Author: Pert Boioioing

Overtraining?

Had to bail on the workout today, pain in the hips, etc.

Bummer, too, because things had been going relatively well recently. Started to improve the BSQ form, increasing the weight again though still pretty light, also improving DL form. I’ve also been doing rehab/prehab exercises for my gluteus medius muscles to improve the SI and hip joints, and it’s been working pretty well. Don’t know what went wrong today specifically, but I might be having some initial symptoms of overtraining so I’m gonna scale it back and deload for the rest of the week and reassess things next MON, maybe switch back to fewer reps/sets.

Addendum: Took a break, ate some food, started feeling a bit better in the hips so I finished the Big-5 though did fewer sets. Also did an abbreviated finisher set of SLC, ABW, and FC. Feeling OK right now. We’ll see about later.

Gotta remember to start using a different bed mattress.

whut

Websites and sshd not working properly, don’t know how I got this far. Seems like a port block, presumably from the ISP. Let’s see if this posts.

EDIT: almost certainly from the ISP side due to intermittent access without changing anything from my end, wonder if they’re cutting off access to inbound ports for residential customers now. I can reach the VPSs just fine from the LAN so my local servers appear to be running normally. Also tried changing some of the listening ports to what should be “residential ISP safe” values and reconfigured the hardware firewall and still have issues.

EDIT 2019-10-26: Working better now, perhaps resolved? Wonder what was going on with the ISP then, eh.

Dialing it back

Today I dialed back the BSQ and DL. A lot. Also cut the session after the Big-5 since it took about 2.25 hours due to recording and reviewing form videos.

Lately I’ve been having issues with adductor, hip and SI joint discomfort so it’s becoming apparent that there are some imbalances that need to be fixed before I continue with heavier weights. My upper body has relatively good strength from calisthenics but I’ve been neglecting the hips and legs for too long. Bicycling has overdeveloped the quads while letting other leg muscles remain relatively undeveloped and sitting for long periods of time has caused the gluteus medius, etc. muscles to atrophy. The result has been adductor, hip and SI joint discomfort from BSQ and DL since the tendon and muscle support is currently lacking. The fix is to do corrective exercises to develop these imbalances.

For the next few weeks I’m going to focus on only the bar for BSQ and DL, putting emphasis on great form, correct muscle activation, and adding reps as able. I started recording these lifts in an effort to spot bad form to be corrected. In addition, I’m going to regularly do corrective exercises like supine hip rotation drills, SI joint resets, lateral leg raises, clamshells, adductor squeezes, etc. This will hopefully put the parts in working order.

I’ve also dialed back the other Big-5 weights but increased volume.

Had to bail today

Monday workout didn’t go as planned. The intention was to drop all the Big-5 lifts by about 10% and start 4×7 + 1 AMRAP(WGF) sets. Also recording all sets to check my form and make adjustments where necessary.

Started with BSQ, focused on good form and pausing at the bottom and, despite less weight, these killed me. BP managed 4×7 + 1×7, again really felt it. Then DL. The deadlifts finished me. Focused on the best form I could muster and by the time I finished 3×7 sets my legs were done. So was my grip for that matter.

I was already tired to start with, didn’t really sleep that well last night, and haven’t been eating as much for the past few days, so maybe a confluence of factors made for a more demanding workout today. I have no doubt I’ll be feeling it tomorrow, hopefully in a good way.

Improving somewhat of dainty oat porridge

The new oat flour porridge method: mix 1/4 cup oat flour with 5 ounces milk, microwave for 55 seconds, and this is the key part, STIR IMMEDIATELY after cooking to integrate the mixture. Without immediate stirring the result will be a chunky mess, precisely the problem this process is intended to avoid. After mixing the porridge, both 32 grams of peanut butter and 1/4 cup of applesauce can be added and thoroughly mixed. Then, to finish the shake, the remainder of the milk is gradually mixed with 1/2 serving protein powder, then the oat/PB/applesauce porridge is added and mixed. The result is a smoother, tastier protein shake, although warmer from the microwave.

EDIT 2019-10-21_0816: For the oat porridge, 44 seconds in microwave, whisk thoroughly, then another 21 seconds and whisk again. Even better result! Tomorrow will try 30 seconds, whisk, then 30 seconds and whisk again.

Not really alchemy

This morning I decided to cook the oat flour in my shake. I mixed 1/4 cup oat flour with maybe 4 ounces of milk and popped it into the microwave for 60 seconds. The result was a thick paste that didn’t mix well, resulting in globs of cooked oat “dumplings” in the shake. However, the shake was still thicker than usual and the taste was indeed a bit better. The alchemy now comes into perfecting the cooking of the oat flour resulting in a smoother porridge with better mixing qualities.

4 weeks

I’ve completed the introductory period with the weight set: Today marks the completion of four solid weeks, MON/WED/FRI, of barbell workouts.

During this time I’ve added weight and volume, added new accessory lifts, and have improved lifting form. I intend to continue these things.

The next phase of my lifting will be an 8-week period. I’ll start by backing off all big lifts by roughly 10% weight and start doing 5 sets of each: 4×7+1 AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible) set. Not really AMRAP though, more like AMRAPWGF (AMRAP With Good Form). I feel like my body is in better shape and will be able to handle the increased workload, but *if it becomes too much I’ll just back off a bit. Once the AMRAPWGF set gets to 10 clean reps I’ll increase the weight the next session, and so on.

*I don’t really feel like switching to a split yet so I’ll continue the full-body sessions, however I might start alternating DL and BSQ days, only doing one or the other, if I start getting overtraining symptoms. We’ll see how this goes.

success; failure

Well, Friday workout was a success; And also a failure.

The 5 main lifts went well. Tried to focus on better form with the BSQ, kept the same weight. Really felt it, especially in the glutes, nearly failed the last rep. Added another nickel for the BP for set 1, then backed off for subsequent sets. Also added a nickel for the DL, focused on better form but may have tweaked something anyway. Same weight for OHP, started with Wed’s weight with the BOR but had to back off 5 lbs for sets 3 and 4, again focusing on better form, and again might have tweaked something.

So the lower/lowest back felt fine when *doing* the big lifts but there was a weird spine/pelvis ache when standing up after setting down the bar. Then when I approached the bench to square up for the tricep kickbacks I got a painful electric jolt down my right leg and had a weird pressure at the base of my spine where it meets the pelvis. Did some rotational stretches and it started feeling better but it was very disconcerting.

Finally, got really spent after 2 supersets of FC/ABW and decided to bail, especially since by lowest back still felt a bit weird. I *might* finish these later.

head spasm

Buzzed my head earlier and when cleaning the little bits of hair off the floor had a twinge of that weird back-right head pain I had last Monday. It’s been intermittently jolting on and off since and has even become a bit worse in intensity. Weird that it went away only to return today, can’t think of anything I may have done to get it to start up again. We’ll see how tomorrow goes I guess.

EDIT: just realized I did some back planks earlier, maybe that exacerbated this?