TommyBoy's Log

[Sidior]

When you do shirt work is everything competition paused?

[TommyBoy]

When you do shirt work is everything competition paused?
?? No! Why would I do that? The pause is a rule. It has nothing to do with muscle actions or memory. It's kind of pointless to pause in training. The shirt helps you when you pause in competition. Once you pause it in competition and get a press command, then the spring of the shirt kicks in. If you do that all the time in the gym, you might as well not wear a shirt.

[TommyBoy]

Wed. Nov. 8/06 - SQ/DL

Zercher Squats
135x5
185x3
225x3
275x3
315x3
365x3
405x1 --> went for 2 but pretty much blew my load and had to drop it

GHR
3 sets of 12

[Sidior]

Ah thanks for the shirt info, never used one before so I know dick all. Impressive zerchers!! How did you hold that much weight? My forearm is still bruised from doing zerchers with 225 almost a week ago.

[Stumprrp]

awesome job dude!! i tried these and popped blood vessels from sets of 95 and 135 lol, such an awesome position though and easy to get deep

[TommyBoy]

How did you hold that much weight?
Mind over matter my friend!


such an awesome position though and easy to get deep
Yeah, these were crazy deep. The hardest part is walking the weight out...feels like an alien is gonna burst out of my abs.

[Bob]

Zercher Squats
365x3
405x1 --> went for 2 but pretty much blew my load and had to drop it

Dang TommyBoy.. that is some heavy Zerchers.. you must have bi & forearms of steel!!
Do you think Zerchers are only "mind over matter"? The squatting part is easy.. but when did you figure out the secret? When did you go from 100 to 300?

[TommyBoy]

I've always had a fairly strong zercher. I just try to not think about the weight at all. Just keep the abs hella tight, and squat away. If you have weak abs, your zercher will go nowhere. I try not to think very much when I lift.

[TommyBoy]

Sat. Nov. 11/06 - Back/Rear Delts

HS Rev. Grip Pulldowns
135x12
205x8
275x10

BB Rows
205x10
275x12

HS 1 Arm Rows
205x11

Cable Rows (OH Grip)
250x10

Rev. Pec Deck
Stack x 10

DB Bent Over Laterals
70x8

Rack Pulls
275x8
365x6

[Stumprrp]

SUPER SUPER workout, great choice of exersizes!

[TommyBoy]

Thanks brother!

[TommyBoy]

Mon. Nov. 13/06 - Chest/Biceps

Bench
135x12
225x10
275x8

Incline
135x12
185x10
225x8

BB Curls
95x6
115x6
135x8

[TommyBoy]

Ok here's the scoop: I wrecked my shoulder pretty bad today at work. I wrecked it so bad, that I'll be off work completely for 3 weeks, hopefully no more. This also means no lifting at all, until most likely next year....which is a devastating blow considering I was gonna start my bench cycle this thursday for a competition on February 4th. This is very very brutal, and I'm not happy at all. However, I'd rather live so I gotta do what i gotta do.

I was wheeling a full wheel-barrow filled with rocks/gravel and when I went up a curb to dump the load, the barrow became unbalanced and shifted everything to my left side and I heard a nice snap followed by burning pain in my shoulder, and down my left arm to my finger tips. The doctor looked at my shoulder right away and thought it could be dislocated or possibly even a small rotator cuff tear; however, the X-rays showed nothing. So he diagnosed it as a severely strained rotator cuff, which basically means I'm f***ed!!!

Oh well, at least I get to go to physio. If I'm not fully healed in 3 weeks, I'm gonna be really really pissed.

[Stumprrp]

wow dude, just wow, that SUCKS!!!! you can still squat and possibly dead right?

[TommyBoy]

wow dude, just wow, that SUCKS!!!! you can still squat and possibly dead right?
Definitely not Stump. Both of those lifts require a great deal of shoulder use. I mean, I can't even put on a t-shirt right now without some assistance. I'm not exagerating; this is really bad.

[Stumprrp]

im really sorry tommy, only thing you can do now is just let it heel, eat nutritous foods, and maybe just do some running to stay in shape.

[TommyBoy]

Yeah, you said it man. Thats about all I can do.

[Sidior]

Jesus bro that blows. Im happy to hear at least you will be able to recover fully from it. Best of luck with the rehab.

[TommyBoy]

Thanks Sid, I appreciate it.

[OneBadUnit]

OH man, sorry to hear about your shoulder. But yea, great to hear you will get full recovery !!!!

[TommyBoy]

OBU, thanks bro, much appreciated.

[DumbellDude]

That sucks. Sorry to hear about the shoulder Tommy. All the best for fast recovery man.

[TommyBoy]

Thanks a lot DumbellDude.

[Built]

Tom, I'm so sorry. This totally blows chunks. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help you devise a recovery plan as you work through your physio. I'd be willing to bet money you'll be able to find a way to at least keep conditioned while this heals.

[TommyBoy]

Thanks Built, i appreciate it. I'll be sure to let you know if there's anything you can do to help. First things first though, I gotta rest. I can't remember the last time I took a break from training. I'm just gonna be taking this one day at a time.

[Built]

I haven't squatted anything heavier than 35 a side in months.

Did I mention my back is starting to settle down?

I hate my physical limitations, but ... I'm learning to respect my body. I want it to last a lifetime.

And I'm making it to a hundred, baby. ;)

[OneBadUnit]

Yes, yes, rest is good !! Funny though, how guilty we feel once we take a few days in a row off; I like it though, proves to me I'm dedicated :) Get better soon !!

[TommyBoy]

Thanks guys. Yeah this really sucks, I even went to physio today (note: I f***in' hate physio) and the physio lady said it's pretty bad. They're still not ruling out a rotator cuff tear...which sucks, because I was gonna compete in the bench press. I'm still thinking it's nerve damage because of all the numbness and tingling down my arm. Whatever, not a whole hell of a lot I can do about it.

[OneBadUnit]

The "snap" you said is what really made me wonder. I was an ortho tech for a while (before switching careers) and worked for the S.D. Chargers ortho surgeon; this guy saw some really famous athletes from football, wrestling, and X games. (Bill Goldberg, Doug Flutie, Tony Hawk, Ray Mysterio are just a few off the top of my head).

Back in college, I played on teh O-line and got my hand caught under a D's pads when we ran by me, I heard a snap, felt a pop, and right arm went numb as well. It was a dislocation but went immediately back in; probably had a tear, though I never went to the Dr for it as it was the last game.

I don't want to bring any bad new or doubt, but if its not a big tear, its probably going to need a couple weeks to recover, and thats with rest. Keeping it aggravated with training, will just prolong the progress. If your insurance covers it, I'd go back to the doc and request an MRI.

As far as the "nerve damage", I try to think of it as a piece of elastic. It does have SOME give to it before it breaks, but I think it can "fray" or slight tear. This will probably heal on its own, with just some discomfot and tingling. But, then again, I am not, nor was ever, a doctor. So take me with a grain of salt.

[TommyBoy]

OBU, thanks for the info....very helpful. I'm definitely gonna request an MRI, but I doubt I'll get one for several months, maybe even a year. Thats how quickly things work around here. I'm definitely gonna take some bnig time rest. I'm not even thinking about training for a long time.

[TommyBoy]

Shoulder update + Story

Well, it's been a week since the shoulder injury and not much to tell you. I've been icing the s##t out of it and going to physio. I've also been doing a bunch of silly little physio exercises to help it, but they make everything hurt. I also had the physio do some ultrasound and electro-muscle-stimulator stuff on the shoulder, which hurt like hell. So the physio said I'm gonna need a CT scan and most likely an MRI to see whats up with my shoulder. Looks like a couple possibilities: might be a horribly bad strain of the rotator cuff, or it might be a minor tear, or it might have dislocated then popped itself back in, or it might be some torn ligaments inside that wonderful shoulder. So obviously, nobody knows what the deal is with my shoulder. So now I have to play the waiting game.

On a different note, I have an interesting story for you guys. So I was bored out of my mind last night and around 1:30am I had a craving for a slurpee. So I jumped into my car and went for a drive. This also gave me an opportunity to try out my brand new Gangsta-rap mix CD in my car's new CD player. So off I went. Now, this is when I realized that the boil water warning was still in effect in Vancouver. This meant, no slurpees....cuz they're made with water (I'm so stupid). I didn't care, I wanted a nice 40oz. slurpee before bed, and dammit, I was gonna find a place that was still serving them. So I was driving around the city from gas station to gas station looking for a place that serves slurpees. Not much luck. At this point I noticed a ghost car driving behind me, and powerrack can vouch for me on this one--there's no shortage of cops in this area of the city. So I thought, whatever, I didn't do anything wrong...so let's have a little bit of fun with them. So I kept on turning at various side streets to try and lose them, but those bastards kept on following me. So I played it out. I stopped the car at a random house, and pretended to make a call on my cell phone. The ghost car stayed on my tail. Then I started driving again, and they kept on following me. So I got onto a main street, and now I have a Suburban with tinted windows driving right next to me. So picture this: Here I am, wearing a Westside Barbell shirt, with westside written on my arms, with a beanie on my head that says westside with a whole bunch of flames on it, my windows are rolled down I've got one hand on the wheel, with my left arm laying on my lap (cuz my shoulder is f###ed) so I guess you could say it looked like I was going for my gun or something, and I have my CD player blasting at full volume with N.W.A.'s "F### Tha Police" on!!!! This made me look great rolling down the street real slow in my Jetta. So these mofos kept on following me and I kept on looking at them. Then I stopped at a Chevron, got myself a can on diet pepsi (no slurpees anywhere....i was pissed) and rolled on home. The cops followed me home. I got out of my car, stared at them, went inside....and they were gone. What a nice evening.

[Bob]

Sorry about the shoulder Tommy... and the Slurpee too...

Funny story though.. very funny.. I'm surprised they didn't even acknowledge you.

BTW.. what's wrong with Vancouver water? I guess I could Google it..

[TommyBoy]

Bear, because of all the rain and flooding we've had, the turbidity levels in our water reservoirs are really high. The water is almost brown coming out of the tap. So anyone living on the north shore, burnaby or vancouver has to boil the water. It sucks....cuz I could really go for a slurpee.

[Sensei]

LOL! Sounds like you REALLY wanted a slurpee!!!

I'm sorry to hear your shoulder is giving you such troubles. There's nothing that makes me want to throw in the towel... except fu**ing injuries.

[TommyBoy]

Yeah I hear ya Sensei. I never feel like throwing in the towel though, in fact, part of me wants to comeback from this injury and toss on a double denim shirt and smoke 600 just to show everyone I ain't dead. On the other hand, I know my own limits, and this is definitely my limit.

[OneBadUnit]

Hmmm, Camp Pendleton must get their water from Vancouver. Hope you are feeling better !!

[TommyBoy]

Man, I haven't been on this log in a while...I'm surprised it's still here. Time for an update.

I had an EMG done last week at the neurologist, which hurt like a mofo with all the electro shocks they sent up my nerves. Then they decided it would be fun to shove needles in my sore shoulder...oh wow, great idea!!!!! The bottom line is, I strained my shoulder severely enough that it did do some minor damage on my nerves, but nothing serious. So this is good news. The ultimate diagnosis (yes, can you believe it, I actually got a diagnosis!) is that I suffered a bad strain of the brachial plexus, which caused everything from my shoulder to my neck to wrench up real good and tweaked the nerves. So it's not a tear, and it's a severed nerve. However, here's the fun part, the only thing that will help this heal....is time. I hate time. I wish I could get a big shot of something into my left shoulder so I could go to the gym and bench. Ah well, doesn't really work like that. So now we play the waiting game. Doctor still says I'm not fit to work, so I'm still doing pretty much nothing. Oh what fun!

Oh yeah, the water has been good enough to drink for a few weeks now. So I've had plenty of opportunities to get slurpees. And I'm definitely taking advantage of those opportunities. It shows, all my muscles are getting smaller and my gut is getting bigger. Once I get back in the gym, I've got a lot of work on my hands.

[Stumprrp]

sucks man just stay with it and you will be back where you were in no time

[TommyBoy]

Thanks Stump, nows your chance to get bigger than me!

[Stumprrp]

haha i wonder what i would look like @ 275 again but done with lifting and bulking not cookies and no exersize, prob really huge haha.

[Sidior]

Dude sucks its going to take so long to heal. Take it easy and enjoy your time off and upcoming holiday.

[TommyBoy]

Thanks Sid, much appreciated.

[KevinStarke]

Sucks about your shoulder man I hope everything workouts out. Looked over your journal, some real strong stuff going on in here man.

[TommyBoy]

Thanks Kev. Once the shoulder heals, I'll hopefully get that strength back up again.