Ch-Ch-Ch-CHANGES

Well, I'm pissed at myself for letting my greed for iron get the best of me. I hurt my back before doing the same thing, and it took me 2 years to gain new ground. I got so pissed and depressed that I did nothing for weeks or months on end.

I'm stronger than when I hurt myself last time, but I THOUGHT I was wiser as well. Truth be told, I am wiser, but I just got greedy. I saw the weights going up, and went beyond what I should have on one simple workout.
So now I've taken 1 week off and I'm ready to chance my approach BACK to what I know is best.

  1. Stability
  2. Mobility
  3. Endurance
  4. Strength

Strength is a siren's call for me. "Add another 10lbs. Another 20. You can lift it. You can recover in a couple extra days."

Well, I'm going to focus on priorities 1, 2 and 3 for the next four weeks, and slowly integrate 4 back into the mix. My Hybrid Strength plan will still be the base for the weeks 5 though 16, but weeks 1-4 are very focused rehab. Stability, Mobility, and Endurance. I NEED these qualities in the highest order to achieve Strength of the highest order.


My rehab phase will utilize a variant of Charles Staley's Density Training. It's essentially a simple means to auto-regulate intensity. Pick 2 movements, and alternate them for a set time (10 mins in my case). Each time you perform that workout, you shoot for more reps in the same time. That's progressive intensity in it's simplest. The nice thing about this type of training is that is produces PROFOUND improvement in endurance, but also has a nice side benefit of building muscle density.

I'll also be doing the Stability / Mobility workouts that I did for a while in DEC 2009. These two will be the means through which I build Stability and Mobility.

As for endurance, I'm going to be doing good old cardio. I freaking hate cardio. Its so mind numbing. At the same time, I've avoided steady-state cardio for so long that I know I need to do it; we avoid what we are bad at.
To get things started, I went for a 1 hr walk today (28JAN) and stopped only long enough to strength my lower back, glutes, and hams.

This rehab phase isn't the sexiest, but it'll damn sure set me up for long term gains without injury. The image at bottom shows a macro-view of this phase.



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