TweetTuesday

Side lateral raise 4 sets
Reverse peck deck 4 sets
Peck deck 4 sets
Decline hammer strength 4 sets (last set was drop set)
Facepull superset w/ incline press sort of 3 sets
Rope extensions 5 sets

I'm getting tired of this workout haha. I wish I could bench and overhead press but the pain is still there. I don't really feel it during the day anymore or during other movements but doing the incline press was extremely light weight and I could feel the pain. Other than that though it was a good workout. I forgot what my mark was on the decline press from last week so I just threw on a ton of weight and didn't get it the first time. Rested a minute and tried again, got about 2 reps and that's why I did a drop. Hammer strength isn't exactly the thing I should be maxing out on but it felt good to really push some heavy weights around.

TweetWednesday

Basketball

Had so much fun playing last night. My ankle felt so much better than it has. I think getting sick was kind of a blessing because it forced me to stay off my ankle for a few days which seemed to have help. I was moving around a lot more fluently which allowed me to get rebounds and steals that a few weeks ago I just wouldn't have been able to get to. It did hurt here and there but nothing serious and went away quickly. It's tight this morning but nothing like the same pain from just a few weeks ago.

TweetThursday

Battle ropes 6 sets
Kettlebell swings 4 sets
Medicine ball slams 3 sets
Wall balls 4 sets
Farmers walks 4 sets (3 sets of a drop set style)
Seated calve raise 3 sets
Lat pull down 3 sets

After last week I really enjoyed doing this style of training, like a conditioning with weight included instead of bodybuilding type workout so I went with it. I also went this way because my ankle was a little achy after basketball, nothing major but I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry so I didn't want to deadlift or squat. I had a lot of fun doing this workout. At first I was going really quick between sets but as the workout went on I started to slow down. Might stay with this style for my Thursday workouts moving forward but I'm still up in the air about it.

TweetI haven't posted in a bit, the holidays kind of got the best of me.

I did workout, I played basketball multiple times. I even skipped a gym workout to go to the gym I play basketball at to get in a shooting and dribbling workout just for some fun. The workouts I did were kind of a recovery workout because of how I felt.

Ankle is improving each day and really only gets sore now after a night of basketball. I'm still having issues with sleeping and my quad still gets numb in the middle of the night. I've been really paying attention to stretching and recovery to solve the issue but to this point nothing has solved the issue but I do feel like it's helping.

I did start supplementing with Forged Joint support but nothing really new or fun in terms of supplements however I have some sustain alpha coming soon along with another joint supplement.

As i'm feeling better I got injuried again this past sunday at basketball of course. The ball was being knocked around and I got low to get the ball and someone ran into my head/neck and gave me what I'm calling a stinger. My left arm went numb for a like 5 minutes, my thumb and index finger remained numb for an hour or so. Now i'm just sore in my left trap muscle for the last 5 days. I've played ball since then but my left arm almost felt dead, not sure what I can do to fix it other than letting it be and recover on its own.

TweetFriday

Arms

Decided to go to the gym since I feel like I was slacking. Did a quick arms workout which wasn't bad but moved quickly. What I wanted to do for the new year is get back into jumping rope so I started back with that Friday. A bit rusty but my ankle didn't really hurt while doing it however I did feel the ankle wasn't as explosive yet as I'd like.

Saturday

A bit of everything

Since I did arms on Friday I went into Saturday to try and do a bit of everything which was cool. I focused mainly on back I guess since I did a few posture exercises but I threw in some chest and some legs for good measure as well. I also did a decent amount of conditioning work too. I want to get back to doing that on Saturdays too, I have been but I feel I slacked off after the ankle injury and it's time to get back to that.

Sunday

Basketball

I'm moving a lot better, I played a whole game with no ankle pain. I thought I may have felt it a bit but a minute later everything was back to normal. The only problem was my shoulder still from the stinger. I did notice my legs getting tired towards the end but that could be lack of sleep or a sign that I need to be better with my conditioning but all in all it was a really good game.

TweetYEAH!!!! Keep playing!

TweetMonday

Squat superset w/ pull ups 4 sets
T bar row superset w/ standing calve raise 4 sets
Leg press superset w/ wide grip lat 4 sets

Jump rope superset w/ straight bar pull down 3 sets
Jump rope

Back to a somewhat normal workout. Took me awhile to get to the gym, we got some ice and ppl don't know how to drive. That's why I did some supersets, when I got to the gym I was so ready to go and already felt behind. The first practice set of squats, haha wow, my legs just did not feel like they wanted to work. But everything got better as I went. I was thinking I should of did more squats and pull ups but didn't really want to push it. The workout was enjoyable and I'm happy to be able to do get back to some kind of normal routine.

TweetTuesday

Side lateral raise 4 sets
Reverse peck deck 4 sets
Peck Deck 4 sets
Decline Hammer strength 4 sets
Cable side raise superset w/ bench press 4 sets
Facepull superset w/ fly machine 3 sets

I was wondering how my shoulder would feel. The back of my shoulder still hurts from getting ran into which is to be expected but after this time I was hoping the front of my shoulder would be good to bench and overhead press. So I went in an did what I normally do and to really make sure was warm and blood was in the muscle. By the time I got to the bench I felt ready, I wasn't. It still caused pain, not nearly as much but I do not want to push it so even a little discomfort imo was not worth it. I'm glad it's better but mad that it's not back to normal yet. The workout overall went well, enjoyed being in the gym again which is always a plus.

TweetWednesday

Basketball

Wasn't sure if we were going to play, got a late text that we may not have enough. We ended up scrapping together enough even though the one guy quit after the first game. He's not bad and knows the game, he coaches for my high school but he's super out of shape. Anyway we ended with 4 on 4 for most of the night but the court is smaller so it was fine, I also ran more than if it was 5 on 5 which was good. Overall it was a really good night.

TweetThursday

Battle ropes 6 sets
Kettlebell swings 4 sets
Farmers carry 4 sets (last set a drop set)
Wall balls 3 sets
Facepull superset w/ ball slams 3 sets

Jump rope superset w/ seated high cable row 3 sets
Jump rope superset w/ roman chair leg raise 3 sets

As I've been doing I used Thursday as like an all around style workout. It's on the side of conditioning but there is still strength involved, I'm not doing straight cardio but to say the battle ropes don't get the heartrate up would be wrong. By the end of the 6 sets I was already sweating and had a decent upper body pump. I never really posted my goals for 2019 but one of them is move more than I've been which includes days of training like this, jumping rope and just being more active. I think it's just because for the last few months on the ankle I feel like I've been a little less mobile than I should be even though I have been playing basketball and working out.

The main problem I'm having right now is sleep. I fall asleep at night for like 20 minutes then I'm up for a few hours. This isn't by choice, I'm closing my eyes a good 8 hours before I need to work out but it's just not working. I've never had these issues, I mean everyone has a night or so of restless sleep but this is going on weeks. This weekend I'm going to look to get some stuff to help me sleep better, possibly spin my mattress. About a month ago I took my mattress off and tightened all the bolts on the bed but they already feel loose so I may try and do that again. Needless to say I'm a zombie this morning.

TweetSaturday

DB curl superset w/ low cable behind head extension 4 sets
Ez curl curl superset w/ underhand extension 4 sets
DB hammer curl superset w/ BW dip 4 sets

Conditioning work: jump rope, high step toe tap, medicine ball dribble, facepull

The workout was really solid except for the dips but they were still better than I could of thought. I tried them at the end just to see how my shoulder would feel. It felt pretty good but I couldn't get all the way down because that's when the pain would hit. I had a nice pump going and the conditioning work wasn't too bad either. All in all it was a good workout.

Sunday

Basketball

We ended up with 14 guys show up which is too many, 10 is what we need 12 isn't bad but 14 makes subbing a pain. However I think because we had to sub more often it made the game much faster, towards the end I was winded, my legs were tired, and I had a giant blood blister on my one toe. I'm actually sore this morning from playing which doesn't usually happen much anymore, my chest hurts, my legs and glutes are sore. I guess the run was better than I even thought. My ankle hasn't been an issue and I dropped the brace with the plastic side panels in it to a regular compression sleeve. So I feel like I'm making moves in the right direction there.

Now if I could just get the sleep thing in order I'd be golden.

TweetMonday

Deadlift 5 sets
Leg press 4 sets
Standing calve raise superset w/ t bar row 4 sets
Hanging back extension superset w/ hanging lat stretch 3 sets

Haven't deadlifted in felt like forever and it went well. I didn't go really heavy but I tested myself, the form felt spot on which I was happy about and the movement was smooth. After that though the weight felt heavy, leg press was really heavy even on weight I'm somewhat used to moving. T bar row also felt pretty heavy. The calve raises though felt amazing, not in terms of bodybuilding and a pump or anything but I think my calves were tight from basketball and as I was doing them it just felt like therapy for my calves haha.

I've been stretching every night now for awhile but last night I did a lot for my hips and lower back to help get rid of this leg pain. Hopefully it works, I slept a little better last night but it could be more so that I was just exhausted.

TweetTuesday

Side lateral raise 4 sets
Reverse peck deck 4 sets
Peck deck 4 sets
Hammer strength press 4 sets
Hammer strength press superset w/ db high row 3 sets
Facepull 3 sets

Stretched out lower back on a hyper extension

Back to the same old chest/shoulder routine. This time though I've upgraded from the decline hammer strength to the regular one which is a step up imo. The regular machine was giving me problems but I was able to use it yesterday with very little discomfort. I did 4 normal sets but on the next three I dropped the seat pretty low in hopes of hitting my upper chest a bit more which was cool.

However possibly the best part of the workout was talking to 2 physical therapists that workout at my gym, they usually aren't there when I get there but today they were so I asked them about my quad pain in the middle of the night. They had me do some runway walks, some stretches for my hamstrings and such. They said my hamstrings were really tight but I also deadlifted the day before so to me it made sense that they would be. I've been stretching and foam rollers my upper back but they said it would be ok for me to really dig into my hams, quads, and hips with a lacrosse ball in hops to loosen some stuff up. They really told me to stretch the hamstrings really good. So last night that's what I did, I paid most of my attention to the lower body in hopes to get something to release. I still woke up with quad discomfort but was able to fall back to sleep, hopefully now that I keep focusing on the hamstrings everything will improve. But they also said I could have discs in my back causing the problem which I knew so I tried to really stretch my lower back at the gym using the hyper extension and free hanging to get things to decompress a bit.

TweetWednesday

Basketball

Wasn't the best night of basketball. I have two goals each game, score 10 points and overall feel like I played well, not many turnovers and giving effort. Well I scored way above 10 points but I was sluggish. I didn't feel sluggish or tired while playing but I wasn't moving as well as I would have liked. Mainly on defense it just felt like it took an eternity to shift from one player to another and on offense all my shots felt short. I'm wondering if I need rest or from really digging into my quads and stuff to release the pain that's been happening. I'm not sure. I wasn't in any pain playing which was good. I'm also wondering if it's from jumping rope the day before wore out my legs a bit. I've been alternating HIIT and jump rope, last week I jumped on Monday, HIIT on Tuesday, this week I switched which could be an issue since the jump rope is a bit more high impact than the HIIT I do. So I'll go back to the opposite next week and see.

I was thinking of taking Thursday off from the gym for an extra rest day since I workout 6 days a week but I decided I'll go on Thursday and since we may get clobbered with snow this weekend that I may not be able to get to the gym. Figured I didn't want to skip Thursday and then be forced to skip all weekend too.

TweetThursday

Ball slams superset w/ facepull 4 sets
Farmers walk 4 sets
Kettlebell swings superset w/ finger tip wall dribble 4 sets
Battleropes superset w/ seated calve raise 4 sets
Jump rope and hanging stretch 4 sets

My routine was thrown off when I walked in the gym. It was busy, not just busy for a Thursday which is usually dead but busy for any day at my gym. I've enjoyed getting in, doing the battle ropes, getting the heart rate up and then keeping it up the rest of the workout. I had to adjust the routine so I just went with it. Overall I think it was a fairly good workout. I end my workouts every time with 10 minutes on the treadmill walking. I've been doing it for awhile now but yesterday I felt like I had more in the tank and decided to throw one last set of farmers walks in. I went way lighter and went way further than I did in the early sets. I had a solid upper body pump going on which felt good.

Last night I was stretching again...wow my quad is either still super tight up around my hip or my IT band is stuck to the quad muscle. I really put some effort and pain into getting it to release. The leg didnt' seem to really bother me much last night, I felt it a bit but not like it has been.