cha59's log
I posted a long story a while back. Basically, I'm 45, used to be pretty strong, had shoulder surgery, got fat and really out of shape which led to more injuries and all kinds of bad stuff.
Last July I was ~255 lbs and really out of shape & fragile. I hired a trainer & started working out. At first, cardio was all I could physically do. After a while I was able to do leg presses and a few other resistance things, but I wasnt able to squat, bench, press, deadlift, etc.
I gradually got in good enough shape to do all that stuff. Some of the credit goes to my trainer, some to a massage therapist, some to myself for working hard & eating a lot better than before, some to this forum, some to reading SS, and a lot of credit goes to my new chiropractor who does ART therapy on me. That has gotten rid of most of the muscles adhesions I had all over the place.
In October 2009, I could not hold a barbell on my back due to shoulder/pec inflexibility. Also, my kneecap would rub on my leg bone when it was bent at ~45 degrees. ART fixed all that and a lot more.
I was bench pressing for a couple months late last year and early this year, but decided to lay off for a while and get my shoulder more healthy.
I've been deadlifting since ~October last year I think, and started squatting shortly after that.
My sessions with my original trainer ran out a couple months ago & I have a new guy writing me some great programs. I've been working with this guy for a few months and am making good progress in the deadlift and squat, as well as strengthened some weak areas, fixed some anterior pelvic tilt, and made my shoulders feel better & stronger. I've kept my weight pretty close to 220 for a few months, but I'm definitely getting stronger & not as apt to get injured again.
Here's what I've been doing before every workout:
Foam roll:
- thoracic spine
- TFL (with lacrosse ball)
- Hips
- Quads (I take ~15 minutes to do the quads alone usually)
- Feet & calves (lacrosse ball)
- Pecs (medicine ball)
- Lats
- Posterior shoulders (lacrosse ball)
This video is similar to what I do:
In addition, I figured out how to do some self-ART on my traps with a lacrosse ball. This is a very useful thing for me.
After that, I do the following warm up exercises (most of these can be found in Asses & Correct or on Mike Robertson's YouTube site):
- quadrupled rotation
- pushups plus
- dynamic blackburns
- split stance rotation
- scapular wall slides
- supine straight leg raises
- side lying hip abduction
- walking spidermans
- ankle mobs
- goblet squats
Then I do 3 sets of each of these before starting lifting:
- quad stretch 30 seconds each leg
- supine bridge
- clam shells
The past few weeks I've done one set of the quad stretch before lifting and two after. I think this makes my legs feel slightly stronger during lifting.
I think the bolded ones above have done wonders to correct my anterior pelvic tilt.
The lifting is split up into two separate worouts that I've been doing once every two to three days (usually one workout then two days off - this works well at my age). This is the program I'm finishing up right now:
Lifting day 1
I do 3 supersets:
1A deadlifts
1B DB rows
2A barbell step ups with front squat grip
2B single arm DB flat bench
3A shoulder I T & Y
3B Ab wheel rollouts (these are a very hard & under-rated exercise imo)
3C side lying external rotation
After lifting, I do some HIIT:
kettlebell swings - ~10 seconds of swinging, then rest 50 seconds * 10 to 15 sets
Lifting day 2:
1A back squats
1B weighted or banded pushups (my wrist has been bothering me the past couple weeks, so I have been doing dumbell presses the past couple workouts instead of these)
2A RDLs (I love these)
2B lat pulldowns (no jokes please)
3A tall kneeling PNF D2 flexion
3B tall kneeling cable chop
HIIT:
medicine ball slams ~10 seconds with 50 seconds rest, 10 - 15 sets
Then I stretch like this after both day 1 & day 2:
DB lat EQI
DB pec EQI
2*30 sec. quad stretch
3*30 hamstring stretch
I'll post my two most recent workout numbers in the next post. Hopefully I'll have enough/make enough time to keep this log going.
I hope your recovery is going well Cha. Very sorry to hear what happened.
