building architecture. injury feedback

Strength training can be summarized in a single sentence: go build shit here.

Shit can be a lot of things. Connective tissue, muscle, blood flow, satellite cells. If you are not training a body part or a range of motion, you are also sending a signal: I don't need shit here. Simple, and frustrating. 

When injury occurs,.your body gives all the incentives to prevent you from saying build shit here. Mainly, pain and tightness. Both prevent movement, but one is a red flag and the other a yellow flag. When recovering from injury, the best thing you can do is get pain free movement in an impacted area as soon as possible and as often as possible. Signaling I still need this! I've lost years signalling the opposite then wondering why my shit hurts for so long. Why herniated discs and knee tweak recovery is measured in years instead of weeks or months.

When training an injured body part, I've found the following to be helpful:

- start with walking. Always walking. Emphasize motion in the injured body part in pain free ranges of motion.

- when retraining the body part, start with regressed variations. No floor is too low. Your ego needs to take this short term.

- low reps, far far far far from failure. The goal is blood flow and recovery, not growth.

- higher sets and frequency is better than higher intensity and low sets/frequency.

- if you feel tightness (yellow flag), STOP! it will fade quickly and you can likely restart tomorrow. The goal is to stack as many good days together as possible until you only have good days.

high frequency: managing fatigue

Not an expert, just putting down on paper what is working for me. Inspired by Jim wendlers weight vest and chad Waterbury high frequency training. Embarked on because my right side seized up mid sandbag clean a few weeks ago. Vertical type movements are the only thing that feels extremely safe 

How we do:

1-2x daily

1st session: ring pullups, ring dips, legs.

2nd session: repeat, or ring rack pullups and dips.

Legs use a grab bag of goblet squats, banded reverse lunges, or bodyweight squats 

After stuff

Nuances:

All reps are done PAUSED. We are not thoughtlessly banging out reps. We are building connective tissue and work capacity that LASTS. 

No sets are done to failure. High frequency only works if you can recover day over day. 

Progression (upper):

Start with 5x3 per movement.

Every week, add a round (6x3, 7x3, etc) until completion in under 30min isn't possible.

Reset to 5x4 and repeat.

When the marriage of reps and sets is no longer feasible, rest to 5x3 and add weight or use a more difficult progression.

Progression (lower):

This is VERY specific to me. My legs are incredibly detrained. Anything I try to do that is 'theraputic' like sled drags just HURTS. I've found that pain enters the chat with medium volume regardless of weight. The reps, progressions, and weight is VERY low on purpose because I am working on rebuilding connections to my body as opposed to building size and strength.

The long term plan is to either continue using light weights/progressions indefinitely in the morning (with heavier kettlebell work in the afternoon) as a warmup to live the joints, OR progress to more extreme ranges of motion. Examples being sissy squats, atg split squats, wide stance lunges, etc. Lots to work on that has a benefit!

After stuff:

1. Recovery

Band pushdowns, curls, rows, etc. many different grips for extremely high reps (30-50). The goal is to push blood in the area without accumulating additional fatigue.

2. Minor body part for high reps.

Calves, tibs, neck work really well here. Use a rep goal with high reps (ex: 3x50 to increase weight) while avoiding failure. Choose one movement per day and go to town. Like the main work, feeling the muscle through large range of motion is more important than increase weight and banging out reps.

What works really well is to use one of these movements are a rest period between rounds of mains.

Example:

3 ring pullups

3 ring dips

3 goblet squats 

35 seated calf raises

Shit hurts, what do now:

Couple of options...

- Switch movements temporarily or permanently. 

- Reduce volume. As long as it takes.

- Rest. 

In a more isolated sense, if your joints hurt focus more on post workout band exercises to force blood into your joints. I've def seen a difference with and without this method.

Never under any circumstance lift through a painful range of motion. We want buttery joints.

Benefits?

I'm still very new to the party. This early on, I can tell ya my day to day energy is amazing. That alone is worth the price of admission. Body composition is slightly improved but nothing to write home about. I won't really be able to evaluate how much or little this does for aesthetics for a few months. 

Overall, a+ experience. I'm more into feeling good than looking good. And this makes me feel very very good.

building tolerance

Little, but often.

Reread an insta post about recovering from injury. One of the steps highlighted low volume and high frequency. This really really spoke to me. I've been able to dip my toe back into leg exercises, but after a few reps shit starts to get tight and hurt again. Maybe, just maybe, it's because the tissues involved have 0 tolerance for load or volume. They haven't gotten any blood in...years! I've been moving back towards daily training for my upper body, but failed to realize that injury recovery with the lower can use the same rubric. 

Little bit often. 

I'm not training through pain or discomfort. The goal is to flush blood in areas that I can't FEEL right now. 

yur a beginner harry

This one hurts to write. I picked up momentum in the past couple of weeks combining sandbags and calisthenics. I was feeling STRONG. And in the middle of a set where I felt amazing, the right side of my body seized up so hard I blacked out. For days I was unable to walk. Today being the first day in 2 weeks where I'm not in pain. Dips and chinups are already back on the menu, but I've made some observations as I've slowly become human again.

1. My lower body is at a beginner level again due to disuse.

Combine this fact with just not being 20 anymore, it's time to (sucks through teeth) restart at a beginner level. This means squatting, deadlifting and so on at a ridiculously low level. The strength is still there, always is, but the supporting joints and tissues have regressed to the point before I started lifting in my early 20s. 

2. Dynamic effort isn't for me right now.

Gotta crawl before you can walk. This ain't a bad thing.

So here's why this is a great thing. Beginners make progress fast AF. In a couple of months I can either be where I want to be, or on my way there. The catch is I've got to be a piece of shit now so I can fly later. And coming off of 15yrs training history that is a very hard pill to swallow. I'm talking about starting a beginners kettlebell program with a 12kg weight. Ridiculously easy. Embarrassingly easy. And that's ok.

Upper body is a different story. While not even close to my peak, upper body is in great shape structurally. I'm gonna milk that shit for all its worth.

rebuilding my gym

I love this type of thought process. I avoided getting a home gym for YEARS because I thought the investment too large and my space too small. In retrospect, I could have saved thousands on gym fees, prevented all of my worst injuries, and had 24/7 access to equipment. 

The tldr is that the barbell and hundreds of pounds of weight + a power rack is not a prerequisite for working hard or making progress. These tools make progress easier, but if I had to rebuild from scratch it's not what I would buy.

Minimal gym purchases

Sandbags - 50-150 in 25lb increments.

Olympic rings - pullups, dips, and rows length.

Dip bars.

Light and medium bands. 

Loadable dumbbell.

Loable mace.

Paltry amount of weights (50lbs in 2.5, 5, 10).

sandbag bodybuilding - Nov 2024

ADHD is strong this year. Training to failure works for muscle growth, it really really does. The downside is more tied to general fatigue during the week. I've seen a pattern in my posts since August. Whenever I introduce big compounds to failure (notably exempt are isolation and calisthenics, more on that later) I need more coffee to function and just are generally more irritable. I'd rather feel powerful and good than be bigger and feel tired. And nothing makes me feel as good as sandbag training. 

Sandbag training 

It's the epitome of get more out of less weight. If you barbell deadlift 2x bodyweight, congrats you are no longer a beginner. If you can shoulder a sandbag that's 2x bodyweight, you are world class. The YouTube channel 'the stone circle' has spoken often in this next topic, but I agree heavily - lifting sandbags makes my back feel 'solid' in a way that classic training does not. As someone who has experienced multiple herniations then nagging pains from doing normal human things, feeling like you are unbreakable is a premium worth it's weight in gold. It's safe to drop the weight for your floors and your feet. And finally, if you enjoy Olympic weightlifting there are a ton of parallels. I feel that a sandbag to shoulder shares a lot more in common with a power clean than I ever did with kettlebell cleans and snatches. 

The program

- 4 days required.

- 2 isolation days optional.

Sandbag Day 1

Shoulder 5-15x1

High pull 5-10x3

Row x3

Lap (low pull) x1

Back extension x1

Pullover x1

Mace x1

Calisthenics Circuits Day 1

(10 down, 5-3-2, Juarez, etc)

Pull

Press

Ab wheel 

Pull

Press

(10min optional Isolation)

Optional Isolation Day 1

Pick a movement. 

Perform 3 reverse pyramid sets to failure.

Long rest between sets.

Rotate movements when progress halts 

Sandbag Day 2

Push press 5-15x1

Shoulder 5-10x1

Squat x3

Lap (low pull) x1

Back extension x1

Pullover x1

Mace x1

Calisthenics Circuits Day 2

same as day 1. Different movement set 

Optional Isolation Day 2

Same as day 1.

return to sword and shield

Still trying to find a balance with training my lower and upper body given my lower body isn't conditioned to hard training yet. Any set taken close to failure HURTS for days. Like I said with my last post, I'm training my upper body while fixing my lower. This doesn't mean the lower body is ignored entirely. Oh no no, we have learned from that mistake. Unless I'm feeling pain or symptoms get worse, movement is medicine. In the interim, I'm adding more and more movement where I can.

Sword and shield is not my program idea (credit bells and bodybuilding). This version is closest to V2 of his insta page. 

AM

Warmup: rope flow, jump rope

Lift: 

- bodybuild (2x week) upper.

- lower singles (2-3x week).

- rest or calf days as needed.

Cool down:

Stretch adductors, hips

PM

Mace endurance

Easy Carries

Bodybuild

2-3 different variations. Cycle movements as needed.

Upper Press 50 in 5 ss Upper Pull 50 in 5

Bi, tri, shoulders 60 in 4

Lower singles

Hinge or squat. Goal is power not weight. We are trying to rebuild not get bigger. Stop when any yellow or red flag (tingle, tightness, pain) rears it's head. In terms of how many singles, set a timer and go to town (as many in 20-25min).

Mace

Change variation and weight daily 

Carries typically suitcase carry marches. Focus on ab contraction.

Examples:

- two handed swings for time.

- one handed swings for time.

- swings for strength. Pyramid up sets of 10-20. Back off sets.

- mace flow.

In the 'for time' swings, progress is measured by increasing rounds, decreasing rest, then increasing weight.

train it or fix it

I'm a big fan of decision trees applied to training. As with most blog posts, this is a lesson I have to learn over and over and over. But the premise is simple: train it or fix it.

Train it

Can you push sets hard without aggravating an existing injury? Do it.

Fix it

Does training a movement make all metrics worse? I.e. sciatica flares up, your knees feel like someone hit them with a bat? Are you not able to train with any intensity other than baby light? Fix it.

It's not worth trying to make progress with a movement or body part that you cant push close to failure without serious ramifications. This doesn't mean you leave this movement or limb to rot. It means you are LUCKY. You get to put all your training capital into things that are working NOW. Fixing things can be done every day, but the goal isn't the same as actual training. The goal is to restore and not physical transformation.

Food for thought.

daily conditioning + dessert only

Let's. Fucking. Go.

Let's assume you read the last post and said nah chat. I don't give a shit about bus bench workouts. I just want to build work capacity, feel great, and look good doing it. Bro I've got you. 

Remove the actual 'training' blocked workouts and replace with conditioning + dessert only. Increase weight or reps when it's disgustingly easy, or mid workout. Whatever. Have fun. Membuh fun? I membuh.

Conditioning - 30min circuits

Press + mace/club + quads

Pull + ab wheel + hams

Fill in whatever exercises you want. Don't repeat workouts often. Regress movements as needed. Strength isn't the goal but you will build strength. Size isn't the goal hit you will get bigger. No sets are taken to failure.

Dessert - 1 move/day to failure

Same deal as before. You can do this sick dying or dead. Don't repeat movements often, and work whatever has the most horsepower at the moment.

Examples

Tri pushdowns, tri extensions

Pelican curl, ring curl, hammer curl 

Leg curl, hip flexors, calves

Rear delt raise, front plate raise 

more on daily conditioning + actual training

To be clear I'm gonna use Dan John terms.

Park bench: no expectation on going anywhere.

Bus bench: I'm expecting to go somewhere.

Programming usually falls in one bucket or the other. If you're a generalist like me, why not zoidberg (see: both)? Personally I'm more in the park bench court nowadays. I have seen amazing dividends from daily conditioning, and I'm gifted small amounts of size and strength as a bonus. Actual bus bench training doesn't have to be anything more than increased effort over time. If you're spending your entire week building work capacity, really how hard are 4 difficult sets to failure a week? 

The setup - morning 

Mon-fri: alternate

- push + mace/club circuits. 1 set of dessert. 

- pull + mace/club circuits. 1 set of dessert.

Sat

Deadlift variation - top set and back off set.

1 set of pulldown dessert.

Increase weight every week. Drop weight after 4-6 weeks or rotate movement pattern.

Sun

Bench variation - top set and back off set.

1 set of tricep dessert.

Increase weight every week. Drop weight after 4-6 weeks or rotate movement pattern.

The setup - afternoon

Mobility and yoga.

I'm surprised too. But I suck at it and I'd like not to.

Conditioning 

Press: pushups, explosive pushups, dips, ring dips.

Pull: swing, sand row, gorilla row, snatch.

Dessert 

One all out dropset of a movement you can do sick dying or dead. The goal is not to count reps, just do work and get a sick pump. Add regressions where possible (ex: add bands to pullups).

Good dessert options

Pullups, chinups, pulldowns, pelican curl, ring curl, hammer curl, band curls, band rows.

Seated calf raises.

Tricep extensions, tricep pushdown, tricep overhead.

Rear delt raise, plate.raise.

daily lifting - balancing conditioning with linear periodization

I said recently that I was goaded for years into thinking lifting more often was better. I proceeded to lift 4-7x a week for damn near a decade before overuse injuries overcame me. During that decade, I also regularly felt sad, tired, and stressed. As I healed, I found I was getting bigger and stronger while lifting heavy 2x a week. As of late, I've said that daily conditioning has made me better than I have in a long time. Both of these things are still true and can coexist.

Lifting heavy 2x a week doesn't have to mean a drawn out session. It can mean two balls out sets (1 heavy, 1 light + rest pause) to failure. All in all this takes maybe 15-30min a week to do, and can still drive linear progress week to week. Surely, you have 4 hard sets a week in you, right?

Every other day? Conditioning. Possibly multiple times a day if energy and time allows. The body has enough parts to where you shouldn't ever have to reuse the same worked section 2 days in a row. 

Example

1)Heavy press: floor press

2)conditioning: pull, swing, calves, tibs, lunges, squats, single leg rdl

3)conditioning: press, (ditto)

4)Heavy pull: power clean

5)conditioning: press, (ditto)

6)conditioning: pull, (ditto)

Rest or repeat

Press = calisthenics presses. Use down, Juarez, straight sets, emoms

Pull = sandbag row. Normally this is a good place for calisthenics pulls as well, but that shit aint serving me at the moment.same type of rep models.

I list a ton of movement patterns after press/pull as a potential grab bag. Use whatever isn't tired. If you are going back and forth with dip Juarez valley and seated calf raises, guess what. The calf raises are your rest periods. They're filler episodes.

are you actually hungry?

I found a really easy method for discerning between actual hunger and the general desire to consume/craving.

If your body screams FOOD NOW, ask back - can you eat 6 eggs? If the feeling or response back is fuck no. It's a craving. Ignore. If the answer is yes, eat the eggs.

I'll take my money now.

conditioning is the assistance

Main work is easy to program. Work up to a top set. Do some backoff sets or a backoff set.

Assistance is a minefield of endless decisions with regards to movement choice, volume, and intensity. 

Conditioning saves a fuckton of time and energy. Assistance is dead. Conditioning is now also your assistance. Long live the new hotness.

look good versus feel good

I have to remind myself  of this fact daily: I feel amazing right now, but I also look objectively worse than 12 weeks ago. 

What changed?

12 weeks ago

- tired as fuck without copious caffeine.

- I trained full body 2 days a week. Everything to failure and beyond.

- goal was strength and size.

- off days were mace and stretch days. 

- Get some sun daily 

- I was damn near useless the day after lifting but soreness otherwise wasn't a thing.

- sex drive = not great

Today

- energy levels are amazing. Drinking less caffeine then I have in years.

- I train daily. With few exceptions (see: the occasional set of arms) nothing is to failure 

- goal is endurance.

- there are no off days.

- get some sun daily.

- low grade soreness every day, but it doesn't actually do anything.

- sex drive = constant. Not 20s levels but it exists

I gotta tell ya, my brain keeps trying to edge me back into looks good territory but in fighting it hard. I love the way I feel right now, and I'm just a few weeks in to this style of training. More to come in the future, but I need a reminder in print for the next 30min when I wonder if a 5/3/1 bench has a place in my life (narrator: it doesn't).

the things you do yourself

One of my favorite Dan John tidbits is 'the things you do to yourself are more effective than the things done to you for recovery.' For the life of me, I can't find where he made thos quote, so im going to accept the possibility of being dead wring and give him credit for the impotis for this post.

The tldr is massages are great. Acupuncture is great. Cupping is great. These are great for symptom relief but they are not going to be q long term preventive strategy. Addressing mobility takes care of a lot of the symptoms things like massage address. What you do yourself out weights what is done to you.

more musings on calisthenics circuits

30min daily calisthenics circuits are the tits.

Benefits:

- build basic calisthenics strength.

- build endurance.

- wakes you the fuck up in the morning.

- EASY to recover from.

That last one really surprised me as I've done daily calisthenics before. The big difference is 40min of only chinups versus 30min of chinups, dips, etc etc. Even if the volume is comparable, fatigue is managed in a way that doesn't bury you in a hole (I.e. you ain't hitting failure every set). Further, varying movements daily doesn't activate achy joints.

when it's cardio

As a newbie to calisthenics circuits, I find myself trying to figure out when to increase reps, change leverages, or otherwise introduce progressive overload.

The answer came this morning: when it's cardio.

It should have been obvious, but looking at the goal (endurance, hypertrophy) compared to my PM sandbag/mace lifting (strength) it makes sense. If you are taking rest periods because of a need for muscular recovery then your cardio is no longer the limiting factor. Conversely if I can burn through a 10down 5 movement circuit where my cardio is the only limiting factor, then it makes sense to do one of two things:

- increase reps. Even a new top set on downs rachets up volume (10 to 11 down represents a 20% increase in reps).

- change movement pattern/s. Calisthenics is uniquely suited for this via manipulating leverages. 

Leverage examples

A dip can become an l sit sit, a lean forward dip, an offset dip.

A Pullup can become a commando Pullup, a sternum Pullup, an l sit Pullup, an offset Pullup, an archer Pullup ect.

Which variation used doesn't really matter in the context of calisthenics circuits. We aren't trying to build specific strength or skills even if we get some as a side hustle. 

endurance: how I learned to toss the barbell

Starting out strong, there is nothing wrong with barbells. I've gotten a metric fuckton out of them for years and this is not goodbye.

Barbells, however, are not the ideal tool for the goal I set at the beginning of this year then proceeded to totally ignore. My goal were to get lean and build stupid endurance in the process. This is also related to the thought experiment I go through one a day - if I had to rebuild myself from the ground up how would I do it - if I had to be quiet while working out how would I do it - etc etc. also relevant is my nerves have been FRIED lifting to failure a few times a week. I am absolutely making steady progress week over week and physically I'm up for it, but I'd rather just feel good than look good. Weird that.

This has bubbled up into an approach to pilot. 

Tldr

AM - calisthenics circuits

Skill press, skill pull, spine/abs, press, pull, legs

Juarez valley, straight sets, downs, clusters 

Put 30min on the clock and get as many clean circuits as possible

Start with 5s, add a rep a week. Decrease regressions after 5 weeks and rebuild.

PM - sandbags, maces, clubs, and kettlebells 

Light day: maces/clubs/stretching

Heavy day:

- explosive 

- lower 

- upper

- mace/club

Put 30min on the clock and GO.

Deload happen when they happen.

Fasting used as a tool.

You should not reach failure during any set! That's not the point.

AM work is for building an engine.

PM work is to build brute strength.

'skill' versions of calisthenics work means unstable variations (rings) or power variations (plyo, muscle up). 

Regular calisthenics work means stable. Stable can use more complex variations (ex: pseudo planche pushup, l sit dip) as well.

calisthenics for loop

For loop used to progress calisthenics variations.

Increase range of motion until not possible

Decrease regression

(Repeat)

Increase skill

5/3/1 sandbags: another stab

Taking another crack at sandbag 5/3/1. I'm all IN baby. 

Schedule 

6 week cycles 

2 week mini cycles 

2-3/day a week lift 

2 week mini cycle

Floor press 5/3/1 ss Cali pull x 2

Sand high pull + squat ss Cali press x 2

Kb press ss kb chest support row x 2

Bi/tri/legs x 1

Bi/tri/legs x 1

Reverse oh press 5/3/1 ss Cali pull x 2

Sand shoulders + squat ss Cali press x 2

Kb z press ss kb pullover x 2

Bi/tri/legs x 1

Bi/tri/legs x 1

Reverse grip floor press 5/3/1 ss Cali pull x 2

Sand high pull + squat ss Cali press x 2

Kb press ss kb chest support row x 2

Bi/tri/legs x 1

Bi/tri/legs x 1

Reverse wide oh press 5/3/1 ss Cali pull x 2

Sand shoulders + squat ss Cali press x 2

Kb z press ss kb pullover x 2

Bi/tri/legs x 1

Bi/tri/legs x 1

Daily

Mace swings outdoors