Had a decent week last week until the last 2 reps of the last set of the day on squats where I felt my glute/back freeze again

I stretched off and booked back into the physio who I saw today but managed to do upper body yesterday at full program and then today did 25 mins cycle and some dynamic stretching followed by hip flexors, double kettle ball squats, calf raises and leg extensions before a warm down.

Hayley my physio thinks I may have had an underlying back issue which is now causing the problems and she manipulated me again and told me to switch Dead Lifts to the upper body day so that they are not super setted with squats and for the next 2 weeks work on 60% of what I was doing previously on those 2 exercises so hopefully this works.

She checked my form for both exercises whilst I was there and couldn't see any issue there so at least it's not something I have done.

Sounds like a physio to stick with there mate. There's so many of them that don't really understand people who lift so they just tell you to stay away from the gym not realising that you can't

A physio who gets the mentality will tell you what to change and it sounds like that's what Hayley has done. One thing's for sure you'll know that if she says you have to rest you'll know she really means it!!

I went through a spell where this glute freeze would happen to me on occasion so I know what you're going through. The main thing I'd recommend is plenty of stretching that focuses on the hamstrings as the link between them and your glutes is immense. Also if you can just do the stretch part of a calf raise that will help. I've got a very good lower body stretch routine that I use if you want me to send it to you. Only problem is it's 25 minutes but I now do it 4 or 5 times a week and I've been injury free in my lower body for months.

I'd try to avoid calf raises and more importantly leg extensions until you're fully recovered as well. They both really focus on contraction whereas it's stretching you need to be doing. Romanian deadlift or even light stiff leg deadlift would be much better for helping with that flexibility. Also nice deep squats will develop your calves and quads as well as any number of calf raises or leg raises whilst at the same time getting a much better stretch.

You say it's not something you've done but I can almost guarantee it wouldn't have happened if you'd not been at the gym so in reality it is. Actually it's more likely something you've not done because you're too tight to be doing the exercises you're currently doing.

What does you warm down involve by the way? I'd say it should just be more stretching of your lower body whilst you've got this ongoing glute issue.

Yeah she is really good imo and used to be a physio at the Southend Football club looking after the academy players as well as a dance school so most of her stuff is lower body and I have been really happy to have her this past few weeks.

If you could send it to me I would be grateful thanks Matt and the time is not an issue as I'm at the gym at 5.50 so have enough time to crack through it and be home by 7.15 as I only live 5 mins walk to the gym.

When I meant it's not something I have done obv it is something I have done but whilst doing something positive.  The warm down is stretching of all the muscle groups that I have used on a mat in the cardio area and since this injury my glutes have never been stretched so much.

Thanks for your input and info though mate it's much appreciated.

Had a decent week last week until the last 2 reps of the last set of the day on squats where I felt my glute/back freeze again

I stretched off and booked back into the physio who I saw today but managed to do upper body yesterday at full program and then today did 25 mins cycle and some dynamic stretching followed by hip flexors, double kettle ball squats, calf raises and leg extensions before a warm down.

Hayley my physio thinks I may have had an underlying back issue which is now causing the problems and she manipulated me again and told me to switch Dead Lifts to the upper body day so that they are not super setted with squats and for the next 2 weeks work on 60% of what I was doing previously on those 2 exercises so hopefully this works.

She checked my form for both exercises whilst I was there and couldn't see any issue there so at least it's not something I have done.

I'll be in for a £10. If Mere can send his bank deets. Or if anyone else can pass them onto me if he is offline. Cheers!

Sent you a pm with the deets bud

Legs day today and having had a longer than normal warm up with some adductor and glute stretches in as well before commencing the same workout but leaving out the single leg reverse lunges from a platform as prescribed for a week or so.

Despite the range of movement being slightly modified by manipulation last week I felt good so kept the weights the same and completed each exercise in good form adding in leg extension having left out the lunge. I finished with a 10 minute warm down and stretch before walking home.

I did a spot check on my eating yesterday as bar the odd day where meetings or real life get in the way this is pretty much routine for me now and prior to commencing this program Harvey (iRaise) had looked at what activity I do outside of training so for me thats walking the dog, a 1.5mile walk to and from school 5 days per week twice per day and a sedentary job and advised that I should eat 2200 cals, 220g carbs, 155g protein, 75g fats so yesterday this was what I ate
5.35am prior to training - 2 slices of brioche bread (on its own) with a double shot of coffee
7.15am as I get in from training - tin of tuna
8.15am - breakfast with the kids of a mini chocolate brioche
11am - 27g porridge oats and 180ml organic skimmed milk
2pm - Sweet Potato with turkey breast and beetroot and 2 sticks of celery
5pm - 80g basmati white rice with roasted chicken breast
6pm succumb to a fig roll
9.15pm 27g porridge with 180ml organic skimmed milk and banana sliced in

The totals for this day were
1982 cals
150g protein
237g carb
39g fat

So I was slightly over in carbs and well under on fat missing protein also by a smidge.
I'm happy for any advice or comments but this sits well with my routine and also the families eating as well so wouldnt want to change too much.

Thanks for the advice guys with the foam rollers and cricket ball which are being ordered today.

I woke up well this morning and although a bit cold/snotty went for my upper body day and whether it is down to a 9.30pm boost of porridge which I read was good for restocking muscles with glycogen and meaning you wake up feeling fresh or just in my head I'm not sure but on the mornings I am due to train I have been having it for a week and wake up feeling strong and ready to go.

Today which is week 2 having had a disjointed week last week I moved up weights on 2 of the excercises (Barbell BP and Bent over BB row) and also added another dip to the numbers so am now at 4x6 so am confident I will be at 4 x 8 minimum by the end of the next 3 weeks injury prevailing.

I'm having a spot check on my food today as am in a pretty consistent routine so will post later what I eat and the numbers involved for perusal/assessment.

Was still a bit sore yesterday which I suppose is understandable after manipulation but felt a lot better today so went and did upper body day and thankfully got through it with no pain during or after and maintained the weight I was at previously too.

I will do a slightly lighter version of legs day tomorrow and as above have been advised to leave out the single leg stuff for a week so will leave the reverse lunges off a platform for 10days.

If tomorrow goes well then I will be straight back into the programme next Tuesday.

So this week has been a bit wank tbh, I was in pain with movement such as getting out of bed or standing up off a chair etc so booked to see a physio and just rested up as much as I could but didnt get down and stuff my face

Last night I saw the physio and she told me i had tweaked my glute and boy could I see where as she forced her elbow into the area to break down the tissue and also as I had probably done this whilst doing deep squats my adductor had taken over and also was tight as it compensated for the glute weakness which explained the dull ache I had constantly in my right groin.

She was really good tbh and well worth the £45 and having analysed me she noticed my hips were ool so worked on that as well although as she has now "fixed" that part she said I will be weaker in the legs exercises as I will lift through a different range of motion.

Luckily she said to get back on the horse and told me I can go back to upper body today as I would be doing normally and then can do the same session for legs that I would normally do but need to miss out any single leg exercises so have to skip reverse platform lunges as part of the starting tri set until I see her next week.

I'm pretty happy that it's nothing worse than that and that I can resume one week behind and I'm not beating myself up as it's the first week of missed sessions this year so hopefully wont lose too much of the Big Mo.....

For anyone who wants to see how the competition works, here is last year's thread:

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=65269.0


It was a very close run thing with lots of lead change last year. Let's hope for something similar this year.

The Cream always rises, as per last year!

In

Great honesty mate and that's what makes these blogs/diaries readable imo whether it's real life or people are winning chunks or knocking it in.

Keep it up and enjoy pal.

Great work Matt on catching back up!

I was having a good week both eating and training wise but have felt a twinge in the lower right part of my back since Saturday (second legs day of week) which is painful down through my right bollock and top of the groin

I'm not normally injury/illness prone so am going to have to monitor and it may be that legs day is brutal as we do a tri set of reverse lunges from a step > hip thrusters > double kettleball squat swings for 4x8 with a minutes rest after each tri set into Romanian DL 4x8 then BB Back Squat 4x8 and I wonder if it's 2x compression exercises that has tweaked something? It's unlikely to be the weight as I'm pretty shattered by the time I get to D/L and Squat so am doing 60kg and 70kg respectively so no world records obv.

Upper body has gone well and I am happy with improvements there but just dont want any med/long term injury scuppering what I have achieved so far.

Will have to see how I feel after upper body tomorrow.

Do you stretch after this leg workout? You should be doing at least ten minutes stretching after something this tough.

The pain you describe sounds like tight glute or hip flexor to me. If you press your thumb in about three to four inches back from your hip bone just over the glute you might feel it ease off a bit. If you do then it's hip flexor and you need to get a hard ball and start rolling round on it in that spot. Also get rolling around on your glute because that's almost definitely tight anyway.

I do a 5 min maintenance stretch of the major muscle groups I have worked after each session to relax those groups as have always been brought up with stretching through football and training.

I think you have my pain about right and will it felt a bit easier this morning but I decided to give it one more day and miss today's session so will do Weds/Thurs Sat/Sun and have found a ball as you say and so will use it during the day to try and break it down.  Thanks for the diagnosis Dr Evil

We have life insurance to cover us for the 2 mortgages we have and then also a critical illness policy for me and then we took out family income benefit for each child to the tune of £25k per child up until they would turn 21 which pays out the level sum each year on the anniversary of one or both of our deaths and basically means whoever would be looking after our children should we both pass at the same time but if we passed when Max was say 19 it would only pay for 2 years in his case and 4 in Ivy's but doesnt financially burden who we have decided would look after the children in this event and also means if something happened to just one of us the other would be mortgage free and have an amount of money that doesnt put pressure on them without changing the kids lifestyle.

I'm never too sure about the critical illness policies these days. Years ago they were brilliant but then there were a lot of people who got paid and didn't die which the insurers obviously didn't like. It was almost worth having a ball lopped off or a slightly dicky ticker to get your mortgage paid off.....

These days from what I can see it has to be absolute curtains or you don't get paid in which case I can't understand the increased premium they command. Yes it gives you security in your final few months but you wouldn't want to go blowing the lot in your final days and then leave the family skint anyway.

Actually when I read back my post I realized it wasn't critical illness but Income replacement that we had got for me as I am the main breadwinner and from what my adviser said was better for the reasons you state than a critical illness policy.

We have life insurance to cover us for the 2 mortgages we have and then also a critical illness policy for me and then we took out family income benefit for each child to the tune of £25k per child up until they would turn 21 which pays out the level sum each year on the anniversary of one or both of our deaths and basically means whoever would be looking after our children should we both pass at the same time but if we passed when Max was say 19 it would only pay for 2 years in his case and 4 in Ivy's but doesnt financially burden who we have decided would look after the children in this event and also means if something happened to just one of us the other would be mortgage free and have an amount of money that doesnt put pressure on them without changing the kids lifestyle.

I'm happy to just spin onto the next one pal

Great work Matt on catching back up!

I was having a good week both eating and training wise but have felt a twinge in the lower right part of my back since Saturday (second legs day of week) which is painful down through my right bollock and top of the groin

I'm not normally injury/illness prone so am going to have to monitor and it may be that legs day is brutal as we do a tri set of reverse lunges from a step > hip thrusters > double kettleball squat swings for 4x8 with a minutes rest after each tri set into Romanian DL 4x8 then BB Back Squat 4x8 and I wonder if it's 2x compression exercises that has tweaked something? It's unlikely to be the weight as I'm pretty shattered by the time I get to D/L and Squat so am doing 60kg and 70kg respectively so no world records obv.

Upper body has gone well and I am happy with improvements there but just dont want any med/long term injury scuppering what I have achieved so far.

Will have to see how I feel after upper body tomorrow.

Incred rant! Is JC, Arbboys second "Stella" account on here?