24 kg clean and squat,pushups,walking lunges,shoulder sled

Up the last two nights with pretty yucky back tightness. Not sure exactly what set it off but the abs, obliques and lumbars locked down pretty hard and sleep was poor at best and not much of it to boot.VERY hot here and when I sweat and get a bit dehydrated that's when these things tend to happen,

Worked hard on the ring extensions on Monday to REALLY keep the abs tight so as not to push out the diastasis recti and it just overloaded my abs enough to pull my back out of neutral. This used to happen whenever I did ANY two hand swings with ANY weight kettlebell so I guess I should be happy in some ways, but man not sleeping sucks. Especially when even laying down is painful.
 SO I got up and walked and stretched which open things up a lot. took some ibuprofen and fluids and tried to sleep again.
Work was actually better than sleep as the constant moving and stretching is what has always helped. AND I remembered what I used to do back in 2000 when I herniated L4-L5- PULL THE BELLY BUTTON TO THE SPINE- basically a yoga vacuum- to activate the TVA and create more lumbar extensions and IT WORKED GREAT!

Haven't done this in eons, haven't had to, but now I remember just how much time I spent doing this as I did virtually every exercise and this, as much as anything,helped me to create some lumbar curve from my VERY VERY flat gymnastics lower back.

It literally gave me instant relief, but the overly tight lats and abs kept pulling things out. LOTS of lat stretches up dogs, vacuums and squats all day helped.
Got the word from my PT Curtis at Revolutions in Fitness ( RIF- very cool :) ) that my knee issue was from the tibia not gliding posteriorly enough and I knew that was from not enough hamstring stretches of late.
I've been so overly focused on knee flexion I've let the hammies get a little rest- too much it seems- but I have to give them their do. Especially the down dog posture. My two basics- up dog and down dog- not enough maintenance on them and my back and knee paid for it.

SO Much to do everyday! Even though I was still doing these moves I wasn't doing them enough relative to my training load to keep things in check. It's already corrected.

Didn't know if I could train at all today but like usual, the swing pushed the reset button and the workout was excellent.

One arm swings
16 kg x 5/5/5 x 3

One KB clean and front squat- long cycle
16 k x 5/5
20 kg x 3/3
24 kg x 3/3
          x 4/4
          x 5/5 x two ladders
these went great although I can see from the video they are not as low as they felt. That's fine, I'm happy I could do anything today.I wasn't trying to push the depth; just survive the workout.

Goblet squat
24 kg x 5 x 2

these actually were harder on the back than the clean and squat. I could feel the lats and abs activate and pull on  the lumbars so I shut it down. Still feeling ok

Pushups- vertical bar
12, 12, 10,10
PRs!!
Haven't done  12's in years and shoulder were perfect. The internal rotation stretches thoughout the day are really making a significant difference.

Walking Lunges
3 laps of 50 feet.

for some unknown reason these were very strong, although the fatigue from no sleep and the work was catching up. settled on just three laps, however, I did make each section to the end which is a first.

Band rear delts
4 sets of 12, 12, 13,15

Shoulder sled
95 lbs  x 250 ft  x 3 laps

now i'm tired.

feels like the back has calmed down to normal now but we'll see if I sleep. gotta sleep.

datsit.
neverquit.

kb floor press,belt squat, ring extensions,sled pull, grippers

Woke up feeling pretty good considering how hard this weekends training was. Not stiff or achey at all. Very surprising and my shoulder continues to be in less and less pain, mover easier and more as I increase my internal ROM and keep up with stretch/ myo fascial release work.
Combining the release work WITH the stretch really makes a difference too.
Also, putting the shoulder into distraction first, ala kelley starrets band work helps also when I have the time during the day.

Lots of time today spent in full and supported squat positions and this gets deeper everyday. Love it. Knee cap issue is resolving as I make sure to keep the pouch right above the kneecap supple and stretchy.

It's all about the maintenance :)

One arm swing warmup : 16 kg x 5/5/5 x 3  this always makes me feel more ready to go

KB floor press
2 16s x 5 x 2
2 20's x 5
2 24's x 7, 8,8,7,8,8,8,8

NICE! definitely found a groove and the two sets of 7's were outliers when my biceps tendon was not moving well and I had to open it up but otherwise strong as shit!Definitely feel my pecs strengthening after ALL these years of neglect.

Kind of the same feeling as in my quads. My two favorite, and strongest muscles, so left to underuse when I overfocused on bringing up my weak bit. Strengthen the weakness but don't neglect the strengths either.

Learn something new everyday.

Belt squat
40 kg x 12, 14, 16 ,20
these felt great and strong. bell hit floor each rep but given that it's a bigger bells there's less ROM. that is fine, that' fucker's heavy :)

Ring extensions
1 x 14, 12, 11, 10

These were easy. and the presses really warmed up the shoulders

Hip sled
95 lbs x 250 ft x 4 laps

thought seriously about five laps but just did not have any extra and I didn't want to go past 80% effort. Damn it's been hot here forever.

Band rear delts
3 x 12 each arm ( one at a time as usual)
# Trainer gripper
3 x 4 reps each hand.

hands were fatigued this was not as easy as last week. the one arm swings REALLY cook the grip

overall good , work capacity is coming back and body is staying online. here we go.

datsit
neverquit

Sunday Ruck

This was just hard. Right from the start. Yesterday's training; 40kg one arm swings was WAY harder than the 28kg and 24 kg double bell swings the last two weeks. It kicked my butt, as well as my abs and obliques and erectors ....
Good work but fatiguing.
Made sure to get a good stretchout this morning before the walk but I woke up pretty stiff and tight despite good hydration and moderation the day/night before. I was just sore.
Oh well :)

12 laps
two hours
38 pound ruck

it didn't feel heavy I just moved slow. the first 8 laps or so were all 8:30 seconds + a bit. Everything was just tight plus it was wicked humid for here as well as hot. No big deal but not conditions for faster laps.

Lap 9-10 were around 8:10 and 11 was faster and finished with 8:00 even for the twelfth lap! Go figure.
Shoulder holding up great and did a decent little post walk stretchout as well.
Floor presses tomorrow. 28 kgs for 3-5 I hope.

datsit.
neverquit.

40 kg one arm swings, power swing pyramid, crawls and pushups

Back to one arm swings again today and just a few weeks off of the heavy stuff showed me just how quickly that top end strength conditioning falls off. It will bounce  back but I payed the price today :)

Shoulder however felt the best it's felt in eons and I actually woke up with NO shoulder pain at all, unheard of! I really really worked on internal rotation ( hand in the small of the back) ALONG with self myo fascial relief and it's made the biggest difference in ROM and pain yet. Excited about the possibilities.

My left knee pain turned out to be caused my overly tight quads ( go figure!) that was keeping my kneecap too high as I went into extension. As soon as I figured that out it went right away; had to release the knee cap DOWN as I went into extension. Wow. Still have to worry about muscle tissue quality and tension even on the new knee. Won't forget that again. Not used to having ANY pain in the new knee and I didn't like it at all.

Full stretchout
lots of OS rocking, nods, unilateral rocking, seiza sitting and shoulder release work

One arm swings
16 kg x 5/5 x 3
20 kg x 5/5
24 kg x 5/5
28 kg x 5/5
32 kg x 5/5
36 kg x 5/5
40 kg x 5/5 x 5 sets - 50 reps
32 kg x 10/10 x 5 sets 100 reps
 LOTs of work there ,lol

Two hand power swings
32 kg x 5
36 kg x 5
40 kg x 5
44 kg x 5
48 kg x 5

these were easy but tough at the same time! Just a lot of plain work.

Leopard crawls
6 ft x 4 laps

tough as always but necessary

Parallel bar pushups- feet on floor
4 sets of 10

Band rear delts
4 sets of 12

this is working great

datsit 12 lap ruck tomorrow. gonna be a hot one too, gotta start extra early
neverquit

36 Kg Goblet squat , 24 kg single bell front squat, close pushups, shoulder sled

Great day. Body feels good and worked on my internal rotation all morning with a few easy to do shoulder stretches that i think might make a real difference. We'll see but lets were solid, knee no issue and mind was good. LOTS of time spend in the squat position all morning. Digging it.

One arm swing warmup 16 kg  x 5/5/5 x 3

Goblet squat
16 kg x 5 x 2
20 kg x 5
24 kg x 5
28 kg x 5
32 kg x 3
36 kg x 3 x 3! double pr
only took the second set as the video got screwed up on the first lol! Wasn't hard at all, really but the toughest part was just holding it. Didn't get a perfect hop up and was off center on the second set but I'd be damned if I was re setting it up!
Worked out fine

One kb front squat
16 kg x 5/5
24 kg x 3/3
          x 4/4
          x 5/5 x 3
 These were surprisingly good too. Best ever and the 24 felt like a toy. :) Depth is really starting to feel natural and normal as opposed to a surprise :)



Close grip horizontal pushups on p bar
4 sets of 10! pr here too.

very very solid. SO happy to be able to do this so simple movement again without pain.And I like what its doing for my chest shoulders and arms too.

KB Lunges
2 12 kg x 8/8 x 4 sets
WHEW this put the torch on the quads! As bad as the walking lunges are these were even harder! Probably going to alternate these two  moves each week. See some serious strength potential here.

Shoulder sled drag
95 lbs x 250 feet x 3 laps

wow that caught up fast! legs and lungs and body got tired fast. in a low crouch semi run first the first 125 feet then try to maintain it but end up in a lean forward walk for the rest of the lap. Plenty OK though,lol Don't be greedy :)

Red band rear delts SS # Trainer gripper
3 sets of 12 rear delt and 4 sets of 3 closed tight on the trainer.

this is definitely getting stronger/ both moves

BW consistently 160 lbs at 4 am and BF around 10-11% on the tanita at that time. Happy with both numbers

datsit.
Neverquit.

Double 24 kg floor press, 32 kg belt squats, ring extensions, hip sled

Solid work today. Knee resolved when I opened up the TFL of all things.It referred right down to the lateral part of the knee, right next to the knee cap. When that released all went well. Thank G-d. loving my new knee and mobility way to much to go backwards at all!

Had a full hour stretchout this morning and worked the shoulder/lat openers in Starretss video. It got right where I needed it to, in the nexus of the lat, teres major and long head of triceps netherworld under my armpit. Grody locked down glued down tissue but this helped a lot even though I had to jerry rig it quite a bit.
that just means lots of progress to be made :)


one arm swing warmup
16 kg x 5/5/5 x 3

Floor press
2 16s x 5 x 2
2 20s x 5
2 24s x 5 x 5

this went very well once I figured out a manageable way to get the weights into position. I'll stay with this weight til I can do 5 sets of 8 easy and then go up. Nice to get some pec work again too :)

Belt squats
32 kg x 14, 16, 18 ,20
 very solid reps with bell touching floor each rep and a solid quad contraction at top of each rep. wind was good. energy too

Ring extensions
12, 12, 10, 7

Band rear delts red
4 sets of 13,13,15 15

Hip sled
95 lbs x 250 ft x 4 sets

more upright on the walking hits glutes more. I figured since I really lean in on the shoulder version I should stay more upright here.

Gripper 1.5 x  4 singles. no warmup just go. Actually not that far off. 1/4 " but that final click has always been my nemesis!

solid solid day and everything feels good

datsit
neverquit

never forget.

Sunday Ruck

 Left knee was a bit wonky this morning, for no reason, very similar to what happened in Italy and I think it's dehydration that is the problem. Same as then. It was very very hot here yesterday and I didn't hydrate enough it seems. LOTS of wide heavy double and two hand swings and I think the popliteus  got too tight and there was a strange pain in the lower lateral part of my knee. NO swelling or heat or other signs of inflammation.
Stretching the quad and calf relieved it but it wasn't ( still isn't) perfect.And it's just on extension that hurts. Flexion feels good.

Still went for the walk and had zero pain or discomfort during the ruck or I would have abandoned it. No sense risking anything but it felt normal during the ruck

Ruck weight 37 lbs
Eleven laps 30 second squat holds each lap
total training time 1 hour 50 minutes.
Lap time average around 8:30- 8:20 at the end

Very hot this morning too and I was sweating more in the first half hour than I do the entire time. Weird.But I did super hydrate before I went out too, hoping that would help.

Listened to military cadence running marching songs for a lot of the walk and it really helped the time go by, as well as set my pace. Very cool. Running and singing will definitely increase the wind :)

Floor presses tomorrow, will be fun

datsit.
neverquit