ExRx.net

1/30/13

Rest day. Some walking, some foam rolling.

***

My knee aches today. Felt it a little last night, more this morning. I am wondering if my knee is not yet up to my not-terribly-ambitious squat program. I will give it another week, but if it aches again significantly, I will back off and start on something else.

Annoying. I want to work hard but my body is not up to it right now.

_________________
--
Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

1/31/13

Afternoon: Pull Day

Warmup: Foam rolling, mobility drills

1) Kneeling Pulldown (pronated) - 3 x 20 x 85, 2 x 20 x 80
2) Seated Cable Row - 4 x 10 x 110
3) DB Shrug - 4 x 20 x 65 w/2 sec pause
4) DB Curl - 4 x 20 x 20

***

My knee still hurts today. Not achy, but ouchy. I think it's telling me I am not ready to squat and deadlift each week, even lightly. I am trying to decide if I should continue my cycle, drop the weights, or just drop squats and keep deadlifting, or drop both and go for rehab-style leg exercises. Tough choices all around.

I was supposed to drop all of these to 2 and 3 sets, but I didn't, since this is the only day I can really work as hard as I'd like to.

Pulldowns - felt good.

Seated rows - also good, but hard.

DB Shrugs - getting easier, so I might need to go up somehow. Maybe barbell shrugs, not sure yet.

DB Curls - I wanted to change it up, so I did these, fullying supinating the wrists - hammer style at the bottom, turned inside-out at the top. Felt great.

_________________
--
Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

2/1/12

AM: Mobility drills, foam rolling

PM: 10 minutes on Elliptical, 70/10, heart rate from 120 up to 160 by the end.

_________________
--
Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

2/2/13

AM: 1 1/2 MMA classes. Did a full class, then stuck around for about half of the next class. Spent most of the first one working basics with a new guy, then mitts and rolling for the rest of the class and half of the next one. Felt pretty good.

_________________
--
Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

2/3/13

Rest day.

_________________
--
Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

2/4/13

AM: TKEs and band walks, some foam rolling

PM: Push Day

Warmup: Mobility drills, foam rolling

1) Press - 5 x 50, 4 x 55, 3 x 65, 2 x 75, 1 x 80, 1 x 85, 1 x 85, 12 x 75
2) Incline DB Press - 4 x 10 x 35 (w/2 sec pause)
3) Rope Pushdown - 4 x 20 x #13, 12, 12, 12
4) Band Pull-Apart - 100 x red theraband
5) Half-Kneeling Pallof Press - 2 x 5 x 5s x #6

***

Knee was really cranky today. This bodes poorly for continuing my cycle.

Press - felt good.

Incline DB Press - felt great with the pause.

Rope Pushdown - hard but good. I added more sets in because they felt great.

BPA - 100 reps

1/2K PP - both sides, inside knee up and outside knee up.

_________________
--
Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

2/5/13

Afternoon: Legs day

Warmup: Mobility drills including TKE, band walks, glute bridges, clams, etc.

1) Deadlift - 5 x 115, 4 x 135, 3 x 145, 2 x 165, 1 x 180, 1 x 185, 1 x 190, 2 x 3 x 155
2) Leg Curl - 4 x 20 each leg x #10
3) Calf Raise - 100

***

Because my knee is feeling bad, I decided to extend my warm and to drop squats. I did the deadlifts as planned, and I rammed the accessory leg curls back up to 4 sets. We'll see if this bother my knee. If not, I will keep deadlifting. If so, they are gone until my knee is back to 100%. This is why you don't see a replacement for the squat - I don't want to add another variable.

Deadlift: Felt pretty good, although not very heavy. 2 x 3 x 155 felt best.

Leg Curls: Not that hard, probably because I wasn't squatting, but they felt good.

Calf Raises: Tough but I got all 100 done in one long set.

_________________
--
Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

2/6/13

AM: Some foam rolling

***

Good news - my knee didn't hurt today. Either squats bother it, or it's not strong enough to support squats so it was grinding under off-centered pressure, or the volume was too high. Or something else. But with less volume and no weighted squats, my knee felt better.

Bad news - my knee felt like it needed to pop, but wouldn't, all day. That's bad because that's how it felt before it went in January last year. So I am being careful with it. Also, my shoulder ached after the deadlifts and felt tight today.

Still, I'll take that if it means I can DL once a week productively.

_________________
--
Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

2/7/13

Afternoon: Pull Day

Warmup: 5 minutes on Elliptical at 60/10, foam rolling, mobility drills

1) Kneeling Pulldown (pronated) - 5 x 20 x 85
2) Seated Cable Row - 10 x 115, 3 x 10 x 110
3) Barbell Shrug - 20 x 155, 3 x 20 x 185
4) DB Curl - hammer curls 20 x 25# DBs, curls 2 x 20 x 20# DBs, reverse curls 20 x 15# DBs

***

Pulldowns - barely got these, I need to stay at this weight.

Seated cable rows - felt okay while I did them, but getting into position is tough. After, my back felt tight, so I think it's these that does that. I will swap out for a standing cable row, perhaps, or a DB row of some kind.

Barbell shrug - 155 was okay, but light. 185 was better. I will go up from there, or perhaps do trap bar shrugs in the cage? We'll see.

DB curl - just felt like mixing them up today. All of them were hard.

_________________
--
Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

2/8/13

AM: 1 minute Wall Sit, 5 minutes Elliptical at 100/10

Afternoon: Mobility Drill workout from a DVD

_________________
--
Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

2/9/13

AM: Mobility drill workout from DVD (same as yesterday)

Afternoon: Helped my neighbor shovel.

***

Above 12-13" of snow here, so no MMA today. Our apartment was snow-blown out, but when I went outside to check on my car my neighbor asked me if I could help him dig out. So I did.

Doing the mobility stuff two days in a row was interesting. My hips were really sore from yesterday. I think I need to keep doing this 1-2 days a week, in addition to what I do in my warmups. My knee felt so-so, but I'm hoping it will feel consistently better if I work at it.

_________________
--
Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

2/10/13

Rest day. Well, lots of walking and carrying, but no formal exercise.

_________________
--
Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

2/11/13

Afternoon: Press Day

Warmup: Mobility drills, foam rolling

1) Press - 5 x 50, 4 x 55, 3 x 65, 2 x 75, 1 x 85, 1 x 85, 1 x 90, 12 x 80
2) Incline DB Press - 4 x 10 x 35, 2 count pause on chest
3) Rope Pushdown - 2 x 20 x #13
4) Supine Band Pull Apart - 100 x red theraband
5) Half-Kneeling Pallof Press - 2 x 5 x 5s x #7

***

Good workout today.

Press - shoulder felt pretty good. Easy 1 x 90 and a hard but good 12 x 80 (5 pound PR for 12 reps) bode well for pushing up 105 for 1 in a few weeks.

Inclines - felt good.

Rope - hard.

BPAs - stolen from Cressey. Way, way too easy laying down. I need to use a harder band. I did 100 and I could have done 200+

1/2K PP - still hard, but not crushingly hard.

_________________
--
Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

2/12/13

Afternoon: Leg Day

Warmup: Foam rolling, mobility drills

1) Deadlift - 5 x 135, 4 x 140, 3 x 145, 2 x 165, 1 x 185, 1 x 190, 1 x 195, 3 x 165
2) Leg Curl - 4 x 20 per leg x #10, 11, 10, 10
3) Calf Raise - 120
4) Wall Sit - 60s

***

Glutes felt it today. Hamstrings too.

Deads - felt good. Not too easy, but not actually hard.

Leg Curls - okay, 11 is a lot of plates on the stack for these. Hard. Had to drop back down, but I felt these and that makes me happy.

Calf raises - because 100 is easy again.

Wall sit - extra static strength for the quads can't hurt.

_________________
--
Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com

2/13/13

Late AM: Mobility drill exercises (from DVD) - harder stuff this time.

***

Just test-driving a DVD. I do like the stuff I'm doing on it, though, and my IT bands and hips really need to open up more, so I will rotate this stuff in.

_________________
--
Peter V. Dell'Orto
http://strength-basics.blogspot.com