Strength and Physio log for Monday, October 20th

First a note that I did strict press on Saturday in my home gym, since I missed Crossfit Friday morning and I didn't official start week 2 programming on the strict press.  I also knew I wouldn't be going to Crossfit this morning so it made sense to do something Saturday.

I did 3 sets of 5 at 115#. Very difficult but I did it.

Today started with a trip to Rob Crispo, master physiotherapist.

Needled my medial glute on the left, piriformis on the right (which shot like a lightening bold right down to my foot!) and my erectors.  Did some range of motion and muscle engagement tests and gave me more home work.

He's still a bit cautious about my back and told me to go easy this cycle. So I'll continue press work but ease off on the squat work. I'll do some higher volume, some pause squats, some slow and not to full extension work to strengthen the legs while not taking as much toll on the back.

Homework consists of the same glute recruitment drill as before and another similar on on the other side called the Right Sidelying Left Adductor Pullback which is almost the opposite of the other one.

Lying on the opposite side, pull the left need back instead of forward and push it into the other leg instead of spreading them.   Sucks so bad. 

So I did the home work at the Y with some bretzels and lazy push ups, then did some light squats. 

Then I hopped on the bench and warmed up to hit 5 sets of 3 at 85%, but added 5lbs to make it 195# instead of 190#

That was rough. I had to get bailed out on the very last rep. I was in a bad position and couldn't recover. 

I'm happy with that.  Looking forward to next workout.

Strength log for Monday, October 13th

I don't often get to workout in my garage, since I'm either at the box or the Y, but since everything was closed and everyone was home it made sense to make use of the fabulous Rogue bar and bumpers I have.

Strict press was the order of the day. Took my time working up to  130# for a single.

Tried 150# again for a new PR, with the same result as the last three times.

So I figured I'd hit 135# for 3.  Got one and that was it.

Need a plan.

Given my back and slowly getting back to heavy back squats, and the trouble I've been having getting to my current and new PRs I think it's time to go back to the 6 week program.  Maybe shorten it up to 4 weeks, since I've already spent a couple of weeks post PRs in some kind of plateau.

The full plan is this:
Week one: 5 x 5 reps at 75%
Week two: 3 x 5 reps at 80%
Week three: 5 x 3 reps at 85%
Week four: 3 x 3 reps at 90%
Week five : 1 x 3 reps or 3 x 1 rep at 95%
Week six: test 1 reps max.

I think I'll start at week 3 going forward.  See how that works out.