Vegan Weight Training Blog

My injuries are 99% healed now, and I’m setting personal records again. On Saturday I was able to complete the Olympic style overhead press with a 45-pound plate on each side of the bar, which was a goal of mine. Today I did a set of five at the same weight, although I had to rack the weight for a few seconds after my third and fourth reps.

My new, deeper squat form is also working out well. After slightly injuring my right knee a few weeks ago doing too much weight with the new form, I knocked the weight way down and increased the reps. I wanted to rehabilitate the knee, and develop good muscle memory to really lock in the form, so I did sets of 20 with light weights for a week, then medium weights for a week. Today was the first day I went relatively heavy with low reps on the squat, and afterwards my knee felt great–better than ever, in fact. The MSM/Glucosamine I’ve been taking has also played a role in rehabilitating the knee.

I was also able to complete five reps on the dumbbell bench press using the 85 pound dumbbells, which is where I was at before my max started plummeting due to a badly planned schedule. Next I’m looking forward to benching the 90 pound dumbbells.

Over the coming weeks I should be able to get my squat back up to where it was before. I should never have to make a major adjustment to my squat form again, because I am literally going as low as possible. When I first starting lifting weights, I squatted to parallel. A few months later I read that it was better for your knees to squat below parallel, so I started doing that. About a year later I read Starting Strength and realized I wasn’t going low enough, because in that book the author talks about getting a slight "bounce" out of the lowest part of the motion, and I wasn’t experiencing that. Shortly thereafter I came across a video of Francis Tournefier squatting 650 pounds with a form that illustrated for me the way to achieve that bounce. I saw that I could go lower, and that it must be safe to do so if he could work his way to 650 pounds using such a form.

December was the worst month I’ve had so far in my training. I took a scheduled break at the end of November, and afterwards the problems started. First I lightly strained both rotator cuffs while struggling to lift 20 pounds less than I’d lifted just a few weeks prior on the dumbbell bench press. Then I hurt a knuckle on my right hand. Then I had issues with both my knees hurting, which stopped me from going heavy with my squats. Then I started feeling sick, so in order to prevent a full-fledged illness from coming on I had to take another break. Then when my knees felt better and I tried to squat medium-heavy again, my left hip joint started hurting badly. Then both my elbow joints started hurting after I did some internal cable rotations to work on my rotator cuffs. Then I broke my little toe on an ottoman at my girlfriend’s place. Then I tried squatting medium-heavy again because my hip joint was feeling better, and I injured my right knee.

Right now my rotator cuffs are (pretty much) fine, my left knee is fine, and my elbows are fine, but my right knee hurts during the first part of the upwards motion when I squat. It doesn’t feel like it’s badly damaged, but I don’t feel comfortable putting much weight on that knee right now. My left hip flexor still hurts a little, too. I hate having to do lightweight squats, but that’s what I’m forced to do at the moment. I’ve repaired worse injuries through physical rehab, so I’m not worried about permanent damage, but it’s still very frustrating.

I think the lower body injuries are due to a change in form without a sufficient decrease in weight. I had been going below parallel with my squats, but then I started doing them ass-to-the-grass style. I reduced the weight before using the new form, but apparently not enough. I need to start at a lower weight (which I’m forced to do now, due to my knee) and add weight more slowly. I also think I need to have a strength coach critique my form. I learned all the lifts I do from internet forums, videos, and books.