a while. That pace is just over 8min15 per mile. Decided against the pullups; will do a back workout tomorrow - but will do some lower leg and abdominal work tonight.

Sounds like you need some decent shoulder/oblique strength to do that con!

Today's workout was average; chinups, military press, high pulls - aiming for low rep (not until failure), highish weight and moderate rest times. Sets were in triplets with 1min rest in between and 2min between separate exercises.

Chinups (*=+10kg) - 7 warm up, 4*, 3*, 3* --- 3*, 3*, 3*, --- 3*, 3*, 2*2. --- 5 wide pullups, 3 chinups.
Military (50kg) - 8x40kg warm up, 4, 3, 3 --- 4, 3, 3, --- Final triplet was using machine (68kg) 7, 5, 4.

As for the high pulls; after the first triplet I felt a dull pain in my left knee - despite only using 45kg the depth required to start the pull was too much. As such, I replaced them with standing upright rows for the second triplet, 7x40kg, 3x45kg, 5x40kg. The third triplet the gym had gotten extremely busy and all EZ-bars/olympic bars were in use, so did front dumbbell raises instead, 12.5kgx4x2sets (each arm).

I hope I haven't pushed my knee too far, will definitely be as light on it as possible for the rest of today. Note to self: never go to the gym on Monday mornings! Early on it was OK as only people who were blatantly doing some cardio before work were there, but towards the end of my session 14+ ppl there (packed), most of whom doing weights in not a lot of space. This would have been a great workout if it wasn't for this bloody knee. Might have to skip Kung Fu this week too, we'll see. No more resistance exercises that involve the leg at all (however remotely) for me this week.

I've taken the gym seriously for just over a year now (few months before turning 20), even then had periods of 1-2months off at a time in favour of other pursuits/things coming up.

Been going on and off for... about 2.5yrs now - since 17. First full year was mostly playing around and getting to know the equipment, building up general strength etc. - nothing aimed at hypertrophy nor particular strength increases, just becoming as well rounded as possible, not to mention trying out techniques and routines to a degree. It's my brothers' knowledge (both were high level rugby players in their time) that stopped me falling into a number of pitfalls and gave me hints as to what might work best for me, which is why in some areas I know myself very well and how to progress.

I really sympathise with your knee problems! No point in risking it though, so you are almost certainly right taking the safe route. However, if you ever do want to start up on squatting, there are certain things you can do to minimise knee risk/workload, such as very wide stance feet pointed outward(ish) and not going to full depth, and then if you ever do decide to move on from bodyweight into weighted squats then http://www.exrx.net/Kinesiology/Squats.html makes for a very interesting article.


EDIT:
Chest day in the gym, as I don't want to risk my knee doing Kung Fu, my rear deltoids still ache slightly when stretched from yesterday (cuts out all back exercises tonight) and no dips/similar because I worked the front deltoids quite hard yesterday!

Anyway, with all this talk about German Volume Training (http://scoobysworkshop.com/simplemachinesforum/bulking-up-and-gaining-muscle/read-this-german-volume-training/) I figured I hadn't done it in a while, so what the hell.

Warmed up with 10x20kg, 10x40kg on the bench press, then allowed a 2min rest before starting with my working weight. Managed all 10x10x50kg (~60% of 1RM) successfully, keeping a strict 1min rest between sets. Set 7 I really started to feel it, 9 and 10 were real struggles as I fought my instinct to speed up and make it easier. The last rep on sets 8 and 9 were very difficult, and rep 100 I was mentally screaming at myself as I was so close; took around 5sec to get the bar up but I managed it without cheating. Very happy.

Took 5min rest on stationary bike, then did a set of 6x60kg (dumbbells) on 30 degree incline, 7x45kg (DBs) on 45 degree incline. After this I could really feel my anterior deltoids, so gave the incline a rest. Finished off with benching 60kg for 7, 7, 5, 5, 5, 4 reps with 1min rests between sets. By that 4 reps my chest was completely gone, so called it a day. Suprisingly enough in total this workout was easily under 40min due to all the short rest times. I don't feel knackered, but I expect to feel it tomorrow. Now, as it's such a mild evening I think i'll go for a run as i've been quite lazy today.

Despite however much I want to, will not go to the gym tomorrow; could do with a break. Might do some ab work and go for another run though - not going to as running on Thursday!

EDIT 2: Back from run, 2.45mile route in 21min27sec. Not as good as last time, but mehr - i'd recently come back from a gym session and don't normally run at late evening/night! Not phased, pace was around 8m45sec/mile; so long as it doesn't go above 9m/mile or below 8m/mile, i'm happy!

Thanks for your reply Uglok, didn't think I'd ever be able to do squats but I think I will be looking into the wide stance! I hope to be able to stick lifting seriously for a year now on an advanced 4 / 5 day split routine. I do so much cycling that I don't want to hinder my muscle recovery after a session with more and more cycling (to work). I am going to give myself 6 months of full cycling before I start doing the legs session every week. Even then it will only consist of lunges and calf raises for the time being whilst I take my knee easy on extensions.

Regards

Alex

Abdominals
 - 10 (behind neck 9lb) crunches, same weight 20 bicycles, 10 leg raises with hip push, 1 min rest. x3
 - 10 side-crunches x2, 10 leg raises with hip push
 - 30 frog situps (haven't done these in a long time!) x2
 - Isometric/forced contractions of abs for approx. 10-20sec

Shoulders
 - Military press 20kgx10 no rest 30kgx10, 1min, 40kgx10x7x, 45kgx5x4x4, 40kgx7x7x5.
 - Lateral raises 10kg x5, front raises 10kg x3 each arm (was fairly tired).
 - 10min cycling as a rest.
 - Upright row, 30kgx10x8x7, 25kgx8x8.
 - Seated dumbbell shoulder press, 20kgx2 for 3 sets of 5, followed by 1 set of 60 degree incline 20kgx2, 7 reps.

All sets done with 1min rest in between and exercises 2min in between. Aaaand that's it for today. Tomorrow is a grading in Kung Fu, so may be called up to spar or demonstrate lower belts: hopefully not as my instructor knows i'm not on top form. No planned workout or cardio for tomorrow.