bruno

I've been wanting to start a journal for awhile now but I have not been training for the past 6 weeks due to injury so it didn't make sense. I got back in the gym for the first time again yesterday and I'm ready to get after it. The past few months have been incredibly frustrating becasue I have had a whole bunch of injuries (I was having back trouble, then broke a rib, then hurt my neck) but I am hoping it is going to be uphill from here. I am easing back into it really slowly but it feels really good to be back to training. I have been working with Skip for the past five weeks, and iwhile it sucked to not be able to train, I am thankful to have had his help because I not lost any weight and normally when I take time off my weight plummets. I am really excited to be working with him now that I can train and hope to make some good progress.

I am starting now at 5'8" 163 lbs. In October 2005 I had a back surgery that didn't go well and I was out of comission for awhile. My weight hit a low of 122 lbs. (down from 140) in March 2006 and it is has been a struggle upward since then. I have set myself back a lot by trying to push things too hard too fast, which has led to a lot of injuries. I am trying to learn how to be smart about my training, differentiating between hard work and stupidity, lol.

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cr1k3y

Right on, good luck fella!

bigchino

Right on bro. I'm sure the Skipper will have you going in the right direction.

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This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,
but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight," declares the LORD.
--Jeremiah 9:23-24

JESUS IS LORD!

AChoi

Glad you started a journal bro! Good luck my man. I'll shoot you a PM later, I want to maybe chat with you about Columbia for awhile.

take it easy

iron05

Good stuff man smart move to get with Skip.

Goodluck with everything and i'll be keepin' tabs stopping by here for sure.

How's the back feeling now? Can you row, dead, etc.?

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bruno

Appreciate it man

yea I think so. he's the man

thanks dude. yea hit me up

Hey man thanks. My back is ok for the most part but it still acts up a lot. They operated at L5-S1 but they fucked it up and caused some damage to the sciatic nerve. If I manage it well it is okay. My problem is that I am stubborn and do things I shouldn't, like deads. I have the mentality that you can't get a good back without deads and have done them a lot, but they have made my back a lot worse. I am not going to do deadlifts from the floor anymore. I am still going to try to do rack pulls but to be honest I think I am better off not doing those either.

Skip told me something that really resonated with me. Deadlifts are great and will aid greatly in back development, but not if they hurt your back and force you out of the gym altogether. It should be common sense but like I said, I can be an idiot lol.

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iron05

i understand where ure coming from there bro.

but good call i would heed that advice definitely.

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bruno

So I did legs yesterday and I am ridiculously sore today. I didn't do anything crazy as I am really easing back into things, but I guess just being out for 6 weeks will do that do you. I took a lot of weight off from what I normally do, but the weights still felt really heavy. The next couple workouts I am just trying a bunch of different exercises to see what aggravates my neck.

I am not going to be doing DC. I am still going to do pretty low volume but I don't have a strict plan as far as which exercises I do on a particular day. I am going to switch exercises and try to beat my previous performance every time I repeat an exercise, whether than is a week later or a month later. I am also probably going to be training traps and low back directly directly since I won't be doing deads.

Yesterday I did
3/2/08

Hamstrings
Lying leg curls- bunch of warmups then 150x12 for 2 sets
Seated Leg curls 2x140x11
Dumbell Leg Curl- 2x30x11 (Stopped due to headache)

Quads
Smith Machine Front Squats- bunch of warmups then 2x185x10, 225x4 (strength is way down--this was heavy and backed off due to headache), 135x15
Hammer Strength Hack Squat- 2 plates a sidex11 for 2 sets, 1 plate x 20 (felt like a pussy on these but didn't want to push it-slight headache again)

Add/Abductor and calves too

The weights were embarrasing but I am so happy that the pain wasn't too bad. I chose exercises that didn't involve pressure on the head and neck, so no leg press and back squats of any form. I made sure to pay attention to my form because I think I was getting pretty sloppy before.

Today I did Back and Biceps. It went ok as far as pain. It felt damn heavy though.
Hammer Strength Pulldowns 180x19rp after bunch of warmups
I normally do chins or rack chins but I didn't want to today just to test the headches
Rack Pulls- 315x5, 275x8 Good these were heavy. My weights have gone down a lot.
I probably shouldn't have done the rack pulls today. I felt a lot of strain in my neck and my back hurt. I have to be better about easing back into this
Hammer Rows-180x19rp
Seated cable rows- 130x21rp
For biceps did alternating dumbell curls, machine preacher curls, and pinwheels, 1 set each, followed by stretch.

I am going to stop rack pulls for awhile. I was just trying to mess around and see which exercises I am going to be able to do. I'm already sore so that's a good sign.

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slide

Nah, not a pussy--smart training. Glad you started a log, Bruno. Good luck with the training and Skip is one of the main reasons for my progress. Best of luck, bro.

-slide

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bruno

Thanks slide (I still think that slideys and moistys thing is hilarious)

Tommorrow is a non-lifting day. My legs are really sore from yesterday and my lats are already feeling this mornings workout pretty good, so tomorrow should be fun. I used a lot less weight than normal but I guess that's what I lot of time off will do to you. It should be nice tomorrow becasue I have no classes and just have one quick thing at work in the morning then i'm done, so it's kind of like a long weekend. I'll be lifting Saturday I think but other than that, nothing. I'm looking forward to the final four on Saturday, should be a good one.

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I've got a propostion. When you place your order at trueprotein.com, use BNB559 in the discount code box and save 5% on your order. If you do, I'll be your best friend. Now that's what I'm talking about.

ScottMcDonough

Hey Bruno does this mean no working with Doug anytime soon?

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bruno

Actually Doug told me he couldn't work with me anymore. he was going to Nepal for 5 weeks and told me it wasn't going to happen.

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I've got a propostion. When you place your order at trueprotein.com, use BNB559 in the discount code box and save 5% on your order. If you do, I'll be your best friend. Now that's what I'm talking about.

fightingtiger

Yeah, whats up with Doug?

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bruno

What do you mean?

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I've got a propostion. When you place your order at trueprotein.com, use BNB559 in the discount code box and save 5% on your order. If you do, I'll be your best friend. Now that's what I'm talking about.

breck

Hey bruno, good to see you are feeling better. just take it slow and be careful and pbey skips every word. good things ahead for you i am sure of it. oh and good workouts after being MIA for a while.

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thenatural

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trucelt

hey bruno-
i had surgery on L5-s1 so go easy better to go slow and be able to walk in 10 years then get a HUGE DEAD then blow another disk and have to go under the knife

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jstout

Bruno, man, as supportive as you've been to me and to practically everyone else on here you know I'm gonna wish you nothin' but the best with your training. I wish I could help you with something, but I don't know much anyhoo.

I'd love to be able to work with Skip just to learn stuff from him - that's gotta be an awesome experience.

You'll get everything dialed in and be kicking ass in no time.

eryanb

Hey man. Sorry to hear about your set backs, but you already look really ripped and for just getting back again your workouts are strong.

Curious how you hurt your back in the first place?

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bruno

Thanks for stopping by everyone
The natural- Those commercials are hilarious, lmao.

Thanks breck. Yea I'm definitely listening to Skip. he knows his stuff.

Hey man you're definitely right. It's one of those things that i know I shouldn't do but then I worry I'm being a pussy and I hear so much that you can't build a good back without deads, blah bla blah. Obviously they are a great exercise, but like you said, not if they are going to cause me problems.

Thanks for the encouragment man. I am sorry to hear things aren't going too well for you right now. Hang in there.

Thanks Ryan. There is not any one incident that really hurt my back. I have had problems my whole life. I was born with low grade spina bifida and my sacrum and bottom vertabrae are sacralized, which based means that they are connected. My bottom vertabare doesn't flex fully like a normal spine, so I have limited flexibilty there. It has flared up on me a lot and sometimes seemingly without cause. The surgery made it worse actually becasue of the subsequent nerve pain and sciatica, but my back, though not good, is better than it has been in a long time. It sucks, but I acutally feel lucky because the treatments are far better than they used to be. My mom was born with the same problem and she to be home schooled as a child because they didn't know how to treat it so she had to lay on a cot all the time. I have been lucky enough to be able to do most things my whole life. I just have to be careful.

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I've got a propostion. When you place your order at trueprotein.com, use BNB559 in the discount code box and save 5% on your order. If you do, I'll be your best friend. Now that's what I'm talking about.

bruno

I woke up this morning feeling so good, so sore. My legs are wrecked from Wednesday and my back and biceps are screaming. I have never really been this sore but I guess that's what happens after a layoff. It's great.

No training today and not much of anything really. I have been sleeping like crap lately and it's starting to piss me off. The have woken up at or before 4 o'oclock everyday for the past two weeks and I don't know why. I've always an early riser but I used to go to bed earlier. I fall asleep fine but I wake up so early and can't go back to sleep. Any suggestions?

Tonight should be fun because a couple people over to play poker. I play a lot and recently I've been on a hot streak so I'm hoping that continues. It's a small game with a 20-40 dollar buy in but it's a lot of fun and normally most of the people get pretty hammered so it's prety easy lol. Tomorrow I'm doing chest, shoulders and triceps and I am trying to figure out which excercises I will be able to do with my neck. My doctor told me not to lift anything over my head, and Skip suggested I don't do anything lying down at first because of the headaches, so that is going to make this workout tricky. I am thinking hammer inclines will work for chest since it's upright. Shoulders could be tricky with overhead pressing, so I might just do some side laterals, and for triceps, I'm thinking Hammer Strength Dips and maybe some pushdowns. I'm hoping it feels okay and I will gradually add more exercises.

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I've got a propostion. When you place your order at trueprotein.com, use BNB559 in the discount code box and save 5% on your order. If you do, I'll be your best friend. Now that's what I'm talking about.

bruno

It's still early but I feel like today is going to be a good day. Trained chest, shoulders, and triceps this morning and it went a lot better than I expected. I was wondering how it would go with my neck, and also I only slept 4 hours last night because I woke up at 4am for no reason. I had no pain in my neck or head at all. My weights were way down but I'm ok with that because I am confident they will come up fast, or at least I hope so.

Hammer Strength Incline- 160x19rp
Incline Dumbell Bench- 50x12
Dumbell Shoulder Press- 30x24rp
Upright Rows- 55x20
Hammer Strength Dips- 230x17rp
Standing Extensions- 2x40x9

I used considerably less weight than normal on my shoulder exercises because I was trying to be really cautious about my neck, but honestly even the light weight was pretty hard.

My chest and shoulders have always been my weakest body parts. I dont mean in terms of size or anything, just strength. They are weak compared to my other lifts, but oh well. I think it might be because when I first started lifting it was for skiing and I really only trained legs. The weights felt really again today but i felt good afterward. I used slower, more controlled reps than normal I like how it felt. If I can figure out how to get videos on You Tube I am going to try to get someone at the gym to film my lifts. I struggle sometimes thinking that I should hit my chest and shoulders harder, with more sets and stuff to get my strength up, but when I have done that in the past it has been counterproductive. I'm just focusing on trying to get stronger each workout.

I was literally the only in the gym this morning which was a little weird. It's a 24 hour gym with keycard access so there's no staff, and since I haven't been able to sleep I was in there at about 5:00. I thought I wouldn't like it but it was acutally kind of cool to have the place to myself. I was ripping some serious farts so it was proably for the best lol.

I also did abs at the end of the workout. I have been bad about doing abs but I am going to try to be better with that. I am thinking I will do them after my chest workout as this is my shortest workout, but we'll see how it goes. I know I should be doing them for my back and everything, it's just one of those things I hate doing.

Tomorrow is another off day, and I am sceduled to train legs again on Monday, but I am going to have to see how I feel then because my legs are still ridiculously sore. I think it will take a few weeks to get back in the groove. It feels really good to be back in a good routine. My weight jumped up a couple pounds to 165 and I feel a lot better about things, besides being sore as hell.

I am looking forward to the Final Four Games tonight. If Kansas and UCLA win I think I have a good shot to win the IM pool. Either way, I love watching the games and this has been an awesome tournament so far.

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I've got a propostion. When you place your order at trueprotein.com, use BNB559 in the discount code box and save 5% on your order. If you do, I'll be your best friend. Now that's what I'm talking about.

ScottMcDonough