Ok, sorry for no updates last couple days. Glad to see my thread blew up without me here!
Rosie Chee - You keep plugging. You are smart and you will figure it out. As someone who shares your stubbornness, and your need to do it your own way, I want share the one thing I TRY to keep in mind but I'm not usually good at. When doing it your own way - if it's not working, make sure you're honest about it to yourself! YOU are the only person you have to answer to. If you are happy doing what you do, then that's what matters. But if you aren't getting the result you want, then step back and figure it out. But you have to realize what you're trying isn't working first, and for me, that is often a difficult step. I'm not saying that what you are doing is or is not working - only you can judge that. If you have pain, I know you're smart enough to figure out the answer to it, just keep trying different things!!
As for the BPC-157, it is well reviewed. You inject it into the injured area, and it heals. There is no pain killing effect, no psychological effect, etc. It isn't like the more you inject the more pain relief you get - so abuse potential is virtually non-existent as mentioned above.
hairygrandpa - you certainly are a character. Don't you know that Old Power lifters shouldn't be doing martial arts?
Today's Update:
Bodyweight: 191.3
Bodyfat %: 25%
My weight has been steadily climbing the last 2 days. It is strange - I did have a small cheat last night - a lemon square (I'm stupid) - but I was under 2,000 calories for the day and probably under 1700 actually. No way I gained 2 pounds since yesterday and 4 pounds in the last 2 days. My water weight is just going crazy.
As far as pain goes and my rest, well, I've cut my rest short and some more strange things have happened. My leg is still showing a little bit of pain, but I think the rolling on the baseball and rest are really helping it. It has been greatly reduced. My foot is feeling better, but after putting pressure on it (like going outside and chopping up some small trees that fell), it hurts mildly and I know it's not ready for running yet. But everything is getting better, slowly.
Now, there was some discussion of doing another "challenge" and I was thinking about this. Improvement isn't something you go out and do once and then you're done - improvement is something that you give to over time and you practice. I like incorporating this into challenges. Not that it isn't fun to see what you can do in one shot; but the challenges of life are long-term, not always one shot.
So, I was thinking that pull-ups are the ONE exercise that seems to impress just about EVERYONE who sees someone doing them. I know it was one of the exercises that I admired seeing others do, and when I saw people making them look easy it inspired me. I've gotten better at them, but I'm still not "good" at them.
Naturally, the idea of a 6-week pull up challenge came to mind. The challenge will be something completely INSANE for many people - but it's not about hitting a number. It's about putting in your best effort and improving, and getting something out of it. It's about getting from where you are today, to some place that you weren't sure you could get to, or maybe didn't believe you could get to.
Then, I had another idea pop into my head - you know how there are people in the gym that ALL they ever train is chest and arms? Yeah, the guys that we normally make fun of because, well, they have no idea what they're doing and can't squat or deadlift. Yeah, like
hairygrandpa - right, you got it. Have you ever noticed that these guys, often times, actually have pretty good chest and biceps development despite the fact they don't know what they're doing, don't squat, don't have a clue? I'd never thought about it before, mainly because I feel squats and deadlifts carry over into real life and are more beneficial than bench presses and barbell curs.
You ever see the studies that show that once you have muscle built, it's easier to gain it back? Or that once you take steroids and build muscle, your muscles will always become bigger more easily?
Well, what if there is some MERIT to training just 1-2 bodyparts exclusively until they get big? Sure, they will get smaller when you stop training them to train another part exclusively, but it will also be easier to make them larger again later.
So, in other words, maybe something like Chest/Triceps being trained EXCLUSIVELY for 2 weeks, then upper back and biceps for 2 weeks, then shoulders and lower back for 2 weeks, then legs for 2 weeks, then a rest period. You completely kill a muscle group in a period, then move on. High volume, high intensity, high frequency. You won't strain your CNS all that much because it's just 2 muscle groups so even though it's "high volume" it's not high-volume for the full body. Then after it is done, that muscle group will have a TON of recovery time before it gets hit again.
This kind of goes against some theories on recovery...I haven't worked out all the details yet in my head. But how does this go with the challenge?
Well, I've been trying to see how often I can do pull ups. Monday night I did this workoug:
Pull ups: 10 sets X BW - reps per set were : 7,5,5,5,5,4,3,4,4,3 = 45 reps
Preacher Cable Curls: 10 sets X 30 pounds: 7,5,5,4,4,3,2,2,3,2 = 37 reps
And last night I did:
Pull ups: 11 sets X BW : 5,2,4,3,3,2,2,2,2,2,1 = 28 reps
EZ Bar Curls: 8 sets X 55: 8,8,7,7,6,5,4,5 = 50 reps
And how does this get back to my injuries? Well, I've been doing this and when I woke up this morning I realized, I had NO pain in my shoulder. It pops and cracks like I can't believe right now still (really sounds like impingement I think) - but suddenly no pain. I've had some periods during the day where it has some weakness and some minor pain, but it's a huge improvement. I was NOT expecting that and expected the pull ups to actually make it worse...
It's only been two days, and my upper back and arms are sore - but they feel like they are swollen/constantly pumped today. It hurts, but I'm going to keep hammering and see what happens....and it isn't quite as sore as I might have thought.
Part of me thinks this is a dumb idea...but you never know unless you try.