bicep update

I made a karate chop motion to illustrate something at work today and felt it right away in my right bicep. Shit.

My drop-dead date on this is my birthday: Feb 12.

I will continue total rest and the contrast therapy until then. If it's not better by 2/12 that would be 3 months dealing with this and I'm going to the doctor.

I'm not trying to whine here, but organize my thoughts and keep a record of when certain things happened.

Pity party is over.

I hereby declare me a whiner. I have a perfectly good left arm. And I can alter most of what I want to do and take my right arm out of the equation. Total rest for the right arm; best workout I can manage otherwise. Makes sense to me. Thanks to Wicked, Luke, and Jason for advice on this bicep issue. It really has given me some direction.

Squats

Bar x10 (front squat)

Bar x10 (back squat from here on)

95 x10

115 x10

115 x10

Rolling Thunder (left)

70 x10

105 x10

115 x10

This felt easier than I figured it would after not doing it for so long.

Pinch Block (left)

60 x3

60 x3

Back extensions. Hot/Cold contrast therapy for my right arm. I'm going to try that every night for a while with some Ibuprofen. We'll get this fixed.

Something about "best laid plans"

Well, not a lot of workouts are happening. My nagging bicep injury is still nagging.

I did get my new plate-loaded grip machine and foolishly played around with that Sunday night. It really aggravated my bicep, which now feels about like it did in November when this started. I'm going to have the guy who made the machine change the handles so I have to get the machine back to him. That way I won't be tempted to use it either!

So what is the saying about "best laid plans" anyway? They sometimes go awry?

Anyone have recovery tips?

Squats

Bar x15
95 x10
115 x20

Got me breathing heavy and 16-20 were reasonalby difficult. Felt good. Also did back extensions for physical therapy.

It's a New Year!

Hello again! Time to start logging workouts again.

I've been fairly active in the past couple of weeks and probably should have done less. My right bicep pull is still not better! I definitely aggravated it with the gripper workout I did on Monday 1/4.

Here are some of my plans for early this year:

Grippers
Right now I only have a long-term goal on grippers. Like a 2-year plan. It's based on Kinney's ideas and right now I just want to plow away and see where it goes. What I want to do is crystal-clear in my head, but I don't think I could type it out if I tried. So you'll just see the posts here and I'm sure you'll see a pattern pretty quick.

There are some key elements that are specific to me, however. One is that I have worked a great deal on retraining my handle position. The form I'm using resembles no-set and I have strictly been closing grippers from the widest starting position possible. I do set the gripper enough to get my ring finger on. Even on negatives, I start by trying to close the gripper as far as possible, then forcing it in and doing the negative. Using this handle position and the increased range of motion, I am performing in the #2.5 range of gripper strength currently. That's with no chalk as well. So as I progress, I'll be able to "re-celebrate" PRs that I have passed before. Like right now, technically my goal gripper is my adjustable BBGM set at 1/4".

When I'm back to closing the #3 in this style, certification will be a breeze. Then it's on to the MM1 and revenge will come in the form of a borderline no-set, hydraulic, handle-griding smack down. See where I'm going with this? Point me at the sky!

Squats
Not surprisingly, I've worked squats into my routine. 20 rep sets. Right now I'm working in the 100# range and it's not very taxing. But I have my 'sploaded disc and sciatic problems to consider. I have been working on form, trying to build a base, and getting my lungs accustomed to the work. It's going pretty well overall. Bullitt's "form check" thread at the GB really helped me dial in my form better. I had some very similar issues. I'm not interested in a max squat, but rather conditioning my body to move the weight and handle the work load. I do plan on pushing myself in a responsible way and that will mean increasing weight to remain challenging. If I had a goal here, I would love to hit 225x20 at some point. I have strong legs. I just have also neglected them for many years.

RT and Pinch
These I will throw in as before on off days from grip. I have not touched either in more than a month because of my bicep issue. My left arm is fine, but I can't see myself coming back to these until my right arm is better. It's just hard to get pumped for a left-hand-only pinch workout!

Here we go!
I will get back to posting as before. Any training that could possibly involve my bicep too much will be left-handed only. That includes grippers. I have to get this thing healed!

Checking in.

I'm really enjoying this time off. I have spent the last 1-1/2 weeks analyzing my training and making plans for what is next. I have renewed drive for grippers and, big surprise, that will probably be my primary focus. But I am trying to plan a balanced approach to everything else that will not only keep me in better general fitness, but aid in hitting PRs.

My left shoulder is feeling pretty close to 100%. My right bicep is still bothering me off and on so I've been trying to stay away from exercises that involve it too much. So I've been doing lots of light lower body--lunges, squats, etc. I do feel pretty darn good overall.

Luke suggested that I might have pulled my bicep doing RT, which makes sense. I have noticed the pull on my bicep during RT workouts in the past. I'm guessing it did pull it during my 11/8 workout because it was right after that I started feeling symptoms. Makes sense to me. He said a muscle pull like that can take a month or more to heal, so I can be patient.

I changed the name of my blog for a fresh start. I feel ready to take off. Point me at the sky and watch me fly!

Taking a small break...

So, whatever I did to my shoulders and biceps is now a bit of a nag. It's a strained feeling that I notice most while doing everyday things: opening doors, closing drawers, brushing my teeth, drying my hands. It's been about 3-4 weeks now so I think I better back off until it feels better.

I've been keeping up on the high-rep gripper program and doing lots of extensors on my commute. I took a break around this time last year as well and I think I might make it a habit. There is enough going on during the holidays without having to worry about keeping a schedule.

My family is healthy. I have a job. A warm house. Life is good.

Happy holidays all.

Thoughts about Pinch.

I happened to be looking through some old posts and came across this pinch video.

Apparently my 2HP best is this 157.5# lift. I thought I had recently set a PR of 155#.

In watching the video of the 157.5# lift, it appears to be 155 in plates and I must have been counting the pipe as 2.5#. It weighs that much for sure. It's a pretty thick iron pipe.

So I think this is weird. My pinch sure feels like it's getting stronger, but apparently I'm pretty much still where I started. Maybe even a little below. I don't do as many 2HP workouts as I should. But I would have thought that I could have added more than nothing over 8 months of various workouts. I'm clearly only doing enough to maintain and not lose pinch strength.

What the hell? Any suggestions?

Blowed up.

Grippers all week on the high-rep program. Right-middle finger is feeling a little bruised. The increased range of motion I'm using just feels normal now. I will log what amounted to a thumb workout from last night. I think this was more taxing because I am still a little sore from RT, but this just blew up my thumbs:

• High rep grippers
• Sledge walking, one handed x2 each side
• Pony Thumbs x2, real slow and it BURNED.

Had a big, fat, puffy hand afterward. The sledge walking is the one-handed way I have seen Paul Knight do. He does it in this video at about 5:20. Really gets the thumb involved. My "sledge" is a 36" pipe clamp with a 2.5# weight slid down on to the clamping parts. Works perfectly. Probably weighs 6-8# overall.

Good day.

I felt like a million bucks today.

Rolling Thunder

And appropriately enough, it's raining here, but not a thunder storm I guess. It's friggin late November in Minnesota and this should be about a billion inches of snow, but it's raining instead. That's cool.

• 70 x10
• 105 x10
• 115 x10
• 120 x10
• Pony thumbs x1

I did 15 minutes of same prior to this as well. I'm still liking that idea a lot. It's invigorating.

Grippers?

For the next 2 months, roughly, I have chosen to embark on a high-rep program that is currently in testing at the GripBoard. Since I can't post the actual workouts here, suffice it to say it's a lot of reps on lighter grippers. A LOT of reps.

The big news for me is that I am using this program to finally set my idea in motion to "retrain" my handle position. I am doing the reps with form that resembles TNS form.

My motivation for this is thricefold: 1) More range of motion with my pinkie on the gripper, 2) More comfortable handle position and 3) I want to find out if the added range of motion is actually more trainable than I thought.

What I mean by "more trainable" is that closing a gripper this way feels much more natural in my hand. It feels like the natural range of motion for my hand and sweeping motion for my fingers. This has to be a good thing. I suspect the only reason I cannot set gripper PRs with this form is because I have not trained this way--mostly in favor of keeping the gripper in the "sweet spot", which has served me well. However, I think putting the gripper in the sweet spot hurts. It hurts my palm, my middle finger and my wrist. And it has never felt quite right.

So, gripper workouts are happening pretty much every day. I'm sure I will have more to say as things go along.

15 minutes of same.

I decided something today. I am officially sick of NOT using my body. I'm only 30 and I have more aches and pains then I care to tolerate. So, if I'm going to ache, it might as well be because I actually did something.

My first goal is "15 minutes of same". Every night, I will do the same thing. I will go to the basement for 15 minutes and I will do something. Anything. Bench, deads, burpees, push ups, presses, jog in place, kettlebells... Whatever comes to mind and I feel like doing; I will do that. A big mix of absolutely anything that sounds interesting. But whatever I do, I won't stop moving for at least 15 minutes.

15 minutes of same. I probably won't log what I've done because it doesn't really matter what I do. I just need to do something. Hopefully 15 minutes won't be adequate for long and I can increase the time.

Pincha

Pretty good workout tonight and it's always nice to get a PR. My 1HP was off and that is what I set out to do tonight. I bailed and switched to 2HP and I'm glad that I did.

• 70# x Warm up
• 120 x1
• 143 x0, x1
• 153 x1
• 155 x1, left thumb tore pretty good. >>VIDEO<<
• Pony thumbs

I hit the pony clamp pretty hard because the thumb tear cut my workout short. I tried to do some pinch block after, but it just hurt and I was getting it bloody. Boo hoo, right? Ha!

B and the BLOB

I just love this picture. My 15-month-old taking a shot at the Blob. She only weighs 23lbs so it would be a double body weight lift! She pulled on it and grunted a little. Maybe next time!

In other news, I'm still really sore. It's hard to take time off. My left shoulder is sore and my lats and back are sore today as well. I can't figure out what got me so sore...

Damn technology!

I'm doing a gripper workout and having some beer and I just made a totally bonehead mistake. I was taking some videos of grippers I have not tried in a while, including the Vendetta 3. I KILLED this gripper tonight and got an excellent video. Instead of watching it, however, I deleted it. It was one of those things where you are thinking through what you're doing, but not thinking about what you're doing. There are about three steps to deleting a video, but I carried on like that is what I set out to do. Dammit. Then, of course, when I tried to just take another video, the battery light starts flashing on the camera. Dammit anyway.

One thing that did go well is that I pretty much breezed through most of the grippers I have. Up to my MM1 and the 164# Elite which are the hardest grippers I have right now.

• HG150, #1, #2 warm up
• T6 x1, easy these days.
• BBGM 155# x1, went for a double and didn't quite get it.
• Vendetta 3 x1, killed. Also calibrated this again for kicks and got 153 again which I believe is the true calibration of this gripper. The sweep is hard.
• Filed BBGM x1, closed it for the first time. This is an adjustable gripper at 1/4" mount. I've never tried it except for at the end of a workout for negs. So I've never actually closed it until now. It's pretty easy at that setting. It's filed quite a bit.
• MM1 replica x0, near miss, mostly due to the bicep issue mentioned below.

My biceps are feeling strained. I think I better rest until they feel better. I think it's from setting grippers, or the severe negs I did the other night left me a little more sore than I thought. They hurt right now.

Grippers

Was really not feeling the max crush tonight. Attempts at the 164# Elite were off by 1/4" or more.

• HG150, #1, #2 warm up
• T6, 2 singles
• 164# Elite, 2 attempts, both nasty misses
• 164# Elite, negatives x4
• Pony thumbs

I wasn't really feeling this workout so I abused myself a little with the Elite negs. I have not done negs in a while and figured I should add them back in here and there. Each was a good 5-7 sec all out crush. I can keep it pretty close to closed, what I consider the sweet spot for a negative. Left elbow hurts a little.

I wish my strength level was more predictable, or maybe I wish I was a better judge. Before starting I would have guessed that my crush would be on tonight. It was a good workout and it was nice to blast through some negs. But I want to be in a place where I know I will close the MM1 next time I pick it up.

I must be butter...

Because I'm on a roll! Had a great workout with Luke today and hit another PR that I've been chasing for about 2 years. I managed a double on the #3! I actually did it twice out of 3 attempts. The first was a pretty good miss. Based on that I didn't video the second attempt, which was the best one. Then I got it again on the third and got the video. Thanks to Luke for bringing the encouragement and the gripper -- it was his 152lb #3.

• GRIPPERS
• HG150, #1, #2 warm up
• T6, 1 rep x2
• #3, 2 reps x3. Missed the first set, got the second and third. >>VIDEO<<
• BLOB50
• -42%, 1 rep x2
• -30%, 1 rep x2
• -18%, negative x2
• ROLLING THUNDER
• 125, 3 reps x1
• 140, 1 reps x1, could have been a little higher for a full pull.
• 147.5, 1 reps x0, just went for it.
• 125, 7 reps x1, 6 reps x1

Overall a good workout. I'll be sore for sure. Not quite the marathon that Luke and I will end up with from time to time, but a good amount of work.

And, finally, a double on the #3!

The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

My thumbs hate me. Not that I blame them after this workout, but I don't think they'd even help me hitch for a ride.

Tonight I set a new Rolling Thunder PR! I really feel good about this because you--Ye Faithful Follower--may know that I am Rolling Thunderly challenged. PRs are often infrequent and momentously insignificant. Not tonight, however. Tonight I am triumphant.

• Gripper warm up, HG150 and #1
• 70 x10
• 105 x2 singles
• 140 x1, came up pretty quickly, both hands
• 145 x1, xNeg. I should mention that this is 145 in plates. I never count the pin and handle.
• 120 x15, made it on the right, had to assist about 5 on the left.
• Pony thumbs x3, brutal tonight.

I consider another 5 pounds to be a trouncing of my old PR.

When I hit my sesquicentennial I should celebrate with some egg nog.

Grrrrippers.

Good gripper workout tonight.

• HG150, #1, #2 warm up
• T6 x2 singles
• 5/8 GM attempt, bad miss
• BBE @ 20mm x4
• 5/8 SM x3, brutal

I'm in training for 3 days at work, so probably won't workout again until this weekend. I'll probably do another smörgåsbord workout. Little bit of everything. That workout had me sore for a couple days afterward. I think it's good to over do it a little now and then!