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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.
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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.
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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!
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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:
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I think its awesome that you two are workin out together. Keep it up and your strength will return!
IronWorker |
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Anyway... Todays Work: Lil Bear: Squat - 75 5x5, today was the first time she "felt" like there was a big heavy weight on her back. Bench - 45lb bar 5x5, her shoulder still hurts but she wanted to play along and work on form Row - 65 5x5 Dips - 4, 5, 3 Me: Squat - Broom handle 4x5, Better. I have zero muscle strength out of the bottom. I think I'll be working body weight until I can do 5x10 (end of next week?). Atrophy is a mofo. Bench - 110 5x5, focused on form and breathing. Hard to get away from the "in down, out up" habit. Worked hard on maintaining horizontal leg push and strong arch. Made these lifts *very* easy. Row - 110 5x5, Still cake. Dips: 8, 6, 7 - Need to start taking another 20-30 sec on the break between sets 1 & 2 as this has been a consistent pattern. I built a "box" yesterday out of 2x4's and 1x3s 10.5" high to set the bar down on during our rows and Ang's deadlifts. Worked well as it gave us the standard 45lb plate height. Total cost was under $4 and labor < 1 hour. Cheers. |
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Yeah. We work out in a commercial gym so I varnished it to make it look less like something some asswipe threw together in the garage in an hour LOL. I figure they might even let us keep using it. |
Friday July 25
All weights in LBS Lil Bear Squat: 80 5x5 Press: 20 5x5 Dead: 100 1x5 Wide Grip Pulls: 6,4,5 w/ assistance band #2 Me Squat: Broomhandle 5x5 Press 60 5x5 Dead: 175, 1x5 Wide Grip Pulls: 10, 4, 4 w/ assistance band #2 I was completely gassed after the first ten. We had a lot of fun towards the end of this workout playing with the assistance bands. We looked like a bunch of morons trying to figure out how to use them properly and we probably could have done more pullups if we were not laughing so hard while we entertained the entire Gym :) |
Another fun day in the gym. For the first time since my illness I squatted with a barbell. A whopping 20lb one, but a barbell none the less!
Lil Bear: Squat: 85 5x5 STRONG!!!! Bench: 55, 5x5 - She's back in the game, shoulder was fine Row: 75, 5x5 Dips: 5, 3, 4 - not getting to parallel. Bad girl! Me: Squat: 20, 3x5. I am teh lift master! :lame: Bench: 115, 5x5 Easy as a breeze. I think I have form and breathing nice and tight. Row: 115, 5x5 Still strong. Hitting the chest on every rep. Dips: 4, 5, 2 - Form fix. Now elbows above shoulders on every grinding shitty rep. Afterward we introduced some aerobic work in the back yard - fun with sandbags. 2 minutes of log relay (running with logs) for warm up. 1 minute of sandbag shoulders (her 30lb bag, me 50lb bag) 1 minute of sandbag over head toss (both with 30lb) 2 minutes of sandbag relay (she did 2 trips with 30lb, 1 trip with 50lb, 1 trip with 70lb - EPIC lift, like a pocket sized strongman competitor doing an atlas stone. I did 2 trips with 30lb, 2 with 50lb and one with 70lb) 2 minutes of "Collapsed onto grass wheezing" as warm down. We'll be doing this 3x per week after lifting - increasing by 30 seconds every time. |
keep it up guys.
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Long friggin day and a late workout. Lil Bear had some wisdom teeth yanked out in the am, and I found out I need to get an MRI of my brain to see if I have any "growths" lurking. Lil Bear also had a job interview. She was psyched to lift and I just wanted to sit my depressed arse on the couch and feel mopey. She dragged me off to a 9:00pm workout (we are usually early am'ers) and I am glad she did.
Lil Bear: Squat - 90, 5x5 Press - 45, 5x5 Dead - 110, 1x5 Me: Squat: 45, 3x5. Finally used the olympic bar Press: 65, 5x5 Dead: 185, 1x5 (Warmups: 45, 135 x2x5, 175x1x5) We did close grip chins with the middle rubber band but looking at the log we did not write them down apparently (I think she did 10, 7, 6 and I did 8, 6, 4) |
Thats pretty awesome for your squats man! Your strength is coming back quick.
Your wife sounds like an excellent motivator for you. IronWorker |
We have not been lazy in the gym... I've just been lazy on the computer!
Things are going well, we've switched over to Rippetoe's starting strength (the pure form) from stronglift's 5x5. Wife: Squat: 115lbs 3x5 - getting heavy but she is doing great Press: 60lb 3x5 Dead: 120lbs 1x5 Clean: 55 3x5 Bench: 80 3x5 Dips: Still cannot get to parallel, can do about 6 per set without going down all the way Chins: Can do 12 with no 2 assistance band, going to lightest band next workout. Me: Squat: 75lbs 3x5 Press: 80lbs 3x5 Dead: 205lbs 1x5 Clean: 85lbs 3x5, hook grip is messing me up. need to practice. Bench: 140lbs, 3x5 Dips: 5,5,4 I'm hitting parallel every time. Chins: 10-12 on first set, hard decline after that (around 6) with no 2 band. We are having a blast. I'll try to update more frequently! |
Here's another update...
My wife had a hard day today and could not do her 140lbs on the squat (got 4 reps) and had a hard time with 135lbs. I think it was because she was in a rotten mopey mood, but she's decided to drop down to 130lb on wed and then get a solid 135lbs on friday. She's been better at the gym, I was sick last week and slept when I was not working so I fell off the wagon a bit. Back at it today. Today's workout: Wife - Squat - 1x4 (140lbs), 1x5 (135lbs), 1x4 (135lbs) Press - 65lbs 3x5 - she's fixed a few form problems and this looked great today. I know she's been frustrated with presses because they are not going up as fast as she would like. Dead - 145lbs 1x5 Me - Squat - 105lbs 3x5 - My knees are sooo much better, expect to be able to squat at least 2x per week from here on out. Press - 95lbs 3x5 Dead - 235lbs 1x5 I'll update the other lifts on wednesday. |
overhead presses don't progress as fast as other stuff :) tell her to keep her head up :)
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Its true. Usually though the overall % of growth is the same it just seems slow because its a smaller relative number.
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Here is an idea for you guys. Get Power to the People, read that. Then look at Starting Strength and this stronglifts....and split the difference :).
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P2TP looks like an interesting book. Anything with reviews that mixed has to at least be entertaining! I think we'll stick with Rippetoe SS for now. My knees seem to be holding up - actually feeling better, now my ass and legs just hurt! |
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Alrighty then... update Last two workouts... Wife: Squat Wed: 3x5 @ 130lbs, she felt weak. Decided to deload and work on form (knees wanting to come together - we can fix this) Squat Fri: 3x5 @ 115lbs, good. Bench: 3x5@95lbs Press: 3x5@67.5lbs - we are using our fractional plates on this lift and going up 2.5lbs for her Dead: 1x5@150lb - looked great! Clean: 3x5 @70lbs Me: Squat wed: 3x5 @115lbs Squat fri: 3x5@125lbs - did a few good mornings at the top. need to fix monday. Bench: 3x5@150lbs - still very easy Press: 3x5@100lbs. I soooooooooooo want 135! Dead: 1x5@245lbs. This was a bit harder than I expected. But I'll get my 300 soon enough Clean: 3x5@90lbs. I actually hit myself in the nose with the bar :/ on the first rep of set 1. No real damage! |
I thought you were doing the "stronglifts". So your doing the actual SS?
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i bet that hit in the nose hurt. are you dropping into a squat when you do the cleans? i dont see how it can hit your nose unless you have crazy long arms lol
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