Finally visited the surgeon today and have my surgery scheduled for Tuesday at 5:30am.

SSB squats
240 x 3 x 5

Overhead dumbbell press
70 x 3 x 5

One-hand deadlift
135 x 5
185 x 5

SSB squats
300 x 5, 5
310 x 5

One-arm dumbbell press
100 x 2, 4, 8
115 x 5

Dumbbell row
100 x 10
115 x 10, 10, 10

One-arm push-ups
8

One-arm dumbbell press
50 x 20

Hammer curls
50 x 8

One-arm facepulls

Well, it's almost been a week now since I tore my bicep tendon at my strongman show last Saturday. It's been a long 6 days of battling to be seen by a surgeon and dealing with beaurocratic shit accompanying that.

Spirits are strong. As I type this I'm doing my first workout since the injury. It is a rainy Friday night and I had some drinks at work with the plumbers before declining a strip club invitation to come home and lift. I'm making do with what I can in a sling. I've fooled around with different things seeing what my limits are. To my great pleasure I'm able to load 45 lb plates with both hands, if I'm careful. I've done 240 on the SSB (ridiculously enough my left knee started hurting a little) and repped a 50 lb dumbbell overhead for various sets. I just tried a 80 and couldn't get more than 2. I have to keep my right side relaxed and this no doubt messes with my force output, plus I've just gotten weaker overall. Done several sets of 100 lb dumbbell rows bent over very easily, as well.

It feels good to force myself to record this. This will be my springboard back up.

Real-time update: okay, just overhead pressed the 80 with my good arm for 5 reps this time after tensing up more. Last rep had a little leg drive.

Finishing up now just a little past 11 with 13 reps of the 50 and curling that same weight. It feels a little sad to be working out one side and leaving the other guy behind, but when my right is ready the stronger section will be ready to "guide" it back just from doing bilateral stuff so that's comforting to think about.

Left shoulder has been hurting for about a week now, but it's getting better. I've been careful with it during training.

Bench press
240 x 5
275 x 5
312 x 3
240 x 12

Pull-ups
15, 15

Axle press (continental clean first rep)
150 x 9, 10, 9
Clean twice: x 8

Chin-ups
45 x 10, 10
90 x 9, 10

Facepulls, external rotator cable press, curls

Running today. Three hill sprints and a 15 minute jog afterwards. Sore feet bones from Muay Thai didn't give me any problems. Back has been hurting lately so I've been making time to do some yoga every day.

Good news. I went to Home Depot and made an axle. I plan on cramming for continental cleans before my contest on the 18th. It was kind of weird because the sizes for regular galvanized pipes were different from conduit electrical galvanized, the latter of which I went with. Some mislabeling or something going on.

Yes, I should have done this a long ass time ago.

Muay Thai tonight. Practiced kicking with the lead left which I am awful at and have almost never practiced on my own. As a result I kept landing wrong, particularly on the shield my partner was holding, and it made my foot hurt again. This is the reason why I'm not doing Muay Thai more than once a week right now; my feet need to heal after every session.

My push kicks, on the other hand, are pretty good. I can whip them out better than a lot of people in class that I noticed and I did well on the speed sessions that we did. I used to have a problem with my left hip clicking whenever I'd push kick on that side but it doesn't occur anymore. I noticed that the coach starts his kick out with a much straighter leg than I do and extending at the hip, so getting rid of the chamber is something I will work on. I will also be practicing left kicks in my spare time because that shit was just embarrassing.

Deload

Squat
200 x 5
250 x 5
300 x 5

250 x 10, 10, 10

Deload

Bench press
145 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5

Pull-ups
12

Strict press (clean at start)
135 x 8, 10, 10

Chin-ups
12
45 x 10, 10

Boxing tonight was pretty brutal. I should mention that this is specifically a sparring class, which explains the lack of bag or mitt work that I assume the regular boxing class on Mondays has. I really want to try to get to that but my work schedule conflicts.

Everyone I sparred tonight was going pretty hard and I gassed out by the 4th opponent, although my recovery time is quick and I bounced back within the 60 second break between rounds. Since I got way more tired than last time my form suffered and I received more advice as a result. Stupid stuff like not keeping my eyes up when bobbing and weaving, and my stance being too square in front of the opponent. I took a lot of hits and my nose was sore before long, but I landed my own share on everyone and kept throwing in a competitive fashion. I'm in good enough shape that I can force activity even when I THINK I'm dead tired.

After class ended one of my sparring partners, a tall Russian kid named Salva, asked if I wanted to go some extra rounds. This got interrupted when another opponent stopped me to get lifting advice as Salva was momentarily away. He was currently doing no resistance training and I gave him some of my ideas on how to work lifting into his schedule.

So Salva and I go at it and I feel like death at this point, but make sure not to let anyone know it. He's the only guy in class taller than my 6'0 and his reach is giving me problems, so I mentally regroup and focus on pressuring him by moving forward more. In my mind, I'm thinking Cain Velasquez. This works brilliantly and I'm tagging him more (while also getting tagged myself from fatigue). At one point, someone gives us pointers between rounds and says I'm doing what I need to do so he needs to use his reach and move laterally more. We go five rounds and by the end of it he was mostly defense.

My nose hurts and despite my mouth guard I bit my tongue on one occasion. I feel great.

Deload

Mat pulls (5)
505 x 2, 0, 1
Had trouble "turning on" today and kept failing a third.

SSB box squats
240 x 3 x 9