Rabid Rabbit & Wife's 5x5 Journey
 

Back from the dead (almost literally!) and finally lifting again. I've really missed this site for the last year after my body decided to self-destruct (read below). I just couldn't handle reading bb sites when I was unable to work out. I'm a recuperating mess of a man now :)

My wife and I started this journey last week using the the stronglift's 5x5

Lil Bear:

25 year old female
5'1, 127lbs

Healthy, ex military. Currently rehabbing a slight shoulder injury (now undergoing ART therapy & rotater cuff exercises) which is preventing her from doing bench and shoulder press for another week or so. She's had shoulder problems for years from doing pushups in ROTC. Hyperflexible joints. 5 years of bodybuilding routines and regular cardio experience.


Rabbit:

33 year old male
6'0, 210lbs

Frail & sickly. Last August I became very ill and was hospitalized. After a bout of diarrhea, my joints in my lower body and spine became very swollen and immobile. Went to the hospital due to the fact I could not walk. While waiting in the emergency room, they ran some blood tests. My blood sugar was through the roof. Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (Insulin dependent). They kept me in the hospital for 11 days and also diagnosed me with Reiter's syndrome - a form of arthritis caused by salmonella poisoning. At the time nothing was done about the arthritis as they hoped it would clear up. October rolls around and I still cannot walk or bend my joints. See a rheumatologist and start aggressive treatment with remicade. Works on arthritis but I develop horribly painful neuropathy in the feet. Discontinue remicade, feet still in pain and arthritis returns with a vengeance. Long story short -immobile for most of August to June. Also diagnosed with osteoporosis in the left hip and spine. Also have an insufficency fracture in my T9 vertebrae which ends up requiring minor surgery (they filled me with cement!) to prevent further collapse. Finally get a good drug regimen that takes care of most of these problems and start rehab. Prior to all this crap happening I was doing Rippetoe's Starting Strength and making decent progress.


Week 1:

Wednesday July 9

LilBear:

Squat: 45lb 5x5
Bench: 75lb 5x5
Row: 45lb 5x5
Dips: 4, 3, 3

Rabbit:

Leg Press "Machine": 40"lbs" (Unable to do a single bodyweight squat)
Bench: 95lb 5x5
Row: 95lb 5x5
Dips: 4,3,4

Friday July 11th

LilBear:

Squat: 50lb 5x5
Press: 45lb 5x5
Dead: 85lb 1x5
Chins: 1, 1, 1

Rabbit:

Leg Press: 50lbs, 5x5
Press: 4, 5x5
Dead: 135, 1x5
Chins: 1,1,1

Did my first body weight squat on saturday, almost died but was very very happy :)

Monday, July 14

Lil Bear:

Squat: 55, 5x5
Bench: 80, 5x5 (this is where she "tweaked" her shoulder, weird as she was pressing 95, 2x per week for over a year)
Row: 55, 5x5
Dips: 4,4,4

Rabbit:

Leg Press: 60, 5x5
Dead Lift: 145, 1x5
Bench: 100, 5x5
Row: 100, 5x5
Dips: 5, 4, 4

Wednesday July 16

Lil Bear:

Squat: 60, 5x5
Deadlift: 90, 1x5

Rabbit:
Leg Press: 70, 5x5
Dead: 135, 1x5
Press: 50. 5x5
Pullups: 7 unassisted singles, and 3 assisted

Friday July 18

Lil Bear:

Squat: 65, 5x5
Row: 60, 5x5

Rabbit:

Leg Press: 80, 3x5 (my medication failed me a bit as I had taken too late in the day and my knees were dodgy)
Dead: 155, 1x5
Bench: 105, 5x5
Row: 105, 5x5
Dips: 7, 4, 5

Next week Lil Bear will be resetting to the bar on bench and working her way up from there as her shoulder rehabs (or so she says, we'll see how she feels). Rabbit will leave the leg press machine behind forever and stop doing deadlifts every day as he begins squatting 5x5 with a broom handle and then working up to the 45lb bar after that :)

Rabbit has gained approx 3" on each leg since starting the regime and can now get out of a chair without using his arms :)

Cheers and thanks for reading.

Welcome back. Those are some huge obstacles to over come. Good luck with everything.

If your wife has problems with her shoulder and bench maybe get her to try decline - that is what worked for me .

good on ya man...great reading :) keep it up.

I'd like to hear more about the bodyweight squat and whether you could try something else instead of leg press. Leg press after back surgery does not sound good to me. I am sure there are better alternatives.

I would also recommend an intermediate 5x5 or something where the volume could be modulated rather than launching into the stronglifts, which, if I understand correctly, is SS with 5x5 instead of 3x5. This is just a very general thing and I am not saying what will work for you of not work for you but when recuping from those kind of ongoing health problems you really want to be able to ease into the volume of it and not just the weight.

Good luck Rabbit. Sorry to hear about all these problems and glad to hear you are back at it.

good luck man. You've been through a lot.

whats up rabbit .i had reactive arthritis myself. so i know exactly what your going through. at first they had me on indomethacin and after a few weeks they dropped me down to naproxin. it was a long journey so i know what you are going through. when i got back into working out i started out very slow. to an extent i have never got back to what i was once capable of, but that is a combination of being out the gym for so long prior to that, and then the reactive arthrits knocked me back even more.

i have gotten back to 100 percent from that, its just been lately i have been jacking myself up with some freak type of injury. or hurting myself and not getting it checked out immediatly.

so just take it slow and take care of yourself my man

Thanks for all the support gang!


Hi Eric, you gave me a lot of help back when I originally started SS in January of 2007 and I am very happy to see you still kicking about.

The back surgery was very minor. It was a day surgery and I was only in the hospital for three hours or so. It was called a kyphoplasty. They drill two little holes in your vertebrae and then pump in a medical cement to "inflate" the vertebrae to close to its original shape. I was advised to resume normal activity within a week.

We are heading off to the gym now. I just did 3x5 bodyweight squats with a broom handle and I am glad I did it at home with only my wife watching. I'll be spending the week with the broom handle working on hamstring and glute flexibility as I am pitching forward at the bottom. Also need to work on shoulder flexibility.

I will be "listening to my body" and will gradually be moving from 3x5 to 5x5 on squats. So far no problems with the upper body as I did as many dips off the kitchen chairs as I could almost daily while I was out of it.

Cheers and we're off to lift. Yaaaarrr!

Today's Workout - July 21st, 2008

Both of us had solid workouts. Mondays are so nice after the two days off. Lil Bear's squats were most excellent!

Lil Bear:

Squat 70 5x5
Press 12 5x5 - just working on the movement and form. Shoulder still tender
Deadlift 95 1x5
Rotator Cuff Work

Rabbit:

Squat: Broomhandle 3x5, I'll be working on form & flexibility this week. Ugly.
Press: 55 5x5
Deadlift 165 1x5
Wide Grip Pullups: Singles - 2 unassisted, 6 assisted

Good luck to both of you on meeting your goals. :weights:

I think its awesome that you two are workin out together. Keep it up and your strength will return!

IronWorker