Spytech’s Intense Workout Log

My goal for 2008 was to stay healthy, and to finally pull 700. I did both, and now we are upon a new year. New year, new priorities, new goals.

This year I want to focus on getting stronger, while staying healthy (physically, mentally, cardiovascularly).

How does ‘getting stronger’ this year differ from previous years? This year I’m not letting other lifts fall by the wayside to obtain a new 1RM on a lift (ie: coasting on squats while favoring deadlifts). This year, in fact, I am not worrying about 1RMs at all (if anything, I will be focusing on 3RMs primarily). It doesn’t matter what lift I do, they are all going to get stronger. My training will be pretty similar to how it has been the last month, with some slight variations favoring more moderate intensity volume on weaker big lifts, while doing more odd strengthening lifts (zercher squats, zercher deadlifts). Volume will be concentrated mostly in the 70-90% range, with just a few reps at 95% per month.

As far as specific movement goals go, I really don’t have any. I want to keep my volume low, focus on rest, and hit the few sets I do for each movement with full intensity and focus. Everything is just going to get stronger

Went to see Dr. Scott today to see how things are holding up. My pelvis is still in proper alignment (good). Deads are coming up so we will be able to see if the pain in my ham/glute is connected at all. It is probably too soon to tell, though, but we will see.  My knees were out a bit, so he adjusted those, and he did some work on my calves since they are always sore. Now they are very sore (as he said they would be), but hopefully he did something good in there.

Today I went to see Dr. Scott, the kinesiologist/chiropractor who has fixed alot of my aches and pains in the past, about my glute/hamstring issue.  Simple reaction tests show my right glute/hamstring is not firing and ‘catching’ like it should (I knew that).  The doc says my pelvis is ‘out-of-line’ quite a bit. Now, we don’t know if this was caused by the clot, but it certainly could have been due to the extreme distension the swelling put my leg through (especially the upper hamstring and glute). We also don’t know if the pelvis issue is causing the glute/hamstring issue, but right now we are treating it as if it is, and will end up seeing whether this is the answer or not. Dr. Scott showed me how to reset my pelvis to help keep it in-line, and wants me to ice it every day. Running and jogging is discouraged for now, so I will be doing some walking and swimming for a while, it seems. My glute/hamstring felt pretty good after treatment today - I could not reproduce the pain afterwards.  Dr. Scott expects it will take a month or so to get things to stick.

Since the pain is at its worst exploding off the floor on a deadlift (I haven’t been able to explode off the floor for a few months now, for that matter), but seems to alleviate once I ‘load’ the glute/hamstring, I am going to try doing deadlifts a little differently next time.  I am going to try to set the plates up on some 12″ risers we have at the gym so I can start my first rep from the top. I will then have someone pull the platforms out of the way once I pick the weight up, and then will lower to the ground under control and let it rip. I’m thinking this will allow me to keep going hard, but take it a tad easier on the glute/ham.

New routine posted under ‘current routine’. Just changing things up a bit.

I had my six  month follow-up today for my leg. The doctor was pretty amazed at how fast I have recovered (initially he said it would take a year for most swelling to go away). I have no swelling in my calf/ankle/foot these days, and my leg feels great. I explained to him about how I was doing alot of high-rep sets (250-500 reps) to get the blood flow in my leg to improve and he was pretty stunned by how well it worked. Afterwards I had to get a bunch of blood drawn for tests, which I will know the results of  in two weeks. These tests will basically tell me if I have some genetic trait that makes me prone to clotting or not. Results don’t really matter for the most part, as the doc is keeping me on a low dose of blood thinners for an indefinite time frame just to be safe.

Another thing I was excited about was my improvement in my vitals.  On my first follow-up in July I had  a BP of 122/64 and a resting heart rate of 80 at a bodyweight 219. My resting HR has never been below 80 since high-school. Today my BP was 118/70 and resting HR was 68 at an all-time high bodyweight of 232. So I’ve gained 13lbs, and my BP and resting HR are both improved. I guess the high intensity heavy bag work I have been doing has been doing its thing.

Went to see Dr. Scott today (the doc Clare has been seeing for her back). He worked on my tennis elbow, traps, and RCs quite a bit today. I feel really good right now - hope everything ’sticks’. It is pretty amazing how the simple tweaks he does instantly improve my strength in those problem areas.

This week I decided to create a new plan of attack to mix things up a little bit. The new routine is still a MWF full body split, but focuses more on full body core intensive movements and compounds, dropping alot of the iso ‘bodybuilder’ work except for occassional light weight recovery purposes. I will be starting this on Monday and going through it for 2 weeks, then I will take a week off before really getting into it.

Details here http://strengthandbody.com/spytech/current-routine/

My leg is doing pretty good. Recovery is coming along quickly - as quickly as it can, anyways. Swelling is minimal below my knee and my foot/ankle does not swell up much at any these days - even if I keep my compression stocking off for a few hours. Upper thigh is within a few inches of my left leg, so that is a positive sign as well. Lots of nasty looking stretch marks all over my hamstring and inner thigh from my leg being stretched 8+” bigger than it should be.

In regards to training I will be taking the next six weeks to run a wave cycle for my raw deadlifts with volume peaking at weeks 3 and 6. I will be alternating parallel box squats and rock bottom box squats as deadlift assistance on Mondays. Fridays will continue as normal with ATG narrow stance squat work. Bench will rotate between flat and incline as usual as it has been, running on a 3-2-1 periodized rep scheme. After the six week cycle is done I will take a week off then most likely start training deads and squats in briefs again, assuming the leg feels as good as it has been.