Had a really good workout again last night. The past 6-8 weeks I've been dealing with some lingering pain from weightlifting. My left elbow has had some mild pain in it - likely RSI - Repetitive Stress Injury. I felt it coming on early in the process and have been managing it. I adjusted my workouts to not include dips and a few other things that were really aggravating it. I've also been icing it regularly and using some Naproxen as needed. While it isn't 100% healed, it is slowly getting better and I'm still able to continue lifting.
The other issue has been my left shoulder. It has been hurting due to bench pressing, so again I modified my workouts and bought a new larger cold pack to ice it as well. I took the last 2 weeks off from flat bench pressing and have instead done all incline benching. I used to love incline benching, but haven't really done it since I began working out again last November. Unfortunately my gym doesn't have a decline bench so I have to improvise with a sit-up bench and either a squat rack or the Smith machine. Certainly not idea, but it is getting the job done.
So last night I hesitantly benched again. Warmed up with 135x8. Then 225x8, 245x8, then did 225+2 20lb chains (265lbs at full extension)x6, and 275x4 to finish. If I had a spotter I think I had 275x6 in me.
And the good news is that I have no shoulder pain today. The time off and the ice seemed to be enough. Since I am lifting for health as my primary motivation I'm trying to not push too hard through pain that I know isn't "good" pain. By letting my body heal early on I'm losing a bit in gains probably, but making up for it by preventing larger injuries that would force longer periods off.
So I'm pleased with my progress even if my bench still isn't to where it was before my intestinal blockage back in late June/early July.
The other thing I've been really happy with is my pump I have been getting when lifting arms. This might be the biggest my arms have ever been quite frankly. Certainly some fat to lose there, but it looks good in the mirror when I'm lifting. Not my motivation, but is a nice added bonus.
The negative is that my weight loss has stopped completely, and maybe even regressed a bit. Hectic schedule, big life changes with my wife getting a new job and some other things have all led to bad eating and fewer workouts plus more stress. Hoping the next few weeks level back out and I can really work on it again. I've been reading up on some dietary thinking by John Kiefer and am thinking of trying out some of his ideas myself (in a form it is a CKD - cyclical ketogenic diet). I already (unintentionally) am doing quite a bit of it, I just need to get disciplined with my carbs and see what happens. If it does work, it is a very sustainable thing for me I think.
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