What. The. Fuck.

After mowing the lawn and then moving some crap out of the house to our rented dumpster, I sat down for a cold glass of water to chill for a bit.  Weird sensation in my chest.  Yeah.. uh oh... I take my pulse on my neck.. am I imagining things?  Heart beats normal for a few beats, then just kind of a weak beat, and then a BIG beat, repeated over and over like this.  No dizziness, no pain in the chest, I have all my faculties.  I feel normal, except for this weird fucking thing going on.  After about 90 - 120 seconds it goes away.

I was running up and down the stairs.  It's hot out.  I'm sweating from mowing the lawn.  I probably haven't drank enough water.  I'm stressed because of work.  I've had caffeine, but in my opinion not enough to cause this -- 2 cups of coffee at work, and then a coke zero at home tonight.  I didn't eat much for dinner - crackers and peanut butter.

What.  The.  Fuck.

My whole life, I've always felt a little skip every now and then.  Like on the order of once a month if that.  And that's how the feeling for this started and so I basically waited for it to go away.  It didn't and kept going long enough that I was starting to get concerned.

I read up on PVC (Premature ventricular contractions) and went and ate a banana, and took two calcium pills.  I'm writing this about 20 minutes after the experience for documentary's sake.  If this EVER happens again, I'm making an appointment with my doctor.  But we both know what he'll do -- pass it off as nothing out of the ordinary and make me feel bad for wasting his time.  Fuck OHIP.

PT appointment today

My first appointment with the physiotherapist today was positive.  He tried several ways to cause the pain by having me try to move my arm against his hand in various positions.  He was unable to actually cause the pain, but I could bring it about by raising my arm over my head.  He said this was a good thing.  Initial diagnosis is a weakened rotator cuff, particularly the supraspinatus.

Recommendation is to perform high rep low weight standing banded external rotations, scapula pushups, and banded lateral raise.  Also to stay away from any weightlifting movement that involves the hands over the shoulder (i.e. pull/chin ups, overhead press) and potentially the bench.  He was friendly towards getting back on squatting, deadlifting, and rowing.  Perfect!

Well, that cold lasted longer than it should have.  Just when the flu symptoms let up it moved into my chest and I had a nagging, hacking cough for about 3 weeks.

With my wife back to work and our daughter still waking in the middle of the night for a bottle, fatigue has been setting in.  My wife and I alternate nights with feeding, but both of us end up waking up when the other gets up. I really haven't felt like working out this past month and a half.  I just get home, make supper for the family, clean up, and want to veg.

Weight is still the same - 208lbs.

I'm going to the PT on Monday to have my shoulder tended to.  I think it's an impingement, but I'll leave that determination to the pro.  My right knee has also been giving me grief for the last week.  It's not always there, but seems to come up when going down stairs (going up is fine) or any time that I allow my knee to cave.  Oddly it was the worst when I tried skipping a rock or two at camp.  I think this new problem has come up from a serious lack of activity and the way that I get up from my chair at work.  We've started the process of moving offices and I was building a file rack in a storage unit for the past two days and my knee has actually gotten better.  I'm going to ask the PT what exercises I can safely do and which I should stay away from.  Hopefully he's positive towards weightlifting.

I need to get away from the couch and TV and back on the iron.

Ugh.

I ended up contracting some nasty bug my daughter brought home.  Fever, body aches, lack of hunger, hacking cough, full sinus.  Ugh.

Tonight's weights

1x5 Squat @ 140lbs
1x5 Bent Row @ 110lbs

1x5 progressive warmup to these weights

About 30 minutes

Weight update

A week and a half ago I went on a trip with friends and ended up being sick the entire time.  I couldn't keep food or liquids in me.  This went on for a solid four days and even still I sometimes still feel it.  Anyways, I was 213 lbs before leaving and dropped to 203 lbs on the fourth day.  I'm now up to 208 lbs after a big Easter dinner and generally not giving a shit about my diet.

Program design - Dealing with injuries

In my previous post I mentioned that I'm still dealing with a shoulder injury.   I first discovered my shoulder issue overhead pressing in January, it was an intense pain in my supraspinatus at lockout, even at low weights.  I knew I had an issue.  I fucked around with an injury already by trying to power through it and did nothing but harm, so I need to take it easy on that shoulder which means cutting movements out of my routine that involve the shoulder until I heal.  This means no bench press, no overhead press, no deadlift.  I'm probably playing it safe here, but I want to get better not worse.

While my impingement heals I really want to focus on my squat and bent row.  I've pieced together elements from other programs and come up with this:

Week 1

Day 1

   Squat 5x5

   Bent Row 5x5

Day 2

   Squat 5x5 + 5 lbs of Day 1

   Bent Row 5x5 + 5lbs of Day 1

Day 3

   Squat 1x5 + 20lbs of Day 2

   Bent Row 1x5 + 10lbs of Day 1

Week 2

Day 1

   Squat 5x5 + 5 lbs of Day 1, Week 1

   Bent Row 5x5 + 5lbs of Day 1, Week 1

Day 2

   Squat 5x5 + 5 lbs of Day 1, Week 2

   Bent Row 5x5 + 5lbs of Day 1, Week 2

Day 3

   Squat 1x5 + 20lbs of Day 2, Week 2

   Bent Row 1x5 + 10lbs of Day 1, Week 2

Progression continues on, you should get the idea.  One rest week is programmed in every 5th week.  I have this laid out for 5 months of sessions, which should give me enough time to not feel like I'm stagnating and allow my shoulder to heal.

Tonight's session was:

   Squat 5x5 130lbs

   Bent Row 5x5 100lbs

Light weights, I know, but I want to start low to leave enough room for progression while avoiding stalling and resetting.