Q&A – 39

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PR Friday

Post your god damn training updates and PRs to the god damn comments, god damn it (relevant). Also, I would like you to share any injuries you’ve had in the past year. Explain what it was, how it happened, and how long it took to recover from.

In other news, look at this Russian girl’s benching arch:

Weekly Challenge

Last week you were tasked with doing side planks after training. None of you probably did this, but it’s one of the more important things you can do for both prehab and rehabbing — especially for lower back, S/I injuries, and psoas tweaks and injuries. Thanks for not participating.

Next Week’s Challenge: See how much butter you can eat in a day. In a week. Use this opportunity to increase your butter intake. I suggest Kerrygold Butter because it’s grass fed (this link will let you know if it’s sold near you). If you’ve been sore, achy, and not recovering well, the added fat calories will go. Use the measurement on the packaging to quantify your intake. Put it on potatoes, vegetables, and cook things in it (I’ve even heard of people putting it in their coffee…seems weird). Eating butter makes you gorilla-like.

Week In Review

The female post focused on the peculiarities of female hormones with respect to training. It provided some context as to why women have a lower 1RM ceiling and why they can handle more work. Then I tackled the “MWOD says no icing” issue by looking at the arguments, research, and discussing it with lots of physiologists and PTs. The following day I provided protocols for icing depending on the injury in the context of a full rehab program. It’s a near comprehensive source on how to rehab training related injuries.

Q&A

Justin,

I’m a recent reader of yours. I’m also in my third week of Stronglifts 5×5 and I am conflicted on whether to use front squats ion place of the back squats. I’ve been reading through the back logs of 70’s Big, talktomejohnnie.com, and some of Mark Rippetoe’s stuff and you all extoll the virtues of the back squat. On several occasions, typically in response to a question on programming, you have been adamant about training for a persons particular sport. Mine happens to be rock climbing, sport climbing to be precise. A friend recently sent me a link to a Steve Maxwell article in which he demonizes the back squat in favor of other squatting forms (eg; front squats, goblet squats, pistols, etc.). In particular he states that combatives, gymnasts, and rock climbers would all do better with a different type of squat. It threw me for a loop and has me thinking, “Maybe I shouldn’t be doing back squats. Maybe front squats would be more beneficial.” Especially if one of my reasons for training is a sport he specifically lists. Should I switch to fronts in place of backs? Do a hybrid of the 5×5 alternating between the two? Cycle one then the other? He mentions in another article, touting the virtues of the pistol squat, that back squats would lead to flexibility issues, a big negative for climbers.

 

Male | 32 | 5′-10″ | 165-170-lbs | BS 190×5 | FS 165×5 | Press 100×5 | Bench 100×5 | DL 230×5

 

Thank you for 70’sBig.com and your time.

Sincerely,

Jonathan G

 

Dear Jonathan,

I can understand your confusion. Let me point out that just because Steve Maxwell doesn’t know how to coach any type of back squat or mobility work to maintain or improve the flexibility of his trainees doesn’t mean that the back squat shouldn’t be used. I can only conclude these two things — that he is not good at coaching the back squat or sucks at coaching ‘mobility’ — because it’s not the case. I can back squat a decent amount, well over twice my body weight, yet I can get up on a wall and have the mobility to climb it. I may not be very good technically, and my mass or weight will be problematic in truly excelling, but my mobility is not going to be the limiting factor.

Now, n=1 is never a good argument, but strong squatters with good, athletic mobility are very common. I would accept his argument if it said, “The back squat puts too much mass on a climber, and therefore he should avoid it because it will inhibit his sport,” then I could understand that. You can be a better trainee than what Steve thinks you can be; you can be strong in a squat and still have good mobility. There are plenty of resources to use like this website or Mobility WOD.

So, no, I don’t think that you  need to front squat instead of the back squat, and you certainly shouldn’t do fucking goblet squats over them unless you just want to be weak and small. If you want to be strong and small, then keep the reps-per-set low (under three reps) to avoid the mass gain, but understand if you’re a beginner you will have a bit of mass gain regardless. If you aren’t silly with your diet, you can remain or become lean, and this will help your bodyweight to strength ratio for climbing.

Keep in mind that strength is what will provide the capacity for you to endure in your sport. Continue climbing as you lift, but if you squatted 300, 350, or 400 and were within ten pounds of your current body weight, you would have a larger capacity for climbing.

Lastly, I’m not a fan of Stronglifts in general or in the context of you using lifting for rock climbing.

 

Hi Justin, I’ve bought book 1, and have a question:

Figure 2.5 (attached for ease of reference), says that, when pressing on Monday/Friday, benching is done on Wednesday. However, it says “light” bench. When benching is on Monday/Friday, pressing is done “medium” on Wednesday (Edit: image is below)

 

So, why the difference, and what percentages would you shoot for for the “light” and “medium”.

Thanks for writing a great book and for continually putting out quality information on your site!

 

–Brian

Dear Brian,

The reason I made bench light and pressing medium is because benching is more stressful than pressing. Light benching and medium pressing are closer to each other in stress imparted on the structures. “Light” percentages are probably around 70% and “medium” is probably gonna be 75 to 80%. Keep in mind that these are ball park figures and your true intent on the light day is to not interfere with the Intensity Day. Also, for early stage Texas Method users, they won’t really work off of percentages because their hypothetical 1RMs and percentages will change every week. Keep the Light Day benches and presses where you aren’t going to be sore for Friday.

 

Hey man, great ice post. Impressive work. I’d love to hear what you think about this:

 

http://www.allthingsgym.com/2012/08/car-polisher-next-level-self-myofascial-release/

 

After I saw this I went out and bought a $20 buffer to see what it was about and hit my legs hard. I’m in the middle of a new linear 3×5 program since switching to high bar and usually feel a lot of doms in my legs. I squatted yesterday and feel almost nothing today. My joints feel a little achy but that’s it. I think the buffer worked? My diet didn’t change, my schedule didn’t change. I even got a little less sleep than usual. The only thing I can think of is maybe I spent more time with the buffer than I do with a foam roller because I was excited to try it. Totally possible but I would love to hear what you think.

 

Thanks.

–Caleb

 

Dear Caleb,

It’s not surprising that Clint Darden’s “hardware store sander” suggestion is helpful. There is research that shows how massage is beneficial to reducing Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), which is the standard soreness you feel a day or two after training. Sports massages have been around for decades and are used because they help the muscle recover better (check out this clip of Werner Gunthor getting a massage in the midst of his training montage. As a side note, the minute or so after this starting point had a huge effect on my summer clothing style a few years ago, especially the beach scene).

This is the reason why the “self myofascial” release revolution got so popular a few years ago and it’s continued into what we now just sum up as “mobility”. The vibrating sander that Clint and you have used allows you to work on your muscles in a similar way to break up adhesions or fascia, or just generally apply a massage to increase blood flow and healing. Other tools like foam rolling, PVC rolling, The Stick, and a Theracane can all accomplish similar results. Let this be a reminder to serious, competitive trainees that comprehensive rehab and recovery will better prepare you to lift. That’s one reason why professional athletes can do what they do, because they have people automating this process and doing it for them.

 

 

@70sBig can you help me understand why blood vessels pop during lifts and any health problems that it may cause. Thank you!

 

Dear Matt,

When a person lifts properly, they are holding their breath and using the Vasalva Maneuver in order to increase the intra-abdominal and thoracic pressure. It provides a pneumatic brace against the spine and helps strengthen the torso to transmit force more effectively. Doing the Vasalva will increase blood pressure, but it’s something that our bodies adapt to, especially with a gradual progression that most beginner’s will go through. Some people erroneously point to the increase in pressure in the cerebrospinal fluid, but there is an equalizing of pressure up through the spine and around the brain, so this isn’t an issue (Starting Strength has an excerpt about this).

The reason blood vessels rupture, and produce tiny red dots on skin that is relatively thin (shoulders, neck, face, and eyes) is because the blood vessels are not adapted to the higher pressure. There have been several instances in my life where I come back from a short break (5 to 14 days) from lifting and pop a few blood vessels. This is usually associated with higher intensity (i.e. heavier weights) and the reason why if you try a heavy deadlift or squat without the intensity adaptation and strain very hard, chances are good that you’ll pop a few of them.

Keep in mind that when I say “blood vessels”, I mean small capillaries. And, no, this isn’t a big deal. It can happen with normal, non-training people (if they strain very hard pushing their car or dropping a deuce), but their cardiovascular systems are not trained to handle higher pressures and therefore it will take less to rupture the vessels in someone who doesn’t lift. Don’t worry about them occurring, but do worry about the more likely scenario: that you’ll pass out from not being adapted to the pressure change. To avoid this, just let out some air through grunting during the grinding portion of a lift.

105 thoughts on “Q&A – 39”

  1. 475lbs high bar squat PR:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8-CGbR8-ek

    10lbs away from my low bar squat PR.

    Strained some muscle in my lower back area. Basically went to a chiropractor, and he told me “if it hurts, don’t do it”. It hurt doing deadlifts & low bar squats so I stopped doing that for a few months and focused on high bar squats. Added in low bar paused squats on recovery Wednesday (I’m doing Texas Method btw) now that my low back is healed.

  4. That Russian girl’s arch looks suspiciously like Blane…

    Hurt my back pretty badly last year Crossfitting and found out I had some disc degeneration (don’t we all…)

    Forced me to strongly re-evaluate lifting, programming and improving mobility. Was pretty depressed at first but after a while I snapped out of it and just got on with it.

    I have an injury related question:

    Have recently been getting a strange kind of hot burning in one thigh when stretching it in trying to open up the hip. Don’t ever feel it squatting or running, only when stretching or lunging.

    Been trying to self educate on it and work out if it is tightness that needs stretching out but found some information that stated it could possibly be a small tear. Have you come across something like this before? Don’t want to make it worse if it shouldn’t be stretched out.
    Typical stretches used are couch stretch, lunge type stretch and lunge with band distraction.

    Thanks!

  5. Also, was very skeptical of the butter in coffee…(bulletproof coffee as I’ve seen it named), but I tried it and it was pretty intense. Gave me a strange buzz for the rest of the morning. Haven’t had it often but would definitely recommend giving it a try!

  7. Sumo deadlifted 505. Not that much, but it was the first deadlift PR in a long while. Also, which do you guys think would win in a fight: a wolverine or a mandrill?

  8. My back is FINALLY starting to flatten out on deadlifts thanks to some dedicated mobility work and a major deload. PR on nearly a month of not drinking coffee while trying to sort out some metabolic issues. Happy to be back on the bandwagon today.

    Kerrygold butter is the shit. I saw the thing about using it in your coffee, you just have to shake it or blend it real good to emulsify it, much like coconut oil. Seems to be kind of a craze right now with the super-high-fat-ketogenic-paleo crowd, I think the guy calls it “bulletproof coffee”.

  9. Snatch PR – 68 kg

    Need a better lockout, but I’m still powering these for the most part, so it’s coming together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXu47lr0Y88

    I had a wrist injury in February. I missed an 82 kg clean and partially tore the radial collateral ligament in my right hand and had some pretty bad wrist contusions. I was in a splint for 6 weeks. The ligament healed fine. I still have some pain from the wrist contusions, but the orthopedic surgeon and my PT told me that it might be 9 months to a year before that is gone. I have to wear the heavy 12 inch Shiek wrist wraps to lift now. The side effects from that injury are still fucking with me on jerks and sometimes cleans. Due to my wrist being immobilized in the splint, I developed some rotator cuff inflammation and aggravated my elbow tendinitis. The rotator cuff stuff hasn’t gone away. When it’s a good day, it’s a good day. When it’s a bad day, I hate jerks even more than I normally hate jerks. Basically, that whole arm stays very pissed off at me a lot of the time.

  10. This chick’s arch is even more retarded:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woDSXpam2BA&feature=player_embedded

    I think the only thing of relevance I did this week was pause squat 325 x 10. 10 rep pause squats are fucking murder.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roRZDudPV0Q

    Have a bench only meet tomorrow, was no entry fee no frills, just show up and bench and have a BBQ after, should be fun. Planning to go 303/331/347 with any luck. Smoked 315 last night so should be in business.

  11. PRs:
    Bench 225×4,4,3
    Shoulder Press – 140×5,5,6
    DL – 325×6
    Powerclean 165×3,3,3
    400M – 1:42

    Earlier this summer (right before the Psoas articles) I was suffering form hyperloridosis. Couch stretching, and find the psoas and working it helped a ton! Pretty much over it now, I didn’t get any side plank work in, will do it from now on to continue to help.

    Great series of articles lately! When is the newsletter going to get off the ground?

  12. Front Squat: 255#x3x3 Volume PR I guess..
    Bench: 157.5#x9 Rep PR
    Press: 112.5#x6 Rep PR

    I might actually do this week’s challenge.

  14. I ended up hyperextending my left elbow playing rugby this past February. It hasn’t stopped me from lifting but when I forcefully extend my elbow with an externally rotated upper arm and a pronated hand, it hurts. I went to the doctor in May and she told me to wear a sleeve for a week. It didn’t help at all. Know of anything that can help it out? I feel like I should go to a different doctor and get a proper xray done on the elbow. I suspect Something’s happened to my ucl.

  15. Finished my LP 4 months ago and started the Texas Method per Justin’s e-book. By following that and improving my diet I have increased all my lifts significantly in the past 4 months:
    Bench 255 to 310
    Squat 375 to 415
    Press 135 to 185
    Power Clean 275 to 300
    Deadlift 445 to 475
    and all that at the same bodyweight of 215.

    Justin, thanks for your site and e-books, I’ve been an avid reader/lurker for quite some time now! Keep up the good work

  16. Long-time reader (plus-minus 1 1/2 years, never miss a post), first time commenter
    Clean & Jerk PR 92.5kg (204lbs)
    Front Squat PR 117.5kg (260lbs)
    Bodyweight 75kg, but that’s no excuse.

    Had an inflammed Psoas (painful to the touch) and lower back pain almost a year ago. Had been doing Starting Strength for a couple months, then Texas Method (according to Justin’s ebook) for a couple of months. All of this without nearly enough stretching post-workout or mobility work in general. I think the specific trigger for my back injury might have been a Crossfit workout that included 3 rounds with 7 reps per round of heavy deadlifts.
    Went to a good chiropractor. Took a full 2 weeks off of training, along with daily stretching and mobility work and a few chiro appointments in that time. It took me a full month and a half to really get back in to training full-speed.

    Looking forward to this week’s challenge…

  17. Just found a place close by that sells Kerrygold butter. Will be making a stop tomorrow. Also have been wearing the crap out of some new balance minimus MT10s. Other then some nasty smelling feet when wearing them sockless (all the time), I’ve been really liking them so far.

  19. Deload week, but I did a lot of poundstone curls. Everyday. I did do some side planks and I got pretty bored.

    As for the Q&A, Jonathon, getting stronger is pretty simple. Work hard, plan well, and you’re gonna be ok. Climbing is going to be a lot easier if you had the strength of someone who squats 315 for reps and the grip of someone who pulls 405+ for reps. At 170 pounds and a deadlift of 230 x5, you just need to get stronger. Don’t think of yourself as some sort of special anomaly, just because you sport climb. Get stronger, compete, beat everyone, and rise to the top of your sport. Prove yourself to be in the best, truly know how your body adapts and responds to physical stimulus, and then think about specialization. “Hybrid” anything should not even enter your vocabulary until you reach a higher level of strength. Good luck.

    As for Steve Maxwell and his claim that he “question(s) the ‘function’ of placing a heavily loaded barbell across the upper spinal vertebrae,” the fact that he actually has a youtube promoting kettlebell hack squats as a strength movement should tell you all you need to know. However, if you have even semi-strong rectors, rhomboids, lats, etc. and your form is correct, the back squat isn’t going to kill you. It’s going to strengthen everything. If it does put too much of a “shearing force” on your spine, congrats, you’re either doing it wrong, or you are weak and you need to fix that.

    Finally, and this really goes out to everyone: If you read a fitness “expert” that suddenly presents an argument that seems “radical,” take it with a grain of salt, but ask yourself:
    1. Who really is this dude and why should I care?
    2. Does he/she even lift? I mean, seriously, do they actually compete/ produce results from their methods on themselves?
    3. Who have they trained? Do these trainees win at their respective sport relative to the level they compete at?
    4. Do they have a lot of experience training some one at your level/sport?
    4. If they have trained someone “world class,” what is the difference between their results in competition before and after the onset of this new style of training?
    5. Are their ideas even feasible in regards to implementation in my training? And if so, is it even worth it to alter my training?

  21. No lifting this week, thanks to work, but I did finally buy bumper plates for a garage gym! I’m going to build my platform tomorrow, and probably snatch and C&J all day, lol.
    I don’t have quite enough weight yet for squats, or squat stands, since the four 25 kg plates I ordered are on back order, and the stands are built to order, but those should both be here within two weeks, so it’s no big.
    I’m also glad to be supporting Pendlay. =)

    • Oh, injuries, right… Well, almost exactly a year ago, I was going to a kinda Crossfit gym, i.e. conditioning workouts, though with a bit more strength emphasis. Anyways, I did a workout five days a week, every week, for about three and a half months. It worked great for about two months. In retrospect, I should have noticed when my fat loss slowed, and my sleep stopped being quite so baby-like, but I’m pretty sure I was over training the last month or so, because I messed up my right knee pretty badly during that time.

      I’m still not sure what was injured, but one day after a squat workout my knee started hurting pretty badly if I squatted below parallel. It felt like the tendon where the vastus medialis wraps around the inside of the knee to below the kneecap? Anyways, it was caused, I think, mainly by my stupid idea that it was okay to LOSE TENSION IN THE BOTTOM POSITION if it was to get a bounce. Ugh. Anyways, both my knees were really loose after that, but my right was especially bad. I refrained from as much squatting and squatting motions as I could bear for three months, I discovered MobilityWOD, and started implementing much of it, and in January I started an LP with my squat at 135 lbs, and got up to 325x5x3 three months later. Now I train exclusively for Olympic lifting, and while my knee isn’t quite as good as it used to be, it could be a lot worse, and isn’t a handicap (yet…)

      So, moral? Avoid overuse injuries, try not to be really stupid about form, and remember your prehab.

  24. About three weeks ago my low back felt a little funny during a low bar squat that was about 87% of my max. My sacral area got progressively sore that day and the next and stayed real sore for a week. Still a little sore, have been resting it. Today I tried putting a lacrosse ball to it to break up possible scar tissue. I will look in my “Trail Guide” for clues.

  25. Getting back into it after a long 2 weeks off for travel and such. So no PRs (they wouldnt be impressive enough to post anyway).

    As for injuries, Ive got an old bone fracture in my right wrist that never really healed right from about 15 years ago. Requires wrist wraps on even the lightest of lifts or else it hurts like a sumbitch.

  26. Today:
    Squat: 175 kg (~ 386 lbs) x5 –> PR
    Bench: 113 kg (~ 249 lbs) x5x3 (LP)
    Deadlift: 195 kg (~ 430 lbs) x3

    Luckily, Kerrygold Butter is sold in every supermarket here (Germany). Really delicious stuff.

  28. Regarding Jonathan,

    I’m also a climber using barbells to supplement my training. Getting stronger overall will help climbing, though there are diminishing returns after a certain strength level.

    I’d say not only should you focus on bringing your DL and squat up a bit, but having a stronger press and bench will make some climbing moves much more manageable (compression moves, mantles, stemming). Actually I’ve found dips to be key for mantles (kind of obvious, really).

    From my experience, the best two barbell exercises for climbing have been heavy finger rolls and power shrugs without straps.

    • Ive climbed before…. ie im not a strong one. Climbing 11b. Outside. I agree with both Justin and Aguasca. I don’t have access to climb outside as much as I’d like. but I do know that even without performing that activity I have been able to maintain and frequently gain ability each time I’m out.

      The hard part Is your training goals will be constantly torn down by manorexic weiners who can’t squat half of their 145 lb BW. You’ve just got to find a program that you are able to be consistent with and doesnt zap your recovery for climbing. I think 531 is solid bc it’s hard to screw up if you still have a lot of time under tension climbing.

      Be SUPER DILIGENT with your mobility bc the pressure of climbing on your connective tissues is brutal.

  29. Pr absent this week.

    Wrist tweak on failed fs or last Friday. Fuckin hurt a lot. Failed on rep 3 of arm at 270. Previous pr was 265. It was a reinjury. Just started to get feelin really good too. Now flexibility is back to awful.

    I’m a big fan of tm 5×5. Any way to incorporate some Olympic moves? Or is that too much stress? Also, how about a 9 day cycle to worn around my 24 hr shift then off for 2?

  30. Just started back on the GSLP after an injury ridden summer. Cortisone in the shoulder worked miracles (weightlifter’s shoulder), though it feels loose and sloppy under load now. I restarted the bench and press from the bar, per Justin’s recommendation, and am now at 170 and 125 3×5 respectively. Shoulder feels great, other than looseness, as mentioned.
    Hip is another issue, right side hurts, xray showed a cyst on the ball joint, presumably made by being to tight in the IT and a limb length imbalance. I switched to high bar and put a lift in my right shoe, hip still hurts like hell.
    DL 330×8, a rep PR at least. Reset everything 2 weeks ago, glad to be back making regular progress.

    • Anyone with an injury, I would recommend going to sports specific orthopedic, by the way. My guy understands my squat addiction, I told him “if it hurts don’t do it’ was not an option. He was totally cool, and gave me options and ideas to get me back going again.

  31. Have been doin the “baby progression” for the Olympic lifts. Snatches 155 and clean and jerked 215 for 5 singles. Not in kilos, in case u thought I was some kind of freak… Squatted 340x3x5 benched 225x3x5. Also did some snatche balances with 185 cause I have a tendency to overpull cause I’m not too comfortable in the bottom of the snatch yet

  32. PR: The only place to deadlift was taken, so I did zercher squats as my final exercise instead (after squatting 325×5). Worked up to a final set of 295×5. Hardest reps I’ve ever done.

    Injuries in last year
    Low back (Feb): Not sure how, but I just felt stiff the morning after a lifting day and had to slowly work back up in weight over like 2 months ( I just felt weak, not in pain).
    Toe: (march) Turf toe playing soccer. 2 weeks off from running and it was fine along with bandaging it.
    Ankle: (march) Rolled it the day I came back from the toe injury playing soccer again. Iced it and then worked it through full ROM and did some light squatting over 2 weeks and worked back up.
    Wrist: (april) Tripped and landed on my wrist in my final soccer game of Spring (see a trend here?). I wrapped it and massaged it while working it through ROM, although this took near 1.5 months to recover from.
    Lower back again: This one was like a month ago from dropping into the hole too quickly while warming up low bar squats: Took 4 days off doing massaging and then did the Bill Starr rehab over 2 weeks. I’m about 2 weeks away from my old PR’s and feel stronger than ever in my back.

  33. Still in medical school. Still no equipment to squat in. I’ve dumbell Benched about 15 short sessions in the past week, and should hopefully be able to move up to 85s next week. did 75×8 as a moderately heavy weight earlier this week.

    Still deadlifting with a 4 foot curl bar. That bastard is a lot harder to break off the ground, let me tell you. Pulled 4 wheels on two different days (385ish lbs), but my hamstrings felt tight, kind of off.

    Food has been high quality since I never have time to go anywhere and I precook everything on sunday’s since I don’t have time to cook during the week.

    Stress is really high from school.

    One PR this week: 42 second 250m row. That’s a signficant PR over last week, and this is the first serious rowing I’ve done… pretty much ever. I try for one or two hard 250s a day, and then usually a easy 2k as follow up. Don’t know if I’m really promoting any adaptation, but it feels good and it gets some extra pulling volume.

    P.S.- other PR- DB row 95lbs x 25 reps per arm. Back felt fine, killed my grip in my left hand for two days after though, even with straps.

  34. I pulled my right hamstring at the end of September last year, just after my birthday. Happy birthday to me! I was doing a little extra-curricular running with some 800m repeats. Could’ve probably warmed up better and definitely could’ve been better rested. My daughter was just born a few weeks earlier, so sleep hasn’t really happened regularly for about 11 months now.

    Anyway, initially I was doing my own programming and just taking it as an opportunity to do overhead work, but quickly realized that I was getting a little unbalanced, so I got with Connor over at BrandX and we started working together.

    Initially we just tried to get some ROM into it and then eventually started loading it again. I think it took about 10 weeks before the pain went away and it took until April to get my deadlift back to previous PR.

  35. Pulled 500 x 5, then 500 x 3 – it was ok. Squatted 405 for a bunch of doubles and it feels like the high 300’s used to feel so that is progress.

  36. About time I started posting here.

    No PR’s this week, still building back up from taking some time off do to an injury. After warming up, I was on my first set of 5 for that day’s squat at 340. When I was coming up on the first rep, I felt a pop in the middle/lower back region (lat region, but was the underlying muscle) . I finished the rep but was in a lot of pain afterwards. After a weekend of pain meds, I was able to start moving again and took it easy for a while before finally getting back into the past couple weeks.

  37. First time posting.
    I discovered this site a few months ago and now it is top of my rotation as far as training is concerned. Justin and all, great work.

    No PR’s this week as I’m still getting back up to speed after a neck issue, speaking of which:

    Back injury: Tweaked my back in mid-February pulling with bad form. I had pain in lower back for about 3 weeks but didn’t really do enough to clear it up and as a result re-tweaked it about 2 months later squatting. Finally decided to get professional help and went to a physical therapist / ART practitioner for about a month and a half. First appointment she noticed a huge difference in the tissue quality of my lower back on the bad side (said that the tissue on that side felt like beef jerky). A combination of ART treatments and also discovering MobilityWOD cleared everything up by about 2 months after that first appt. I still stick to MobilityWOD stuff and things like birddogs and planks to keep the back happy.

    Neck: This one sucked. Was trying to do a very low-bar set up, nearly dropped the bar as I unracked, I turned my head to keep the bar from falling and either that, or having the bar in the wrong position, led to a “crunch” in my neck Getting out of bed the next day was one of the most painful experiences I’ve had, I couldn’t move my neck in any direction and had constant pain. Thank god, no referred pain down my arm or anything like that. Went to a doctor who thought it was a muscle strain, then went to aforementioned PT who thought it sound more like a minor disc injury (nothing so bad as a rupture, possible a slight bulge). For about a month got treatment once a week and could do very little in the gym. Now, about 2 month out neck is finally back to ~90%, am building back to former levels of strength.

    This year has been annoying, last year had basically no injuries. Feel decent enough now though.

  38. Started the TM for press/bench this week. Still LPing the squat (building back up to where I was prior to psoas tear in Jan)

    press- 160×5 (tied PR) was harder than it should have been

    I did the side planks 4 days this week, 3x30sec, 3x40sec, 3x45sec and 3x50sec. I was dealing with some left SI joint pain (tight left psoas -the one I tore- and tight left QL) and I felt better in the middle of the week and after squatting today without enough squat prep I’m feeling the SI joint again.

    So my psoas tear back in Jan started out with a groin tweak. I was trying to fix up my squat stance by getting my toes pointed forward. Evidently, my mobility wasn’t there yet and I had a mild tweak. I laid off squatting, but stubborn as I am, I couldn’t lay off the hockey. About 2-3 weeks after the initial tweak, I tore it good and well in a hockey game. I was off squatting for 7 months. Needless to say I won’t do that again. But the biggest gains I made in rehab/recovery were when I started to do some light C2 rowing, working up to body weight squats, then to 3 set of 25 squats with an empty bar, adding 5 lbs each time. The recovery was tangible. Movement=gold.

  41. 2 note able injuries I can remember.

    1. Shoulder rotated in socket during too high rep kettle bell challenge. It gradually locked up until I had zero range of motion 4 days later. Lucked out and it was just bursitis. Ibuprofen and ice knocked it out.

    2. Every couple of months my rhomboid will develope a sudden knot during SOHP..been battling this knot for 3 week. Coo worker thinks I might be popping a rib and the muscles freak to keep it in place.

    I need a damn massage

  42. No absolute PRs, but a couple PRs considering about 15 lbs less BW.

    Deadlift 465#
    Press 175#

    Still can’t figure out my optimum stance width for sumo DLs. Sometimes a semi sumo feels strong, sometimes a wider stance lets me lift more.

  43. Triple PR day!

    Squat: 167.5kg/369lb x 5
    Bench: 112.5kg/248lb x 5
    Deadlift: 182.5kg/402lb x 5

    Also benched 145kg/320lb with a slingshot, good fun.

  44. Did the challenge, but after a few weeks of back pain I finally messed up my back.
    It hurt during my first set of heavy squat, but it felt ok, so I went for a second set and went down about 2 inches before it really, really hurt.
    Since then constant back pain (not too bad), even if not moving, gets a lot worse when I do something, coughing is bad, sneezing is really, really bad.
    Pain is in lower back/upper buttocks on both sides.
    What I do?
    Really did nothing the first three days (Mo-Wed), now have started with a heating pad, which makes it feel better and some light stretching (the usual, psoas, hip flexors, piriformis, …, hamstring stretches really exacerbate the pain, even when done lightly, so I’m kinda staying away from them, doing some bodyweight squats as a stretching movement as well, hamstrings have gotten horribly tight in just three days)
    anyway, it does not really get better at the moment.
    First time in my life that I really suffer from back pain that makes me not want to train.
    Did not really train this week, some Db Bench Presses and chest-supported rows and stuff like this was all I did.

  45. No PR’s back in the gym for a week after a 5 week holiday in France.

    I had my right shoulder pulled out by a rearing horse 3 months ago. it is the 5th time i have done this to my shoulder, and definitely the worst. After the last time, i had rehab-bed diligently, and put alot of strength around the joint. the sound still haunts me.

    I wanted to rehab better this time. i found i could do carries with no pain. not too sure of the physiology, but it felt like my shoulder blades locked the joint in. So along with usual band work, i did heavy farmers walks. lots of single leg squatting and single leg RDL’s.
    after afew weeks i found i could do dumbell rows without any pain or impingement.
    It made sense in my head to work hard and keep the blood flowing around my shoulder as much as possible without aggravating it.

    3 months later, i am back to snatching and pressing. close to PRs. a week more perhaps.

    Thanks for the work you do.

  46. PR’d squat 3×5 @ 78kg (3kg PR and 2kg away from tested 1RM of 80kg).

    I did the side plank thing, no soreness the next day in my obliques but a little sore around my sacrum/very low back. Started training under a dedicated strength coach for powerlifting, easing back on the crossfit.

    The only time I’ve popped a blood vessel was when I drank too much, spewed and burst a blood vessel in my eye. Looked like a monster for about 3 weeks. Pretty cool way to freak people out, though. ;)

  47. Pullup PR as a by-product of 531 assistance work….
    Six unbroken sets of four dead hang pull ups, and four broken sets of 3-1. Not bad considering I started out having to just do singles a few months ago.

    And on that note, here’s a question, for next weeks QandA? Why do pull ups (dead hang, no crossed legs, no kip) feel easier when I’m looking straight up, vs. looking dead ahead? And is there any difference in benefit/usefulness with one vs. the other?

    And perhaps the most important question of the week, when are you going to make a new shirt that says DO YOU EVEN LIFT?

  48. Squatted 501 in competition @ 183lb, previous best was 500 @ 195 in the gym.

    Won a meet that I went 4/9 at across all age classes @ 83kg, and across all weight classes in Junior (By wilks, obv). I was 2/6 going into deadlifts and leading, so I PR’d in being an asshole.

  50. Been getting sports massages for a few weeks … they aren’t helping much. Might see a chiropractor soon.

    My injury is that my entire back seems to have tightened up to the point that it’s painful to do things like deadlifts and LBBS. High bar is just about tolerable so that’s what I’m doing. Shoulders are pretty fucked too.

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