ExRx.net

well i doubt this will be of any interest to anyone except me, but I think the only way to be sure that what I am doing for my back is working is by keeping a log. I won't go into too much detail as to what's wrong with my back as there's a thread about it going on already. Suffice to say enough is enough, and by the time summer is over and I go back to uni (end of September) I want to have an injury free back, and a decent level of flexibility. I believe fixing one will fix the other.

I am not going to go into much detail regarding my upper body workouts, but I will report whether or not there are any tweaks to my back, what tweaked it and how severe a tweak was tweaked.

First lower body workout in over a month is tomorrow. I just can't wait any longer but I think if I'm smart i might be ok. Until then, don't you go changing... (100 points to anyone that got that film reference)

right, here it is, my first ever back rehabilitation workout:

Bulgarian SS. The weights listed are the dumbells I used, so there's 2 of each, obviously

BW x 8
5k x 8
7.5k x 8
BW x 8

Wow. I suck at these. I couldn't believe how hard the bodyweight ones were! Hopefully it's just because I"M not used to the move and I'll get better fast.

GHRs
3x5 (BW)

these are great, I love them and they weren't as hard as I expected. Just have to concentrate on keeping good posture

Hip thrusts

40k x 5 x 2 (to get the feel)
50k x 5
60k x 5 x 3

Could probably have gone heavier on these but I decided not to rush it. I reckon I'll be moving some pretty serious poundage on these soon.

Pallof Holds (I don't press, I just hold it out in front of me and count) The number listed is the position on the stack

5 x 12 count
4 x 15 "
3 x 20 "
2 x 30 "

4 sets was enough, going to try and increase these every week.

And I'm done. Annoyingly I forgot to do my push up planks between sets of hip thrusts but I'll know for next time. Back didn't tweak at all during the workout but started to stiffen up a bit on the walk home. Going to do some stretches and some bird dogs now and lie on the sofa. Later on I'll do a circuit of core stuff which I'll post up.

back feels a little stiff today but otherwise ok. Compared to the day after my workouts when I was squatting/deadlifting I actually feel great! Over the course of the day I'm going to do my back rehab routine. It consists of:

dead bugs
hip stretch
KPj planks
bodyweight hip thrusts
thoracic extensions

In that order. I do a bit of foam rolling every day too, mostly on hips and lower back. Sometimes I do bird dogs instead of dead bugs, depends how I'm feeling.

KPj planks were invented by a member of this forum, no prizes for guessing which. What you do is you lie down with your body propped up as if you were doing a plank, squeeze your abs and glutes like hell then lift yourself up into a plank position for 5 seconds. That's one rep. I do sets of ten. As I get better I am going to keep it at ten reps but make the reps last longer.

I will be doing this every day. What I do is when I am watching tv at night, every commercial break I do one round of this. So there's like 20 mins between rounds but it adds up over the course of the day. Keeping rounds spaced out means I don't go anywhere near failure really, so there's no interference with recovery. Who's smart? I'm smart.

another off day, back was hurting like hell walking about the shops with my girlfriend. On the plus side, it gives me the perfect excuse not to go with her next time.

Going to do a few rounds of my circuit over the course of the day.

upper body today, back feels ok, no tweaks. Little bit stiff walking home but pretty much what I expected. Like I said before I'm not going to bother logging by upper body workouts; I'm too lazy and frankly that's not the point of the journal.

I'll do a few rounds of my circuit tonight, quite proud of myself for doing it every day because I've always meant to but always been too lazy. Nothing like an injury to boost the ole motivation!

2nd low back rehabbing workout today:

BSS

BW x 10
5k x 10
7.5k x 10
BW x 10

I hate these, they burn like hellfire and get me really out of breath. I suppose that means they're working. I'm going to get up to 12 reps of each before I increase weight. I've decided to strive for more reps as opposed to more weight, keeping the load on my back low. Feel these much more in my quads than I ever did with squats, so I might actually put some size on my legs for once.

GHR

BW x 5 x 3

Still really love these, last set was a bit iffy but I think I had more in me in the first 2, so I'm going to try and get 8 reps with my first set next time and see how I go from there.

Hip Thrusts

40k x 5
50k x 5
60k x 5
70k x 5
80k x 5

Hell yeah! Loaded this bitch up good this time! I love this exercise, next time I'm going up to 90k baby! I think before long I'll be loading some serious poundage on this, adding 5k (or maybe just 2.5k) a week. I'm trying not to lift it like an idiot though; I squeeze the top of each rep for a couple of seconds just to make sure I'm getting a good contraction in the glutes.

Once again I forgot to do sets of push up planks but to be honest I'm thinking that as it gets heavier I'm going to need just to rest between sets so I can perform well, so I think I won't bother with the planks.

Pallof Holds

5 x 15
4 x 20
3 x 30

and that was that. I think I'm going to change how I do the holds next time, try and do 4 x 30, 5 x 20, 4 x 30 next time. That'll be hard as hell but I think I'm up to it.

Back feels pretty good, no tweaks during the workout and it didn't tighten up on my walk home this time so I think it must be getting better.

Tonight I'll do a few rounds of my circuit and that'll be that. Not a bad day.

off day today, few rounds of the circuit over the course of the day. Being unemployed's giving me loads of time for back rehab

upper body day, back didn't tweak although it gets a little tight on my heavy bench press sets. I actually think it might be a good thing because it shows I'm keeping my arch.

Going to do a few rounds of my circuit tonight, business as usual.

Although something I did notice yesterday, instead of just counting to 5 when I do KPj planks, I actually timed it with a stopwatch. Turns out what I think is 5 seconds in my head is nowhere near 5 seconds in reality! So it looks like I suck even harder at planks than I thought I did.

lower body workout today. I would usually do 1 lower body weight lifting day and 1 day of sprints in a week, but for the time being I've decided to drop the sprints and do 2 lower body days a week. Fun and games.

BSS

BW x 12
5k x 12
7.5k x 12
BW x 8

good steady progress on these. Going to go heavier next time - BW, 7.5k, 10k, 5k. I thought about trying to get the reps up to 15 but I think 12 is plenty. I still really hate these but they are hammering my quads like no other exercise ever has. Balance is improving too.

GHR

(all bodyweight)
7
5
5

really concentrating on trying to keep my hips forward on these. It's easy to let them slip back to make it easier.

Hip Thrusts

60k x 5
70k x 5
80k x 5
90k x 5
100k x 5

definitely the highlight of the workout. Feels good to be able to load a couple of plates on a bar again. I think next week I'll just try and match this on Tuesday's workout, then try and increase it on Friday. However, my shoulders have been kinda bugging me this week, so depending on how they feel after the weekend I might take a week off upper body stuff next week and train lower body three times on a heavy/light/medium split. I'll see how I feel on Monday.

The eagle-eyed among you will notice I didn't do my Pallofs today. After I'd finished my hip thrusts both the cable stations were being used so I just thought "fv(k it." I'll do a few rounds of my circuit later and that'll suffice.

Considering it was only 3 exercises it was a damn good workout. I've taken a leaf out of Matt's book.

yesterday and today were both off days, during which I ate like crap and drank too much. Was sure to hit my macros though, so I don't think I've messed up my recovery from friday's workout. I might do a few sets of my circuit tonight but I am very hungover so might just write today off and start fresh tomorrow.

Shoulders feel ok though so I think this week'll just have the same upper/lower format as last week did. Probably take a week off pressing the first week in July.

Also, my back is definitely improving, so I think next month I might add in overhead pressing (seated, dumbells) and dumbell rows again. I've really missed those two.

after typing that I felt like a pussy so I DID do some rounds of my circuit. Feel a bit less like a pussy now.

upper body day, back feels a little sore but that usually happens after a weekend of drinking. It feels better than it did after my last weekend of drinking so in a weird way it's still an improvement.

it's night time now and my back's feeling pretty good. Have only just gotten round to doing my circuit because my girlfriend was over but now she's gone to bed, giving me time to train core stuff and watch terrible films (Lakeview Terrace, really very terrible).

Dead bugs are now too easy, so I have started doing sets of leg-lowering instead. It's similar to a dead bug in that you lie on your back and posteriorly tilt your pelvis, but instead of keeping your legs bent you lift them straight up into the air, and slowly lower them one at a time til they're an inch or so off the floor, pause for a second, lift back up into the starting position then repeat with the other leg. Once I am good for sets of 15 per leg, I'll move up to double leg lowering.

one other thing I forgot to write earlier, I asked Mike Robertson if what I was doing is ok regarding my daily stuff, and he said that doing a couple of sets of those exercises every day is a good thing but I need to start loading them up with some weight.

This resonated with me as the reason I went back to training legs a little earlier than I thought was wise was that I was sure I would do more good loading those exercises up to strengthen my PC than by just doing bodyweight stuff and stretches.

So what I am basically saying is the three people who I thought I had better check with before doing my rehab routine (KPj, Mike Robertson and Dean Somerset) have all ok-ed my routine. I thought it was a good routine but it's always best to get a second (or third, or fourth) opinion.

In other words: Boo-ya Muthafucka! I'll be back to full awesomeness in no time.

lower body back rehab workout:

BSS

5k x 8
7.5k x 8
10k x 8
12.5 x 8

could probably have done more on these. Also, should've done a high rep bodyweight set to failure after the 12.5s. Next time I'll go up to ten reps and do the bodyweight set at the end too.

GHRs

BW x 6 x 3

not much to report on these. Think I'm getting a bit better at staying upright.

Hip Thrusts

60k x 5
80k x 5
100k x 5
110k x 5

as usual, these were the highlight of the workout. Only 4 sets but 110k is a PR. I don't think I'll try and beat it on friday, just match it. I think my progress is due to stall pretty soon but I think I'll get up to 3 plates a side by the end of August. I am even considering using 5/3/1 loading parameters when progress starts to slow but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Pallof holds

4 x 20
5 x 15
4 x 20

disappointing, was hoping to be stronger but oh well. On friday I'm going to try for a 20 count on the 5th plate. We'll see.

All in all a pretty good workout. I should've tried a bit harder on the BSS but my hip thrust numbers keep going up so I'm happy.

Back feels a little sore though, I think I did a dodgy rep on the hip thrusts and jerked it a bit. I'll see how it feels after Friday's workout.

Few sets of my circuit tonight and I'm done.