sometimes "hard work" sometimes "smart work"

Disappointing day but I feel like I did the smart thing.
I've been squatting the squat rack (yes the only one) in my gym for the last three weeks or so. Prior to this I was squatting at the squat stands that had no safety rails. Once I got close to 400, I was getting less and less confident so I decided to switch over to the rack for the safety rails in case I failed. Now, I have realized that this rack actually has failed me.

About midweek last week I felt some discomfort on the lateral area of my left knee. When I squatted at GSBB, it seemed as if the discomfort had gone away. The GSBB rack is shown in my avatar. Today, in the rack @ my gym, the discomfort came back.

I attribute it to two things that are wrong with this rack. 1st, The ground is not level where this rack is located (and I am accustomed to squatting on level ground). 2nd, The floor in this rack is not true ground or a solid platform. It is a metal sheet which I just noticed today on my last warmup with 385, has a lot of give. Because of this, I lose a lot of ground reaction at the bottom of the squat. Basically, the metal sheet bends down when I bend down. Not cool.

I decided to cut this workout short and leave it at the last warm up. It only took me two workouts to figure this out...so I'm glad I didn't waste a ridiculous amount of time here, or get seriously injured.

I plan in hitting a make up session tomorrow.

Dave, I didn't get hurt but I think I did suffer a setback...
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Well, today I tried to do my make up squat session. I went to see my coach about the knee which was still giving me trouble tonight. Luckily, there were some high school footballers (some really strong kids I might add) training there tonight too because their athletic trainer was there. He checked my knee out to see if it was anything obvious like ITB syndrome or meniscus tear. I tried warming up to see if it would go away. I tried Advil to see if it was inflammatory. So, basically, long story short...I have to go get it checked out. In the meantime, my coach said that I could continue to squat but I'd have to lighten the load A LOT unfortunately. So I did 225X10 X2 sets. He also said that I could continue to do dynamic effort on Fridays because at the bottom of the squat (where the knee is not happy right now), the load is only going to be about 205-325 (which is unloaded when I actually sit for a second on the box), and the chain weight (80lbs) doesn't fully kick in until the top of the squat. That way I won't get totally de-conditioned to a heavier load but allow de-loading in the trouble-area.

So another setback. Anytime I seem to make stunning progress, I suffer a minor setback. The last one was in December 2009/January 2010 with the medial epicondylitis. Before that was a back strain in July 2009.

This however is not the first time that I've noticed this pain in my knee. I think I had something similar happen in 2007. I had gotten MRI's and everything turned out fine except, the ortho doc noticed that there was a part of my femur that looked like it had a low blood supply. He said sometimes that can be caused by autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (something that is in my family) and sickle cell anemia (which is also in my family). While my blood test indicated that I do not have any of those, I wonder if I sometimes can express them somehow. Having going through this before, I'm pretty sure that in a couple of weeks, I will be laughing at this setback and setting PR's once again.

Anyhow, I still managed to get some heavy work in. I deadlifted. Something I haven't done since April 5th where I pulled 465X5 (my PR's so far are 485X2, 475X5, and 495X1). So, tonight I did the following (knee sort of hurt a little but not as much since the deadlift doesnt require a deep knee bend as the squat does):

135X5,
225X5,
315X3,
405X1,
455X2 (I did this set because I knew it had been a while since I deadlifted and I wanted to test out the waters),
475X2 (3 reps off my PR...not bad for not pulling for 16 days.)

I should be pulling once a week...now that my squat is taking a back seat, I will get back on the stick with the deadlifts.

As for the meet, I guess I have to contact the meet director and ask if I can switch to bench (since its single lift meet). I still want to get my first meet out of the way so that I can get those first timer nerves done and over with. So the meet is still on! (one thing you will learn about me through my logs is that I don't quit...I adapt, reformulate, and continue.)

Thanks Michelle.
_________________

Pressing Day

Super Light squatting (testing the knee...result: not as bad as yesterday):
barX5
135X5
225X5

Presses (strict standing overhead):
Warm ups:
BarX5
95X5X2
135X3
155X2
185X1
Work sets:
206.25X5 X3 sets -* PR for reps and sets

Chins:
3 sets max reps (which aren't much for this 260 lb'er..but it was enough to get a really good pump)

Okay, so I called the doctor this morning to set up an appointment to check on my knee. Now I'm thinking I may have jumped the gun. My knee is already feeling much better today...but I guess better safe than sorry. I'll still go in and go through the process. Probably by the time I get an MRI, my knee will be 100% fine again...but like I said better safe than sorry. I'm still going to squat within my means regardless.

Totally killed the press today. I think hitting a PR for 3RM last week prepared my shoulders for this slightly lighter weight..although for shoulders 9 lbs is a huge amount of weight considering all the small muscles in the shoulder girdle. The second set was the hardest and the third set was surprisingly the easiest. At that point, I was hitting all cylinders...which is nice when you are on your last work set.

Got my Xray this morning . Its negative (though I saw something questionable in it but I'm no doctor....I'll ask the ortho when I get to him). Sometime next week I should be able to get an MRI, then set up the ortho appointment.

Interesting thought on the shoes. I think the Converse will work well.
BTW Sean had a meet this past weekend and there was a guy there who was deadlifting in Ballet shoes!

Ha Ha HAHAHAHA I never saw such a thing!

Work smart AND work hard- it all gets done! Hope the knee get's the ALL CLEAR after the MRI.

The funny thing I saw in my x- ray is called a fabella. Looks like I have one but it is asymptomatic. Its one of those weird things that some people have but aren't usually a problem. Plus, the pain I'm having is anterior and feels like its in my vastus medialis anyways whereas the fabella thingy is posterolateral...totally opposite side. My x-ray came out negative which is good...but they also told me today that the authorization for MRI was declined by my insurance. WTF! I'll have to schedule the ortho appointment MRI-less. Let's see how that goes.

Anyway, Benching it was today:

Warm ups
barX5
135X5
185X5
225X5
285X1

Worksets
317.5X5 X3 sets *PR here...linear progression keeps rolling nicely with the 2.5 lb jumps

Pullups
3 sets of max reps...(again not much for me because I'm my heaviest ever...its like me strapping 70 lbs on my previous bodyweight...Pumped the back right out though)

Although my knee is a source of frustration, I should be happy that I can still get in the gym and make progress elsewhere. The beat goes on!

*****************

On another note, Saturday was my 5th time judging at a bodybuilding show (Joe Franco's Beyond Nutrition Natural was this weekend), and I got to try my hand in head judging. I was nervous at first and forgot to call out the symmetry quarter turns for the first class; however, I had Anthony Primola, Matt Shepley, and Mark Cotton by my side helping me each step of the way. Shout out to Chadwick Austin for helping me out with the judging in the prejudging. I needed that. Thanks Chad! The rest of the cast at the show was on point (especially expediter Jen Zimmerman) and helped to make the show super smooth and efficient for this first time head judge. It was a good first experience. I'm looking forward to more.

-- Edited by winflex on Monday 26th of April 2010 09:06:46 PM

"Knee Test" workout

Squats
barX5 - ouch
95X5 - ouch
135X5 - ooh a little better, okay add weight
185X5 - nice, good, okay add more weight
225X10 - really good, a little more
275X5 - okay but not as nice as 225, bring it back down
225X8 - good but ouch at the end

Deadlifts *lats were sore from all the pullups yesterday. grip was not great tonight either.
225X5
315X5
405X3
425X1
435X1
475X1X2sets
405X5

So for squats, no PR's tonight. Nothing extravagant. Just squatting within the pain barrier. The nice thing is that I went unbelted for all the squats. I generally don't belt up if I'm not going over 315 or if I'm not sore. I was neither sore or going over 315. So, it went fairly quick and I let my wonky knee tell me when to stop.

On deadlifts, I kinda knew it wasn't going to be a great night...slightly because I was dejected from not being able to squat how I want and partly because my lats are really sore from the 3 failure sets of pullups yesterday. My grip was also off due to the pullups. 99.9% of the time I go strapless on my pulls; so that didn't help me with my deadlifting cause today. This will remind me not to pullup to failure the day before heavy deads. Lesson learned.

winflex wrote:

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The funny thing I saw in my x- ray is called a fabella. Looks like I have one but it is asymptomatic. Its one of those weird things that some people have but aren't usually a problem. Plus, the pain I'm having is anterior and feels like its in my vastus medialis anyways whereas the fabella thingy is posterolateral...totally opposite side. My x-ray came out negative which is good...but they also told me today that the authorization for MRI was declined by my insurance. WTF! I'll have to schedule the ortho appointment MRI-less. Let's see how that goes.

Anyway, Benching it was today:

Warm ups
barX5
135X5
185X5
225X5
285X1

Worksets
317.5X5 X3 sets *PR here...linear progression keeps rolling nicely with the 2.5 lb jumps

Pullups
3 sets of max reps...(again not much for me because I'm my heaviest ever...its like me strapping 70 lbs on my previous bodyweight...Pumped the back right out though)

Although my knee is a source of frustration, I should be happy that I can still get in the gym and make progress elsewhere. The beat goes on!

*****************

On another note, Saturday was my 5th time judging at a bodybuilding show (Joe Franco's Beyond Nutrition Natural was this weekend), and I got to try my hand in head judging. I was nervous at first and forgot to call out the symmetry quarter turns for the first class; however, I had Anthony Primola, Matt Shepley, and Mark Cotton by my side helping me each step of the way. Shout out to Chadwick Austin for helping me out with the judging in the prejudging. I needed that. Thanks Chad! The rest of the cast at the show was on point (especially expediter Jen Zimmerman) and helped to make the show super smooth and efficient for this first time head judge. It was a good first experience. I'm looking forward to more.

-- Edited by winflex on Monday 26th of April 2010 09:06:46 PM

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Thank you for the kind words Dwayne!!  Glad I could help make your experience a positive one in my own small way.

Good luck with the knee!!

 

Thank you Chris!
_________________

"OH HOW I LOVE TO PRESS"

Press - strict standing overhead
warmups:
barX5 X2 sets
95X5X2
135X3
155X3
185X1 (and the yoke was on)
Worksets:
208.75X5X3 - PR (and I did this weight by accident because I was only supposed to do 207.5 but I miscalculated the load on the bar with the microloaders and realized it after the second set)

Thanks Mike...the goals for the end of 2010 are
Press-300+
Bench-400+
Squat-500+
Deadlift-600+

Hope the methodic programming can take me there!

DE SQ (alone  no coach today...he's sick)

I should try to smile in pictures sometimes. Yeah, I'm pretty excited but kinda bummed at the same time since I really wanted to squat. I was looking at the meet as a personal statement for myself that if I worked hard at something long enough and consistent enough even though it was my weakness, I'd be able to reach lofty goals that I set. For the squat, I did that and I just wanted to do that in the meet to make it official. Now, I have to bench due to the knee issue. So, its kind of anti-climactic since I'm going to compete in something that I'm naturally good at and not my underdog lift. It will be fun to do the competition but it would have awesome to squat in the competition.

winflex wrote:

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THE MAN SAID IT IS ARTHRITIS....

Bench:
warms:
barX5
135X5X2sets
185X5
225X3
285X1
Worksets:
320X5X3sets-PR

I had no motivation to do anything else and its probably best I don't since the meet is only two weeks away. I'm moving some pretty good weight right now and will definitely bench over 350...lets see how close to 405 I'll be. So that's the good news...

On to the bad-

Went to ortho this morning and it felt sorta slap dash. He didn't even ask anything about me. Didn't ask if I participate in any sports, or what my exercise regimen is...nothing. He just jumped right into and examed my knee. He bent it all different ways, pressed on it and asked if it hurt and moved my patella around---which was the only thing that hurt but just a little bit. He asked me to show him the movement that hurt...and wha-la: He said I have arthritis. Somehow I felt jipped especially when he told me that I should avoid bending my knee and then later suggested that I do leg presses and wall slide squats. I was almost insulted that he would contradict himself like that and then suggest I do exercises that are similar to squats that offer no relief to the knee but only relief to spine. I was really upset and dismissed the orthopod to myself as a complete dip****. I am on path to getting a second opinion as soon as I can.

This guy basically just wanted my copay and whatever the insurance company was paying him because he suggested I come back for PT and if my knee still hurt in six weeks (of not bending it) he would give me a cortisone shot which he let me promptly know that I would have to comeback every so often to get another one.

I shouldn't be this angry. I think sometimes I just expect doctors to understand training and athletes but mostly they don't.



-- Edited by winflex on Monday 3rd of May 2010 10:26:30 PM

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First off, get yourself a second opinion. Second, and I cannot stress this enough is to find an orthopod that works with athletes, especially weight training athletes and that understands the mentality of weight training athletes. My orthopod is great - he knows that I need to do whatever it takes to get back on stage and really has worked with me the last two times that I have seen him. This last time, he was completely straight up and said that he could give me a cortizone shot but it would not help much - I have an issue with my back where the rotator and rhombus meet - he said that it is something that i am going to have to live with, BUT I can continue to train through it. The best thing is that I did not train back for two sessions and then came back easy and now I am training at full force again. My back still gets a little tender, but he suggested just to take Advil when it hurts and continue to get stim from my chiro.

It is not that he said anything that your ortho. would not have said, but he completely understands how important training is to me and his main goal is keep me going. That is very reassuring!

Good luck Dwayne! 

Hey Dwayne: My doc ordered x-rays to determine the nature and extent of my knee inflamation. Turned out to be Osteo-Arthritis. I concur with the suggestion to seek a second opinion. I have a healthy respect for arthritis. This is one area where the conventional advise, "to work through the pain. . ." needs some extra caution. You deserve a thorough evaluation.